KABBALAH – JEWISH MYSTICISM AND PERSONAL GROWTH (ONLINE)

There are many ways to deepen and widen Jewish learning, Jewish wisdom and Jewish way of life – for personal growth. Some like to study, some to find ways of engaging with and caring for our community. Some like to practice religious and traditional rituals including prayer, song, dance, and celebrations. And some of us search for deeper, more spiritual meaning – supported with study and practice in our life. 

Kabbalah offers us a way to study both modern and ancient mystical texts and philosophy. And it guides us to test and apply many beautiful concepts, models, rituals and meditations in our own lives, to help us deepen our own spiritual journey.  

The Hebrew word Kabbalah means to receive. Kabbalah supports and guides us to study and reflect deeply, to meditate and to explore their meaning and practice together. When we study Kabbalah, we carve out a time and place to develop our awareness, understanding and readiness to receive insights from the mysteries of the universe and the mysteries in the Jewish mystical tradition – and to share them together. 

The expected learning outcomes of the course are: 

  • To get to know each other in our group – who we are, what our intentions are and our motivation for studying Kabbalah, what is our background and experience in Jewish knowledge and spiritual development.
  • To learn and to get insights in the history of Kabbalah, who the various leaders, scholars and mystics were, to be introduced to the key literary sources of Kabbalah.
  • To explore and be introduced to the Tree of Life and its dynamics, The 10 Sephirot, the 4 worlds, and the 5 modes of the soul. 
  • To apply kabbalistic sources and philosophy to Jewish holidays.

The course is organized by the Jewish Community of Gothenburg and Paideia folkhögskola, in collaboration with Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

 

Course structure

Kabbalah is both a theoretical philosophy and a practice.

During this course – we will take time to:

  • read and study texts.
  • discuss, test and explore the meaning of the texts and models we are reading.
  • develop and practice rituals, meditations.
  • apply the learning and insights to our lives. 


Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

The teacher understands both English and Swedish. Participants are welcome to speak in Swedish in the smaller group meetings if all members of the group speak Swedish.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed.

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 is included in the cost for this course.

About the teacher

Sari Scheinberg was born and raised in New York City where she attended Yeshivat Ramaz for 13 years (learning Hebrew, Torah, Talmud and so on) and continued her education and development as a gestalt and organisation psychologist. Sari moved to Sweden in 1990 for love and has been working as a teacher and action researcher in Sweden and around the world. In Sweden she has been dedicated to developing and leading programs to work with issues concerning well-being, human rights and integration. And she has been working with Swedish and European AID programs for over 40 years – designing and leading research, development and innovation programs around the world.

Sari has always been very active in living and developing her Jewish life. In Sweden she has been part of the team developing and now leading the Egalitarian – Masorti Section of the Jewish community. Sari has been fascinated by Kabbalah since she was young – reading and studying Kabbalah with various teachers. Sari designed and started teaching her own Kabbalah classes in Göteborg – leading one group for nearly 18 years. Now after a short pause, she is looking forward to continuing her teaching, exploring and guiding a new group in Kabbalah again.

Photo: Pixabay/Canva.

Frequently Asked Questions

WOMEN WRITING IN YIDDISH: WOMEN’S JEWISH HISTORY, TRADITIONS AND CHANGES (ONLINE)

This course introduces participants to the vibrant, bold, and profoundly moving literary world of Yiddish women writers from the 19th century to the present. Through short stories, poetry, memoirs, and intellectual reflections, we explore how Jewish women across Europe, North America, and Israel used Yiddish to write about their lives—often at the intersection of tradition and transformation, silence and voice, trauma and creativity.

The course centres around two core collections: “Found Treasures: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers in Translation” and “The Yiddish Women Writers: An Anthology of Stories That Looks to the Past So We Might See the Future”. Both offer potent selections from across time, geography, and experience. These are complemented by readings from other classic anthologies of Yiddish short stories, offering a broader context to understand the unique voices of women writing in this language.

