Jewish Magic,
Healing & Art Part I

We need your magic!

Join in a community of makers, healers, artists, activists, queers and our friends as we explore ancient and modern magic, healing and art of diasporic Judaism. Patriarchy has obscured many ancient Jewish rites associated with the occult and the magic of the everyday. Practices of the home and those kept by women and nonbinary people have often been forgotten or concealed because of violence, assimilation and white supremacy.

But our practices of resistance and earth reverence live in the altar of the Shabbat table and in the light reflected in our friend’s eyes. They are inscribed in the clay of our doorway mezuzah and our precious hands touching them. They live in the spices we smell during havdalah, the scent taking us back to the earth our ancestors stepped on while harvesting these sacred plants. In this cohort, we will illuminate what has been hidden and celebrate a revived Jewish practice through song, chants, lectures, guided meditations, medicine-making, the crafting of magical objects and, the building of community.

This space affirms that your life is Jewish magic, and the ways we collaborate with the energy of life has potential to heal our world. Magic manifests in many ways including through our art, work with plants, organizing for social change, and the ways we intend for our life to be a ritual.

Some of the ancient Jewish teachings we will explore in this cohort include water rites and mikveh, amulets, mirror magic, Jewish time and the moon, incantation bowls, the Sefer Yetzirah (Jewish mystical text that predates the kabbalah), magical practices working with plants and animals, Jewish astrology, angels and demons. 

We will also learn from amazing guest teachers who are queer Jewish magic practitioners, artists, healers, community organizers and change-makers. These teachers center ritual, magic, and social change within their art practices and will guide us in doing hands-on activities together. In addition to our study of ancient Jewish teachings, we’ll receive inspiration from these contemporary artists, community organizers, and ritualists who are innovating work for the healing of all beings. Together we become the living dream of our ancestors.

This is Part 1 of the series. In Part 2, we will cover Jewish Astrology, Plant Magic, Liberation Magic, the Sefer Yetzirah and the Hebrew letters in greater depth. Part 2 is currently a live course, sign up at www.rebekaherevstudio.com.

This course is dedicated to Mads deShazo, beloved community member and friend who’s passion, dedication to community and healing, magic and art continues to inspire our lives.

Your guest teachers include:

Lead Teacher: Rebekah Erev

Rebekah will teach about mirror magic, healing and magical herbs, the moon, incantation bowls, amulets, the Sefer Yetzirah, Jewish time and the moon and more. You can expect to do ritual, meditate, create ritual objects and discover many gems of Jewish magic. You will also make meaningful connections to your own life and social justice while working with Rebekah.

Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo

Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo (They/them/Lukaza) is an artist, activist, educator, storyteller & curator who lives/works between Ohlone Land [Oakland, CA] and Powhatan Land [Richmond, VA]. They invite the viewer to recall and share their own lived narratives, offering power and weight to the creation of a larger dialogue around the telling of B.I.Q.T.P.O.C. stories. Learn more at: www.lukazabranfmanverissimo.com

Lukaza will be offering time and space to come together and make collectively built rituals. Through writing exercises, every day altar making, mail-art and space to come together, what are the rituals that feed us? What are the rituals that liberate, resist and love? Let's all light a candle together.

Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt

Rebecca Maria Goldschmidt is an artist and cultural worker engaging in place-based art and research projects. Her recent work in textiles, ceramics, video, and print reflects studies of cultural and land-based practices of her Jewish and Filipino ancestors. She received her MFA from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa in Honolulu in 2020 and is pursuing her doctoral studies in Sculpture as a MEXT Scholar at Hiroshima City University in Japan. Learn more at: www.rrrebecca.com

Let's talk about the animate-ness of vessels, from shells to chatsubo, Japanese tea storage jars! Rebecca will share her research from Hiroshima around Philippines ceramic history, ancient Jewish inscribed pots, and the role of jars as animate beings: communicators, wombs, multipliers, and contact points to the ancestral world.

Mazal Masoud Etedgi

Mazal Masoud Etedgi (they/them/theirs) is a trans/non-binary artist, arab/mizrahi/amazigh jew, first-gen, spoonie/chronically ill person, herbalist, Drama Therapist, clown, and cultural organizer. Maz utilizes imagination, play, and ritual as tools for liberation, healing and connection. You can find their herbal medicine apothecary at www.bsamimapothecary.com @bsamim.apothecary

In this workshop, Maz will share about plants in the Torah and in SWANA traditional herbal medicine that are supportive for individual and collective protection, as well as connection to the Divine. For the experiential portion of the class, we will co-create an amulet made with cloth, herbs and string. This amulet is known by many names in the Sephardic, Amazigh and North African practices (respectively): bulsika, za’aboula, choukara and tsherot.