SHIUR midsummer middle east dream Retreat
SHIUR Midsummer middle east dream Reatreat: middle east Emigres and allies
June 19-21, 2026| Germany
ABOUT THE RETREAT
This year's SHIUR Midsummer Retreat brings together a group of young political dissidents and humanist thinkers from the Middle East and beyond, alongside artists, young diplomats, and creatives for an immersive Shabbat weekend of workshops and community building. The retreat explores the role that exiles and émigrés in Europe play in shaping the New Middle East.
Through text-based discussions, time in nature, movement, ritual, and good food, participants will explore the intellectual traditions and rituals that shape one another's worlds. Jewish participants will encounter Iranian and Arabic speaking humanist thinkers, while Arabic speaking and Iranian participants will engage with Jewish and Israeli humanist thought that helped shape modern Israel. Together, we will examine humanist critiques of ideology through figures such as Raymond Aron, Yosef Haim Brenner and Sadiq Al-Azm, exploring political polemics that challenge dogma from within their respective traditions.
Participants will be exposed to the different traditions from our various cultures, Druze, Yazidi, Iranian, Jewish, and more. Non-Jewish participants will experience the beauty of Shabbat in a spirit of openness and shared discovery, rooted in the understanding that Shabbat is a tradition and a bridge found across the Middle East. Jewish participants will experience the warmth and richness found within other Middle Eastern minorities.
The retreat is designed to cultivate intellectual familiarity and personal bonds that are difficult to forge in formal panels or official settings that can give rise to new perspectives and partnerships–ultimately leading to impact and mutual support within our different communities.
Follow-up gatherings, both in person and online, will ensure continued collaboration, mutual support, and the strengthening of an ongoing intellectual and creative network.Gourmet vegan food catered by At The Table Berlin.
Costs (incudes full programming, accommodation, and food):
EARLY BIRD
Shared Room: 450 euros
Private Room: 900 euros
We have subsidies for students and activists from the Middle East.
Please apply below.
LOCATION
ABOUT US
SHIUR is a multidisciplinary community and global organization that brings together participants from all backgrounds to engage with humanist texts through seminar and salon-style discourse. Drawing on the Jewish tradition of text-based learning, SHIUR challenges ideological and dogmatic thinking by creating space for rigorous, open intellectual exchange across disciplines, traditions, and identities.
Since October 7, SHIUR has deepened its work connecting political dissidents and humanist thinkers from Arab and Iranian backgrounds with Jewish and Israeli thought and tradition and vice versa. Through this work, SHIUR promotes genuine value based coexistence, challenges antisemitism, and cultivates new perspectives at a moment when such encounters are urgently needed.
SHIUR operates chapters in Berlin, New York, Miami, Tel Aviv, and other cities, and runs retreats, events, and digital programming worldwide.
KEy participants
Hamza Howidy (Gaza) Germany based peace and democracy activist and author. Palestinian delegate at World Liberty Congress. Based in Germany.
Manar Alsharif is a Palestinian-Syrian journalist and activist who grew up in Syria. After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, she and her family were forced to flee to Egypt before later moving to Gaza. Her journalism and activism in Gaza led to her arrest by Hamas authorities, where she spent three months in jail, including a period in solitary confinement, and endured a two-week hunger strike. She remains committed to amplifying marginalized voices and exposing the realities of repression.
Hesam Misaghi (Iran) Iranian human rights activist, content creator and member of the Leadership Council for the MENA region at the World Liberty Congress. Based in Germany.
Omar Alkadamani (Syria) is a political advocate and speaker based in Germany, working on democracy, education, and youth political participation. He also engages in advocacy on minority rights, justice, and the protection of the Druze community. Based in Germany.
Viyan Hasso (Syria) Syrian Kurdish Yazidi activist based in Germany.
Maya Azzam (Syria) is a Suweida born human rights activist, musician, and artist who has been based in Germany since the war in Syria.
Abdalle Mumin (Somalia), Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate. Based in the UK.
Brandon Silver (Canada) international human rights lawyer, and Director of Policy and Projects at the Canada-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Recipient of the 2024 Magnitsky Award for Outstanding Human Rights Lawyer. Based in Montreal.
Shaul Solomon (UK) is a poet and leader of SHIUR’s Hasidic song circles program Kapelya.
