RENCONTRE

Avidan Halivni

I believe that Jewish learning is a language through which we make sense of the world. With its stories, its literary devices, its characters and symbols, Torah (in its broadest sense) lends itself to infinite play, and we need PLAY -- that’s what makes us human. Our tradition empowers us to expound upon itself over and over, a receptacle for all the whimsy and drama of the human experience.

I believe this play is intrinsic to the practice of learning Torah. "Ei-efshar beit hamidrash b’lo chiddush" -- there is no interaction between learners and text without the generation of something new. I am passionate about empowering others to find the creativity and distinctiveness they bring to their own study of Jewish texts and ideas, suffused with playfulness.

I have studied at Yeshivat Ma’ale Gilboa, Yeshivat Hadar, and Pardes, and worked as a Jewish educator for two years in Berlin with Masorti Germany and Hillel Deutschland. I also studied religion as an undergraduate at Columbia and wrote a bachelor’s thesis on postmodernism and Jewish thought through the writings of Rabbi Shimon Gershon Rosenberg (Rav Shagar). I am currently the program manager of the Jewish Learning Collaborative!