Rabbi Sarah Tasman

NEW HAVEN – Rabbi Sarah Tasman has been awarded a MakeItHappen Grant from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation for HavdalahYoga, a program that will be held this spring in New Haven.

Sarah Tasman serves as a trans-denominational community rabbi and freelance arts and spirituality educator based in New Haven, where she recently moved with her husband, who is pursuing an MBA at the Yale School of Management.

“HavdalahYoga will be an opportunity for participants to slow down, reflect, meditate, move, breathe and explore their own spiritual practice. Marking time and celebrating holidays by the cycles of the moon is part of Jewish tradition as well as yoga,” Tasman wrote in her grant application for HavdalahYoga. “The program, she says, will include a learning session and discussion about resources and barriers to cultivating both a Shabbat and yoga practice, followed by a restorative yoga session. It will conclude with Havdalah and setting intentions for the week ahead.”

After leading the Reform High Holiday services at Yale, Tasman saw a great need for 20s/30s engagement and learning in New Haven. She started her own group called New Haven Rosh Chodesh in November 2012, and was awarded a $2000 Women of Vision grant from the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven, which sponsors her 2013-2014 monthly Rosh Chodesh programming.

“I am inspired by connecting with and teaching Jewish young adults looking for innovative and meaningful ways to practice Judaism.”

HavadalahYoga will be held at 8 p.m. on Saturday nights, March 29, April 5, and May 3 at Breathing Room Yoga Center, 817 Chapel St #2f, New Haven.