Micki Weinberg (US) Founder of SHIUR. Based in Germany.
PHOTOS FROM PREVIOUS RETREATS
SHIUR Retreat: Tuscany
eclipsed: retreat in tuscany
June 25-28, 2026| Tuscany, Italy (SIENA/chianti region)
Natural Wine. Text Discourse. Tuscan Cuisine. Shabbat Renewal.
ABOUT THE RETREAT
Join us for a three night retreat at a natural winery and organic farming estate nestled in the Chianti hills. With a curated group of participants, the retreat features SHIUR’s signature format of text-based discourse circles, interdisciplinary workshops, and communal gourmet Tuscan local sourced meals in an intimate and reflective setting.
SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg will lead explorations of texts at the intersection of Renaissance Humanism and Italian Kabbalah, engaging rarely studied sources in the very region that gave rise to them.
Through primary sources, we will examine the paradox at the heart of the Renaissance: a moment of rebirth grounded in a renewed relationship with an eclipsed past. What does it mean to rediscover the past in order to renew the present? In the Tuscan hills—where many of these ideas first took shape—we will explore that question and see where it takes us.
We will experience Shabbat with a new perspective, through the lens of Renaissance and Italian thinkers.
Space limited.
THE RETREAT INCLUDES
SHIUR text-based discourses
Shabbat and Havdalah Program
Mindfulness, Yoga and Embodied Movement Classes
Sessions led by SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg, and others
Music, sound, song and movement experiences
Gourmet vegetarian local Tuscan cuisine
Pool
Winery Tour and Tastings
Nature excursions
ABOUT THE LOCATION
You will stay at an historic organic farm nestled in the Chianti hills near Siena. Centered around a restored 10th-century monastery and farmhouse, the family run estate is surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, woodland, and fields that have been cultivated for centuries. You will stay in simple, beautifully preserved apartments within the historic buildings and gather for shared meals prepared with local ingredients by a local chef. Family-run and deeply connected to the rhythms of the land, the estate offers us a quiet, intimate setting where the landscape, architecture, and agricultural traditions of Tuscany can be experienced up close and interwined with SHIUR’s learning and practices.
Participants can choose from different rooms of varying size and offerings.
Costs
The participation fee covers three nights of accommodation, all meals, and full programming.
Early Bird:
Shared Room: $1800-2100
Private room: $3600-4000
Apply to register below:
Virtual SHIUR: Zionism
"Zionism" is hurled as a slur. It’s defended passionately. Antisemites weaponise it. Jewish institutions invoke it.
Yet this many sided, diverse movement was built on ideas and texts, wrestled over and cultivated by a wide range thinkers — with powerful ideas that deserve to be reexamined, and ultimately serve as the foundation for new and contemporary Zionist thought.
This isn't a history course, nor an exhaustive class in theory. Instead, we explore key texts that directly address, evoke, or planted the seeds of Zionist thought.
These texts remain alive and capable of inspiring and challenging both Jewish and non-Jewish readers today.
We take a critical close reading text-based approach, that allows both for a deeper understanding of the texts discussed and for the possibility to break out of existing dogmas and ideologies.
SHIUR Berlin: nissan
One of the greatest treasures of the Hasidic tradition is its vast library of melodies—niggunim—often wordless, that traverse the full spectrum of devotional experience.
Blurring the lines between practice and performance, we gather each month around the new moon (Rosh Hodesh) to learn and sing these songs—rarely shared outside insular Hasidic circles—with reflection, introspection, and heartfelt passion.
Participation in singing is open and encouraged; no formal background is required.
This Month, Nissan, is the beginning of Spring and the month of liberation when we celebrate the Pesach holiday. The gathering will be co-led by poet Shaul Solomon, who was raised within the Hasidic tradition and SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg. This event will be dedicated in memory to the recently departed grandfather of Shaul, Rabbi Chaim BenTzion ben Rabbi Avraham Aharon Chein. Rabbi Chein was born and raised in the Soviet Union, into a family of Hasidim who self-sacrificed to preserve their Jewish identity. He grew up as a “living orphan,” as both his parents were sent to the Gulag. Despite unimaginable hardship, his family upheld their traditions, preserving Chabad culture and niggunim behind the Iron Curtain. At our gathering, Shaul will teach one particular niggun preserved by the Chein family. Micki will explore texts from Bolshevik era Hasidic and Kabbalistic thinkers that sought to engage with the Revolution through Kabbalistic concepts.
