For information on the shabbaton, please contact
Gideon Querido van Frank
(President of Queer Shabbaton Amsterdam)
queershabbaton@gmail.com
+ 31 (0)6 48 35 9813

Born in Tel Aviv in the sweet seventies, sabre Gideon Querido van Frank graduated from the University of Utrecht and Amsterdam in Cultural Studies and Literary Theory and at New York University he did a MA in Performance Theory. In New York he worked for The New York Annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and as a journalist for BBC World. Back in Amsterdam Gideon works as a freelance journalist for several magazines and writes mainly about film, politics and culture. Gideon is also the Europe-editor of www.heebmagazine.com. In 2005 he organized for Beit ha’Chidush the very first Queer Shabbaton Amsterdam. Despite his green eyes and odd sense of humor, he remains mysteriously single...

**Interview with Gideon
    Article by Gideon

Born in Rotterdam in 1968, to a Dutch-Jewish mother and a Turkish-Muslim father, Richard Overdijk is a product of the so-called Dutch multi-cultural society. He is equally comfortable with any of these backgrounds, and still embracing all of them. His time has to be divided between his mundane job and the pursuit of his interests, which include all things artistic and cultural (Richard has an MA in Art History).

Esther Kornalijnslijper is born in Enkhuizen in 1968 and has strong family roots in Amsterdam. After an ulpan and milking cows in a kibbutz in Israel, she studied veterinary medicine in Utrecht, followed by a PhD on dairy cow health and welfare which she finished in 2003. Since then she has more time spiralling through the multiple colours of her life, which include her wanderlust, bisexuality, jewishness, teaching and writing.

Natan Meir lectures in East European Jewish history at the University of Southampton. He was raised in the United States with a few years in Israel and Canada thrown in for good measure. Natan moonlights as a lay rabbi and cantor at various progressive synagogues in Europe and North America and enjoys teaching Torah and Hebrew poetry. This year he will marry his Patrick van Herpen.

Ann Pellegrini is associate professor of Religious Studies and Performance Studies at New York University. She is the author of Performance Anxieties: Staging Psychoanalysis, Staging Race and editor of Queer Theory and the Jewish Question. Her major interests are religion, sex, and the law, queer theory, feminist theory, Jewish cultural studies, psychoanalysis and culture, psychoanalysis and race, religion and performance, cultures of childhood, secularism, trauma studies.

Amichai Lau-Lavie is an Israeli-born storyteller and teacher of Judaic Literature. An Israeli-born mythologist, storyteller and teacher of Judaic Literature, Amichai was recently hailed by Time Out NY as 'Super Star of David' and 'iconoclastic mystic,' and identified as 'one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world' by the NY Jewish Week. Amichai is a graduate of Yeshivat Har Etzion, the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Elul Center in Jerusalem, Lau-Lavie served as Scholar-in-Residence at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in New York from 1997 to 2000. In 1998, he founded the Storahtelling Project: Jewish Ritual Theatre Revived which he currently directs. In 1998, the Jerusalem Report said: “An alchemist of words, Lau-Lavie is an important new voice in the current renaissance of Jewish learning.”

Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross is an international lecturer and motivational speaker with expertise in the Hebraic Oral Tradition, Hasidic teachings, and Practical Kabbalah. Hadassah is an elegant creature in Italian shoes and tailored clothes. She is called “part of a broadening, unconventional movement to teach Torah and prayer to an ever-growing audience across America” (Jerusalem Report). Born in Budapest, Hungary in the mid 1920's, Rebbetzin Gross is descended from an illustrious Hasidic dynasty, is the widow of six prominent rabbis and has established herself in the Jewish community and beyond as a personal soul-trainer to the ultra-orthodox elite. She has appeared before thousands worldwide in venues.

Daniel Weishut was born in the Netherlands (1963), but moved to Jerusalem in his teens. He obtained an MA in clinical psychology and worked in different settings, among others as an army psychologist and as professional director of Elah, the centre for people of Dutch origin in Israel. He published various articles and is consultant and supervisor for several institutions. He founded the psychosocial service of the 'Jerusalem Open House, for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community' and is deputy chair of Amnesty International in Israel.

Gabriel Blau, activist and Writer, is the founder of The God & Sexuality Conference, an annual academic conference on religion and issues of sexuality and gender. He has spoken and taught in the US and Israel at colleges, graduate schools, community centers and camps. His work as an activist has been covered by radio and print in the US and Israel. He is the author of "Two Truths: Living as a Religious Gay Jew" in Lawrence Schimmel's book Found Tribe and editor of the forthcoming volume Homosexuality and the World Religions. He received his BA in Theology from Bard College and studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Gili Tzidkiyahu is the Jewish agency Shlicha for Liberal Judaism in the UK, taking a break from being a Rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College-Jerusalem, and a feminist activist in Haifa, were she lives with her partner. She recieved a Master's degree in Gender studies from Bar-Ilan University, writing her thesis about Israeli Lesbians' approach to motherhood, and a BA degree in fine arts.

David Berger is the cantorial intern at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah and a volunteer for WorldPride Jerusalem 2006. He has a Masters in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and is a third year cantorial student at the Hebrew Union College.   Over this past year, David has given concerts in Chicago, Palm Springs, and New York.  Immediately after Queer Shabbaton, David will be singing and leading worship at WorldPride Jerusalem 2006.

Rebecca Walker self-describes as a biracial and bisexual woman, a writer and an activist. The Yale-educated daughter of Alice Walker was named by Time magazine as one of the fifty future leaders under forty. Her first book, To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, is considered required reading in Women's Studies courses. Her latest is her memoir, Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, a book about growing up mixed race in a racially divided world. Her writing has appeared in countless anthologies and popular publications including Harper's, Ms., Utne Reader, Vibe and Spin.