By Adina Kay-Gross
Following the tumultuous and nationally divisive 2016 election, Aaron Dorfman—then President of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah—noticed growing concern across the organization about fractures in American democracy and communal life.
“As an institution, we recognized that American Jewish life is, in many ways, predicated on a vibrant liberal democracy,” Dorfman explained. “Liberal democracy created the container in which Jewish communities have thrived in this country—and that container was starting to feel increasingly precarious.”
During his five years at the Foundation, Dorfman focused on raising awareness about threats to democracy and supporting organizations working to sustain it. The January 6th Capitol attack deepened his sense of urgency, inspiring him to conclude his work at Lippman Kanfer and launch A More Perfect Union, an organization dedicated to mobilizing the Jewish community in defense of American democracy.
A More Perfect Union began by forging connections. “For the first three years, we essentially had one strategy: recruit and support Jewish nonprofits,” Dorfman said. One of the first such partners was Chazaq, a Queens-based organization serving the Bukharian Jewish community by translating voter education materials into Russian. A More Perfect Union also worked with Hillel International to advocate for new polling sites on campuses with limited on-campus voting options and with Leading Edge to develop a resource guide for Jewish leaders to help them navigate political and ideological conflict in the workplace.
By the end of 2024, A More Perfect Union had grown to include 200 partner organizations across 29 states. Dorfman remained focused on supporting “meaningful pro-democracy work that mattered in local communities,” much of which centered on safeguarding free and fair elections.
To broaden this work, A More Perfect Union convened the Jewish Summit on Civics in March 2024, together 25 partners to participate in a national civics education conference and to assess the needs of the Jewish civic education field. Following the Summit and with funding from The Covenant Foundation, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the Russell Berrie Foundation, A More Perfect Union and the Hartman Institute convened a year-long seminar of nine Jewish scholars who collaborated to articulate a set of core principles for American Jewish civics.
Dorfman sees one of the Jewish community’s greatest strengths as its deeply institutional nature. Rather than building new infrastructure, A More Perfect Union aims to make a compelling case that civic learning should be embedded within existing Jewish educational frameworks. “We want institutions to see this as essential,” he said.
He added that linking Jewish education with civic learning is a fitting response to the current state of American democracy—and that it is no coincidence that Jews have thrived in the United States as they have nowhere else. Jewish middot and civic values, Dorfman argues, are inherently aligned—a central premise of A More Perfect Union’s work.
Today, A More Perfect Union’s network has grown to more than 230 partners, with ambitions to expand further. Dorfman hopes to better reflect the full diversity of American Jewish life and ultimately engage 10 percent of the roughly 7,500 Jewish nonprofits nationwide.
At the heart of this work is a multi-pronged effort to equip Jewish educators with tools for teaching dialogue and democratic engagement. Cultivating a culture of pluralism, Dorfman notes, is essential to both democracy and Judaism. Accordingly, A More Perfect Union’s materials emphasize tolerance and the value of diverse perspectives, drawing on Jewish texts as foundational resources. One such example is the biblical principle dina d’malchuta dina—“the law of the land is the law.”
As A More Perfect Union continues to expand its reach and deepen its impact, the organization sees the new year as an opportune time to convene educators and communal leaders to affirm a shared commitment to civil discourse and democratic values.
Dialogue Across Difference is a structured, intentional approach to cultivating empathy, understanding, and connection among people with deeply different perspectives. Rather than prioritizing debate or persuasion, Dialogue Across Difference equips participants with the skills to navigate polarizing issues, strengthen civil discourse, and build resilient communities.
Recognizing the growing urgency of this work, The Covenant Foundation has invested in dialogue across difference for several years. We know this work is vital to the health of Jewish life and the broader society. Through concrete training in dialogic methodologies, we aim to support and strengthen the field of Jewish practitioners devoted to this work, foster collaboration among professionals, and expand the capacity to train others—bringing the importance of dialogue across difference into sharper focus across our communities.
To that end, and to reflect the breadth of this growing movement, we have chosen to highlight eight Jewish organizations and leaders that engage in dialogue work in diverse and meaningful ways; below are short descriptions of their work and their hopes for future collaboration. Together, they demonstrate that this work extends far beyond the most “obvious” actors, and that building understanding across difference is a responsibility—and opportunity—for everyone.
Rekindle
Matt Fieldman, Co-Founder and Executive Director 
“Rekindle is a Black–Jewish dialogue and leadership program that brings Black and Jewish leaders together for 15 hours of structured, face-to-face conversation and shared action. Since 2021, we’ve graduated over 300 Fellows across 25 cohorts in nearly 20 U.S. cities, with 250+ people on the waitlist and 50+ alumni-led projects. I serve as Co-Founder and Executive Director, supporting local chapters, stewarding partners, and holding the container for courageous, caring conversation.
For us, dialogue across difference is not a warm-up to “real” work—it is the trust-building foundational work that underpins allyship and collaboration. When Black and Jewish participants sit together to wrestle with antisemitism, racism, power, and faith, they humanize one another and build the trust required for sustained joint action. Our surveys show that 96% of Fellows would recommend Rekindle to a friend, 93% have made a new friend in the other community, and 95% feel newly empowered to address hate.
In the Jewish community, I’d love to help normalize rigorous, text-rooted, interfaith conversations that include a truly diverse range of Jewish, Black, and Black Jewish voices at the same table. Through our proven curriculum, reading guide that draws from a wide range of sources, facilitator training, and national network of chapters, we can help seed and support local Chapters that leverage meaningful dialogue to inspire real-world collaboration. I’m especially excited to collaborate with rabbis, JCRCs, day schools, Hillels, and Black faith leaders who are ready to model this kind of transformative dialogue together.”
A More Perfect Union
Jeremy Bannett, Vice President, Programs and Partnerships 
“A More Perfect Union is a nonpartisan social-impact organization that mobilizes the American Jewish community to protect and strengthen democracy. As Vice President of Programs and Partnerships, I lead the Jewish Partnership for Democracy (JPD), a network of diverse Jewish organizations committed to revitalizing civic life in their communities.
Dialogue across difference is central to a healthy democracy. The free exchange of ideas is only possible when people have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to engage constructively with those who disagree with them. This is also a Jewish value – our sages teach us to pursue mahloket l’shem shamayim, argument for the sake of Heaven. The alternative to a society capable of constructive disagreement is one that defaults to division, oppression, or violence – conditions under which the Jewish people have never thrived.
For this reason, dialogue is a core pillar of our work. Every JPD partner affirms our nonpartisan Democracy Principles, including a commitment to resolve differences through respectful deliberation and debate and to firmly oppose political violence.
To bring this commitment to life, we provide partners with skills training led by experts including Pardes and the Constructive Dialogue Institute; offer a curated resource library through our Digital Hub; and elevate successful models of civic dialogue through microgrants, stipends, and “Steal This!” project playbooks.
We hope to convene our full network – and other allies across the Jewish community – for deeper in-person training and relationship-building, and opportunities to practice the hard work of pluralism.”
Ammud
Alexandra Corwin, Executive Director 
“When Rabbi Yochanan mourned his chevruta Reish Lakish, he recalled the ways Reish Lakish disagreed with him, saying that when they challenged each other “the tradition grew wider.” At Ammud, this is part of our vision of making Jewish communities and Jewish life more whole through inclusive wisdom and practice. We encourage dialogue across differences because we know that when our learners can voice the different experiences that shape their understanding of Torah, the entire tradition benefits.
Our learners have diverse racial and ethnic identities and are inheritors of a wide range of regional Jewish customs. They hold differing understandings of Torah and revelation, of G-d, and of what it means to practice Judaism with our fullest selves. What they share is a craving for a space where their fullest selves can be used to interpret Torah. And, at Ammud, it is critical to our mission that our participants engage in dialogue across differences. So, we consider it holy when they disagree about a text, or even with a text.
Our Culturally-Sustaining Torah Methodology empowers everyone to honor each other’s cultural wisdom while being particular about their own. In this way, we build a space of true chidushim, of new understandings of Torah that are crucial to today’s Jewish community.”
Kirva
David Jaffe, Founder and Director 
“Kirva integrates Jewish spiritual wisdom with the work of social change, making repair of the world a soul-nourishing and joyous practice. We work with Jewish change agents from college-age to older adulthood who are committed to putting into practice Jewish values of chesed/kindness, tzedakah/righteous use of resources and mishpat/social justice. I co-founded Kirva in 2018 and serve as Executive Director.
Dialogue across difference is essential to achieving any lasting social change because differences in perspectives and tactics among individuals and constituencies need to be bridged to do big, important things together. At Kirva, we call on several Jewish spiritual technologies to help people bridge these differences. The soul trait of Savlanut/Forebearance, is one of our favorites. We train people to practice the ancient wisdom of “bearing the burden with the other” to stay in solidarity across disagreement. We also draw on Rebbe Nachman of Breslov’s practice of finding good points in others, even across deep disagreement. Both practices help build the capacity to manage emotional discomfort and stay in relationship in the face of conflict. These practices feature prominently in our new pro-democracy program Fight Like a Mensch.
We would love to see more people in our community, from schools to universities to synagogues and beyond, use these spiritually nourishing and effective tools. We are excited to collaborate with any Jewish organization with social justice as part of their mission that wants to bring specifically Jewish spiritual tools to create dialogue across the difference.”
Kadima Coaching
Tikvah Weiner, CEO 
“Kadima Coaching is a global professional-learning organization dedicated to transforming Jewish education through student-centered learning, meaningful inquiry, and collaborative school change. As CEO, I guide our work across seven countries, over 20 cities, and dozens of schools, helping educators create environments where all students feel seen, capable, and engaged. A core pillar of our approach is equipping teachers with structures that foster deep thinking, empathy, and civic responsibility.
Dialogue—especially dialogue across difference—is essential to that mission. Today’s students are navigating polarization both inside and beyond the Jewish community. Our work helps educators move conversations from zero-sum debate to genuine discourse. We have been training teachers extensively in Socratic Seminars and other protocols that scaffold active listening, perspective-taking, and evidence-based conversation. These structures help students learn to communicate respectfully even when they disagree—skills urgently needed for Jewish communal life.
We are also proud of Foundations of Freedom, which the Covenant Foundation helped seed. The program, now expanded through partnerships with the Rabbi Sacks Legacy, Civic Spirit, and Israel educator Dr. Tal Grinfas-David, compares American and Israeli democracy while cultivating civic engagement, media literacy, and healthy communication habits. In parallel, we are partnering with Unpacked for Educators to strengthen productive dialogue in Israel education, especially around complex contemporary issues.
Looking ahead, we hope to help create a Jewish communal culture where curiosity replaces certainty and where structured dialogue becomes a norm across schools, youth programs, and adult learning. We would welcome opportunities to align our civic-engagement work with A More Perfect Union and to collaborate broadly with educators and community organizations committed to nurturing respectful, productive conversations across differences.”
Ayin Press
Tom Haviv, Executive Director and Co-Founder 
“I’m the co-founder and executive director of Ayin, an independent Jewish publishing platform and interdisciplinary creative studio founded in 2020. Ayin is rooted in Jewish culture and in what we call “emanating outward”—by which we mean available to all. Our work is guided by a deep belief that creativity and culture can help heal and transform the world, charting new pathways for spiritual life and thought while deepening our collective imagination.
At Ayin, we publish books, produce audio and multimedia projects, and convene conversations that place Jewish texts, traditions, and questions in relation to broader cultural, ethical, and planetary concerns. My role sits at the intersection of creative direction and institutional stewardship: creating space for artists and thinkers to take risks, while building the infrastructure that allows their work to circulate widely and with care.
Dialogue is central to this work. Judaism itself is a tradition shaped by argument, interpretation, and relational ethics, and we take that inheritance seriously. We believe in cultivating a shared commons that encourages open questioning, deep inquiry, play, reverie, and principled disagreement, without erasure or flattening of any single voice. As a cultural institution, we aim to listen generously to the communities we serve, honoring the diversity of thought and practice already present.