Early Bird until Friday 12 EUR. After 18 EUR. Includes wine and snacks. Space limited.
Apply to attend. Once confirmed, you will receive event location.
registration for event below
Shiur Miami dérive- closing event
SHIUR miami dérive- closing event
feb 26, 2026 | miami| 7:30 Pm
Over the past weeks, SHIUR Miami Dérive/Drift has brought together a unique group of participants seeking a substantive encounter with art, music, architecture, philosophy, and tradition.
We have now become a community. For the dérive’s final gathering, set within the private art collection at the M Building, we will share a multidisciplinary evening featuring:
A guided tour of the art collection
A performance by David Aaron Carpenter and Sean Avram Carpenter on the exceptional and rare Michele Deconet in 1766, “Ex-Hamma, King David”) viola and c. 1732-3 “Ex-Stanley Goodman” Guarneri Del Gesù violin
A text-based theory & philosophy salon led by SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg with host
An interactive virtual reality demonstration by Dr. Scott Greenwald (Three Space Lab)
Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information.
Ticket Price: $95
Funds raised will go towards SHIUR global programming combating antisemitism and antihumanist ideology in the cultural space.
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. SEE THE VIDEO FROM THE event below.
Shiur Miami dérive- SHIUR Shabbat dinner
SHIUR miami dérive- oneg Shabbat dinner
feb 20, 2026 | miami private residence| 8:00 Pm
SHIUR Miami Dérive is soon concluding its drift, and we’ll be gathering for an intimate Shabbat Dinner on Friday with our community before our final event next week. Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information.
Ticket price - $85 SOLD OUT!
Join the Miami Residency Supporter Circle!
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. SEE THE VIDEO FROM THE EVent below.
Shiur Miami dérive- vinyl.theory.discourse.drinks
SHIUR miami dérive- vinyl.theory.discourse.drinks
feb 17, 2026 | miami Little river (address given prior to event)| 7:00 Pm
Until now, our Miami Dérive/Drift has largely focused on visual arts spaces. Now we turn to the space of music, approaching it as an art form in dialogue with our distinctive method of text-based discourse. In this multidisciplinary mode, we critically engage sources from theory, philosophy, literature, and the Jewish tradition, reading them through a non-dogmatic lens, allowing for new perspectives and ideas to emerge.
We also have fun.
Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information.
Ticket price: $55
Event includes wine and drinks, snacks, SHIUR discourse, music performance and more.
Join the Miami Residency Supporter Circle or get the Combo to attend more events!
Registration is closed. See the video from the event below.
Shiur Miami Dérive- SHIUR in the gallery - La Cometa
SHIUR miami Dérive- SHIUR in the gallery - la cometa
feb 10, 2026 | La Cometa Gallery|miami| 6:30 Pm - 9:30 pm
How can contemporary art reveal new insights into ancient texts and narrative? How can seemingly unrelated texts create a new con-text to appreciate visual arts?
Join us for a drift through different texts and the art of the Silent Cycles exhibition followed by drinks and music.
Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information.
Event includes wine and drinks, snacks, SHIUR discourse, and more.
6pm Doors Open
6:30pm Private Art tour with curator Bella Almeida followed by music performance by Amit Knust and text based discourse by SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg.
Drinks and snacks served.
Ticket price - $55
Join the Miami Residency Supporter Circle or get the Combo to attend more events!
Image: Detail from Untitled, 2025 by Dionnys Matos on exhibit at La Cometa Gallery
Registration is closed. See the video from the event below.
SHIUR miami Dérive - havdalah roller disco birthday
SHIUR miami Dérive - havdalah roller disco birthday
feb 7, 2026 | miami| 6:00 Pm
So much of Judaism centers around the celebration of life, not only in traditional spaces, but also in finding joy everywhere, being silly, being playful, and experiencing the light of community and togetherness.
Join us in celebrating Ariel Penzer’s birthday with a unique musical Havdalah led by Micki Weinberg and Keysel Pelaez, pizza, and a roller skating disco where we’ll party like it’s 1991!
6-8pm Havdalah, Pizza, and celebration.
