last few days

[cellio]

Friday night my synagogue had its once-every-two-years "adult b'nei mitzvah" (I still hate that name, but I'm a pedant). There were six women this time, one of whom actually did not read torah Friday night because she wanted to do it Saturday morning instead in the informal service. They did a decent job overall, and I made note of two who seem to be interested in reading torah again in the morning group. (Three, counting the woman who did that this time.) So we'll see if that pans out.

I missed the morning service, alas, because Dani and I went to the kingdom academy event in Erie. (Why do the good things all have to pile onto the same weekends?) The event was being held in a synagogue's school, and part of the agreement was that members of the congregation could attend the classes, so the folks in charge asked me to organize a track of classes on Jewish topics. That went pretty well overall, though the number of congregants wasn't high and dwindled over the day. We had an overview class taught by Eleazar ha-Levi (the person who wrote the Complete Anachronist issue a couple years back), a class on the Khazars which was very good, a class on Salamone Rossi and his music taught by lefkowitzga which was also very good, a class on Hebrew poetry, and a class on Hebrew manuscripts. The organizers had asked for some sort of round-table discussion, so I finished with an item called "being Jewish in the SCA". I left it fairly open so that we could talk about whatever people wanted to discuss -- choosing a persona, coping with feasts, tricks for attending events on Shabbat, and so on. None of the congregants showed up, though; it ended up being me, Eleazar, and Remus, who isn't Jewish but was just curious.

There was no formal feast but they had a buffet out all day (starting with the first break in classes). The food was varied and mostly low-key; I wonder if they did it as a quasi-pot-luck, with members of the host group each bringing something. Either they did not use the synagogue kitchen or the kitchen isn't kosher; that much I'm sure of. :-) So maybe the former; that would be consistent with the dishes that were there, all of which could stand up to being driven in from elsewhere. We've had events at sites where either there was no kitchen or we weren't allowed to use it; it's a challenge, but it can be done.

The event ended early and there was a dinner expedition forming, but Shabbat still had two hours to run so we had to decline. Pity the event didn't run later (and that it was held so close to the summer solstice :-) ). Oh well.

Since people were spread out I didn't get a feel for how many were there, but it seemed like a good turnout. I sometimes wonder if the academy events plan too many tracks of simultaneous classes for the number of people who come, but it seemed to have worked. I wonder if lyev got enough people for each class in his dance track.

This Wednesday Dani is heading off to a gaming convention (Origins). He has signed up mostly for games he's never played before, which is a good way to survey what's out there. I wonder how many he'll come home with this year. :-)

The choir had a discussion about Pennsic and beyond at the most recent practice. I'm not sure what will come of it. We will have a Pennsic performance, though the group is small and someone will be filling in as director. We won't have some of the material we were planning to have for it, but we'll have enough. Eh. It's not the performance we wanted to have, but it will do.

Comments

[lyev.livejournal.com]

Dance went mostly well, about 4-6 people. The Bouffons class drew only Henry (who got through both that class and also my advanced lesson in less time than I was given for the class). I think Katja got several people for ME dance. I definitely wouldn't recommend teaching dances for four couples at an event like this.

I'm still trying to get a handle on what should be taught at an Academy like this. A few people showed up to several classes, and probably travel to an event just to learn dancing. Most others had a passing interest and just showed up to one class. Maybe one intro class, one intermediate, and one advanced next time? And one ME class in addition for those who have an interest in that?

[cellio]

I personally think the ratio between number of people at the event and number of concurrent classes is a bit off (at all academies I've attended, not just this one). We're offering overwhelming choices sometimes, and classes are small as a result. There were, what, twelve tracks this weekend? And -- WAG here -- 100 people at the event?

So there may well have been a lot more people who were interested in any given dance class -- except that they were also interested in other classes and had to choose. There was a strong contingent from the barony there, and perhaps when faced with choices people opt for the non-local teacher (on the theory that they can learn dance from you at other times). It all makes it difficult to plan for classes that require certain numbers of people.

I think you're right to plan for the passing interest, not the dedicated junkie, in planning classes for this kind of event. It's a general academy, not a dance event, so most people there won't be immersed in it. Mind, I didn't perceive you to have an abundance of advanced classes; I think you had a good mix. And you don't want to omit all the advanced classes either; you shouldn't assume that the dedicated junkies only go to special-purpose events.

