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The Sabbath and its Meaning for the Modern Jew of Color: A grounding precursor to entering Shabbat, intentional JOC Community and the JOC Shabbaton with Nate Looney
What does Shabbat look like in the age of COVID-19? What does our JOC community look like in the era of quarantine, a national racial justice reckoning and Zoom life? We will explore as a community what it means to approach Shabbat as Jews of Color and discuss the importance of carving out meaningful and joyful space in the midst of chaos. In this session, we will dive into a discussion on what Shabbat as a Jew of Color looks like, tastes like, smells like, sounds like, feels like. We will share with each other how we define and have redefined this sacred period of rest, exploring ideas for grounding rituals and Shabbat preparation routines.
Nate Looney is Avodah’s Manager of Racial Justice Initiatives, leading diversity strategies at Avodah with a focus on Jews of Color. He previously served as Avodah’s JOC Recruiter. Nate is the CEO and Owner of Westside Urban Gardens, an urban agricultural company based in Los Angeles, CA. Nate is an AJU alum, entrepreneur, strategist, US Army Veteran and Urban Farmer. Nate joined the US Army National Guard in 2003. After bootcamp, Nate relocated to New Orleans where he was both a military police soldier and a full-time college transfer student at Dillard University, an HBCU. Nate was part of rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and deployed to Iraq in 2008. Nate decided to leave the Army to finish his college education and begin his gender transition. In 2015, Nate graduated with his B.A. in Business from American Jewish University.
He has been featured as a veteran farmer on the “Lydia Celebrates America” program on PBS and LA Fox Morning News. He has been a guest speaker for USDA, Kaiser, FoodTank Summit and Virginia Tech. Nate is a Jeremiah fellow, a Selah alum and is the chair of the LAGLCC Inclusion Taskforce. Currently, he consults controlled environment agriculture start-ups and speaks publicly about intersectionality and diversity.
This program and all JOC Mishpacha Project programs are made possible by the generous donations of the JOC Initiative, The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, and the UJA-Federation of New York. Thank you!