I’m most excited to help build spaces—both intimate and public—where difficult conversations can unfold slowly and responsibly, supported by ambitious art and storytelling, without predetermined outcomes. This work depends on collaboration, and I’m drawn to partners willing to take creative risks while staying in relationship with those who think differently from them. In the coming year, we’re especially excited to launch Ayin’s Audio platform through new podcasts like Alef Bet and Four Questions, which model this kind of sustained, thoughtful dialogue in practice.”
Exploring The Narrative
Lonnie Firestone, Founder and Co-Director
“Exploring The Narrative is a relationship-building organization that utilizes theater, historical text, and the arts to enhance learning across areas of difference. We work primarily with Black communities and Jewish communities, designing programs that serve students, adults, and arts institutions. Essential to this work is the ability to craft conversations with people of diverse backgrounds. Dialogue across difference can sound like a heavy proposition, but it doesn't have to be.
As co-directors, Ron Emile and I model the environment we hope to cultivate by warmly welcoming every learner, delving into texts with enthusiasm, and encouraging open-ended questions. The goal isn't to compete, it's to contemplate. The intention isn't to win, it's to wonder. This framework has been in place for a wide array of ETN's programs. To name just a few: we crafted a culture gallery where 7th graders at two schools displayed their prized cultural items and examined those of other students; we taught key speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X to Jewish day school students through embodied performances; we led an event on Ethiopian heritage, spotlighting a Jewish Ethiopian chef and a Christian Ethiopian playwright; and we facilitated a session that examined dance and music in Black communities and Jewish communities. In each example, we harnessed stories to create a portal to communities that are not our own.
As we grow, we hope to work with more artists and larger partner organizations. The continual reward is seeing participants encounter another person, first with hesitation and then with full humanity.”
The Jewish Education Project/ HaTikvah: Our Hope for Israel
Mikhael Kesher, Director, Israel Education 
“The Jewish Education Project convenes and leads the field of Jewish education, inspiring innovation from preschool through high school. Our work supports educators across North America in helping young people encounter Jewish life with depth, integrity, and care. As Director of Israel Education, I develop professional learning and resources that equip educators to teach Israel with developmental sensitivity and intellectual honesty.
One recent example is HaTikvah: Our Hope for Israel, a curricular unit for 4th–5th graders that uses Israel’s national anthem as a gateway into dialogue across difference. The unit invites learners to unpack HaTikvah’s lyrics and explore how Jewish Israelis, Arab citizens of Israel, and American Jews relate to the anthem in distinct, sometimes conflicting ways. Through narrative, discussion, and creative expression, learners practice listening across perspectives, articulating values, and locating their own hopes for Israel.
Dialogue is central to this work because young learners are already absorbing messages about Israel from the world around them. Avoiding complexity does not protect them; it leaves them without the tools to engage thoughtfully or empathetically. By modeling civic dialogue early, we teach children that disagreement and belonging can coexist, and that hope is not naivety, but an active moral stance.
Looking ahead, I hope to expand this work by developing a partner unit for 2nd–3rd graders, using the Israeli flag (Degel Zion) as an age-appropriate entry point. I am eager to collaborate with elementary and family educators who are reimagining how thoughtful, respectful dialogue can begin early and deepen over time.”
In October 2018, The Covenant Foundation published a volume of Sight Line titled Contemplating Civil Discourse: The Jewish Imperative.
It was a fraught moment in American life. Contentious midterm elections were approaching. A Supreme Court confirmation process had further divided American citizenry. Debates over immigration were conflagrating. Across the country, civic discourse felt stymied and almost impossible.
At the Foundation, we felt a responsibility to engage our community of educators in a conversation about what was unfolding around us. We asked legal scholar Martha Minow—former Dean of Harvard Law School and a former member of The Covenant Foundation’s Board—to write an introduction for that volume of the journal, together with Joseph William Singer, Bussey Professor of Law at Harvard University.
In the opening of that journal back in 2018, Minow and Singer offered a powerful charge: “Civil discourse requires us to listen generously and to act as though—and to really believe—we could be open to persuasion,” they wrote. “We each may think: ‘I did not cause this situation, I am not to blame.’ Yet we each have the capacity to help society turn the corner, if we honestly ask what went wrong and what we can do about it.”
Minow and Singer’s words were prescient then, and they feel even more urgent now. It’s eight years later, but the need for a daily practice of listening, empathizing, being open and being curious is just as pressing as it ever was.
Equally pressing is the need to continue to protect democratic ideals. Jewish communal life in America has flourished within an open-minded democratic framework that protects religious freedom, encourages civic participation, and makes space for diversity.
The people and projects highlighted in this volume reflect the field’s thoughtful response to these ideals. Across so many settings in Jewish education, educators are designing programs that cultivate dialogue across difference, strengthen civic skills, and model principled, values-driven disagreement. They are teaching students how to engage in the world with empathy. They are building spaces where complexity is welcomed and where relationships can endure even amid profound disagreement. They are securing the building blocks for a more democratic future.
We hope this volume offers inspiration and opportunity for conversation in your homes and in your workplace. We are glad you are here.
B’Shalom,
Joni
The Covenant Salon Series brings writing to life through dynamic conversations with authors, educators, and thought leaders from across the Covenant community. Held online and in person, each Salon centers a timely book or article that sparks ideas, questions, and connection. These gatherings serve as a dynamic platform for our community to be in conversation, exploring how shared stories, diverse perspectives, art and ideas all serve to strengthen the foundations of democracy and open dialogue.
This January, we launched the series with an online conversation featuring Covenant Board member Dr. Jonathan Krasner—Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair of Jewish Education Research at Brandeis University—in dialogue with Covenant grantee Dr. Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of The Jewish Women’s Archive.
In the recorded conversation below, Krasner and Rosenbaum discuss Krasner’s recent article, Between Home and Homeland: Jewish College Students Confront the Israel-Gaza Conflict and Campus Divides, which examines the experiences of Jewish college students on more than 20 campuses in the wake of the October 7 attacks, and the global rise in antisemitism.
Listen as these two thought leaders unpack the study’s findings, reflect on the urgent need for meaningful dialogue on college campuses, and explore the vital role Jewish institutions can play in these deeply challenging times.
