Previous Shared Learnings
What did you miss?
Review this section to find previous Shared Learning Circle discussions and materials facilitators have shared with the community.
April’s Learning:
Tuesday, April 10th, 2024 from 4:30 – 6pm CDT:
Stand With/Withstand
A recovery cohort program for overcoming the impacts of Supremacy
Guest Speaker:
Beverly Bushyhead
Beverly Bushyhead (she/her) is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and grew up with her nation on their original lands in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Beverly is a restorative practitioner, transformative leader, and strengths-based community builder focused on the intersection of cultural and complex trauma response.
Bev is a systems thinker gifted at creating innovations that inspire action steps toward social justice. Beverly Bushyhead has over 25 years’ experience. She shares original curricula through cohort designed learning and workshop facilitation. Beverly earned a degree in psychology at Augsburg College and two master’s degrees in public administration and Nonprofit Management at Hamline University.
March 2024’s Learning:
Tuesday, March 12th, 2024 from 4:30 – 6pm CDT:
Understanding Reconstruction in the U.S.
The white riot of January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol Building is impossible to understand without reference to earlier, yet strikingly similar, efforts during the First Reconstruction period. In both cases, there were attempts to violently overthrow democratically held elections won with the aid of Black votes. (Peniel E. Joseph in The Third Reconstruction, pp. 14-15). This workshop will briefly look at the three attempts to reconstruct our country so that everyone would have full citizenship, equal opportunity, and equality under the law.
Guest Speaker:
Peter Eichten
Peter Eichten teaches in the Masters of Public and Nonprofit Administration program at Metropolitan State University. He has been a high school teacher, counselor, and coach, and he has also worked in Catholic Campus Ministry. He has been elected to a public school board and has served on the board of directors of two non-profits.
February 2024’s Learning:
Tuesday, February 13th from 4:30 – 6pm: from 4:30 – 6pm CDT:
Understanding Reconstruction in the U.S.
The white riot of January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol Building is impossible to understand without reference to earlier, yet strikingly similar, efforts during the First Reconstruction period. In both cases, there were attempts to violently overthrow democratically held elections won with the aid of Black votes. (Peniel E. Joseph in The Third Reconstruction, pp. 14-15). This workshop will briefly look at the three attempts to reconstruct our country so that everyone would have full citizenship, equal opportunity, and equality under the law.
Guest Speaker:
How a Major Branch of Judaism (Reconstructionism) Passed a National Reparations Resolution with Help From a Minneapolis Congregation
In January 2023, the governing board of the national Jewish Reconstructionist Movement (called Reconstructing Judaism or RJ) passed a substantive resolution approving reparations for the descendants of those who were harmed by the practice of slavery in the United States, and by subsequent discrimination over the centuries. The reparations resolution also extends to the Indigenous people in the United States whose lands were stolen and who experienced genocide and discrimination over several centuries. Passage of the reparations resolution at the national level was the culmination of a three-year effort that included the drafting of a 3-1/2 page document, led by a multiracial leadership team. Prior to approval by the RJ Board of Governors, a task force comprised solely of people of color representing rabbis, rabbinical students, and Jewish lay leaders reviewed, edited, and approved the resolution. Passage by the Board was contingent on a democratic process that required approval by a majority of the 100-plus Reconstructionist congregations across the United States. Our workshop intends to foster understanding of the actual reparations resolution that was passed by having participants take turns reading the sections of it aloud; discussing the meaning and implications of the resolution; touching on relevant Jewish liturgy; noting significant scholarship on how to calculate monetary reparations; discussing German Holocaust reparations to some congregant families; and viewing a humorous skit. This is the same educational process that congregants in our synagogue participated in during three “teach-ins” that the Mayim Rabim Antiracism Group led.
Guest Speakers:
Joan Hyman
came from the East Coast to the Midwest in 2018. She has a long history of professional work in eldercare and healthcare administration as well as numerous volunteer pursuits. After the murder of George Floyd, she cofounded the congregation Mayim Rabim‘s Antiracism group. She is also the current Community Engagement Specialist for Friends for a Nonviolent World.
Sandy Gerber
has been dedicated to community development in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities, and to multicultural participation, throughout her life and work. Most recently she was employed by the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of Minneapolis in Community Development, focused on the creation and growth of multi-sector Indian Business Alliances, primarily in South Dakota and Wisconsin. She also trained banks and community organizations in the Community Reinvestment Act and how to increase loans and investments in LMI communities. Prior to the FRB, she was a field researcher for Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) on a national pilot program to increase employment levels in public housing projects, a program officer with the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, a project specialist for a racial inclusiveness initiative at the Minneapolis United Way, and the director of an inner-city community mediation program in North Minneapolis. Currently she is active in antiracism work at her south Minneapolis synagogue. Sandy received a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship, which she utilized to obtain a master’s degree in public administration at the Harvard Kennedy School. FREC member.
Ginny Rovainen
is a born-and-raised Minnesotan who grew up with progressive values derived from family and personal experience. Her family had deep roots in the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, supporting equal opportunity. She converted to Judaism because it supported her social justice values, and she went on to teach at a Twin Cities Jewish Day School for over 25 years. She is a Board member of her Minneapolis synagogue, Mayim Rabim, and is a co-founder of Mayim Rabim’s Antiracism Group.
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