Join us for a 5-session series as we use Jewish text and tradition as guides to explore contemporary issues facing women around the world. Although our ancient texts were written centuries ago, what insight, guidance, and perspective can they offer on topics such as divorce, sexuality, and infertility? The classes will be opportunities to learn together, but also will foster interactive discussion where each participant brings her own identity and perspective to the conversation.
This class is for women, or anyone who identifies as a woman. We encourage you to come for all 5 sessions to get the full experience, but individual class passes are also available. Sweet treats and refreshments will be served.
Classes are facilitated by Chaya Gilboa, Leichtag Foundation’s Director of Jewish Engagement. Chaya is responsible for Jewish integration and education across all entities at Leichtag Commons with an emphasis on: The Hive at Leichtag Commons, Coastal Roots Farm and the Leichtag Foundation.
Chaya was born in Jerusalem to an ultra-Orthodox family. Her B.A. in Jewish Philosophy from Ben Gurion University (2008) was followed by a stint as a Hillel International Israel Fellow at Berkeley University and an M.A. in Public Policy from Hebrew University (2013), where she wrote her thesis on Haredi women, religion and state. In 2012, she was scholar-in-residence at the Paideia Institute in Sweden, where she taught Talmud and established an educators’ track.
In 2014, Chaya became Founding Director of Hevruta, a pluralistic, integrated gap-year program for Israeli and North American post-high school students at the Hartman Institute. Chaya is committed to creating alternatives within the realm of religion and state, establishing Hashgacha Pratit, an alternative kashrut system and active in crafting egalitarian wedding ceremonies and other initiatives that combine feminism and Jewish identity. Chaya is the mother of Michael and Avshalom and partner to Marek.
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.