Our February Salon Series featured Dr. Miriam Udel, Director of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies and associate professor of Yiddish language, literature, and culture at Emory University, and 2025 Covenant Foundation Jewish Family Education Fellow, in conversation with Dr. Annie Polland, President of the Tenement Museum and a Covenant Board member.
The recorded event centered on Miriam’s newest book Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Literature. They discussed the political ideologies represented in twentieth century Yiddish children’s literature and how this canon of stories has helped new generations bridge the gap between an increasingly modern world and ancient Jewish tradition. As Miriam writes, "While these tales are important for the sake of young readers, they are just as critical for us adults to share. Those of us watching the news with a sense of despair need these stories, both their gentleness and their moral fierceness. Children’s literature can’t solve these problems. But it creates an arena in which to dream, an essential redoubt for rational hope. And without hope, nothing good will come.”
Listen to a recording of their conversation, below.
The Covenant Foundation has long supported social-emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing across multiple populations and settings within the Jewish world. In the early 2000’s, the Foundation began exploring how Jewish wisdom and practice could speak to these needs through projects such as “The Healing Waters Initiative” at Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh in Boston; “Partners in Prevention,” an addiction-prevention program based in Jewish learning developed by Beit T’shuvah in Los Angeles; and “Growing Older/Growing Wiser,” a guide developed by Rabbi Rachel Cowan and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality to address the spiritual journeys and challenges of aging.
In 2007, in collaboration with Dr. Jeff Kress, at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Covenant Foundation deepened this inquiry by convening experts in social-emotional learning to discuss how insights from this field of educational research could shape Jewish education classrooms and experiences. Gleanings from this gathering have continued to influence the work of the Covenant Foundation in the decades since.
While always a focus, addressing social-emotional and spiritual wellness, took on new urgency for the Foundation during the past five years in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the events of October 7, 2023, the ensuing war, rise in antisemitism and concerns about the state of our democracy. As a result of this turmoil, educators, learners of all ages, and families are left feeling overwhelmed and anxious about the future.
The Foundation is deeply grateful to the many Jewish educators who have devoted their considerable talent and energy to this work. By integrating text with the arts, dialogue, Israel education, community building, and other approaches to Jewish education, these Jewish educators continue to enrich the lives of countless students and families.
We hope that you will be inspired by the work shared in this volume of Reports from the Field and reach out to these educators to learn more about their work.
--Joni Blinderman, Executive Director
By Dr. Meredith Woocher, Director of Learning, The Covenant Foundation
We are delighted to share with you the second volume of Reports from the Field, a journal of The Covenant Foundation. Reports from the Field seeks to bridge the arenas of Jewish education research and practice by using insights gleaned from education and social science research literature to delve deeper into findings from evaluations of Covenant Foundation grants. We hope that readers will be compelled by the work being done by colleagues throughout the field, intrigued by the frameworks that illuminate how this work achieves the impact it does, and inspired to apply some of the findings to their own organizations.
The four articles in this volume explore a topic that is increasingly critical for the Jewish community today: how to foster mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness. While wellness/wellbeing can be understood in multiple ways, the definition provided by Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, Director of M2’s Jewish Pedagogies of Wellbeing Research Fellowship (one of the projects highlighted in this volume), offers a compelling encapsulation: “A state that includes high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning or purpose, a connection to something greater than ourselves, and the ability to respond with resilience to adverse circumstances.” Rabbi Goldstein notes that this definition is grounded in Jewish tradition, specifically Birkat HaChodesh, the blessing for the new month, which asks for the blessings of “life and for peace, for joy and for gladness, for salvation and for consolation, for sustenance and for support, for pardon and for forgiveness, for atonement and for a good life, and for peace.” As she explains, “This blessing names it all. It doesn’t reduce wellness to a feeling. It links it to values, to community, to the divine.”
Each of the pieces in this volume delves into how a recent Covenant Foundation grant worked to create and support wellness and wellbeing. Though the specific audiences and approaches of these projects varied, collectively they demonstrate that the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of individuals and the strength and well-being of communities are not separate pursuits but rather are deeply intertwined. Esther Friedman shares how participants in the M2 Jewish Pedagogies of Wellbeing Research Fellowship developed a wide range of creative pedagogies, programs, and practices that blend Jewish tradition with contemporary approaches to wellness. As she writes, “Fellows were invited to ask deep and expansive questions: What does it mean to show up whole? What kind of Jewish space helps others do the same?” Judith Shapero writes about how SVIVAH’s groundbreaking training programs guide Jewish educators in integrating Torah learning with pastoral care in order to enhance social-emotional wellness and build supportive communities for both learners and educators And Rebecca Stark and Meredith Katz each document how a Jewish organization (Theater J in Washington DC and Hannah Senesh Day School in Brooklyn, respectively) through prioritizing diversity and belonging, succeeded in helping individuals feel valued, seen, and “whole,” while at the same time strengthening relationships and feelings of ownership within communities.
We hope you find these discussions meaningful and stimulating, and that the findings and insights shared help illuminate potential pathways to wellness for yourself and your communities.
By Rebecca Starkman, PhD
Introduction
In moments when questions of identity, belonging, and inclusion are most pressing, the arts can serve as both mirror and catalyst. Jewish artists and artistic communities play a central role in helping to reflect back to the broader Jewish world ways of processing this complex moment we are in and also provide generative spaces in which to explore pathways for growth and change. The Jewish arts reflect the multiplicity of Jewish experience while also generating new possibilities for recognition, dialogue, and shared future. The theme of wellbeing is especially fitting in this context. When Jewish artists are able to see themselves fully represented, their sense of wholeness deepens and their creativity flourishes. Conversely, when voices are marginalized or silenced, the wellbeing of both individuals and communities can be diminished.
