It’s Young JW3's Season of Love and we want to turn the love inwards with an exploration of fatphobia within our community and a conversation on the importance of self-love and creating spaces where Jews of all body shapes and sizes feel liberated and celebrated.
Fat Torah’s Rabbi Minna Bromberg and body liberation activists Chelsea Snyder and Lucy Cohen will discuss weight stigma and fat liberation, and examine how fatphobia impacts us as individuals and communities. There will be also a chance to also look at how Jewish tradition itself can be deployed in ways that free us from narrow concepts of which kinds of bodies are acceptable.
This event has been produced by Young JW3 in partnership with Moishe House Kilburn and Moishe House Clapham. This event is generously supported by Genesis Philanthropy Group.
Rabbi Minna Bromberg
Rabbi Minna Bromberg is passionate about bringing her three decades of experience in fat activism to writing and teaching and change-making at the nexus of Judaism and body liberation. She received her doctorate in sociology from Northwestern University in 2005, with a dissertation on identity formation in interfaith couples, and was ordained at Hebrew College in 2010. Since then, she led a 250-family Conservative congregation in Reading, PA, released her fifth album of original music, made aliyah, and ran the Year-in-Israel program for Hebrew College rabbinical students. When she’s not working on fat Torah, she’s a voice teacher who specializes in helping people use their voices in leading prayer (which she also sees as connected with fat torah, but that's another story). She lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Rabbi Alan Abrams, and their two children.
Fat Torah works at the nexus of Judaism and body liberation, bringing together the inner work of tikkun halev (healing the heart) with the social justice of tikkun olam (repairing the world). We provide education, awareness-building, and mentoring for confronting weight stigma and growing communities where every body belongs. We believe that Jewish tradition both calls us to this work and can be deployed for the liberation of all bodies. We're here to smash the idolatry of fatphobia and lead ourselves from Narrowness to Freedom.
Chelsea Snyder
Chelsea Snyder (she/her) grew up in a small Southern California desert community. Chelsea is an alumnus of University of California, Santa Barbara and Humboldt State University, where she received her BA and MA in Acting & Directing with an emphasis on social action-based performance. Chelsea is an activist, performer, writer, and community organizer focusing on fat liberation, inclusion, bringing people together, and helping people live their most authentic Jewish lives through self-love. Chelsea has worked in the Jewish non-profit world for seven years, starting at BBYO where she was the Senior Regional Director of the Southern California region and in charge of LGBTQ+ inclusion. Chelsea currently works for NuRoots, the young adult engagement initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles where she focuses on building community and re-imagining Jewish life for young adults. Chelsea started her healing journey with self-love and fat liberation 10 years ago, you can find her Instagram focused on fat liberation at: @freebirdfeather.
Lucy Cohen
Lucy Cohen is an educator and dancer and identifies as fat and fabulous. She is Director of Noam Masorti Youth as well as a belly dance teacher and burlesque performer. Lucy is proudly fat and Queer and believes in visibility and representation as a means for starting discussion, as well working towards wider societal acceptance of bigger bodies and fat people’s lived experience.
