On Friday, Nov. 17, from 7:30-9 p.m., Or Emet will host a Shabbat service followed by a program and social time. The events will take place at the Minnesota JCC Sabes Center Minneapolis, 4330 S. Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis. 

The service will be led by Eva Cohen, Or Emet’s ritual leader and a Humanistic rabbi-in-training. 

Alan Miller

After the service, longtime Or Emet member Alan Miller will discuss his new novel, “A Reluctant Madonna.” Foreign interests buying up Native lands, a lecherous artist, a stalker, intrigue in the Supreme Court — all come together in the novel. Miller will talk about becoming a novelist as an octogenarian and will be available for a Q&A session at the end of his presentation.

Miller began his love of journalism early in life. After serving as editor of his high school newspaper and sports editor of the local newspaper at 15, he landed a sports reporter position at Newsday at 16. 

A journalism and political science major in college, he became an attorney, worked at several newspapers and taught at universities and law schools, as well as for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. 

For the past 25 years, Miller has been the host-producer of the award-winning local access TV program, “Access to Democracy,” now networked in 35 Minnesota cities. He recently created a new local access TV program in Minnesota, “Writer’s Corner.” 

Those who cannot attend the program in person may join over Zoom. Please register in advance here. 

Or Emet is a secular congregation celebrating and honoring Jewish culture, history and values from a humanistic, inclusive perspective. For more information, email info@oremet.org or visit oremet.org.

On Sunday, Nov. 12, Or Emet will host a program by Michelle Horovitz, co-founder of Appetite For Change, a nonprofit organization that uses food as a tool to build health, wealth and social change in North Minneapolis.

Michelle Horovitz

The program, titled “Gastronomical Tzedek: Repairing the World One Harvest at a Time,” will run from 10 a.m.-noon at the Talmud Torah of St. Paul, 768 Hamline Ave. South in St. Paul. A social time will follow. 

Horovitz will share how she went from public defender to line cook to social justice advocate, helping us understand food justice through a Jewish lens.

Those who cannot attend in person may join over Zoom. Please register in advance here. 

The Sunday adult programs are free and open to the public and meet concurrently with the Jewish Cultural Sunday School. 

Or Emet is a secular congregation celebrating and honoring Jewish culture, history and values from a humanistic, inclusive perspective. 

For information about Or Emet’s Jewish Cultural Sunday School, contact JCSS director Molly Phipps at school-1@oremet.org. For information about Or Emet, email info@oremet.org or visit oremet.org.

On Friday, Oct. 20, from 7:30-9 p.m., Or Emet will host a Humanistic Shabbat service followed by a presentation by Tedi Grey Owl, a Native American community activist and the academic internship specialist for Migizi, an organization that prepares Native American youth for education, careers and community leadership. 

The events will take place at the Minnesota JCC Sabes Center Minneapolis, 4330 S. Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis. A social time will follow the program.

Tedi Grey Owl

The service will be led by Eva Cohen, Or Emet’s ritual leader and a Humanistic rabbi in training. Following the service, Tedi Grey Owl will present “Empowering Our Youth: A Strong Circle of Support.”

A citizen of the Haudensaunee Seneca Nation, Heron Clan, Tedi Grey Owl has worked to provide academic and cultural support for Indigenous students in urban and suburban school districts in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for three decades.

She comes from a family of Native activists. Her mother, Laura Waterman Wittstock, was one of the original members of the American Indian Movement, and co-founded Migizi in 1977. 

Those who cannot attend the program in person may join over Zoom. Please register in advance here.

Or Emet is a secular congregation celebrating and honoring Jewish culture, history and values from a humanistic, inclusive perspective. For more information, email info@oremet.org or visit oremet.org.

On Sunday, Oct. 1, Or Emet will host a program by author and journalist Doris Rubenstein, who will discuss the history of the Jewish people in Ecuador. The program will run from 10 a.m.-noon at the Talmud Torah of St. Paul, 768 Hamline Ave. South in St. Paul. A social time will follow. 

Doris Rubenstein

Between 1933 and the end of World War II, more than 3,000 Jews from countries across Europe fled what was an almost certain death to find freedom and safety in a small country in South America: Ecuador. 

Most of them had never heard of Ecuador before there was nowhere else to run. Some left for the U.S. or Israel after five or 10 years. Others decided to make it their permanent home. Today, there are fewer than 1,000 Jews still living in Ecuador. Why did they decide to stay? Each family’s story is different. 

Rubenstein lived in Ecuador as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1971-73 and became familiar with the Jewish community there, especially with the family of Enrique Cohen, whose family fled the Nazis when he was a toddler. She realized that the stories — even the existence of Jewish communities in small Latin American countries were untold, yet exciting, and set out to make sure the world knew about them.

The Sunday adult programs are free and open to the public and meet concurrently with the Jewish Cultural Sunday School. Attendees can choose to wear a mask and are expected to be up to date on vaccinations or have a same-day negative COVID test. Those who cannot attend in person may join over Zoom. Please register in advance here. 

Or Emet is a secular congregation celebrating and honoring Jewish culture, history and values from a humanistic, inclusive perspective. 

For information about Or Emet’s Jewish Cultural Sunday School, contact JCSS director Molly Phipps at school-1@oremet.org. For information about Or Emet, email info@oremet.org or visit oremet.org.

Do you love Jewish food, music, culture and humor? Do you want a secular community that welcomes interfaith couples? Do you want your children to learn about Jewish culture? Are you curious about Jews without God?

If you are interested in learning more about Humanistic Judaism and Or Emet, please join “An Introduction to Humanistic Judaism” from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at the Rondo Community Library, 461 Dale St. N in St. Paul. Parking is available beneath the library; enter from University Avenue.

The discussion, which will take place in person and via Zoom, will be led by Or Emet president Allan Malkis and former president Richard Logan. To register for the in-person option, email president@oremet.org. For the Zoom option, register here.