(no subject)

[alexseanchai]

yo, Jewish flisties!

someone from the Black and Pink group on Facebook is asking about resources for incarcerated people for Torah study and Hebrew language study. there are, of course, a million and one Christian groups that work with incarcerated people, but that's not the perspective that the querent's friend behind bars is looking for! so I'm hoping any of you might know a Jewish group that works with incarcerated people?

Comments

[librarygeek]

Chabad did, for someone I know...

[alexseanchai]

Shiny! I do not see such a program in the first two minutes of googling and website-poking, but that two minutes did lead me to https://aleph-institute.org/wp/ which sounds exactly like what I need to relay. Thank y ou!

[jadelennox]

The B&P person should see if they can find any queer folks who've reviewed Aleph, if the friend is queer in some way (I'm just assuming from the Black and Pink referral). Chabad do good work in the world but they are also a religiously conservative evangelical organization (they evangelize among less religious Jews, as opposed to among non-Jews), and while their attitudes about queerness could be worse, they ... aren't good. Their website looks open and welcoming but part of Chabad's shtick is to seem like a welcoming Jewish place and then convert you to their very conservative form of Judaism along the way.

If the friend isn't queer, it might be a good resource, though. Chabad does do a good job of being a Jewish resource where there are no other Jewish resources, but I would worry about how they would minister to queer prisoners. They might do a good job, but I'd worry.

I don't know anything about Jewish Prisoner Services International but they at least claim to be more ecumenical within Judaism.

[alexseanchai]

Thanks!

[angelofthenorth]

Avodah is a less conservative and more social justice organisation than chabad, as I understand it

[alexseanchai]

Thanks!