“Expanding the Canon (ETC),” an innovative playwrights’ commission hosted by Theatre J in Washington, D.C., demonstrates the profound link between representation, artistry, and wellbeing. The American Jewish theatrical landscape has historically centered Ashkenazi and white narratives. Through commissioning seven racially and ethnically diverse, and non-Ashkenazi, Jewish playwrights, ETC sought to expand the range of stories and representations within the Jewish theatrical canon. This article examines how ETC fostered wellbeing at both individual and community levels, drawing on data from an evaluation supported by a Covenant Foundation Signature Grant. The experiences shared by the participating playwrights reveal how identity recognition, creative validation, and community connection can advance wellness at multiple levels. The key takeaways also point toward lessons for other Jewish cultural and educational organizations seeking to enable diverse constituencies to flourish.
Overview of Expanding the Canon
Expanding the Canon was unprecedented in scope and vision. Spearheaded by Theatre J, America’s leading Jewish theatre and supported by a Covenant Foundation Signature Grant, it was the first program of its kind to intentionally commission Jewish playwrights of color and those from underrepresented ethnocultural Jewish backgrounds to create new plays. The two-year initiative was structured around several core components: facilitated Jewish learning experiences that deepened textual and cultural engagement (including an immersive opening retreat and ongoing lectures); a writers’ group that met regularly (virtually) to build community and share draft scripts; financial support for research and development for each playwright’s script; and a culminating capstone event to showcase the works in progress. This structure combined high-calibre professional artistic development with Jewish cultural and communal enrichment. Playwrights were given not only financial and institutional support but also a supportive space in which to explore their multifaceted Jewish identities. In the process, ETC challenged long-standing assumptions about whose stories “count” in Jewish theatre and offered a model for how arts institutions can center marginalized voices while maintaining rigorous artistic standards.
The Covenant Foundation’s Signature Grant enabled a two-year evaluation of ETC. Data collection included annual interviews with Theatre J staff, focus groups and observations of monthly writers’ group meetings, and individual interviews with each playwright. The research captured both participants’ immediate experiences and the evolving significance of the commission over time. Data collected through the evaluation provide a unique lens on wellbeing. The interviews with each playwright reveal how the program shaped participants’ sense of identity, belonging, and creative legitimacy. They also illuminate the broader implications for Jewish communal wellbeing by highlighting the importance of representation, cultural diversity, and inclusion in Jewish arts spaces.
Conceptualizing Wellbeing
Wellbeing is a multidimensional concept that resists simple definition. It is often understood as a subjective and holistic state of life satisfaction across mental, physical, spiritual, and social domains (McNaught, 2011). Beyond physical indicators, wellbeing is a broader construct that includes moral and philosophical reflections on the human condition and meaning of life.
Wellbeing can be understood at two broad levels: the individual and the community (McNaught, 2011).
Individual wellbeing refers to a person’s overall perception of health, happiness, and life satisfaction, encompassing physical, psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions. It reflects the interplay between external circumstances, such as relationships, work, and environment, and internal resources, including resilience, meaning, and self-awareness. At its core, individual wellbeing is the capacity to feel fulfilled, function positively, and navigate life’s challenges with purpose and stability.
Community wellbeing, by contrast, speaks to the collective welfare of a group of individuals. It involves addressing the shared needs of the group and considering the broader context in which the community exists. From this perspective, factors such as systems, poverty, transportation, economics, environment, and politics are examined in relation to enabling communities to thrive (Wiseman & Brasher, 2008). Importantly, these two spheres should not be viewed as oppositional or mutually exclusive. Rather, individual wellbeing is deeply intertwined with collective wellbeing, each reinforcing and depending on the other.
Within both levels, the concept of mattering is central. To matter is to feel valued by oneself and others and to believe one’s presence and contributions make a difference (Marshall, 2001; Elliott, 2004; Flett, 2022). For individuals and communities historically marginalized, the experience of mattering can be transformative – protective when present and deeply harmful when absent. The following section looks at wellbeing at individual and community levels to analyze how ETC contributed to wellbeing for participating playwrights and, by extension, for the Jewish communal ecosystem.
Evaluation Findings and Connections to Wellbeing
Individual Wellbeing
Recognition of Hybrid Identities
One of the most consistent themes across descriptions of the experience of participating in ETC was the affirmation of complex Jewish identities. Many participants described previous experiences of fragmentation, of having to present their Jewishness in one context and their racial or ethnic heritage in another. ETC created a space where those dimensions could coexist. As one playwright explained, “There wasn’t this sense of feeling, in stepping into the space or interacting with people, that I was at this divided self—like my Jewish self, my Black self, my self that grew up Christian.” For others, the significance lay in finally encountering peers with similar hybrid identities. One noted, “Just the idea of being able to have a cohort of people who understood that kind of [identity] experience—that [understanding] as a baseline is a thing that I have never had before.” Another reflected, “It finally felt like, ‘This [space] is for me.’” These experiences illustrate a deep sense of identity-based wellbeing: the sense of meaning, belonging, and authenticity that comes from living as a whole self.
Professional Validation
Wellbeing also arose from recognition as professional artists. Several playwrights emphasized that the commission served as a turning point in their careers. One described it as “a kind of rubber stamp in terms of getting back on that [professional] ladder.” Another highlighted the importance of being recognized within Jewish theatre: “People know [now] I’m Jewish in the theatre and they didn’t before, and I’m pretty visibly a non-White Jewish person doing stuff in the American theatre.” Such validation is not merely symbolic. It confers legitimacy in professional networks, opens new opportunities, and affirms that one’s artistic voice is valued. The psychological impact of professional recognition is profound, fostering confidence, motivation, and resilience.
Belonging and Emotional Support
Playwrights also spoke about the emotional sustenance provided by the cohort. One participant described finding “a home [and] a hearth in this sort of holiness of other people who feel [otherness] in different ways.” Another reflected, “There is some beauty in not being the only one. And it’s lovely too.” These comments highlight the protective role of belonging. For artists who often navigate the burden of being “the only one” in other professional spaces, the cohort offered relief and solidarity.
Taken together, these themes illustrate how ETC nurtured multiple dimensions of individual wellbeing: affective joy, professional satisfaction, and identity-based meaning. It affirmed mattering by validating both identity and artistry, enabling participants to feel fully recognized.
