On Sunday, Dec. 11, Or Emet will host a presentation by Judson (Kim) Bemis, founder and executive director of Gobi Support Inc., an online drug and alcohol early intervention program for teens and their families.

Judson (Kim) Bemis

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

Marijuana legalization is a hot topic today. Bemis will talk about his personal struggle with cannabis use disorder, what Minnesota just legalized and why commercializing cannabis may not be the solution.

Bemis began his work in the field of addiction recovery in 2005, first as national director of development for the Hazelden Foundation and then as executive director of Hazelden’s online business opportunities. He has served on more than a dozen for-profit and nonprofit boards and currently serves as co-chair of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Minnesota.

The Sunday adult programs are free and open to the public and meet concurrently with the Jewish Cultural Sunday School. All attendees must wear a mask indoors and are expected to be up to date on vaccinations or have a same-day negative COVID test.

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 Saturday, Dec. 3, from 10-11:30 a.m., Or Emet will host a Shabbat service followed by a presentation titled “Rod Serling: The Art and Philosophy of a Humanist.” 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.

Rod Serling

The service will be led by Eva Cohen, Or Emet’s ritual leader and a Humanistic rabbi-in-training. Following the service, Or Emet member Diane Wanner will discuss Rod Serling, an American scriptwriter, television producer, radio host and narrator who publicly stated that it was the duty of writers to explore relevant and socially significant content in their work. 

Serling was born to Jewish parents, became a Unitarian and wove his humanistic philosophy throughout his work, including the well-known television series “The Twilight Zone.” Wanner’s presentation will examine the moral and political themes of Serling’s fiction. 

Those who cannot attend in person may join over Zoom. Please register in advance here. In-person attendees must wear a mask indoors and are expected to be up to date on vaccinations or have a same-day negative COVID test.

Or Emet’s events and programs may change per CDC and state guidelines during the pandemic. All updates and changes will be posted in Or Emet’s events calendar. Or Emet is a secular congregation celebrating and honoring Jewish culture, history and values from a humanistic, inclusive perspective. For more information about Or Emet, email info@oremet.org or visit oremet.org.

On Friday, Nov. 18, from 7:30-9 p.m., Or Emet will host a Shabbat service followed by a program titled “Youth in Government and the Model U.N. Programs: Setting the Stage for Civic Engagement.” The evening’s events will take place at the Minnesota JCC Sabes Center Minneapolis, 4330 S. Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis. A social time will follow the program.

Students from the YMCA Center for Youth Voice in Minneapolis will speak about the Youth in Government and Model U.N. programs.

The service will be led by Eva Cohen, Or Emet’s ritual leader and a Humanistic rabbi-in-training. Following the service, students from the YMCA Center for Youth Voice in Minneapolis will talk about the Youth in Government (YIG) and Model U.N. (MUN) programs. Michael Wall, outreach manager for the Center for Youth Voice, will be in attendance as well.

YIG and MUN are opportunities for secondary students to learn how state and world governments work, improve presentation skills, master persuasion and compromise, and meet students from around the state. Participants in the programs are better prepared and inspired to advocate for changes in issues and policies that matter to them. 

Those who cannot attend in person may join over Zoom. Please register in advance here. In-person attendees must wear a mask indoors and are expected to be up to date on vaccinations or have a same-day negative COVID test.

Or Emet’s events and programs may change per CDC and state guidelines during the pandemic. All updates and changes will be posted in Or Emet’s events calendar. Or Emet is a secular congregation celebrating and honoring Jewish culture, history and values from a humanistic, inclusive perspective. For more information about Or Emet, email info@oremet.org or visit oremet.org.

On Sunday, Nov. 13, Or Emet members Michal Moskow and Scott Chazdon will present “Illuminating Darkness: Visitor Experiences at Dark Tourism Sites” from 10 a.m.-noon at the Talmud Torah of St. Paul, 768 Hamline Ave. South in St. Paul. A social time will follow the program. 

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

The site of the police killing of George Floyd in South Minneapolis. (Photo credit: Scott Chazdon)

Dark tourism is defined as visits to places where traumatic events have occurred, and it can be informative, personally meaningful or emotionally healing. But dark tourism can send distorted or inauthentic messages about the past. For this reason, thoughtful curation of dark tourism experiences is crucial. 

This presentation will explore and contrast visitor experiences from three dark tourism sites: a site in Mankato, Minnesota, of a mass lynching of 38 Dakota Indians in 1862, Holocaust sites in Germany and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, and the site of the police killing of George Floyd in South Minneapolis. 

Moskow is a professor emerita at Metropolitan State University who also is rostered at the University of Gothenburg. Her major areas include social linguistics and human rights. Chazdon is a sociologist and program evaluator for University of Minnesota Extension. He served as president of Or Emet from 2018-2021.

The Sunday adult programs are free and open to the public and meet concurrently with the Jewish Cultural Sunday School. All attendees must wear a mask indoors and are expected to be up to date on vaccinations or have a same-day negative COVID test.

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. 28, from 7:30-9 p.m., Or Emet will host a Shabbat service followed by a program about the upcoming midterm elections. The evening’s 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. 

David Schultz

Following the service, David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota Law School, will present “What’s at Stake for the Midterm Elections in Minnesota and the Nation?” The 2022 elections may well be the most consequential in American history and decide the trajectory of the future of American democracy. Schultz’s talk will examine what is at stake in the 2022 elections, as well as the forces that will shape it and what the results may mean. A social time will follow the program. 

Schultz is a distinguished university professor in the departments of political science, environmental studies and legal studies at Hamline University and a professor of law at the University of Minnesota. He is a three-time Fulbright scholar who has taught extensively in Europe and Asia, and is the winner of the Leslie A. Whittington national award for excellence in public affairs teaching, 

The author of numerous books and articles, Schultz is regularly interviewed and quoted in the local, national and international media, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the Economist and National Public Radio.

Those who cannot attend in person may join over Zoom. Please register in advance here. In-person attendees must wear a mask indoors and are expected to be up to date on vaccinations or have a same-day negative COVID test.

Or Emet’s events and programs may change per CDC and state guidelines during the pandemic. All updates and changes will be posted in Or Emet’s events calendar. Or Emet is a secular congregation celebrating and honoring Jewish culture, history and values from a humanistic, inclusive perspective. For more information about Or Emet, email info@oremet.org or visit oremet.org.