8-9pm Roller Disco
About Havdalah: How can we ensure that the transformation of Shabbat does not remain in a retreat headspace, but instead becomes a tool for changing society at large? The Jewish Havdalah fire ritual explores this tension in all its complexity through a multisensory practice that draws on the values of community, human action, and bringing the joys of the sacred into everyday life.
Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information. Be sure to bring socks, we’ll take care of the roller skates!
Donation Ticket - $65 or more. Includes roller skating and complete program.
Funds raised will go to SHIUR’s programming combatting antisemitism in the art world, especially in Europe.
Registration is closed. See the video from the event below.
The estimated fair market value (FMV) of goods and services provided in connection with this ticket is $15. The portion of your contribution that exceeds the FMV ($50) may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Please consider giving more to further support SHIUR’s work. SHIUR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Thank you for your support!
SHIUR Berlin: kapelya niggun collective
One of the greatest treasures of the Hasidic tradition is its vast library of melodies—niggunim—often wordless, that traverse the full spectrum of devotional experience.
Blurring the lines between practice and performance, we gather each month around the new moon (Rosh Hodesh) to learn and sing these songs—rarely shared outside insular Hasidic circles—with reflection, introspection, and heartfelt passion.
Participation in singing is open and encouraged; no formal background is required.
The monthly gathering is led by poet Shaul Solomon, who was raised within the Hasidic tradition.
8 EUR. Space limited.
Apply to attend. Once confirmed, you will receive event location.
registration is closed.
Shiur Miami residency - SHIUR in the Gallery - mindy solomon
SHIUR miami residency - SHIUR in the gallery - mindy solomon
Jan 27, 2026 | Mindy Solomon Gallery|miami| 7:00 Pm - 10 pm
How can contemporary art reveal new insights into ancient texts and narrative? How can seemingly unrelated texts create a new con-text to appreciate visual arts?
Join SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg in a drift through different texts from theory, philosophy, literature and the Jewish hermeneutical tradition amongst the exhibitions at the Mindy Solomon gallery.
Event includes wine and drinks, snacks, SHIUR discourse, and more.
Ticket price - $40
Join the Miami Residency Supporter Circle or get the Combo to attend more events!
Image: Detail from Ornella Pocetti X Marks the Spot, 2026
Registration is closed. See the video from the event below.
Shiur Miami residency - opening salon
SHIUR miami residency - opening salon
Jan 22, 2026 | Rubell Museum, Jon & Vinny’s|miami| 5 Pm - 8:30 PM
SHIUR is opening its Miami Residency (Jan 22–Feb 28) with a private museum tour followed by an text-based discourse salon led by SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg (Berlin), a fundraiser supporting its global arts programming.
We believe the antidote to ideological thinking is critical, engaged discourse with art, text, and ideas. Together, we can challenge the dogmas that drive people apart and elevate ourselves through substantive engagement.
SHIUR’s global programs bring people together through interdisciplinary encounters. This winter, SHIUR comes to Miami with weekly text-based discourse events, expanding its Berlin-based initiative into art spaces across the city.
Opening Event Schedule
5:00 PM – Private tour of the Rubell Museum
6:00–7:30 PM – Garden cocktails reception, musical performance, and text-based discourse salon
7:30 PM – Pizza and drinks by Jon & Vinny’s
Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information.
Donation Ticket: $100
This ticket includes admission to the private tour, event, plus food and drinks.
The estimated fair market value (FMV) of goods and services provided in connection with this ticket is $15. The portion of your contribution that exceeds the FMV ($85) may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Please consider giving more to further support SHIUR’s work. SHIUR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Thank you for your support!
Registration is closed. see the video from the event below.
Shiur Panama city
SHIUR panama city
Jan 14, 2026 | private location-paitilla|panama city| 7:30 Pm - 10 pm
SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg will be leading a text based discourse drawing on sources from theory & philosophy, Kabbalah, literature and more from a non-dogmatic lens.
Registration for the event is closed. See photos of the event below.
SHIUR Virtual: Contemporary Antisemitism Course
We confront the New Antisemitism by examining the theoretical frameworks that give rise to contemporary antisemitism (C.A.). A clear and rigorous understanding of these ideas is essential to challenging and countering them effectively.