Community Wellbeing
Representation and Diversity
At the community level, ETC addressed long-standing imbalances in Jewish theatre. By amplifying non-Ashkenazi and non-white voices in both the creators (the playwrights) and the products (the plays), it challenged the dominance of a narrow canon and broadened understandings of what Jewishness looks and feels like. As one playwright remarked, “The strength [of ETC] is the diversity of what it means to be a Jew. It also reflects the diversity of our own experiences.” Another emphasized its value in “counter[ing] the misinformation” underlying beliefs that North American Jewry is solely Ashkenazi and white. Representation is not merely a symbolic gesture. It is integral to community wellbeing because it affirms the presence of all members, reduces alienation, and fosters shared ownership of cultural narratives. A Jewish theatre ecosystem that includes diverse voices is healthier, more balanced, and more resilient.
Building Relational Networks
ETC also fostered community wellbeing through its cohort model. The relationships formed among playwrights were described as deeply supportive and sustaining. These networks provided affirmation, collaboration, and shared insight into navigating both artistic and Jewish communal spaces. As one participant put it, “I felt accepted by that intellectual basket...we find a sort of hybridity and a mirroring or seeing of self in those complex histories.” Such relational ties contribute to community wellbeing by strengthening social capital. They enable not only individual flourishing but also collective creativity and resilience. The cohort became a microcosm of a more inclusive Jewish community, demonstrating how intentional design can cultivate belonging across difference.
Healing Exclusion and Invisibility
The interviews also underscored the costs of exclusion in other Jewish artistic contexts. Several playwrights described years of struggling to enter Jewish theatre, facing rejection or incomprehension when presenting work that did not fit Ashkenazi norms. One recalled, “I wanted to get into the Jewish theatre for a while because I’m a Jewish person and it matters to me. And there was not really a good entry point.” Another described the pain of partial recognition: “The more you express [who you are] over and over again really makes [your difference] clear for others.” By contrast, ETC provided visibility and acceptance. Participants spoke of feeling “part of this thing [Jewish theatre]” for the first time. These shifts have implications beyond individual participants. When communities redress exclusion and create genuine pathways for inclusion, the collective fabric becomes stronger, healthier, and more just.
Theoretical Reflections: Mattering in Practice
The concept of mattering provides a unifying thread for understanding ETC’s impact. As Flett (2022) notes, mattering is double-edged: protective when experienced, but deeply harmful when absent. For playwrights of color in Jewish theatre, experiences of not mattering, of invisibility, dismissal or tokenism, have been particularly painful. ETC countered this negativity by affirming mattering at multiple levels. Participants felt seen in their identities, validated in their artistry, and welcomed into a supportive cohort. The program also signaled to the broader Jewish theatre community that their stories mattered in the collective canon. In doing so, ETC advanced both individual and community wellbeing.
Conclusions: Implications for Jewish Arts and Community Organizations
While ETC was specific to theatre, its lessons extend more broadly. For Jewish educational and cultural organizations, the program underscores the transformative power of recognition, representation, and relational community. Key implications include:
- Center diverse identities. Programs that explicitly celebrate racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity affirm participants’ whole selves, enhancing both wellbeing and creative vitality.
- Build cohorts and communities of practice. Relational support sustains wellbeing, especially for those who may be isolated elsewhere. Cohorts provide affirmation, collaboration, and resilience.
- Acknowledge exclusion. Many Jewish spaces carry histories of marginalization; naming and redressing these dynamics is necessary for communal health.
- Link artistic excellence to communal flourishing. When artists thrive, they generate cultural narratives that enrich and sustain the collective.
For practitioners, these insights suggest that wellbeing is not a peripheral benefit of arts programming but central to its purpose. Whether in theatre, music, education, or ritual, programs that affirm belonging and representation foster both individual wellness and communal vitality.
Expanding the Canon illustrates how Jewish arts initiatives can cultivate recognition, belonging, and holistic wellness. For individual playwrights, the program offered affirmation of complex identities, professional validation, and emotional support. For the Jewish theatre community, it expanded representation, built networks, and redressed exclusion. At its core, ETC demonstrates that wellbeing emerges when people feel they matter, when their stories are heard, identities valued, and contributions recognized. For Jewish organizations, it offers a powerful model: by centering diversity, fostering community, and affirming mattering, the arts strengthen both individual lives and the collective wellbeing of Jewish communal life.
Works Cited
Elliott, G. C., Kao, S., & Grant, A. M. (2004). Mattering: Empirical Validation of a Social-Psychological Concept. Self and Identity, 3, 339–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576500444000119
Fancourt, D., & Finn, S. (2019). What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. World Health Organization, Health Evidence Network synthesis report, 67.
Flett, G. L. (2022). An Introduction, Review, and Conceptual Analysis of Mattering as an Essential Construct and an Essential Way of Life. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 40(1), 3–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/07342829211057640
Marshall, S. K. (2001). Do I matter? Construct validation of adolescents' perceived mattering to parents and friends. Journal of Adolescence, 24(4), 473–490. https://doi.org/10.1006/jado.2001.0384
McNaught, A. (2011). Defining wellbeing. In A. Knight & A. McNaught (Eds.) Understanding wellbeing: An introduction for students and practitioners of health and social care (pp.7-23). Scion Publishing Ltd.
Wiseman, J., & Brasher, K. (2008). Community wellbeing in an unwell world: Trends, challenges, and possibilities. Journal of Public Health Policy, 29(3), 353–366. https://doi.org/10.1057/jphp.2008.16
Dr. Rebecca Starkman is an applied researcher specializing in qualitative research and evaluation. Rebecca holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Rebecca works in the applied health-care space, using qualitative research tools to address access and equity challenges at multiple levels of the Ontario health-care system. In addition, Rebecca leads exploratory research and evaluations for Jewish community organizations within Canada and the US, including synagogues, arts and culture institutions, and educational initiatives.
By Meredith Katz
“We didn’t go out to find people and say here’s a school for you. We changed our school and grew a community where people who already are looking and want [to join] felt like they had a place.”
