THE APERTURE by Uri Cohen

Some corrections:

The Hadar Shavuot retreat in 2002 was actually from May 16-19, Thursday through Sunday. The all-night learning sessions (Tikkun Leil Shavuot) began at 11pm, and the davening at 5AM was led by another Hadar co-founder Mara Benjamin. Julia Andelman davened on the morning of the second day, not the first.

The success of this retreat was a shocker to the organizers, as well as everyone else. Originally planning the retreat for 75 participants, the eventual 230 participants blew those expectations out the door. There was a waiting list and plenty who were not able to attend because there were not enough accomodations.

This first retreat set the tone for the retreats to follow, as well as for the programming over the rest of the year and also in other locations. Participants from this retreat returned to their homes in Washington, Boston, and elsewhere to begin similar minyanim with similar programs and retreats! I’d love to include some of that background here as well…

As the calendar turned to 2003, the minyanim continued to move forward. As Ben noted in his comment, Kol Zimrah underwent an “IPO” and more firmly established its role in the community. Hadar continued to grow and stabilize not only its prayer services and locations, but also the Beit Midrash program and began its Social Justice activities. Can we get some details on this?

Darkhei Noam continued to grow as well, and used multiple facilities from Rodeph Shalom for their services. Its leadership core continued to define the minyan’s objectives as well as directions for the future.

KOE continued to meet as usual, though at some point in here (not sure when exactly) Rabbi Halivny-Weiss announced his impending move to Israel, which required the community to consider the options for its next era.

Also in this timeframe (2003-2004) KOE had discussions about the issue of women’s roles in the Torah service. As is their custom, KOE took a poll of its membership, and then presented Rabbi Halivny-Weiss with the issue for consideration. The result of these discussion was that for the most part the status quo – women did not participate in reading torah or having aliyyot – would stand. There were opportunities for all-women’s torah readings in a separate room. On certain occasions, however, there would be an option in yet another room for “mixed keriyya” – where men and women would participate equally. More details?