We met on shabbat morning to honor the coming of spring and share our fear, grief, and hope as activists and people who want a livable future. Find our liturgy here, downloadable as a slide deck Our torah study for the month was learning about the utter fuckery of "Project Esther," a campaign by Christian … Continue reading March 2025: We are the ones we’ve been waiting for
Composer Alyssa Weinberg is creating a vocal piece commissioned by Pittsburgh Camerata (which is celebrating its 50th year). The piece is in response to Kol Nidre, a central liturgy of Yom Kippur. She's using words from my "Ashamnu for a Mindset of Privilege" - which is just astounding to me! The piece will be performed … Continue reading World Premiere on Wednesday, June 4 in Pittsburgh
We met for our 18th Birthday at a political time we could never have imagined when we were founded in 2007 - an ongoing genocide in Gaza and a political coup swallowing our government at home. Fringes is not an activist group, but we are a community of activists, each fighting to the make the … Continue reading February 2025: We will not be reconciled
We met today, one week out from the Inauguration, to pray within our community. We are, all of us, on edge, as parts of our world are burning and the incoming administration is threatening to make life much, much worse. After 18 years as a havurah we have experience with difficult moments, so, as always, … Continue reading Fringes January 2025: between hope and despair is the broad territory of moral integrity
As is always our custom, our December service focuses on honoring the dark time of year - exploring the wisdom of the dark rather than praying for the return of the light. We reject the false binary of light/good and dark/bad, especially living in a culture established on anti-Black racism. Dark is where life begins, … Continue reading Fringes December 2024: We come at last to the dark and enter in
We met at the end of a week which has been devastating, and left many of us in despair about our own lives, the lives of so many vulnerable others, and our very planet. As has been our practice at too many other fragile moments, our community together to hold space for our collective and … Continue reading Fringes November 2024: Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies
We met on this shabbat of teshuvah to create a community in which we can bring our whole selves as Jews who have been fighting hard to stop the genocide in Gaza and to change the hearts of our community. Our liturgy was our usual combination of traditional and new, fulfilling our founding principle of … Continue reading Fringes October 2024 Shabbat Shuvah: Community is where we can open our hearts
Ashamnu for the Mindset of PrivilegeElliott batTzedek / Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah We have abandoned, we have appropriated, we have analyzed, we have arbitratedWe’ve belittled, we have broken faith, we have turned our backs, we have believed the unbelievable We have grown numb, we’ve given too little, we’ve given too late, we have given … Continue reading Ashamnu for a Mindset of Privilege
Psalm 104adapted by Elliott batTzedek from a translation by Robert Alter Letting loose the springs, down the mountains they gowatering all the beasts of the field even the untamable slaking their thirst.Dwelling above, the birds of the heavens sending forth their voice from among the greens.Rolling waters from mountains’ heights sating all-life from earth-fruits —hay … Continue reading The Cedars of Lebanon are How Our Ancestors Understood the Holiness of Creation
We met for our annual Elul service, one with time for reflection and introspection. Our liturgy invited us to be in this particular moment, in our bodies, and in the world, while also looking backward and forward. For Torah study we again turned to Jacob L. Wright's "Why the Bible Began," which Elliott has been … Continue reading Fringes September 2024: save me from the liars/let me live in your house