TORAH OF CROWS: Disability, Queerness, and the Practice of Wild Kinship with Rabbi Julia Watts Belser — Wednesdays, June 10, 17, and 24, 5:30-7 pm ET / 2:30-4 pm PT
How might we ground our ecological connection in precarious times? In this three-session course with Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, we’ll explore spiritual practices of wild kinship, focusing especially on embodied attention to crows. Crows know something feral and true about the art of flourishing in low places, about how to forge a life from other people’s trash. They know how to hack a world that wasn’t made for them—about adaptation as alchemy, about the fierce work of survival in unpredictable terrain. In this course, we’ll braid together Jewish text study, our own experiential practice, and the wisdom of queer, disabled, and other dissident voices to draw out a spiritual ecology that can flourish in the cracks and shatters of our actual lives, a spiritual ecology that grows fierce and feral and tenacious as a weed.
This course will be taught via Zoom and can also be accessed by phone. ASL interpretation will also be provided. Though live attendance is encouraged, all sessions will be recorded, allowing you to engage with the material even if you’re unable to attend in real time. For other access needs, financial assistance, or scholarship opportunities, please contact liviah@beitkohenet.org and we'll do our utmost to support.
Cost: $125 + $25 non-refundable registration fee
Rabbi Julia Watts Belser
Rabbi Julia Watts Belser is a scholar, spiritual teacher, and longtime activist for disability, LGBTQ+, and gender justice. Her latest book, Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole, won a National Jewish Book Award and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion. She is a professor of Jewish Studies and Disability Studies at Georgetown University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. She directs the Disability and Climate Change Public Archive Project, an initiative that documents the insights of disabled activists, artists, and first responders on the frontlines of climate crisis. She’s also an avid wheelchair hiker, a passionate birdwatcher, and a lover of wild places.