SHIUR tel aviv Community Event: Symbols
SHIUR tel aviv Community Event: Symbols
DEC 28, 2025 | tEL aviv | 7:30 Pm
Members of the SHIUR community, Arab and Jewish, come together monthly to lead text-based discourse drawing on both cultures' traditions. Sessions include the singing of Hasidic niggunim alongside textual exploration.
Join us for an evening discourse, wine, and community.
This week’s SHIUR will be led by poet Shaul Solomon and Dr. Emil Haloun.
Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information.
20 NIS. Includes wine and snacks.
registration for the event is closed.
SHIUR Berlin: kapelya niggun collective
One of the greatest treasures of the Hasidic tradition is its vast library of melodies—niggunim—often wordless, that traverse the full spectrum of devotional experience.
Blurring the lines between practice and performance, we gather each month around the new moon (Rosh Hodesh) to learn and sing these songs—rarely shared outside insular Hasidic circles—with reflection, introspection, and heartfelt passion.
Participation in singing is open and encouraged; no formal background is required.
The monthly gathering is led by poet Shaul Solomon, who was raised within the Hasidic tradition.
Free. Space limited.
Apply to attend. Once confirmed, you will receive event location.
registration for the event is closed.
Shabbat art basel
A Shabbat Dinner Experience inside ART WITH ME festival. Catered dinner with 200 guests where art, music, and community come together around one shared table, co-created with many communities to celebrate connection, creativity, and tradition.
SHIUR Berlin: kapelya niggun collective
One of the greatest treasures of the Hasidic tradition is its vast library of melodies—niggunim—often wordless, that traverse the full spectrum of devotional experience.
Blurring the lines between practice and performance, we gather each month around the new moon (Rosh Hodesh) to learn and sing these songs—rarely shared outside insular Hasidic circles—with reflection, introspection, and heartfelt passion.
Participation in singing is open and encouraged; no formal background is required.
The monthly gathering is led by poet Shaul Solomon, who was raised within the Hasidic tradition.
Free. Space limited.
Apply to attend. Once confirmed, you will receive event location.
registration for the event is closed.
VIRTUAL SHIUR: Contemporary Antisemitism
We approach different strains of the New Antisemitism by exploring the theoretical roots that inform and shape contemporary antisemitism (C.A.). We will engage with primary source-texts that will aid us in achieving a firm grasp and clear understanding of the different types of contemporary antisemitism covered in this course.
The sessions are held at 7 PM Berlin time, 1 PM NYC time, 10 AM LA time.
SHIUR guatemala city
SHIUR guatemala city
november 17, 2025 |8pm |guatemala city (location given upon confirmation)
SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg will be leading a text based discourse drawing on texts from theory & philosophy, Kabbalah, literature and more from a non-dogmatic lens.
registration for the event is closed.
SHIUR in the gallery New York: a new beginning/nostos
SHIUR in the gallery new york: A new beginning/nostos
nov 13, 2025 | kaliner gallery | 7pm
Join us for an intimate evening of music performance and text-based discourse amongst the art of Kim Uchiyama with SHIUR founder @MickiWeinberg and @yoniweinberg. We will be drawing on texts from theory & philosophy, Kabbalah, literature and more through a non-dogmatic lens.
“The exhibition’s title, NOSTOS, is Greek for ‘return’ or ‘homecoming’. Inspired by a resent rereading of Homer’s The Odyssey, the artist is re-envisioning points of departure and points of return—the outward movement and circling back of the journey as a form of narrative structure. A story within a story, concentric and digressive, yet always returning to its origin. In the NOSTOS exhibition, Uchiyama’s work with color brings back color not only as a subject but the method of arrival.”
How can art reveal new insights into ancient texts and narrative? How can text based discourse create a new con-text to appreciate visual arts? In this new post-war situation how can we re-connect and re-evaluate concepts, themes, spaces, materials, and other content that may significantly help us in responding to the rapidly changing paradigms?
The SHIUR in the Gallery series is held in concert with SHIUR gatherings in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, Paris, New York, and Miami where people of all backgrounds come together through text-based discourse at art spaces; thinking together, reading together, developing ideas and experiences together.
Image: Hieron, 2025, 36 x 40 in, Oil on Canvas
Live music performance by Noah Golub and Sam Golub.
Open bar (cocktails and wine) and light snacks will be provided.
Space limited.
To reserve a space, please apply below. Once confirmed, you will receive an email with instructions to secure your spot.
