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?

[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?