OUR HISTORY

A BEACON OF CREATIVE, SPIRITUAL, AND EGALITARIAN JUDAISM

SERVING THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA FOR FORTY NINE YEARS … AND NOW SERVING A GLOBAL MEMBERSHIP VIA ZOOM!

The Aquarian Minyan was established in 1974 when Rabbi Zalman Schachter- Shalomi hosted a month-long Kabbalah workshop in Berkeley, California, with the avowed purpose “to renew the old and make holy the new” (Rav Kook). People were excited by his experiential style and inclusion of mystical and cross-cultural ideas. A small group decided to organize a community that would continue to celebrate Shabbat in this fashion. Over the years, the Aquarian Minyan has grown from a loose-knit group, to a havurah, to a non-profit organization, to a spiritual community.

The Mothership of Jewish Renewal Launches into The Aquarian Age

The 49 -year-old diverse and welcoming Jewish Renewal community “conceived in ecstatic union with the Divine” by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l and a handful of holy hippies during the 1970’s has launched into the Aquarian Age, via Zoom due to the global pandemic. We are now meeting in person and online. (2023) While our spiritual legacy goes back to the earliest roots of Jewish mysticism, our community has always been a laboratory for innovation and creativity, and an incubator for Jewish leadership. With the guidance of a newly-elected 9-person Council, our many gifted lay leaders, guest rabbis, and our Rabbi in Residence Rabbi Jonathan Seidel, and our Staff: Jennifer Ganya (Tech maven and administration) and Aaron Kahn (Marketing and PR) the Minyan has experienced amazing growth in wisdom, liveliness, joy, and creative programming, and expanded reach beyond the Bay Area. With the birth of the Aquarian Minyan Yeshiva in March of this year, the launching of collaborative community Zoom-based programming and events and innovative new ways to connect with those thirsty for the living waters of a living, vital Jewish experience, the Minyan has truly entered a new era. We look forward to a new year of maturing spiritually, mentoring emerging leaders, and continuing to cultivate gratitude for the many gifts of our lives – including life itself, never more to be taken for granted!

This year, we are joyously looking forward to our 50th Anniversary and reformulating our vision for the future.

People ask: What is Jewish Renewal?

(thank you to Rabbi David Zaslow)

Renewals’ roots are in Hasidism as it was re-formulated and transformed by Martin Buber, Hillel Zeitlin and other creative liberal thinkers rooted in traditional Judaism. Renewal is highly indebted to Rabbi Avraham Issaac Kook and other non Hasidic thinkers. Many Renewal leaders had previously been heavily involved with Eastern Paths: meditation, chant and ecstatic worship. Rabbis Shachter-Shalomi and Carlebach helped launch the current movement shortly after the Second World War - coming from the Chabad- Lubavitch movement in the US.

Jewish renewal is a worldwide, Transdenominational movement grounded in Judaism’s prophetic and mystical traditions.

Jewish Renewal carries forward Judaism’s perpetual process of renewal Jewish Renewal seeks to bring creativity, relevance, joy, and an all embracing awareness to spiritual practice, as a path to healing our hearts and finding balance
and wholeness—Tikkun halev and Tikkun haNefesh

Jewish Renewal acts to fully include all Jews and to respect all peoples Jewish renewal helps to heal the world by promoting justice, freedom,
responsibility, caring for all life and the earth that sustains all life —Tikkun Olam

Jewish Renewal acts to fully include all Jews and to respect all human beings and all our fellow non human creatures on the Earth .

Jewish Renewal helps to heal the world by promoting justice, freedom, responsibility, caring for all life and the earth that sustains all life —tikkun olam

The Jewish Renewal Movement was founded by Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, and is dedicated to making the presence of G-d real and relevant in the lives of contemporary Jewish families, individuals, partners and friends.

We draw from the wellsprings of ecumenism, egalitarianism, personal prayer, ecological awareness, and a sense of the fundamental place of Jewish mysticism in our faith.

A New MINYAN DOCUMENTARY NOW IN PROGRESS,

SEEKING VOLUNTEERS

Dan Howard is producing a new video documentary about The Aquarian Minyan. If you are a long-time Minyan member and would like to participate in a video interview, please contact Dan.

He is also seeking an executive producer and technical collaborators for this project, including those skilled in digital editing, lighting, audio, duplication, and other aspects of video production.

Contact Dan for more information:

email: joyofmuse@aol.com

Text: (925) 695-5286