New Age Spiritualities Topic for Cultural Matinee Today

"Wicca and Kabbalah: New Age Spiritualities" is the theme for the Old Dominion University Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures' 15th Cultural Matinee to be held from 3 - 5 p.m. Friday, April 11, in room 1012 of the Batten Arts and Letters building.

Guest speakers include Drema Baker, a Wiccan high priestess in the Hampton Roads area, and Michael Panitz, rabbi of Temple Israel.

Baker will give an overview of Wicca, focusing on its basic concepts, holy days and deities. She will also touch on gender roles in Wicca and the concept of Wicca as a mystical practice.

Rabbi Panitz will outline the core of Jewish mysticism and its implications for the practice of Judaism. Historically, kabbalistic ideas emerged from the Jewish society of medieval Spain, spread throughout the pre-modern Jewish world and is enjoying renewed popularity today.

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and the Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding. It is free and open to the public. For more information contact Frederick Lubich, chair of the foreign languages and literatures department, at 683-3981 or flubich@odu.edu.