Timbrels and Torahs

During the last decade, Jewish women on a spiritual quest have reclaimed their tradition by inventing or reinventing rituals that respond to their needs. One of these rituals is a 60th birthday celebration. In a culture that disregards older women, the evolution of ”Simchat Chochma" or "Celebration of Wisdom" provides aging women with a Jewish spiritual context for new self-expression and satisfies their desire for a community in which they are fully included. This video features Jewish musician, Deborah Friedman, writer/lecturer Marcia Cohen Spiegel, Blu Greenberg, Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, author of the forthcoming book "Lesbian Rabbis: First Generation", and scholars Marcia Falk and Savina Teubal. Co-director Judy Montell (IF YOU MAKE IT POSSIBLE, 1995 SFJFF and FOREVER ACTIVISTS, 1990 SFJFF) is a veteran of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

Director Miriam Chaya, writer, director, producer, and actor is the author of two feminist children's books, "The Forest Princess" and "Return of the Forest Princess" that received critical acclaim in Ms. Magazine and the L.A. Times. She was the Public Program Co-ordinator at the University of California, Berkeley Women's Center where she produced women’s educational and academic conferences, women's film festivals and International Women's Day celebrations. She wrote, produced, directed and performed in two one-woman plays. "Odyssey of a Jewish Woman," which Miriam adapted for the stage from "The Breadgivers" by Anzia Yezierska, and performed on public television and in theatres throughout California. "Strangers in the Night," an autobiographical play, was performed by Miriam in Havana, Cuba and San Francisco. She had her Simchat Chochmah in l997. Miriam has recently completed a two-year training program with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi at The Spiritual Eldering Institute and is a seminar leader., Director Judy Montell was the producer, director, and co-writer of the Academy Award nominated documentary "Forever Activists: Stories from the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade." Other projects include: "Pasporto al la Tuta Mondo," a series of twelve half-hour videos teaching the language of Esperanto; also in production (with Bonnie Burt) are"The Radical Jewish Chicken Farmers of Petaluma," which traces the history of the founders and their descendants of this special California community; "The Political is Personal: the Story of Saul Wellman," a study of the interaction between the "old left" and the "new left;" and "The Key from Spain: Bosnian Sephardim," which looks at the Sephardic culture and 20th century history of Bosnian Jews through the story and music of Flory Jagoda, a singer and composer of Ladino songs.