enrichment & learning
The Minnesota JCC creates a wide range of day programs to add to your knowledge, deepen your curiosity and connect you to the community. Fitness programs, enrichment classes, field trips, speakers, enlivening Jewish education and social opportunities help you to stay active and engaged. No matter where your interests lie, we have something for you.
Whether in-person or virtual, we are here for you!
For more information, please feel free to contact: Irit Vinitsky at iritv@minnesotajcc.org.
ongoing programs
CREATIVE WRITING GROUP
MONDAYS • 10:30 AM – NOON
Do you have a passion for words? Join like-minded writers in this supportive and uncritical weekly creative writing group.
To join the group, contact Irit Vinitsky at iritv@minnesotajcc.org.
OPEN ART STUDIO – FOR THE ARTIST IN YOU
WEDNESDAYS • 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM • SABES CENTER
Learn Painting & Drawing in this supportive and fun class for those with no previous art experience and for those who wish to perfect their art techniques. Participants may bring their own subject matter or use a still life that will be provided. Instructor, Lou Kotlarz will offer guidance and advice per participant’s request. Please bring your own supplies. Reservations not required.
$48/MONTH • $40 MEMBER VALUE PRICE/MONTH
CLICK HERE to register.
Questions, contact Irit Vinitsky at iritv@minnesotajcc.org.
FREE MOVIE MATINEES
MONTHLY • 1 PM
The Minnesota JCC presents FREE monthly movie matinees at the Sabes Center Minneapolis. We are excited to bring you a variety of films – from new films to classics, comedies, dramas, musicals and more! Hope to see you at the movies!
To receive information about our next film, please CLICK HERE.
BOOK CLUB
4TH THURSDAY OF THE MONTH • 10 – 11 AM
Our Book Club reads a wide variety of texts: novels, memoirs, non-fiction, short stories and everything in-between! The conversations are enlightening and fun; the people are engaged and enthusiastic. Everyone is welcome to attend at any time.
July Book: The Bandit Queens
by Parini Shroff
Five years ago, Geeta lost her no-good husband. As in, she actually lost him—he walked out on her and she has no idea where he is. But in her remote village in India, rumor has it that Geeta killed him. And it’s a rumor that just won’t die.
It turns out that being known as a “self-made” widow comes with some perks. No one messes with her, harasses her, or tries to control (ahem, marry) her. And now other women are asking for her “expertise,” making her an unwitting consultant for husband disposal.
With Geeta’s dangerous reputation becoming a double-edged sword, she has to find a way to protect the life she’s built. What happens next sets in motion a chain of events that will change everything, not just for Geeta, but for all the women in their village.
Group Discussion: July 25 • 10 AM
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Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 227 361 305 161
Passcode: L9HFbC
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August Book: How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
by Safiya Sinclair
How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.
Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.
How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.
Group Discussion: August 22 • 10 AM
HINENI: ADULT JEWISH LEARNING AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES
PIRKE AVOT: ANCIENT RABBINIC WISDOM FOR TODAY’S WORLD
1ST & 3RD FRIDAYS • 11 AM – NOON ON ZOOM
The imperative to live life from your true self, as the image and likeness of God, flowers in the words of the early Rabbis (250 BCE–250 CE) who captured God’s call to be holy in Pirke Avot – a collection of pithy sayings on how best to live an ethical life. Come study this ancient work with much to say to our lives today. Drop in, no experience is necessary.
CLICK HERE for more information
