The Bilhah Zilpah Project: Twenty-Four Lines of Torah
November 11, 2024
Finding the strength to read Bilhah and Zilpah as possessing power and autonomy helps me do that for myself.
erica riddick (she/they) is a passionate, ambi-brained educator/ritualist, founding director of Jews of Color Sanctuary, and creator of the Bilhah Zilpah Project and Parasha Play. erica is the Jewish Women’s Archive 2022-24 Twersky Education Fellow and Mandel Foundation 2024-26 Teacher Educator Institute Fellow. erica facilitates the Jewish Studio Process, Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out and Changemakers (a peer-supported social entrepreneurial incubator of Realize Change). These projects balance the work of Design Theanthropic, a residential design and renovation initiative, and community action research on projects within beloved communities. When not working, erica adores a good story through reading, watching films, live-action role-playing gaming and performing improv.
Finding the strength to read Bilhah and Zilpah as possessing power and autonomy helps me do that for myself.
Abolition is more than the ending of legalized enslavement. It is a dismantling of institutionalized systems of oppression that enslave, imprison and devalue lives deemed expendable.
Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement
Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis
Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues
Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives
