October 1, 2008: Queen Anne & Magnolia News: Jewish group strives to become more user friendly by Myke Folger
Two years ago, Suzi LeVine of Queen Anne was lamenting the lack of Jewish activities in her neighborhood and all of Seattle. And the services she had been to in the Puget Sound region had been the rigid, traditional services wrapped in guilt, and she was tired of its lack of inspiration and joy.
So she and Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum started Kavana, not so much a synagogue as it is a Jewish community group that boasts book clubs, coffee clatches, movie nights, kids activities, family activities, hiking expeditions, cooking nights and a whole lot more.... Full Story
April 14, 2008: Newsweek: Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America
Based on the overwhelming response to the "influentials" list last year, Lynton, Ginsberg and Sanderson put together a list of the best pulpit rabbis in the country. The most powerful people, it turns out, are not always the most inspirational. Here are the criteria for pulpit rabbis:
• Ability to inspire congregation through scholarship and oratory • Success in growing and expanding congregation • Community leadership and innovation • Ability to meet spiritual and personal needs and goals of his/her congregation • Leadership within denominational movement ...Full Story
February 8, 2008: JTNews: Rabbi's Turn: Beyond the Narrative by Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum
Our
current readings of the Torah should inspire us to
live with a sense of “commandedness” We’ve
experienced a dramatic shift in the content of our
Torah reading over the past couple of weeks. For the
months since Simchat Torah, we’ve been captivated by
the gripping narrative that led us from the creation
of the world, through the stories of the patriarchs
and matriarchs, down into Egypt...Full Story
January 24, 2008: Indie Minyans by Rabbi Jason Miller
...The success of independent minyans really shouldn't be news because their success was inevitable... Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum, also became the rabbi of an emergent spiritual community when she founded Kavanah in Seattle a few years ago... Bottom line? Independent Minyans are necessary. They are serving a purpose for a whole generation of spiritually undernourished Jews. They are quickly changing how Jewish spiritual communities operate and serve their members...Full Story
December 21, 2007: JTNews: Going Green by Janis Siegel
...Many
of us drink 2 percent milk and we know that Jews are
less than 2 percent of the world’s population, but
few of us know that we could easily reduce our
household carbon emissions by 2 percent and help
change the world for everyone, whether or not
they’re Jewish...By joining or creating a “carbon
salon,” a concept created by Kavana, a local Jewish
group...Full Story
November 6, 2007: The Jewish Daily Forward: Grant Rewards Innovation in Seattle by Daniel Levisohn
The
Jewish community of Seattle is tapping into the
city’s entrepreneurial spirit by taking a risk on
innovative programs designed to transform local
Jewish life....Last year’s award winner, Kavana, is
a nondenominational sacred community that eschews
the congregational model for a “cooperative”
approach. ...
Full Story
October 8, 2007: Kavana Press Release: The Kavana Cooperative Named One of North America’s 50 Most Innovative Jewish Nonprofits in the Third Annual “Slingshot” Guidebook Kavana is the First Named from the Pacific Northwest
The Kavana Cooperative, a new model for Jewish community started in July 2006, has been named one of North America’s most innovative Jewish nonprofits in Slingshot ‘07-‘08. Compiled and published by 21/64, a division of The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, the annual guidebook features programs, organizations, and leaders that take innovative approaches to addressing age-old concerns of identity and community in Jewish life today. Each year, 50 of the most innovative organizations from the U.S. and Canada make the cut after an extensive evaluation process overseen by 25 foundation professionals.
September 12, 2007: Seattle Times: Queen Anne Jewish community goes its own way by Janet Tu
At
Kavana, planning for Rosh Hashana can get complicated.
The Queen Anne-based Jewish community, which is holding its first High Holy Days services this year, attracts people from each of the Jewish movements, as well as secular Jews and even those who aren't Jewish. ... Full Story
September 11, 2007: 'Emerging' communities receive microgrants
Seven "emerging" Jewish communities will receive innovation microgrants from Synagogue 3000. The Los Angeles-based group encourages spiritual innovation and creative leadership.
The grant recipients are rabbis and spiritual communities in North America and Israel that exist outside the denominational structure of organized Jewish life... Full Story
June 14, 2007: Religion News Service Article of the Week: 'Emerging' Jews, Like Christians, Forge a More Accessible Faith by Catherine O'Donnell
Suzi LeVine and Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum wanted a Jewish community more focused on spiritual, intellectual and emotional ties than on bricks and mortar, so they founded a group called Kavana...Each of these emerging Jewish groups concentrate not so much on either Reform, Conservative or Orthodox beliefs, but small, carefully organized communities... Full Story
March 23, 2007: JTOnline (Atlanta Jewish Times) Cover Story: New Paths in Prayer by Marcy Levinson
Coming to Atlanta days after the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Jewish Funders Network conference did not simply focus on money and peoplehood, but delved into the spiritual realm.
Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum of Seattle's Kavana; Elie Kaunfer, the founder and executive director of New York's Mechon Hadar; and J. Shawn Landres, the director of research for Synagogue 3000's Synagogue Studies Institute, embarked on the path of changes in Jewish prayer.... Full Story
March 2, 2007: JTNews Feature Story: A High Tech Solution to a Low Tech Problem by Joel Magalnick
....What makes
the story interesting, however, is how Lawson found the Torah: she bought it on
Ebay. ...Full Story
February 16, 2007: JTA Stories
1) New congregations see ’Net results in communication and cost savings by Sue Fishkoff
...For dozens of new congregations and minyans, or prayer communities, like Ikar, the Internet is not just a faster, more convenient communication tool. It’s a central organizing mechanism and community-building tool, filling the roles performed in more traditional synagogues by administrative staff, newsletters, membership committees, religious school, even rabbis...Kavana, an independent Jewish community in Seattle, draws its members — or partners, as the community calls them — largely from young Jews who moved to the city to work in the high-tech industry....The Internet “helps us assess how we are delivering our services, how we get retention of people,” notes Suzi LeVine, who used to work at Microsoft and Expedia. Full Story (note - JTA site requires registration for the full story, but it's free)
2) Groups can buy Torahs online, but must beware of the dangers by Sue Fishkoff
...New Jewish communities are relying on the Internet to communicate, organize, build community — and sometimes to obtain Torahs....Kavana, a cooperative Jewish community in Seattle, found its Torah on eBay. Kavana Member Stacy Lawson knew that the group’s rabbi, Rachel Nussbaum, had bought her kiddush cups on the popular online auction site, so Lawson went online and saw that eBay also offers Torah scrolls... Full Story (note - JTA site requires registration for the full story, but it's free)
July 21, 2006: JTNews Feature Story: An Intentional Community by Joel Magalnick
A rabbi and
a group of local Jews kick off a spiritual community based on participation and
cooperation. In the meeting room of a high-rise Belltown condo tower, 20 or
so people - most of them strangers - sipped wine and munched on Rainier cherries
as they told the group about their passions in life. Some had grown up Jewish
but hadn't found a synagogue that spoke to their needs. Others weren't Jewish,
but wanted to join their spouses in understanding their desire to lead a Jewish
life.
Full Story
June 8, 2006: Kavana Receives Levitan Innovation Award
Kavana is the 2006 recipient of the Levitan Innovation Award. The Levitan Innovation
Award was created by Dan and Stacey Levitan in order to stimulate and encourage
organizations, synagogues, agencies and individuals to develop programming with
new and different approaches aimed at fostering and/or increasing engagement in
Jewish life in the greater Puget Sound Area.
June 1, 2006: Kavana Receives Recognition and Invitation from Synagogue 3000
Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum invited to be in the Emergent Communities Working Group for Synagogue 3000: www.synagogue3000.org. The Working Group on Emergent Sacred Communities is a select group of emergent Jewish leaders who are committed to the establishment of transformative spiritual communities unbound by conventional expectations about what a synagogue is "supposed" to be. It includes pioneering rabbis, artists, and leaders who are reaching out through new forms of community to engage the unaffiliated and others who are not attracted to mainstream congregations.