This event is for SHIUR donors, with a tax-deductible donation of $54 afterwards.
Registration for the event is closed. See photos of the event below!
SHIUR Berlin: meet the druze
SHIUR Berlin: meet the druze
nov 1, 2025 | berlin | 8pm
Getting to know the many distinct peoples of the Middle East is key to breaking the narrow, one-dimensional narrative that elevates Islamist extremists and Arab nationalists as the region’s only voices.
This special SHIUR will explore the Druze people and their philosophy with Druze activists from Syria and other minorities in the region who are based in Berlin.
SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg will lead a text-based discourse along with Druze artist Ammar Obeid, drawing on theory, Druze philosophy, literature, Kabbalah, and other sources, followed by a re-interpretation of the Havdalah fire ritual.
Join people of all backgrounds, Jewish, Arab, Druze, and others as we collectively engage in new readings and perspectives.
Wine and cheese will be served.
Ticket 26 euros.
Discounted volunteer tickets available. Please inquire.
Space limited.
Apply to attend. Once confirmed, you will receive a ticket link to secure your spot and location address.
Registration for the event is closed. See photos of the event below!
SHIUR Berlin: kapelya niggun collective
SHIUR Berlin: kapelya niggun collective- ROsh Chodesh cheshvan
oct. 23, 2025 | berlin | 8:30pm
One of the greatest treasures of the Hasidic tradition is its vast library of melodies—niggunim—often wordless, that traverse the full spectrum of devotional experience.
Blurring the lines between practice and performance, we gather each month around the new moon (Rosh Hodesh) to learn and sing these songs—rarely shared outside insular Hasidic circles—with reflection, introspection, and heartfelt passion.
Participation in singing is open and encouraged; no formal background is required.
The monthly gathering is led by poet Shaul Solomon, who was raised within the Hasidic tradition.
Free. Space limited.
Apply to attend. Once confirmed, you will receive event location.
Registration for the event is closed. See photos of the event below!
SHIUR tel aviv: a new beginning
SHIUR tel aviv: a new beginning
OCT 18, 2025 | tEL aviv | 8pm
The hostages are back, the war is over. We are entering a “new beginning” stage. Yet how can we truly enter a new beginning, after we have seen the dark side of humanity, not only here in the Middle East, but also throughout the Western World? Are we truly out of the dark?
How can we combat the reactionary impulses attempting to prevent a new beginning? How can we cultivate a new fire to dispel the resurgent old darkness?
SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg, visiting from Berlin, will lead a text-based discourse drawing on theory, philosophy, literature, Kabbalah, and other sources, followed by a re-interpretation of the Havdalah fire ritual. Join people of all backgrounds, Jewish, Arab, Druze, and others as we collectively engage in new readings and perspectives.
Wine and cheese will be served.
Registration for the event is closed. See photos of the event below!
SHIUR with Czech Jewish Student Union
SHIUR with Czech Jewish Student Union
OCT 3, 2025 | Prague | 7:15pm
Does it bother you? (Czech: Vadí?)—the question at the heart of the 1966 Czechoslovak New Wave film Daisies—has never felt more resonant than today, as we face the burning choice of how to respond to a profoundly messed up world. We waver between engagement and detachment, or perhaps turn inward to create a world of our own.
How can we respond meaningfully to a world that fails to understand us, yet appears confidently prepared to destroy us? In what ways can the Jewish holiday of Sukkot illuminate this question?
Micki Weinberg will lead a text-based discourse exploring these issues, drawing on sources from theory, Kabbalah, literature, and beyond.
Before the shiur, services will be held in the historic Altneau synagogue at 18:15 followed by Shabbat dinner at the Kehila at 19:15.
SHIUR Berlin art week shabbat dinner
SHIUR berlin art week shabbat dinner
sep 12, 2025 | berlin | shiur pop up gallery
Berlin Art Week is the city’s premier art exhibition event. Since October 7, the Berlin art scene has become increasingly politicized and hostile toward Jewish artists, curators, critics, and others working in the cultural sector.
SHIUR has been at the forefront of creating a supportive space for those who have stood up against antisemitism and dogmatism—producing original art exhibitions, workshops, retreats, Shabbat dinners, and cultural events that hold space for Jewish artists and their allies.
