To start their morning Sunday, about 20 Jews attended a Mechitza Minyan service in a ballroom of a Costa Mesa hotel, praying in Hebrew, with separate seating for men and women.
A few doors down, a group wearing sweat pants and T-shirts began their day by breathing deeply and twisting their bodies in a class titled "My Body, My Temple: Yoga for the Jewish Soul."
A couple of hours later, a third group engaged in a discussion about Israel's national security agenda.
The sessions, part of the second annual LimmudLA conference, brought more than 700 Jews together over the weekend to learn from each other and from their sacred texts. The idea behind Limmud -- a Hebrew word that means "learning" -- is to break down barriers that often divide Jews of different religious affiliations.
"The goal was to get people to own their own Jewish experience in the context of building a Jewish community where everyone comes together regardless of their denominations," said Shep Rosenman, an entertainment lawyer who founded LimmudLA and is a co-chair of this year's event. "The vehicle we use is Jewish learning, but not only classic Bible study."
The approach resonated with Ida Unger, a yoga instructor from Tujunga who led one of the morning classes.
"There's a diversity of spiritual practice within modern Judaism, and coming here to this conference, it's an opportunity to get a taste of many, many different things," Unger said.
The first Limmud conference took place in England about 25 years ago; it was brought to Los Angeles last year after a group attended a similar conference in New York, according to organizers. There are about 40 Limmud groups around the world, they said.
The local Limmud gathering began Friday and continues through today, with about 150 people presenting material on Jewish topics ranging from the upcoming Birkat HaHammah, a ritual blessing for the sun once every 28 years, to a performance by Matisyahu, an Orthodox Jewish reggae singer.
Although most of the conference participants came from Southern California, some traveled from other states, as well as Mexico, England and Israel.
"It's been an amazing weekend. It's very relaxed, and you're meeting all these new people from different areas and different parts of Judaism," said Ari Averbach, 25, who works with Los Angeles-based Jewish World Watch, an organization focused on ending genocide.
