religion – Jews of Color Sanctuary

The Bilhah Zilpah Project, which started in 2020 as an independent study project, has become our biggest event of the year since finding a project home at Jews of Color Sanctuary. Homecoming is a series of events open to the entire Jewish community which usually begins on the Sunday before the Shabbat of parashat Vayeitzei, when Zilpah and Bilhah entre the Torah, coinciding during the week Sigd is celebrated as a national Israeli holiday preserved in the history of the Beta Israel people… and is the anniversary of Jews of Color Sanctuary.

After three years of weekly chevruta study, and at numerous events with folks like you, focusing on the lines of Torat Bilhah Zilpah and character exploration, the past year’s study expanded to include relevant midrash and commentary of these matriarchs. This has introduced exciting insight into ancestral connections, divine power, and generational wisdom for survival which will be interspersed throughout and featured at the closing session of this year’s Bilhah Zilpah Homecoming.

However, first, we will welcome Zilpah’s and Bilhah’s return to the Torah through the twenty-four lines that invoke them and explore the ritual dreaming that has percolated up through the spirited engagement of collaborative sessions. Homecoming’s second session will link the wisdom of Bilhah & Zilpah to women throughout history who have navigated kindred silences and lack of bodily autonomy to inspire our community building and care work today.

Today is Sigd, and the Bilhah Zilpah Homecoming begins this Sunday… amidst all of the change happening, these are frameworks that center longing for and returning home, and giving voice to the voiceless… Torah we desperately need right now, and always. There is still time to register. Invite those you are working alongside building up the world to come, to join us as we welcome these matriarchs at three interactive online sessions of ritual dreaming and deepening relationship with the wisdom of Bilhah and Zilpah:

BILHAH & ZILPAH ENTER – 12-1:30pmET November 23: A Homecoming Celebration to welcome Bilhah & Zilpah as they enter the Torah in parashat Vayeitzei. This interactive session will deepen your relationship with the wisdom of these matriarchs, continue ritual dreaming, and mark the anniversary of Jews of Color Sanctuary.

MODERN MATRIARCHS – 3-4:30pmET December 7: Link the wisdom of Bilhah & Zilpah to women throughout history who have navigated kindred silences and lack of bodily autonomy. Explore how their voices can help us understand our modern lives, find community, survive marginalization, and realize abolition.

BILHAH & ZILPAH: ANCESTRAL STORIES – 3-4:30pmET December 21: Catch up on a year’s worth of learning focused on Bilhah & Zilpah through midrashic tales of ancestral connections, divine power, and generational wisdom for survival.

The celebration of Sigd is powerfully conveyed in the words of Beit Israel scholar Shula Mola in The Sound of Səgd (ስግድ): Reclaiming Language, Memory, and Belonging which invites us into a journey of the power of naming in sacred conversation with a foundational theme of the Bilhah Zilpah Project. May your Sigd be filled with meaning and joy.

Chag Sigd Sameach

Guest blog by Christine Ngeo Katzman, Jewish Federation of Cincinnati

I’m Chinese-American, and my husband is Caucasian. A long time ago, we chose to raise our children Jewish. We have blended our cultures, celebrating three different New Year’s holidays, for example: the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah in the fall, the Gregorian New Year on January 1, and Chinese New Year later in the winter. I have loved having three opportunities to start over. We also celebrate Christmas and Easter in secular ways.

In 2016, when my oldest daughter was 12, she announced an interesting idea: “Let’s invite all of our Jewish friends to come over for Chinese food on Christmas.”

At first, I laughed and dismissed it. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the concept was brilliant. After all, we didn’t have any plans to travel or host out-of-town family that year, and some Jews have a tradition of eating out at a Chinese restaurant for Christmas anyway. So, I agreed to her idea on one condition—that she help me cook.

She happily accepted, so we planned the menu as a family, bought all the necessary ingredients at the Asian market, and worked together for hours on Christmas afternoon to chop vegetables, marinate meat, and take turns stir frying as well as literally frying over the hot stove. My husband and younger daughter participated too.

We served lo mein, beef and broccoli, pot stickers, lumpia—Filipino spring rolls—as well as latkes. Lumpia is a particularly time-consuming but an important holiday food in our family. I am Chinese, but my parents grew up in the Philippines (also where I was born). And for dessert, one of our friends brought homemade sufganiyot (jelly donuts); we also served pie.

That year, the second night of Hanukkah fell on Christmas, making the evening even more special for all of us. Two additional families attended our Chrismukkah, and each family brought a Hanukkiah to light. Our bellies were full, the light shone bright, and we celebrated friendships and family.

We replicated this event one more time in 2018 and also included my sister, who was visiting from another state. Ironically, that day, we played the board game Pandemic together.

In 2022, I met Erica Riddick, founder of Jews of Color Sanctuary in Cincinnati. I had just recently changed careers and joined the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati as a Community Building Associate. Although we first met in passing at the JPro conference in May, Erica contacted me again in September to get to know each other better.

While I never thought of myself as a Jew of Color, the incidents of Asian Hate during the COVID-19 pandemic made me realize that minorities need to be allies with each other. During my meeting with Erica, I reminisced about my Chrismukkahs past and mused about how cool it would be to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza together. Here we are now, bringing that idea to life together in 2023.

On December 17, I look forward to gathering with other Jews of Color to learn more about each other’s cultures as we combine for a wonderful Kwanzukkah event (which will include some Asian food as well), co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council, Jews of Color Sanctuary, and the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. In this very difficult fall for Israel and for Jews around the world, I hope that these holidays filled with joy and light will bring us closer together.

Tag: religion

BILHAH & ZILPAH ARE COMING HOME

Why I’m Excited to Celebrate Kwanzukkah