Retreats and Special Events

Educational, entertaining and sometimes both,
our retreats and special events are always opportunities
to open your mind, heart and soul to a variety of
Jewish ideas, thoughts and experiences.


Community Second Night Locavore Seder

Tuesday, March 30, 6:00 pm


Join us for a celebration of Passover using ingredients found within a 250-mile radius of where we live (the israelites too were locavores, after all). 

Our Seder will be led in the tranditional style with lots of singing and participation.

Buy tickets and view
the chef inspired menu.


Holocaust Remembrance Day Events

Keepers of the Memory: A Spiritual Experience

Sunday April 11
2:00-4:00 pm

Vivien Deitz facilitator

$27, discounted Member Price $18

ONLINE REGISTRATION

To those Living and Dead but not Forgotten,

The Jewish MIND Remembers

The Jewish BODY Remembers

The Jewish SOUL Remembers

From SURVIVAL to LIVING:

Healing Jewish Individuals, Families and Communities in the present and the past and creating a new generation of Jewish people who become:

KEEPERS of the MEMORY not the TRAUMA

While maintaining a sense of safety and control, we will explore experiences and memories through the use of Somatic Guided Imagery, shamanic and regression techniques. This awareness will help create a healing energy in the bodies, minds and souls of the Jewish people. 

Vivien Deitz, MSW, LCSW-C has been practicing psychotherapy since 1984. Her post-graduate work has sent her to be trained by nationally and internationally renowned traditional psychotherapists, shamans and other holistic practitioners.  Her training as an RN and a Social Worker, allows her to focus her work on the mind, body and soul connections.

Contact: Jean Graubart  at 202 777-3268

Alan Morawiec says,
“Shoes have become symbolic of the Holocaust".

When the Allied troops liberated the camps they found piles and piles of shoes belonging to those who had perished.” Alan created the Holocaust Shoe Project (HSP) and we are honored to pitch-in and help in this collection.

Bring new or gently used shoes to the Washington DCJCC in remembrance of the Holocaust, April 11-25. All shoes will be donated to local homeless shelters and families in need. 

Together with Jewish Living and Learning, the Screening Room and the Morris Cafritz Center for Community Service.


Gettysburg College Play Reading of

If the Whole Body Dies: Raphael Lemkin
and the Treaty Against Genocide

by Robert Skloot

post reading discussion with playwright

Sunday April 25
3:00-4:30 pm

$7.50, Discounted Member Price $5.00
Includes Tea and cookies

ONLINE REGISTRATION


The Leo and Anna Smilow Center for Jewish Living and Learning in partnership with Theater J, are pleased to bring students from Gettysburg College along with the play’s author Robert Skloot to our center. 

The play which explores the life and career of Raphael Lemkin whose obsession with stopping genocide (a word he coined) led to the adoption of the U.N. Treaty Against Genocide. 

Skloot has taught and directed plays at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1968.  He wrote The Darkness We Carry: The Drama of the Holocaust (1988) and edited a two volume anthology, The Theatre of the Holocaust (1982, 1999).  He was a Fulbright Professor in Israel, Austria, Chile and the Netherlands.

We are delighted to have this special reading and conversation with Robert Skloot and hope you will join us.  We dedicate this program to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust. 

Any questions contact Jean Graubart, 202 777-3268.

The Smilow Center's mission is to offer opportunities that will open your mind, heart and soul to a variety of Jewish ideas, thinking and experiences.

Our open doorway will lead you to a vibrant community of learners.

Contact

Jean Graubart
Director, Center for Jewish Living and Learning
(202) 777-3268