WHAT IS A KEVAH GROUP Kevah is a Berkeley-based organization whose mission is to catalyze, facilitate and support high quality, text-based Jewish learning. A Kevah group consists of 8-12 people who meet regularly to study Jewish texts with a particular focus: Torah portion of the week, Jewish mindfulness, Zionism, or anything else the group might be interested in. Groups are self-organized and Kevah provides highly qualified educations to select texts and lead discussions. Potluck dinner meetings usually take place in homes of group participants, but meetings can also happen at coffee shops or other locations.

MISHMASH KEVAH GROUP TOPIC
Our group will focus on discussions based on modern (18th century and onward) writers paired with a classical Jewish source (Torah, Midrash, Liturgy, or Talmud. Does the essence of Judaism lie in Torah and mitzvot or in something else? If we don't practice all the mitzvot, what is the basis for our Jewish identity? Is Judaism a religion, a culture, a nationality, or all of the above?  

EDUCATOR
Our group will be led by Amos Bitzan PhD. Amos completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of California, Berkeley (2011), specializing in the histories of Late Modern Europe and the Jews. His research is about how the “People of the Book” discovered the practice of reading for pleasure in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.He has lived in Berlin, Hamburg, Montreal, New York, Tel Aviv, Toronto, and Vienna but really prefers being “at home.

WHEN AND WHERE
First meeting: See event details Ongoing: Based on the amount of interest we will have either two groups (San Francisco and South Bay), or one group somewhere in the middle. Meetings will take place monthly and exact dates (and topics!) will be finalized based on the feedback from participants.

RSVP to info@mishmashgroup.org If you are interested in the series but cannot attend the first session, please send an email to info@mishmashgroup.org for details!