Nathan Kirshner Reviews Limmud 2017

This year, I attended the 7^th annual Limmud. Limmud is a program that features sessions for all ages as well as local and international artists, scholars and educators. I attended three different sessions throughout the day as well as helping out with the children’s programming. The first session I went to was a workshop on Niggunim, a melody with no words originally created because words were considered finite and this was a better way to achieve spiritual connection. In this program, we were taught the melody to two different niggunim as well as their history. This was a very joyous way to begin the day. The next session I went to was “Hockey Blogger” led by Jacob Stoller, a young sports journalist in the Jewish community. He shared his experiences trying to move up the ranks as a hockey blogger. Currently, he writes for a number of websites and has his own podcast! The third and final session I attended was Jaron Rykiss’ “Life of a Jewtuber”. Jaron is an up and coming Youtuber with over 2 500 subscribers; the topics of his videos range from present day politics to short films he has created. The focus of his presentation was that Youtube is a place for expression where you are not judged by your peers. This year, I was also privileged with seeing a different side of Limmud, the children’s activities. As a volunteer, I helped the children with their arts and crafts activity. This experience brought a new meaning to the term “Jewish community” because of all of the different beliefs and experiences shared. Overall, this was an enjoyable program that I would recommend for everyone.