2020 JeWitch Camp was a multi-day non-residential retreat held in Oakland, California at Humanist Hall, a beautiful wheelchair accessible site that has a wooded outdoor area.
About the Teachers:
Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow is an 86 year old activist who regularly risks and gets arrested for protesting. He is the founder and director of The Shalom Center, a prophetic voice in the Jewish, multireligious, and American worlds for justice, peace, and healing of the Earth. In 2014, Rabbi Waskow received T’ruah’s first Lifetime Achievement Award as a “Human Rights Hero.” He is the author of the pivotal 1969 Freedom Seder--a cross-racial gathering of 800 Jews and Christians just one year after the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. The Freedom Seder revolutionized the Passover haggadah for a new generation and world. He is also the author of Godwrestling, Seasons of Our Joy and 20 other books. From 1982-1989, he served on the faculty of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He holds an honorary degree in the Doctor of Humane Letters from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
Starhawk is Jewish by heritage, and has deep connections to her roots. She is internationally renowned as a ritualist, author, and teacher of earth-based feminist spirituality and activism. Starhawk is the author or coauthor of thirteen books on earth-based spirituality and activism, including the classic The Spiral Dance, The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, her visionary novel The Fifth Sacred Thing and its long-awaited sequel, City of Refuge. She directs Earth Activist Trainings, (www.earthactivisttraining.org), teaching permaculture design grounded in spirit and with a focus on organizing and activism.
Heaven Walker is a JeWitch, High Priestess, Scholar, Professor, Writer, and a member of the American Academy of Religion. She attained her MA degree is Philosophy, Religion, and Women’s Spirituality in 2007 and is currently pursuing a PhD in the same field. Her publications include “Bringing the Ancestors to the Table” in Bringing Race to the Table: Exploring Racism in the Pagan Community, “The Many Faces of Athena” in Shades of Ritual: Minority Voices in Practice, “Invoking the Queen” in Shades of Faith: Minority Voices in Paganism, “Our Family Coalition” in The 21st Century Motherhood Movement: Mothers Speak Out on Why We Need to Change the World and How to Do It and “Reclaiming Aphrodite - The Power of Sisterhood” in the Awaken the Feminine: Dismantling Domination to Restore Balance on Mother Earth. Heaven Walker is a leader within JeWitch Collective. She is also a co-founder of the Starflower Pagan Congregation, and a legally ordained interfaith minister who offers spiritual counseling, wedding ceremonies, and rites of passage. Heaven considers her most sacred work to be motherhood. She is a member and facilitator of the “Sprouts” pagan parenting and ritual group. She hopes to eventually co-create an earth based spirituality centered children’s scouting troop.
Rabbi Phyllis Ocean Berman has, since the early 1980s, been a leading Jewish-renewal liturgist, prayer leader, story-writer, and story-teller. From 1994 to 2005, Berman was Director of the Summer Program of the Elat Chayyim Center for Healing and Renewal. She is the co-author of Tales of Tikkun: New Jewish Stories to Heal the Wounded World (1996); A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven: The Jewish Life-Spiral as a Spiritual Journey (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2002); The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Peace and Hope for Jews, Christians, and Muslims (2006), and Freedom Journeys: Tales of Exodus & Wilderness across Millennia (2013). Her articles on new ceremonies for women and new midrash have appeared in numerous magazines. She also founded and served as the Director of the Riverside Language Program — a unique and renowned intensive school in New York City for teaching English language and American culture to newly arrived immigrants and refugees.
About the Teachers:
Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow is an 86 year old activist who regularly risks and gets arrested for protesting. He is the founder and director of The Shalom Center, a prophetic voice in the Jewish, multireligious, and American worlds for justice, peace, and healing of the Earth. In 2014, Rabbi Waskow received T’ruah’s first Lifetime Achievement Award as a “Human Rights Hero.” He is the author of the pivotal 1969 Freedom Seder--a cross-racial gathering of 800 Jews and Christians just one year after the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. The Freedom Seder revolutionized the Passover haggadah for a new generation and world. He is also the author of Godwrestling, Seasons of Our Joy and 20 other books. From 1982-1989, he served on the faculty of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He holds an honorary degree in the Doctor of Humane Letters from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
Starhawk is Jewish by heritage, and has deep connections to her roots. She is internationally renowned as a ritualist, author, and teacher of earth-based feminist spirituality and activism. Starhawk is the author or coauthor of thirteen books on earth-based spirituality and activism, including the classic The Spiral Dance, The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, her visionary novel The Fifth Sacred Thing and its long-awaited sequel, City of Refuge. She directs Earth Activist Trainings, (www.earthactivisttraining.org), teaching permaculture design grounded in spirit and with a focus on organizing and activism.
Heaven Walker is a JeWitch, High Priestess, Scholar, Professor, Writer, and a member of the American Academy of Religion. She attained her MA degree is Philosophy, Religion, and Women’s Spirituality in 2007 and is currently pursuing a PhD in the same field. Her publications include “Bringing the Ancestors to the Table” in Bringing Race to the Table: Exploring Racism in the Pagan Community, “The Many Faces of Athena” in Shades of Ritual: Minority Voices in Practice, “Invoking the Queen” in Shades of Faith: Minority Voices in Paganism, “Our Family Coalition” in The 21st Century Motherhood Movement: Mothers Speak Out on Why We Need to Change the World and How to Do It and “Reclaiming Aphrodite - The Power of Sisterhood” in the Awaken the Feminine: Dismantling Domination to Restore Balance on Mother Earth. Heaven Walker is a leader within JeWitch Collective. She is also a co-founder of the Starflower Pagan Congregation, and a legally ordained interfaith minister who offers spiritual counseling, wedding ceremonies, and rites of passage. Heaven considers her most sacred work to be motherhood. She is a member and facilitator of the “Sprouts” pagan parenting and ritual group. She hopes to eventually co-create an earth based spirituality centered children’s scouting troop.
Rabbi Phyllis Ocean Berman has, since the early 1980s, been a leading Jewish-renewal liturgist, prayer leader, story-writer, and story-teller. From 1994 to 2005, Berman was Director of the Summer Program of the Elat Chayyim Center for Healing and Renewal. She is the co-author of Tales of Tikkun: New Jewish Stories to Heal the Wounded World (1996); A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven: The Jewish Life-Spiral as a Spiritual Journey (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2002); The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Peace and Hope for Jews, Christians, and Muslims (2006), and Freedom Journeys: Tales of Exodus & Wilderness across Millennia (2013). Her articles on new ceremonies for women and new midrash have appeared in numerous magazines. She also founded and served as the Director of the Riverside Language Program — a unique and renowned intensive school in New York City for teaching English language and American culture to newly arrived immigrants and refugees.