It's a challenge. Fortunately, it's also a really flexible domain; it's hard to go really wrong in planning classes, short of deciding to teach Tesara when you aren't guaranteed to have at least ten people. :-)

(Ok, I just know someone is going to challenge that. You can teach a dance where most couples do the same things with imaginary friends; it just isn't as satisfying, and it requires a certain level of dance-geekitude.)

[jducoeur]

Wow, that's *way* too many tracks, IMO. I generally figure around one track per fifteen people or so is a good mix, since most classes are best in the 10-20 range and some people will be relaxing in any given slot.

Of course, this sounds like it might have the problem common to many SF conventions: they accept *all* classes, without weeding it down to an appropriate number. One of the hardest, most important and most neglected jobs for any track-oriented day like this is winnowing the proposals. It's better for everyone if you reject some ideas and have fewer, better classes, rather than accept everything and dilute the students too much.

As for Tesara: no, actually, I would say that trying to teach that dance with fewer than ten people is pretty much doomed. We tried it once or twice when we were working the dance up for performance, and even with people who more or less knew what they were doing we tended to have major problems. We wound up needing understudies, more for the rehearsals than for the performance itself, just so we could get through rehearsals when not everyone was present...

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

None of the congregants showed up, though; it ended up being me, Eleazar, and Remus, who isn't Jewish but was just curious.

Had I come, I would have shown up for this one too, also out of curiosity. How different is a Jewish persona from a Christian one?
I think the given assumption is that most of the SCA personas are Christian unless stated otherwise. Is there a different manner of dress besides wearing a Star of David? Would mundanely Jewish SCAdians feel uncomfortable seeing a non-Jew wearing it? Most people seem to not mind monk and nun personas but start to feel ill-eased about priests and such (Although, I did see an excellend Cardinal Richleau at a Pennsic once) and of course doing stuff like Blessings and Saying Mass is right out. What are the equivalent squinks for Jews?

[cellio]

I think the given assumption is that most of the SCA personas are Christian unless stated otherwise.

Christian or pagan is the usual way to bet. (Christian if high middle ages or later, pagan if early period, both defaults only.)

Is there a different manner of dress besides wearing a Star of David?

In most places, Jews dressed just like the people around them. Some rulers instituted various "Jewish badges", which might have meant a special color or type of garment. The star of David as an indicator of Jewishness is actually post-period from what I understand. (I wear mine because I wear it pretty much all the time, like my wedding band and my glasses.) In period a better symbol of Judaism is the menorah.

I don't think Jewish Scadians are in general offended if non-Jews take on Jewish personas and wear the symbols. (Elsbeth is such a person, though I don't think she actually wears a magen David or menorah.) Speaking only for myself, the only time I get offended is when someone equates his persona needs with my real-world needs -- for example, if the vegetarian alternative to the pork dish doesn't include enough to feed everyone, I think my (real) needs for it trump someone else's persona-only needs (assuming that I pre-registered as a vegetarian, and assuming the other person eats pork when not at events). This has only happened to me once, by the way, and I believe I successfully and politely delivered the clue.

Some Jews might feel a little weird seeing someone (who isn't really Jewish) wearing tzitzit, the fringes you see on certain garments. I wouldn't be, but some might because that's a semi-ritual object. (Ditto t'fillin, but since those are only typically worn during morning prayers that wouldn't be likely to arise.) If a non-Jew wants to say certain blessings as part of portraying his persona (e.g. blessing the bread before the meal), I think it would be wise to alter the name of God in the blessing to avoid offending Jews. (And he certainly should do so for any blessing that includes the phrase "[God] who has commanded us", because he hasn't been commanded.) Again, this probably doesn't come up often -- lighting Shabbat candles at a weekend event maybe, but I can't think of another semi-common case that arises in the SCA. I think this would be similar to the case altering a Christian prayer or ritual in some way if the person doing it isn't really qualified and it's "for show" and not "for real".

I think any respectful portrayal of "clergy" would be ok. Remember that rabbis, unlike priests within period, are not intermediaries to God. They're scholars, teachers, leaders of a community -- but not your proxy. (That's why I put "clergy" in quotes here. They have come to have that role in modern times, but not within SCA period.) So I think the offense that some real-world Christians have with portrayals of clergy doesn't really have an analogue for Jews.

Does that help?