Thursdays, 12:00 – 12:45 PM ET
2025: September 18, October 9, November 13, December 4
2026: January 15, February 12, March 12, April 16, May 14, June 11, July 9, August 13
Join Jes Golden and guest leaders for a monthly Jewish mindfulness sit offered by and for those who identify as LGBTQ+.
In this affinity group space, you can slow down, become more present, and practice mindfulness in community with others who identify as LGBTQ+. Guest leaders have included Rabbis Ari Lev Fornari, Ellen Lippmann, Jay Michaelson, Dev Noily, Toba Spitzer, Myriam Klotz, Shir Meira Feit, Joy Ladin, and Yiscah Smith.
Sign up, for free, here:
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Whether we are in-person or online, we can support one another’s spiritual practice by co-creating a sacred community that strives toward safety and affirms our fundamental wholeness. Following the guidelines for “Making Safer Spaces” allows us to cultivate communities that foster reflection, healing, and transformation.
Please note that this community of practice is intended only for members of the LGBTQ+ community. If you are not a member of this community, please sign up for our Daily Online Meditation Sit and feel welcome to join our future meditation courses that are open to our general audience.
Jes Golden (they/she—formerly Jes Heppler) is a meditation teacher and researcher who focuses on embodied experience in Jewish and Buddhist meditation. Grounded in their Sephardi and Ashkenazi lineages, Jes’ teaching weaves Jewish and earth-based spirituality with philosophical and neuroscientific insights. Jes teaches regularly for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS): they host the IJS LGBTQ+ Monthly Sit, guide the IJS Daily Sit, and lead both online and in-person programming for the IJS young adult community, Shevet. Jes has also taught for Or HaLev’s Ground & Center series. They are a graduate of Or HaLev and IJS’s Meditation Teacher Training Program. Jes holds a PhD in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Possible Minds at Indiana University, where they are researching bodily awareness in Buddhist and Jewish meditation.
