Ze Kollel

Ze Kollel offers an intensive immersion in classical Jewish learning through the study of the weekly Torah portion (Parasha) and Talmud. All members of Ze Kollel will be offered opportunities to teach and  develop their skills as potential Jewish educators and leaders.

Ze Kollel aims to be a place of personal and spiritual growth with the text as our guide and our fellow students as companions. Our name is both a nod to traditional Kollel environments which are often exclusive to men, while also being a transliterated form of the Hebrew words that mean, “It includes”.

In the spring semester of Ze Kollel we will be studying the tractate Rosh Hashana. This tractate deals with the laws and customs of the multiple Jewish New Years and their potential for renewal. As such this tractate is not just a guide to the technical details of the holiday but also explores its deeper spiritual and theological dimensions, such as God’s sovereignty, human repentance and renewal, and the hope for a favorable judgment.

Ze Kollel is in partnership with Hillel Deutschland and Oy Vey Amsterdam, in collaboration with Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

Course structure

Ze Kollel includes: an opportunity to lead a parasha session, a required writing of an original commentary on the Talmud as well as an end-of-semester in person Shabbaton in Stockholm. 

The teachers will contact applicants as part of the admissions process. 

Prior knowledge

Hebrew knowledge is helpful but no prior knowledge or Hebrew language skills are required. The texts are read in English, if they are available in translation.

To apply for this course, you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom. The school offers Zoom manuals and a training opportunity before the start of the course.

Course material

Course material, accommodation and participation in a Shabbaton in is included in the cost for this course. Travel expenses to Stockholm are not included.

Dates for the Shabbaton will be communicated in the admission letter if you are accepted to the course.

About the teachers

Lievnath Faber is a Jewish educator and activist, birth- and death doula and ritualist. She holds an MA in the arts from the University of Amsterdam and is a senior Humanity in Action fellow as well as a senior Landecker Democracy fellow who writes and works on the intersection of antiracism and antisemitism in Europe and specialized in the Netherlands. She weaves Jewish activism, life cycle awareness and ritual together to create joyful and empowered Jewish life in Europe. She is a trained mikveh guide and grief ceremony facilitator, (co) founder and program director of Oy Vey, the open, inclusive and unapologetically Jewish community in Amsterdam and part of the faculty staff of Ze Kollel, the immersive pan-European Jewish learning programme. She is a rabbinical student with ALEPH – the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and works towards creating joyful and empowered Jewish life in Europe.

Sophie Bigot-Goldblum holds a MA degree, magna cum Laude from Hebrew University in Jewish Studies and a MA from the EHESS in Political Theory. She was blessed to be able to learn in various yeshivot in Israel and the United States for four years: at Pardes, the Conservative Yeshiva, Hadar and Drisha. Additionally, she co-facilitates Paideia’s Paradigm program, bringing together European, American, and Israeli Jewish professionals and thought leaders for a week of intense discussions and learning on Jewish identity. Sophie teaches at the Conservative Yeshiva summer program and has been published in Jewish Journals in the US and Europe : JOFA journal, Mozaika, Tenou’a, La Voix Sépharade. She is the co-founder of Bealma, the first egalitarian sefaradi minyan in France. She loves football and a good Yerushalmi Kugel.

Photo: Paideia/Canva.