Jewish Pessimisms and Futurisms: A Live Conversation

Event Details

• 📅 November 5, 2026

• 🕖 7:00–8:30 PM

  • Doors open at 6:30 PM

  • Program starts promptly at 7:00 PM

  • There will be time before and after the conversation to explore the exhibition!

• 📍 Nicholas Martin Hall, Boston Center for the Arts

• 🎟️ Free, RSVP Required. Donations encouraged

• 🖼️ Full group exhibition on view in person October 27 - November 8, 2026 and online beginning October 27, 2026

Rather than staging a debate between pessimism and futurism, this intimate conversation brings together a small group of practitioners, thinkers, and artists to explore how these frameworks interact with and illuminate one another, and the range of questions they help us contend with. Join Becca Leviss, Jordan Berg Powers, exhibiting artist Sam Slate, and Rabbi Nate DeGroot, to explore how frameworks of pessimism, futurism, and imagination shape this moment in Jewish life, and what they reveal about the futures we build.

This event is free and open to the public; however, RSVPs are required due to capacity constraints. Donations to support the exhibition and future programming are welcome and appreciated.

Becca Leviss (she/her) is a Jewish futurist, organizer, and facilitator working at the intersection of culture, religion, and long-term futures. She is the founder and director of the Judeofuturism Project, where she focuses on strengthening and connecting collective visions for vibrant, pluralistic Jewish life. Becca holds a Master’s in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, where her research focused on religion, ethics, politics, and future-oriented community building. She has previously worked at Protect Democracy, Democracy 2076, and with the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School in democracy advocacy, philanthropy strategy, and leadership education. She received her Bachelor’s in Sociology and Research Analysis from Tufts University.

Jordan Berg Powers (he/him) is a consultant and a PhD Student in Social Policy at Brandeis University, Heller School, in the Institute of Economic and Racial Equity. Jordan also runs a consulting business that supports national organizations in enhancing their organizing, policy work, messaging, and best practices for integrating staff into the organization. Before consulting, Jordan was an award-winning Executive Director of Mass Alliance for 13 years. As a broad coalition of 29 political and advocacy organizations of different sizes, organizational structures, and focus areas, Jordan knitted these disparate groups together to build a powerful, cohesive table dedicated to making Massachusetts more just. Using his expertise in talking to ordinary voters about policy, Jordan successfully won campaigns to save public education, advance environmental justice, and secure a fairer tax system for the Commonwealth. It is that work on the importance of narratives that informed his dissertation and focus on Afropessimism.

Sam Slate (he/him), also known as Diva Nigun, is a Jewish music producer and performer, specializing in electronic Jewish dance music, remixes, lo-fi, meditation, and everything in between. Her remixes can be found at weddings, her comedic videos can be found on social media (@diva_nigun), and she herself can be found producing music on Sony WH-1000XM4 noise canceling headphones at a cafe near you.

Rabbi Nate DeGroot (he/him) directs The Shalom Center, carrying forth the prophetic legacy of the organization’s founder, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, by helping to steward and seed an emergent Jewish sacred justice and experiment with creative expressions of Jewish post-activism. Before becoming Director, Nate served as The Shalom Center’s National Organizer and Associate Director. Ordained at Hebrew College in 2016, Nate previously served as Co-Director at Hazon (now Adamah) in Detroit, Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at IKAR in Los Angeles, and he founded Mikdash: Portland's East Side Jewish Cooperative in Portland, OR. Over the years he has held part-time roles with Encounter, T’ruah, AJWS, the Amir Project, and more. He has been published in various articles and book chapters, and was an invited speaker at The Chautauqua Institution. Living in Detroit, Michigan with his wife and two kiddos, Nate also serves locally as a part-time congregational rabbi, educator, and service-leader.

Image background designed by Diva Nigun