Among the featured writers are Esther Singer Kreitman, Rokhl Brokhes, Fradl Shtok, Miriam Raskin, Dora Shulner, Irena Klepfisz, Malka Lee, Celia Dropkin, Rokhl Korn, Blume Lempel, Chava Rosenfarb, and Kadia Molodowsky.

The course is given in collaboration with Jiddischsällskapet i Stockholm and Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.


Course structure

The course will combine lectures—providing general overviews, context, and thematic introductions—with interactive discussions focused on close reading and analysis of short stories. 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

Application is open to beginners as well as regular readers of Jewish literature with an interest in literature, gender studies, Jewish history, translation and cultural memory. No previous knowledge of Yiddish is necessary.

All readings will be offered in English translation, with selected texts also available in Swedish and original Yiddish for those interested in exploring the multilingual dimension.

To apply 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 literature

Course material in the form of a digital reader, containing 10 short stories, poems, and essays, along with selected critical overviews, is included in the cost for this course.

Costs for materials you buy on your own may be added in the form of optional reading recommended by the teacher.

About the teacher

Urszula (Ulla) Chowaniec is assistant professor at Lund University, researching the concept of the contemporary Jewish secular identity and the Jewish women’s writing. She holds a PhD in literature from the Jagiellonian University. She lives in Stockholm, where she also teaches Jewish Women’s Literature and Yiddish Literature at the Paideia Folkhögskola. She is the author of “Melancholic Migrating Bodies in Contemporary Women’s Writing” (2015) and “In Search of a Woman: Early Novels of Irena Krzywicka” (2007), and main editor and co-author of “Women’s Voices and Feminism in Polish Cultural Memory” (2012), “Mapping Experience on Polish and Russian Women’s Writing” (2010), “Masquerade and Femininity. Essays on Polish and Russian Women Writers” (2008).
Academic site: https://cudzoziemki.weebly.com

Photo: Image composition by Ulla Chowaniec & Sora (AI) , created using open-access sources.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

YIDDISH SEMESTER 6, LOWER INTERMEDIATE (ONLINE)

Welcome to continue our journey in a millennium old language, part and parcel of Ashkenazi Jewish civilization and a pathway to a rich cultural treasure. This course is designed for participants who already have a foundational knowledge of Yiddish grammar and can follow simple conversations.

We will converse in Yiddish, delve into advanced grammatical topics, and read and appreciate literary texts in Yiddish. As always, we will contextualize the language within its broader cultural and historical background.

The course is given in collaboration with International Yiddish Center Vilnius, Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden and Jiddischsällskapet i Stockholm.

Paideia folkhögskola also offers the online courses Yiddish 2: Beginners and Yiddish conversation (in Yiddish/Swedish) during the autumn semester of 2025. Please see more information under each course’s webpage.

 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

Participants need proficiency in reading and writing Yiddish. Understanding of present, future, and past tenses. Familiarity with grammatical cases, sentence structure, and various verb types in Yiddish.

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 is included in the cost for this course. Grammar and literature resources will be provided to participants via email.

About the teacher

Dr. Yaad Biran got his Ph.D. in Yiddish literature in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He teaches Yiddish language and culture in Beth Shalom Aleichem in Tel Aviv, in Haifa University and in the Tel Aviv summer course.

Yaad is a writer and a translator, the author of a short stories book Laughing with Lizards (Hebrew) and the writer of Esther’s Cabaret, a contemporary Yiddish Cabaret in Tel Aviv. He is also guiding Yiddish tours in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Photo: The image is of a painting by Jean Hessel.

Frequently Asked Questions

YIDDISH FOR BEGINNERS, SEMESTER 2 (ONLINE) 

Sholem-aleykhem! Welcome to Yiddish 2!

Learning Yiddish is an opportunity to connect with this rich Eastern European Jewish language and culture with its beautiful music and literature. This is a treasure trove that is just waiting to be discovered!

This Yiddish course is designed for participants, who are at a “Not-Quite Beginners” level of Yiddish, having studied Yiddish for at least one semester (see more information below under “Prior knowledge”.) 

