Chaya started life in Memphis, Tennessee, where she was the head cheerleader, homecoming queen, and closet mystic and Jew. Via hallucinogenic drugs, prophetic dreams, and a March of the Living trip to see the Poland of the Holocaust followed by Israel, Chaya found the connection between her mystical and Jewish paths. She is now a wife and mother of 4, and co-runs the Shalev Centre for Jewish personal growth with her husband. They do retreats, couples’ workshops, and psychotherapy. Not to mention her spoken word poetry performances and books, and her two one-woman shows with writing prompts for the audience to process. As well as other writings, videos, teachings, hosting events at her home, and dozens of other things. No biggie.
Chaya describes her work as the Venn diagram of Jewish spirituality, creative arts, and psychology.
In our interview, she shared a poem for Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, which starts Wednesday night and runs through this Thursday. (22-25 minutes) This poem is from her book Lit: Poems to Ignite Your Jewish Holidays.
FEAR is “False Evidence Appearing Real”
In honour of Yom HaZikaron, which begins tonight at sunset, she also shared a poem from Ink from Ash: Healing & Empowerment from the Oct. 7th War, a book of poetry, articles, and Jewish tools for psychological healing. (30:30-33:20 minutes)
She told the story of being inspired by a friend who said, “I would rather die here than live somewhere else.”
Chaya also shared her prophetic dream from exactly one year before October 7, of the Nova music festival massacre, followed by a comforing dream of a redeemed Messianic era, and how we got from this to that, with a tree.
Chaya’s first book is based on her first one-woman show, and titled Babel’s Daughter: From the Bible Belt to the Holy Land.
You can find Chaya on her website and that of the Shalev Centre.
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