This Berlin Art Week SHIUR plans to create a go-to space for Jews and allies attending Berlin Art Week. SHIUR will have a pop-up gallery showcasing original works by Jewish, Arab, Israeli, Iranian, and other artists from around the world who have been excluded from ideologically driven art spaces.
The project aspires to create meaningful encounters between communities often separated by politics, history, or exclusion. In addition to the exhibition, we will host a series of community events, including a communal Shabbat dinner.
Registration for the event is closed. See photos of the event below!
SHIUR midsummer Retreat: “What Dreams May Come”
SHIUR midsummer Retreat: “What Dreams May Come”
June 20-22, 2025 | Elbe marshlands, germany (hamburg region)
In a region shaped by the convergence of radical forms of Kabbalah and Enlightenment—where visions and hopes often went unfulfilled—
we are left with the dreams of those who came before us.
What “unpathed waters and undreamed shores” might we yet bring to life in our time?
Join us at our 3rd Annual SHIUR Retreat - for a unique weekend gathering of artists, creators, policymakers, entrepreneurs, students, and others as we engage in three days of transformative workshops and experiences in the dreamy Elbe Marshlands, staying in a beautiful renovated three hundred years old complex.
About the retreat:
The purpose of SHIUR retreats is to retreat with the intent to return to society; impacting meaningful change both within ourselves and those around us. We do this by bringing together a diverse group of participants to engage in multidisciplinary activities – text-based discourse, ritual, music, art, body movement, and good food.
We believe that our special take on Shabbat and Havdalah practices could offer a radically different approach to retreat, transformation, and alterity–for participants of all backgrounds.
We directly engage in contemporary questions and issues that affect ourselves and our society–detachment is not enough!
We are honored to have the poet, professor and dream therapist Rodger Kamanetz with us, leading workshops related to poetry and dream therapy.
Activities include:
SHIUR text-based discourses
Mindfulness and Yoga workshops
Sessions led by Professor Rodger Kamenetz (author of Jew in the Lotus), SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg, and others
Music, sound, song and movement experiences
Gourmet vegan mindful eating, catered by At The Table Berlin
Canoes/Paddle-boarding on the river
Sauna
Nature excursions
About the location:
The beautiful and renovated three hundred years old riverside complex is located in the countryside in the Elbe Marshlands (not far from Hamburg), a region of outstanding natural and architectural beauty that also has a rich cultural history–from radical Kabbalists to the revolutionaries of the Enlightenment! We are thrilled and look forward to engage in texts and rituals that emerged from the very location that we will be in with several special guest speakers from around the world.
Participants will be able to enjoy the space, sauna, canoes, the surrounding riverside and nature areas along with delicious and healthy gourmet vegan catering by At The Table Berlin.
For those coming from outside of Germany, we recommend flying into Hamburg or Berlin from where you can join other participants coming to the retreat.
The complex has different rooms of varying size and luxury.
All inclusive (3 days, 2 nights accommodation, food, programming)- costs range from 270 to 800 euros depending on the room.
WE HAVE STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES AT SIGNIFICANTLY SUBSIDIZED RATES! Reach out to us!
Top image, painting by Felice Casorati, Dreaming of Pomegranites. 1913
Registration for the retreat is closed. See photos of the retreat below!
SHIUR miami- the paradox of renewal - with Florida Grand Opera
The paradox of renewal: SHIUR x florida grand opera
June 5, 2025 | miami | M building
Join us for the official launch of SHIUR Miami on June 5, at an event hosted at the historic M Building—a unique Mid-Century Modern home housing one of Miami’s most renowned private art collections.
This immersive evening will bring together diverse participants to engage in a text-based discourse, multidisciplinary art, live musical performance, drawing on texts from philosophy, literature, art, and the Jewish tradition, from a non-dogmatic perspective. Opera performances by singers from the Florida Grand Opera.
Discourse led by SHIUR Founder Micki Weinberg. Opening greeting by German Consul General to Miami Christofer Burger.
Evening includes full SHIUR programming and drinks.
Funds raised will support SHIUR programming that combats antisemitism in art, cultural and academic spaces across Europe and North America.
This event is for SHIUR donors only. In order to secure a spot, please give:
100 USD MINIMUM DONATION (tax-deductible) here.
Registration for the Event is closed. See photos of the Event below!
SHIUR in the gallery: WALKING BLINDLY INTO SHADOWS
SHIUR in the gallery: WALKING BLINDLY INTO SHADOWS
May 29, 2025 | New york | kaliner GALLERY
How can art reveal new insights into ancient texts and narrative? How can text based discourse create a new con-text to appreciate visual arts? In the post-October 7 world how can we re-connect and re-evaluate concepts, themes, spaces, materials, and other content that may signficantly help us in responding to the rapidly changing paradigms?
Join us for an intimate evening of music and text based discourse amongst the art of MaryKate Maher with SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg. We will be drawing on texts from theory & philosophy, Kabbalah, literature and more through a non-dogmatic lens.
Open bar, cocktails, and snacks will be served. Live jazz performance by Avinoam Ettun (guitar) and Eric Vanderbilt-Mathews (clarinet).
This event is for SHIUR donors only. In order to secure a spot, please do so by making:
$54 MINIMUM DONATION per person (tax-deductible)
The exhibition Walking Blindly into Shadows is grounded in ideas of mapping the intangible—how we chart spaces that are not fixed or fully visible. The title itself evokes a paradox: a shadow or void is both a thing and a non-thing, simultaneously present and elusive.
The SHIUR in the Gallery series is held in concert with SHIUR gatherings in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, Paris, New York, and Miami where people of all backgrounds come together through text-based discourse at art spaces; thinking together, reading together, developing ideas and experiences together.
To reserve a space, please apply below. Once confirmed, you will receive a link to secure your spot.
This event is for SHIUR donors only, with $54 minimum donation (tax-deductible).
MaryKate Maher, Map 107, 2025, Collaged UV prints on aluminum, dibond, imitation leather, resin polymer, acrylic paint, 20.5 x 16 x 2 in
Registration for the Event is closed. See photos of the Event below!
SHIUR Paris: Galerie Raphaël Durazzo
SHIUR Paris: Galerie Raphaël Durazzo
ApriL 28, 2025 | Paris | Galerie Raphaël Durazzo
How can art reveal new insights into ancient texts and narrative? How can text based discourse create a new con-text to appreciate visual arts? In the post-October 7 world how can we re-connect and re-evaluate concepts, themes, spaces, materials, and other content that may signficantly help us in responding to the rapidly changing paradigms?
Join us for an intimate text based discourse amongst the art of Titina Maselli with SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg. We will be drawing on texts from theory & philosophy, Kabbalah, literature and more through a non-dogmatic lens.
Wine and snacks will be served.
The SHIUR in the Gallery series is held in concert with SHIUR gatherings in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, New York, and Miami where people of all backgrounds come together through text-based discourse at art spaces; thinking together, reading together, developing ideas and experiences together.
To reserve a space, please apply below. Once confirmed, you will receive a link to purchase a ticket (26 euros).
Image: Titina Maselli, Senza titolo, 1980, Acrylic on canvas 195 x 130 cm. On display in current gallery exhibition.
Registration for the Event is closed. See photos of the Event below!
SHIUR Tel Aviv Community Led Discourse
SHIUR Tel Aviv Community Led Discourse
April 24, 2025 | jaffa
Members of the SHIUR community come together to lead a text based discourse drawing on texts from the different sources—Jewish, Arab, and others, in philosophy, literature, and tradition.
Join us for an evening discourse, wine, and community.
This week’s SHIUR will be led by the poet Shaul Solomon.
Space limited. Please register here to receive confirmation and more information.
25 NIS. Includes wine and snacks.
Registration for the Event is closed.
SHIUR Berlin: Spring Again
SHIUR Berlin: Spring Again
April 5, 2025 | Berlin| Location given closer to the date
How many times have we thought that spring has arrived, only to be disappointed? Are we condemned (or blessed) to an eternal cycle of rising and falling—up and down, down and up—the spiral of history? Does it matter only that we are moving? How do we distinguish between a retreat that serves as a springboard for future advances and one that is a true loss? And how can we effectively spring forward?
We will explore these questions and more through a text-based discourse led by SHIUR founder Micki Weinberg, alongside musical performances, Havdalah rituals, and discussions with participants from different Middle Eastern countries who find themselves within this very spiral.
Wine, cheese, and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Early Bird Tickets: 18 euros
Registration for the Event is closed. See photos of the Event below!
