Understanding Shmirah - Soul Comfort

​Join us for a webinar on Understanding Shmirah with our experts, Holly Blue Hawkins and Rick Light. This webinar is designed for anyone who is interested in learning more about Jewish death practices: Jews and those who love them as well as professionals that might be in the role of supporting Jewish families at the end of life.

​In keeping with the historical practice of protecting the dead between death and burial, today family or community members read Psalms and other texts in the presence of the deceased. This webinar explores and explains how Shmirah is performed and what options and variations exist today.

​Holly Blue Hawkins

​Holly Blue Hawkins is a Natural Deathcare advocate, educator, community organizer, cemeterian, author and poet. In 2022 she co-created and launched two twelve-module courses on the subject of Natural Burial: in partnership with Lee Webster The Green Burial Master Class; and with David Zinner Jewish And Green: Cemetery Management For The 21st Century. As Gamliel Institute graduate and past faculty, Final Passages graduate, member of the Conservation Burial Alliance, Rosha Chevrah Kadisha (Head of Jewish Burial Society), past member of the Board of Trustees of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of California and independent consultant; with over 40 years of experience in end-of-life subjects, Holly Blue provides education and training to both Jewish and secular audiences. She has visited countless natural burial sites from England to Hawai'I, presented at international conferences, trained home funeral guides, consulted with cemetery management and mortuary personnel, taught community college extension courses and is a passionate advocate for environmentally sustainable and culturally-sensitive burial practices.

​Rick Light

​Rick Light has been teaching about Jewish death practices for more than two decades, showing how respect is woven throughout Jewish end-of-life rituals, enriching how we live. He started a Chevrah Kadisha in 1996 and led it for 18 years. Along the way he became an instructor for the Gamliel Institute and has published seven books, including a highly praised Passover Haggadah, and four books on Jewish death practices, one of which won a Nautilus Book Award. His taharah manual is widely respected and includes traditional as well as modern liturgies with chants by Rabbi Shefa Gold. Rick is on staff at JADE (the Jewish Association for Death Education), where he is writing curricula for webinars and classes. He was the designer of the Hineni tool and helped implement it. Learn more about Rick and his books at  richardalight.com.

​​​The slide deck and speaker notes from this webinar will be available to attendees. 

​See the Full JADE Webinar Schedule Here.

​If you would like to request a webinar for your community on this content presented by a JADE educator, please email david@jadeinfo.org.

​​​This event is made possible by our generous JADE donors.