Are you looking to mark a personal milestone through Jewish ritual?
We help individuals and families…

Create rituals that are personal, authentic, and meaningful
We provide expert consultation about Jewish ritual design and facilitation.

Find expert ritual facilitators who can best meet your needs
Our referral service is highly personalized and grounded in our commitment to honor the diversity of the Bay Area Jewish community.

Navigate and Network

People
We maintain an extensive database of rabbis, cantors, service leaders, ritual facilitators and officiants, teachers, tutors, Jewish spiritual directors, Jewish hospital and hospice chaplains, artists, musicians, and others who welcome referrals for all lifecycle rituals.

Information
Our library contains books (both informational and inspirational) on traditional and contemporary Jewish lifecycle rituals; articles; music; sample rituals, invitations, and programs; and a list of helpful websites. We also have Jewish rituals objects (an ark, prayer shawls, a chuppah, etc.) available for rent. Come and take a look! Please see the services we offer our ritual facilitatorsClick here to open the PDF.

Organizations
We are personally familiar with most Bay Area Jewish communal organizations and can make considered referrals if you are seeking connection to synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, adult education resources, and others. Call us for more information.

Please see the services we offer our ritual facilitators
Click here to open the PDF.

Upcoming events

Celebrating the Birth of a Child

Monday, May 11, 2009
7 pm at the SFJCC
$10

Welcome your baby with a unique and meaningful ceremony that reflects the richness of both partners’ backgrounds and incorporates old and new traditions and rituals. Dessert and light snacks will be served.

For more information, contact Julie Batz

Recent events

Creating an Interfaith Wedding

Sunday, March 29, 2009 at the SFJCC


We explored ways to create a beautiful and meaningful interfaith wedding ceremony honoring the backgrounds of both partners, while including elements of the traditional Jewish wedding and contemporary innovations.

Mikveh Guide Training

Our work with Mayyim Hayyim in the Bay Area has begun!

Jewish Milestones and the Jewish Welcome Network are partnering with Mayyim Hayyim (the community mikveh of Newton, Massachusetts) to training a cohort of 17 Bay Area Mikveh Guides who will be available to witness and support mikveh immersions. Our group is fabulous and fascinating — representing all parts of the Bay Area Jewish community.

The first day of our training was Sunday, February 22, 2009 at the JCC of San Francisco and Mikveh Israel B’nai David. We were thrilled to welcome Anita Diamant & Carrie Bornstein of Mayyim Hayyim as guest faculty.

At the session, we shared the Mayyim Hayyim philosophy/principles of community mikvaot; presented an overview of Bay Area mikvaot; explored traditional sources and engaged in text study of concepts related to mikveh; learned about mikveh construction; and toured the San Francisco mikveh.

Our second day of training was March 15, 2009 at the JCC of San Francisco and Mikveh Israel B’nai David. Our faculty included local Jewish educator and director of the Tauber Program at Temple Emanu El, Emily Shapiro Katz; Karen Erlichman, LCSW; and Karen Kushner (of the Jewish Welcome Network); Rachel Brodie & Julie Batz (of Jewish Milestones).

At this session, we learned about traditional uses of the mikveh, focusing on niddah and bridal immersions; engaged in sensitivity training; learned about preparation for the tovel/et (immersee) and for the Mikveh Guide; and witnessed a model immersion.

Our final day of training was April 26, 2009 at Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland. On that day, we welcomed Amy Chartock (director of Mayyim Hayyim’s national Mainstream Initiative), Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Rabbi Dorothy Richman, and Paul Cohen along with Rachel and Julie, as our faculty.

Our focus was on conversion immersions and alternative uses of mikveh for various lifecycle milestones such as healing, bnei mitzvah, and new beginnings. We also toured the Beth Jacob mikveh with Rebbetzin Naomi Dardik, and had a siyyum/closing ritual for our training.

Thank you to all of the fabulous Mikveh Guides, faculty, and organizational hosts who were involved in our program. We are thrilled to have been a part of training these wonderful Mikveh Guides:

South Bay/Coast:
Karen Erlichman, Trish McCauley, Florence Marchick, Kitty Steinborn, and Louise Stirpe-Gill

San Francisco:
Ellen Benjamin, Betsy Eckstein, Maurice Kamins, Emily Shapiro Katz, Andrew Ramer, and Noa Goodman

North Bay:
Sarah Fenner and Nancy Gennet

East Bay: Sarah Kotleba, Judy Massarano, R. Dorothy Richman

One of the goals of our program was to increase the usage of mikvaot throughout the Bay Area. With so many trained guides ready to assist with immersions, we encourage you to consider visiting the mikveh for both traditional (niddah, conversion) and alternative reasons (to mark an important life milestone, as part of another lifecycle ritual, etc.).

In addition to our Mikveh Guide Training, we also offered a Mikveh Workshop for Ritual Facilitators. Read one participant’s experience of the workshop...

For more information on these programs, or if you are interested in becoming trained as a mikveh guide in the future, please contact Julie Batz, Director of Programs.

Bnai Mitzvah Family Camp

With the knowledge that the journey into adulthood greatly impacts the whole family—parents, siblings, relatives and friends—we invited families of children becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah in the coming year to spend a week together to explore this significant rite of passage through creative arts, experiences in nature, Torah study and peer-group discussions. The weeklong Bnai Mitzvah Family Camp, co-sponsored by Jewish Milestones and Storahtelling, was hosted at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center/ Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Spirituality in Falls Village, Connecticut, in late August.
To read all about it, click here

What Do You Get When You Take
1 Hospice Nurse
2 Jewish Communal Professionals
2 Mental Health Professionals
3 Professional Musicians
1 Visual Artist-Arts Educator
and 2 Activists

ON AN INTENSIVE 3-DAY RETREAT TO
STUDY JEWISH WEDDING FACILITATION?
click here to learn more.

Starring Jewish Milestones:
Jewish Milestones Executive Director, Rachel Brodie led two "webinars" (web-based seminars) for rabbis, other synagogue professionals and lay leaders from Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los Angeles in late November. The 17 synagogues are part of STAR's (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) "Calling Synagogue Home" initiative to engage interfaith families through lifecycle events. Rachel's presentation was called, "Before I Can Call Synagogue Home I Need to Know What You Call Me" Engaging the Jewish Partner in an Interfaith Relationship.
click here to learn more.

Artistic Ketubot
One of the many ways that Jewish Milestones serves as a resource is to function as consultants, not only with individuals and families, but also with communal institutions. One such relationship was forged with the Peninsula Jewish Community Center (PJCC) as they developed a yearlong cultural arts celebration of the Jewish lifecycle.
click here to learn more.

Ongoing Opportunities

Ritual Resources Lending Library
We envision Jewish Milestones as a resource for everyone interested in learning about and creating Jewish ritual. To that end, we have created a lending library with books (both informational and inspirational) on traditional and contemporary Jewish lifecycle rituals; articles; music; poetry; ritual objects, sample invitations and programs, and a list of helpful websites. You are welcome to come and browse.

Jewish Milestones Resources and Links
SO MANY RESOURCES, SO LITTLE TIME…
An eclectic and unabashedly biased guide from Jewish Milestones