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Here some highlights of the retreat

Here you will find informatión about our guests and educators for the retreat, special activities and if this is your first retreat, a Q&A on What To Expect?

Getting to know the Jewish quarter of Barcelona

On Sunday morning, we'll have the opportunity to put everything we've been learning over the weekend into practice by walking through the streets that made up "Call Jueu," the city's former Jewish quarter, accompanied by an expert guide

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For more información, visit mozaika.es

Speakers and guest educator

Guest educator
This weekend, we'll have the pleasure of learning about the history of Sephardic Judaism from Sophie Goldblum
Sophie Goldblum is a Jewish educator based in Paris, working across Europe. She is the director of Ze Kollel, a pan-European Talmud program, and is also on the faculty of Paideia, the European Institute for Jewish Studies. She earned an MA in Jewish Philosophy and an MA in Jewish Studies, magna cum laude, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where her research focused on Sefaradi Rabbinic Literature. She has studied at Pardes, Hadar, Drisha, and the Conservative Yeshiva, where she later joined the summer faculty. Her writings are regularly published in Jewish journals in both the US and Europe.

And we'll also be able to share a very interesting session with representatives from the HIAS organization - https://hias.org/

Stay tuned as we'll be posting speakers' biographies, photos, and topics here.

Schedule

We'll be posting the full weekend program here in the coming weeks.

What to expect?

So what is a Jewish Learning retreat?
Moishe House works to help young adults all over the world build and grow a Judaism that looks like them. This includes joining, exploring and revisiting how Jews have learnt in countless times and spaces. You can learn more about what we consider great Jewish Learning through our Jewish Learning Tree.

Work Well, Live Well, and Have Fun!
One of the items of the Moishe Mindset is to find joy and meaning in what we do, take care of ourselves and others, provide a welcoming and positive Jewish home environment, and most importantly have a good time! Concretely, we have a very exciting, varied and dense schedule prepared for you, which you’ll have with you during the retreat. It will be led by the team, but also a guest educator and peer facilitators. We will be learning from texts, food, songs, blog posts, paintings, etc and there are also long slots for meals, snacks, breaks and rest. Make sure to take care of yourself before and during the retreat so you can make the most of the whole experience. During the retreat, let the staff know if you need help on this!

Where are we staying?
In a classic Mem Global fashion, the retreat won’t actually take place in the city but in a beautiful venue in its outskirts.
Everyone will stay there and all of the programming will take place there. Rooming layouts vary, but participants will typically share a room with one or two others.
How do we get there?
Once you’re in town, you are responsible for getting to the meeting point at the time that the team has indicated you in the last details email (be on the lookout!). From there, we’ve arranged a bus to take us all to the venue and then back in town once the retreat is finished.

Valuing people - and a note on LGBTQ+ inclusion
Another tenet of the Moishe Mindset is to value people: “we let the spirit of hospitality permeate every part of the Mem Global universe. We commit to creating and maintaining an environment in which all individuals are treated with dignity and respected for what they bring to our community.” One of the specifics is that Mem Global warmly welcomes people of all genders. One of the ways that will concretely play out at the retreat is that we’ll invite all participants to share their gender pronoun during the opening circle and to write them on their lanyards.

Shabbat shalom!
Our retreat takes place over shabbat - which we will celebrate duly through ritual, meals, learning and rest! We celebrate and welcome participants from all backgrounds, and will do our best to make sure you are comfortable and can spend a meaningful, observant Shabbat with us. Our general space will be shabbat-friendly: we will light candles, have kabbalat shabbat service options, say kiddush, motsi and havdalah and sessions during shabbat won’t require you to use muktseh items (i.e. items incompatible with traditional observance such as pens, screens, etc.). The retreat team won’t organise shacharit (i.e. morning service).
We encourage all participants to keep the space welcoming of everyone’s shabbat practice. During the retreat, feel free to share around with participants how you do things and learn how others might do. If you’re feeling uncertain and/or have questions or needs that we can help you with, reach out to Igal at igal.entenberg@memglobal.org to have a chat! (For instance, we would love to know about your religious practice so we can help you navigate lights and key cards if necessary at some of our retreat facilities).

Connect & Listen
This retreat might be (one of) the most international Jewish spaces you’ll have joined! We work hard to recruit people from a diversity of countries and cultures because we strongly believe part of the learning lies there. As part of the Moishe Mindset, we “embrace and encourage a variety of voices, backgrounds and perspectives. We commit to clear and open communication as the key to cultivating community.” The retreat will take place in English but most of the participants aren’t English native-speakers. In practice: don’t worry too much about your level of English, or knowledge of Judaism, ask clarification questions anytime necessary, define what you mean when you’re using specific terms, etc. Make the most of the presence of people from your home community to share perspectives and plan takeaways and keep those conversations inclusive of people of other languages and cultures so they can contribute too!
Last but not least, the sessions will be very content-rich. Make sure you share your questions and perspectives with the group or a friend so they are relevant to you. It is likely that the most meaningful learning moments you’ll have will be the casual chat you start on your way to lunch or during breaks with a newfound friend or staff member. We encourage you to proactively seek those opportunities: find those people, moments and questions! Our retreats are about creating your own learning & programming adventure.

Invest Wisely
Part of the Moishe Mindset is to invest wisely : “Our environment is made possible by the generosity and passion of donors. Be mindful of
their investment and intentional in your spending decisions.” Mem Global is excited to make an investment in you by bringing you to this retreat. This is a space for you to grow, learn and take all of that back to your community as a resident if you are one - or as an MHWOW host which you will become. In return, we ask you to make a small investment yourself into this retreat through a participation fee. This is a gesture of showing your commitment and enthusiasm to this retreat.
In general, we ask for a $75 participation fee if you are joining for the weekend. Mem global provides a travel stipend in order for you to travel to the retreat. The hope is that this stipend is enough to cover your main mode of transportation to the retreat (i.e. flight or train). We ask you to pay for your ticket yourself and once the retreat has finished and you
have completed the post-retreat evaluation, you will be reimbursed for your travel cost. If you’re a resident or an MHWOW host, you will be reimbursed on the mintranet. Everybody else will be reimbursed through bank transfer.

The Sephardi Story: Tradition, Taste & Travel