-Nicole Nash, Head of School, Hannah Senesh
As the Jewish community becomes more diverse, there is a great need to create spaces where all Jews can feel a sense of belonging. Hannah Senesh, a K-8 Jewish community day school of about 225 students in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, New York, recently challenged itself to expand the school community to better represent the mosaic of Jewish life and create a welcoming and comfortable culture that aligns with its Jewish values. Two understandings underpinned this work 1) the definition of “Jews of Color” (JOC) varies by the person who chooses (or perhaps does not choose) to identify as such (Belzer, et al. 2021); and 2) work with one JOC population builds off of and propels work with others. In 2021, Senesh was awarded a Signature Grant from the Covenant Foundation to support a new initiative entitled “Jews of Color (JOC) Engagement, Within and Beyond our Walls,” spearheaded by Head of School Nicole Nash and Director of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement Jamie Maxner. Their experience illustrates how intentional attention to the needs and interests of one group can at the same time contribute to a more integrated culture of belonging for all.
Background
Senesh is one of many predominantly white Jewish day schools who have undertaken what was often labeled “DEI work” in recent years following the 2020 death of George Floyd and the resulting increased awareness of patterns of racialized police brutality in the United States. These events coincided with a growing awareness of the increasing diversity in the American Jewish community, illustrated in the Beyond the Count report stating that 12-15% of American Jews identified as JOC (Belzer, et al. 2021).[1] Common steps taken by Jewish day schools to address what is perceived as a majority white, “ashkenormative” culture include curriculum audits and professional development opportunities for faculty around issues of anti-racism and Jewish cultural diversity. Some have also made efforts to increase the diversity of the school community through recruitment of Jewish families of color and Jewish and non-Jewish faculty/staff members of color, a targeted strategy which has had mixed success (Katz, Kress & Uhrman, 2024).
At Senesh, these school-based approaches overlap with an emphasis on partnering with individuals, institutions and organizations outside the school dedicated to the experiences of Jews of Color as well as strategies of parent empowerment. These initiatives align with Senesh’s Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging statement, developed in 2018. As Nash says, “We didn’t go out to find people and say here’s a school for you. We changed our school and grew a community where people who already are looking and want [to join] felt like they had a place.”
“Senesh L’Kulam” (“Hosted at Senesh, Enjoyed by Everyone”)
Prior to receiving their Covenant Grant, a popular “Sundays at Senesh” program centered the school as a Jewish communal hub in non-school hours, a trend noted throughout the day school world (Pomson & Schnoor, 2008). Nash envisioned this model as an entry point for collaboration with diverse Jewish groups in Brooklyn. In seeking institutional partners, the Senesh team asks the question, “What do these potential members need?” perhaps in addition to, or even instead of, enrollment in a day school. Partners support Senesh's efforts by contributing content, planning or facilitation, and/or promoting events to their constituents to indicate the importance of the work.
One program, the Jewish Multicultural Fall Family Festival, is held on a Sunday in November. This event, which seeks “to lift up and celebrate the diversity of the customs and traditions of our global Jewish community,” includes activity stations with music, crafts, storytelling and food. November was chosen to honor Mizrahi heritage month. In its inaugural year, partners included nineteen synagogues, Jewish community centers and cultural groups.[2]
Another program, Brooklyn Pride Shabbat, was catalyzed by a specific need identified by Senesh parents. Many Brooklyn Pride 2024 events were planned for Shabbat, making it problematic for Senesh to endorse participation by students and families. At the urging of Senesh’s LGBTQ+ parent affinity group, Maxner reached out to some of the organizations involved to brainstorm alternatives. She and parent leaders coordinated a Shabbat dinner in the school facilities. In addition to current Senesh families, new families enrolled for the 2024-2025 school year attended, as well as families from outside Senesh. Brooklyn Pride Shabbat was repeated in June 2025 and was also used as a model to set up a series of Shabbat dinners with a core group of partners highlighting different themes and groups throughout the 2024-2025 school year. Senesh also hosted the first community wide Jews of Color Havdalah service in February.
These examples highlight the porous boundaries between school and community. Events that were initiated by school administrative or parent leaders and held at the school both served the needs of school families and strengthened partnerships with community organizations. The events illustrate how a focus on one group, Jews of Color, works in tandem with efforts to support groups representing other aspects of Jewish diversity (Sephardi-Mizrahi and LGBTQ+). According to Senesh Diversity Advisory Council member Lindsey Newman, director of education at Be’chol Lashon,[3] the field of those working to support Jewish diversity is small, and it to the advantage of everyone involved to work together. Based on the commitment of Senesh’s leadership to collaboration and partnerships, Newman enthusiastically predicts that the school will become a hub for this work.
Parents Spearhead Diversity Initiatives
As another example of Senesh’s commitment to collaboration and inclusivity, professionals at the school welcome parents as partners. This dynamic is evident in the intentional school-based structures that encourage parent initiatives and through administrative receptiveness to parents with specific expertise to share. Formal institutional work with parents started with the formation of a Parent Diversity and Belonging Committee in 2018 and has expanded to the creation of affinity groups requested and led by parents, including LGBTQ+, JOC, interfaith and Sephardi-Mizrahi groups.
While multiple affinity groups were not part of the original diversity plan, once requested by the parents they were welcomed by the administration. As the parents’ main liaison to administration, Maxner shares that she has learned, “that it is ok” for people to separate at times from the whole based on shared identity in order to support each other. The ongoing evolution of the affinity groups illustrates that a culture of inclusivity can justify the dedication of resources to specific groups, because of the understanding that a stronger sense of belonging for members of these groups enhances the community for all. Several Senesh parents view the affinity groups as the focal point of their connection to the school community, from which their further participation efforts radiate, such as LBTQ+ Shabbat described above and individual parent contributions described below.
Dr. Imani Chapman, the founding member of Senesh’s Diversity Advisory Council, views affinity groups as an equity issue, explaining that certain groups need the kind of additional support that a separate safe space can provide. However, she recognizes the challenge of separating people by identities and advises Senesh to think about “how not to provoke envy among groups,” to clarify the role of the affinity groups (advocacy v. support) and to articulate a path for those who wish to consider joining (e.g., clarifying whose identity, parent or child, determines whether one should or could participate in an affinity group). Dr. Chapman recommends clear policies for communication in order to ensure consistency of experience across groups.