We will start each lesson with some Yiddish conversation, which we will build up more and more as we go along. Then we will revise some of the grammar and vocabulary learned in the previous lesson. After that, we will work with our Yiddish textbook, read the reading material, the dialogues and the jokes there, learn new vocabulary and grammar and do some of the exercises in the book. And we will conclude every lesson with a Yiddish song.

The course is given in collaboration with International Yiddish Center Vilnius, Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden and Jiddischsällskapet i Stockholm.

Paideia folkhögskola also offers the online courses Yiddish 6 and Yiddish conversation (in Yiddish/Swedish) during the autumn semester of 2025. Please see more information under each course’s webpage.

 

Course structure

This will be an interactive online Yiddish course, which will include Yiddish conversation, working with a Yiddish textbook, reading, learning new grammar and vocabulary and doing various exercises, as well as some Yiddish songs. 

Participants will be expected to spend some time every week to work on their reading and writing, to learn the vocabulary and to revise the grammar covered in each class. 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

This is a course designed for participants with some basic knowledge of Yiddish. Participants should be able to form simple sentences in the present tense and to read Yiddish in the Hebrew script.

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 literature

All course literature is not included in the course cost. You need to acquire the following book on your own: 

  • Yiddish, Volume 1″ (Sheva Zucker).  

You will receive more information about the course book that you purchase on your own, if you get accepted to the course.

About the teacher

Dr. Beruriah Wiegand is the Woolf Corob Lector in Yiddish at the University of Oxford. She holds a BA and MA in Hebrew and Jewish Studies from Leo Baeck College, London, and a Ph.D. from University College London, with a thesis on Jewish mystical motifs in the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer. She has lectured on Bashevis’s works and on Yiddish poetry at major conferences around the world.

She is also a Yiddish poet and translator, who has published two bilingual collections of her poetry (Yiddish/English) with the H.Leyvik-farlag in Tel Aviv, as well as various translations from and into Yiddish.

Photo: The image is of a painting by Jean Hessel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Jews throughout the centuries have expressed their faith through prayer possibly more than any other medium. This course will analyze how the Siddur – the Jewish prayer book, was compiled, and how it changed organically over two millennia, going back to Tannaic and Talmudic sources.

This course is not a prayer tutorial, but rather an in-depth analysis of the prayer texts and their relation to the laws of prayer found in the Mishna and the Talmud.

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

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 is included in the cost for this course.

About the teacher

Joseph Shain studied at a yeshiva in Jerusalem and at Bar Ilan University. His interests revolve around oral tradition in early rabbinical Judaism and how it transformed into written form. Joseph drafts and prosecutes patent applications at Grand Patentbyrå AB, a Swedish intellectual property firm.

Photo: Canva/Paideia folkhögskola.

Frequently Asked Questions

The study of Jewish texts is, more often than not, a social activity. In particular, the Talmud is typically studied in groups of two or more, a method known as chevruta (study partner), in which the group works through the text together and discusses the underlying issues. 

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

 

Course structure

This class is modeled as a Talmud workshop with the participants doing the reading and interpreting with support from the lecturer. 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed.

Hebrew knowledge is helpful but no prior knowledge or Hebrew language skills are required. Participants that can not read Hebrew are still welcome to take part, joining the class discussions and using English translations, such as Sefaria. The students who can read Hebrew take turns reading the original Talmud text.

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 is included in the cost for this course.

About the teacher

Joseph Shain studied at a yeshiva in Jerusalem and at Bar Ilan University. His interests revolve around oral tradition in early rabbinical Judaism and how it transformed into written form. Joseph drafts and prosecutes patent applications at Grand Patentbyrå AB, a Swedish intellectual property firm.

Photo: Paideia folkhögskola.

Frequently Asked Questions

FELDENKRAIS® AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT (ONLINE)

What exactly is the Feldenkrais Method? Is it perhaps Jewish Yoga, or 20th-century Yiddish Judo?

Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984), hailing from East European Jewry, was not only a physicist, but also a Judo master. Struggling with a debilitating knee injury, he embarked on a remarkable journey of self-rehabilitation, teaching himself how to walk again. Later on, by drawing from his experience in Judo, observing infant motor and sensory development, and studying several disciplines, he went on to develop a method aimed at improving functions (such as standing, walking, breathing, and perceiving) by enhancing self-awareness.

In our sessions, you will delve into 10 Awareness Through Movement lessons crafted by Dr. Feldenkrais himself. Through these sessions, you’ll unravel unconscious holding patterns that impede your vitality, discovering newfound, natural modes of movement. This journey isn’t just about physicality; it’s about forging a deeper connection with your body and, in turn, with your entire being. 

While the experiential aspect forms the cornerstone of our course, we’ll also explore insights from written and recorded sources about the Feldenkrais Method. 

Come and learn by way of sensing, noticing, and studying – the Feldenkrais way!

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

Both new and previous participants are welcome to apply. 

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 is included in the cost for this course.

About the teacher

Elisabetta Abate is a Feldenkrais® practitioner. As a young woman, she explored uncountable paths towards a better body-mind integration, until she found out that the Feldenkrais Method enables her to feel at home in herself and the situations she’s in. Thus, she joined the III Amsterdam International Feldenkrais Teachers Training (2008-2012), led by Lawrence W. Goldfarb, Ph.D., a direct pupil of Dr. Feldenkrais. Since 2009 she has been teaching the Method to groups and individuals and is currently volunteering in the working group “Feldenkrais and Scientific Research” of the International Feldenkrais Federation.

After earning a Ph.D. in Oriental Studies with a specialization in Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Venice 2009), she most happily attended the Paideia One-Year Program in Jewish studies 2009-2010.

Photo: International Feldenkrais Federation.

Frequently Asked Questions

THE MODERN FAMILY IN TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE (ONLINE)

This course explores the transformative impact of modernity on Jewish marriage and family institutions from the late 18th century to the present, adopting a transnational perspective. In addition to examining the private lives of Jewish men and women, the course highlights the public significance of the Jewish family in broader communal and national debates. These debates include questions of Jewish citizenship in non-Jewish states, concerns of both lay leaders and rabbis about the future of the Jewish people and religion, and the role of the family in the formation of a Jewish state in Israel.

The interdisciplinary nature of the course—drawing from women’s and Jewish history, legal studies, ethnography, and sociology—will introduce participants to the various models of Jewish marriage and family life that have developed over the past two and a half centuries.

Major themes include:

  • the evolving transformation of the status of women and gender roles
  • changing attitudes toward love and sexuality
  • intercommunal conflicts over conversion and intermarriage
  • Jewish family life and nation-building (both in the diaspora and in Israel)
  • international mobility
  • the continued influence of religious law on Jewish families.

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden. 

 

Course structure

The course contains a mixture of lectures and group discussions. The course will involve critical reading of primary historical sources during each session. 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed.

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 is included in the cost for this course.

About the teacher

Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian researching Jewish migrations, family life and legal pluralism. She holds an MA in History from Yale University, and a PhD in History from Brandeis University. Dr. Gudefin has received numerous fellowships, including from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture; the Posen Foundation; and the Center for Jewish History. Her work has been published in American Jewish History and Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues, among other publications.

Dr. Gudefin’s previous research explored various aspects of Jewish immigrant family life, especially the complex encounters between civil and rabbinical marriage laws in France and the United States. Shifting the focus to Southeast Asia, where she is now based, she is currently at work on a new project titled “The Penhas case: Interethnic Marriage and Legal Pluralism in Late Colonial Singapore”.

Photo:

Frequently Asked Questions

This course explores the evolution, stereotypes, and pluralism of Jewish identity in 20th and 21st-century American and European popular cinema. We will examine how Judaism is represented in these films and how this representation has shaped a sense of American and European Jewish identity.

