Judaism is often considered a religion of the mind, defined by the study and practice of Jewish law, but it also has rich traditions as a religion of the body, engaging sights, sounds, emotions, and feelings of spirituality. The Embodied Judaism Series, held biannually at the University of Colorado Boulder, draws on materials housed in the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections to explore the role of the body in Jewish life through public symposiums, featuring academic scholars, prominent practitioners, and artistic performers, and multimedia exhibits aimed at academic and non-academic audiences.

The Embodied Judaism Series is presented by the University of Colorado Boulder's Program in Jewish Studies, the University Libraries Rare and Distinctive Collections, and cosponsors.

Learn more about the Embodied Judaism Series

The digital exhibits link contains the content and images created for the physical Embodied Judaism exhibits housed on-site in Norlin Library at CU Boulder. Please select which exhibit you would like to view and you will be taken to the digital resource. 

 

Know Your Nosh: Food, Jewishness, & Identity

This exhibit explores the significance of food for Jewish religious, cultural, national, and political identities, focusing on the United States and Israel/Palestine. Food has been used to create, maintain, and reimagine boundaries in Jewish communities. The borrowing and appropriation of foods from other cultures have helped shape new Jewish identities. Different groups of Jews have navigated diverse majority cultures, using food both to solidify ethnic identities and to challenge—or reinforce—narratives of tolerance and inclusion. Jewish farmers are growing food with ecologically sensitive methods and educating their communities in response to the climate crisis. We center the Jewish Renewal community, highlighting the strength of the Innovations in Jewish Life Collections.

Embodied Judaism: SHE

Who is She? The Shekhinah, which derives from the Hebrew word for "dwell or settle," is a feminine divine presence, guiding and protecting men and women everywhere. She is power, wisdom, and compassion and has influenced Jews from the ancient world through Second and Third Wave feminism and into the transgender and environmental concerns of the present day. Who is She, how has She empowered us, and how does She appear to us today? SHE, the third biannual Embodied Judaism Symposium, explores the concept of Shekhinah, drawing on materials in the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections held at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Freedom Seder: American Judaism and Social Justice

Freedom Seder: American Judaism and Social Justice explores a landmark event in American religious life: the 1969 creative, interfaith interpretation of the traditional Passover ritual. This re- imagined performance of an ancient celebration used as its guiding text Arthur Waskow’s civil rights Haggadah, a rewritten version of the book traditionally associated with this ritual. The event took place in a turbulent historical context—on the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. —and served as an important precursor to what has become a common American Jewish practice, rewriting the Passover text to emphasize the connections between Judaism and social justice.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: The Origins of Post-Holocaust American Judaism

This exhibition explores the life and work of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (b. 1924, Poland) and his role in shaping contemporary Judaism as a religion, social movement, and philosophy of spiritual transformation. Many of the images and artifacts in the exhibition come from the Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Collection, which anchors the Post- Holocaust American Judaism Archive at the CUBoulder Libraries Rare and Distinctive Collections. The Schachter-Shalomi Collection includes personal papers, manuscripts, publications, as well as a wealth of audio and visual materials that cover the historical trajectory of his life. The collection includes materials on Jewish Renewal, Hasidism, Kabbalah, Deep Ecumenism, Psychology of Religion, and Spiritual Eldering.