I’m in the middle of a chavurah (Hebrew חבורה, also spelled havurah, plural havurot) research kick. These small Jewish groups — often translated as “fellowships”; the root word means “friend” — have been an incredible force for transforming Jewish community life by increasing participation, changing expectation of community life and often times introducing egalitarian and pluralistic practices and reforms. Their small scale and counter-culture roots have cocked some eyebrows, but I think they have much to teach and inspire non-Jews interested in religious organization.
More about that later. I was noodling around that the National Havurah Committee website and noted that they’ve outsourced their directory to a new site. Voila!
If I was (a) Jewish and (b) looking for a chavurah, I would be on ShulShopper.org like a duck on a junebug.
All for now.
Later. Oh! And their content is covered by a liberal “share alike” license. (CC-BY-SA-2.5)