The questions guiding our analysis include:

  • What does it mean to be Jewish? Is Judaism a religious, ethnic, and/or cultural identity?
  • How are gender and sexuality related to Jewish identity, and how do these aspects shift or become subverted over the decades?
  • How do Jews navigate their dual Jewish and national identities?
  • What is the relationship between Jews and other minority groups?
  • What are the ethics and anxieties surrounding assimilation, particularly in relation to intermarriage or ethnically/religiously mixed romantic relationships?
  • How are American Jewish identities depicted differently from European Jewish identities in these films?

The American film material will consist of, but not be limited to, early Hollywood classics addressing the complexities of Jewish identity, such as “The Jazz Singer” (1927), “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1948), and more. It is hard to overstate the role of Woody Allen and Mel Brooks in questioning and constructing Jewish identity for both American and global audiences. Therefore, we will dedicate extra time to their works from the 1970s and ’80s. Allen’s and Brooks’ films will be supplemented by a look at other essential Jewish films of the era. Moving into the 1980s and ’90s, we will study “The Chosen“ (1981) and Jewish romantic comedies. The American section of the course will conclude with a look at films by the Coen Brothers, as well as by Spike Lee. Some films will be shown in full, while others will be excerpted.

We will then turn our attention to Europe, where we will analyze a selection of films that explore the nature of European Jewish identity, including films by Jean Renoir, Aleksandr Askoldov, Hugh Hudson, Mike Leigh, István Szabó, Karin Albou, Elie Wajeman, Pawel Pawlikowski, and Nadav Lapid. We will explore how these European films reframe the question of Jewish identity in the diaspora and examine their continuity and divergence from their American counterparts. Finally, we will discuss not only the identities of the characters in these films but also the identities of the films themselves. Can we read these works as Jewish films, and if so, in what way?

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden.

 

Course structure

The teaching consists of screenings, lectures and class discussions.

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed.

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

Extra costs for material is applicable for this course. Some films need to be rented on streaming platforms. Digital articles sent via email are included in the cost. Hard copies of the readings (same material as the digital articles) are not included. Participants will get information about this, if accepted to the course.

About the teacher

Zoe Kelly-Nacht holds a Ph.D. in religious thought from Boston University, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University. She specializes in the intersections of religion, literature, and film. Her dissertation “Nathaniel Dorsky: Religion, Buddhism, and Film” examines the life, films, and manuscript “Devotional Cinema” of American Jewish Buddhist experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky.

Zoe grew up in New York City and, before moving to Sweden, taught religious studies courses at Hunter College, City University of New York, and Marymount Manhattan College. She now lives in Stockholm with her partner and two young children.

Photo: Canva.

Frequently Asked Questions

JEWISH REPRESENTATION IN POPULAR TELEVISION SHOWS (ONLINE)
“The Tribe” on “Prime Time”: Jewish Representation in Popular Television Shows

This course explores the portrayal of Jewish identity and culture in some of the most popular TV shows of the past few decades. Each session focuses on a different show, analyzing how Jewish characters and themes are presented and their impact on broader cultural perceptions.

Shows include Seinfeld, Friends, Transparent, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Schitt’s Creek, Sex and the City, The Simpsons, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The X-Files. Through clips, discussions, and readings, we will explore themes such as Jewish humor, family dynamics, identity, and faith, as well as the intersection of Jewish representation with other identities. This course is ideal for TV lovers, pop culture enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the evolution of Jewish representation in mainstream media.

The course is given in collaboration with Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden. 

 

Prior knowledge

The course is given in English.

No prior knowledge about the subject is needed.

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

All course material is not included in the cost for this course. You will receive information regarding which course books to purchase on your own, if you get accepted to the course.

About the teacher

Stav Meishar is an award-winning queer performance maker, multidisciplinary stage artist, academic researcher, and educator. Their work explores the intersection of history and current affairs using tools from the worlds of theater, circus, and contemporary performance. Stav majored in Musical Theater with double minors in Jewish Culture and Gender Studies.  

Photo: Collage by Stav Meishar. 

Frequently Asked Questions