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Where? Friends
Meeting House |
When? The middle-Wednesdays of May: |
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How
much? Light refreshments provided. |
RSVP? For further information, or to confirm that you'd like to attend, please Email us at info@jwn.org.uk or give us a call on 020 8896 2050. |
Ilana Bakal is a human rights, feminist, Mizrachi activist, currently living in England. With other Mizrachi women, she founded Achoti (My Sister) out of the need to acknowledge and improve women's conditions in Israel. Devoted to raising awareness of Mizrachi feminism, Achoti represents women living in the peripheries and disadvantaged neighborhoods, where their voices were not being heard.
Irris Singer: Hamatzav (The Situation)
Irris Singer is co-founder of The Counselling Centre for Women, Israel. Israeli and Palestinian women are faced with ever increasing, unacceptable violence in their personal, social and political lives. How does that affect their self image? What strategies have evolved in order to cope with that? Irris will also look at the impact on British Jewish women of the Israel conflict, and how that affects our concept of ourselves and our roles within Jewish society.
Wed 17th May
Naomi Alderman's acclaimed new novel is a controversial portrait of Orthodox North London exploring sexuality, tolerance and faith. It faces issues within a culture which has remained largely hidden until now. Naomi says of her complex yet loving relationship with Judaism:
"It was like holding two glass vessels in my head. Here is feminism and equal rights, and here is Judaism - and it took me a long time to kind of bash them together."
Elaine Feinstein's prolific and award winning writings as poet, novelist, biographer, radio and television dramatist have always had people, and especially women, at the centre of her concerns, often arising out of her consciousness of her Jewish identity.
“To hear Elaine's insights and readings is a reminder of the pleasure of poetry, revived through the spoken word from the old dead hand of university English lit.”
Wed 24th May
This session is a chance to explore some of our questions - and answers - about food, body image, media and other pressures which affect how we feel about our bodies. Do you eat when you're not hungry? Does food have a symbolic meaning in your family? How do we feel about ourselves as Jewish women, and how do we break free from restrictions of how we should look?
Judith Silver is a musician and educator
This gentle and inspiring workshop uses creative writing, listening skills and Egyptian dance to help us, as Jewish women, explore our relationship to our bodies - the way we appreciate them; the way we treat them with less than complete respect; the way the beautification industry has confused us about who we really are.
Come and reclaim your body through words and dance in a safe, non-judgemental space.
Leah Thorn is a spoken-word poet and workshop leader.