In addition to collaboration around affinity groups, Senesh welcomes parents to share expertise in programming. Often, Senesh parents are leaders of the organizations with which Senesh partners, and their contributions to Senesh events strengthen these partnerships. For example, before Purim Senesh parent and Kane Street Synagogue Rabbi Michelle Dardashti visited middle school students to share her family's story and talk about her Persian-Jewish heritage. Parent Naomi Rabeeya, a Hebrew Union College development professional, taught second graders an Iraqi-Jewish tune for Mah Nishtanah (the Four Questions) that her family has sung at their Seder for generations.
Senesh parent Rabbi Heather Miller, founder of The Multitudes, an organization dedicated to raising race consciousness, is a member of Senesh’s Diversity Committee and JOC affinity group. Rabbi Miller initiated the “Together We Win” program, a collaboration between Senesh and the Lamad Academy Charter School in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The program launched in Fall 2023 as an 8-week afterschool program with sponsorship from the National Black Empowerment Council (NBEC) and UJA Federation. It was open to 6th-8th graders from Senesh and Lamad as a pilot cohort of middle schoolers from Black and Brown communities and the Jewish community. Twelve students from each school met regularly to learn about each other’s cultures and histories and particularly the impacts of racism and antisemitism. The program included a joint trip to Washington DC to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Memorial and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In 2024-2025, students from Senesh and Lamad Academy continued the partnership, as part of an “exploring Black and Jewish narratives” program. Faculty created an expanded version of an “Exploring Black Narratives” curriculum[4] with which 7th graders at Senesh had engaged previously. Although the Senesh-Lamad Academy partnership is not specifically focused on the experiences of Jews of Color, Rabbi Miller’s leadership and the participation of some Senesh students of color ensured their representation. This program is a crucial next step beyond speaking and learning “about” American diversity to interacting more regularly with people who hold different identities.
Rabbi Miller’s contributions underscore the multifaceted impact of valuing parents in the culture building process. Rabbi Miller has written and spoken publicly about frustrations with other day schools and their approaches to inclusion of her biracial children (2020). In contrast, Rabbi Miller shared her delight the first time she walked into her child’s Senesh classroom and realized that she was not the only parent of color. She explained that with 25% children of color in the class her child wouldn’t feel out of place. By creating a welcoming school environment that values parent contributions, Senesh gained an enthusiastic partner family.
Camp Kulam- a Deep Dive into Program Development for JOC
Important curricular lessons can also be gleaned from a case study of Senesh’s one-week vacation “Camp Kulam,[5] a “multicultural camp that celebrates global Jewish diversity [and] lifts up the experiences of Jews of Color.” As described on the school website, campers had the opportunity to “explore and feel proud of their own identities [and] celebrate and learn about Jewish cultures and communities around the world.”
Staffing is a significant element in creating an inclusive culture that celebrates diversity, as recruited camp staff all identified as JOC. Parents appreciated the diverse Jewish identities represented by the staff who, as in all camps, serve as role models. One notable staff member was a Senesh 6th grade student who identifies as JOC. Her mother, a member of the Diversity Committee, was excited to have her daughter participate as an intern as no similar experience had been previously available. Another parent spoke of a quickly forming bond between her normally shy, reserved child, and the counselors. Maxner shares that this relationship building is crucial: “not every activity” has to include more formal Jewish diversity content to project a message of inclusion as long as positive relationships are evolving among campers and between campers and staff.
Camp staff also valued their experience. Mostly young adults, they shared powerful narratives as Jews of Color during orientation. By providing opportunities for these young adults to hear validation of their heritage that they might not have experienced previously, to grow their own Jewish learning, and to increase their own sense of belonging, Maxner hopes they might begin to see themselves as emerging Jewish educators, particularly if more regular work opportunities can be offered. To this end, she recruited one camp staff member to work in Senesh’s after school program who then took a teacher assistant position.
The Senesh team and JOC families recognize that even with dedicated recruitment not all Jewish educational institutions will be staffed, even in part, by Jews of Color. Nevertheless, they point to intentionally inclusive spaces such as Camp Kulam as critical experiences for children of JOC families. It is important for them to see themselves and their families reflected in leadership, curriculum, and fellow campers, even if only for a short time. Experiences such as these add balance to their experiences in majority-White Jewish institutions.
The Challenge of Language and Labels
Like others in the field, Senesh stakeholders noted that “Jews of Color” as an umbrella term is both useful and problematic. On the one hand, they appreciate the term for calling attention to the diversity of the Jewish community. However, just as Jews are not a monolithic group, Jews of Color are not monolithic. At Senesh, JOC self-identify based on different histories: as the child of one or two parents of color, as Jews by choice, as Africans, Asians or Latinos, or as trans-racial adoptees. JOC may be lumped together as “non-white” in an American society that assigns racial identity in a unique way, but this essentialized racial identity may not be the main one with which JOC’s were raised. As noted, specifically some of Sephardi/Mizrahi descent, by way of Israel or other paths, often do not name themselves as Jews of Color and do not see themselves as separate from the white-identifying Jewish majority (Bitton, 2025). As Be’Chol Lashon’s Newman explains, “Jews of Color” is a socially created category that describes an experience, not a list of characteristics, and that experience is at the intersection of religion, ethnicity and race. All of these components need consideration when working towards an inclusive environment, throughout programming and marketing materials; there is no “one size fits all.”
Language issues extend to data collection and analysis. Maxner reports that during Camp Kulam’s pilot year the twelve campers come from backgrounds that are not neatly classified as “Jews of Color” or “white Jews.” Whose identity characteristics should be considered in demographic aggregations - the child’s, the parents’, or both? It is difficult to analyze data when parents can choose “all that apply.” By extension, it is challenging to evaluate the impact of the program overall for the target audiences since few generalizations will apply to the whole group. Maxner also shared that some parents felt the amount and nature of demographic questions on the camp application were burdensome, bordering on intrusive. This raises the challenge of how to build an intentional community that includes people of different backgrounds without instilling a sense of tokenism in those representing marginalized groups.
Sharing the Senesh Story
As their work continues, Senesh has prioritized sharing its experiences with the field by creating intentional spaces for connection, learning, and collaboration. Nash, Maxner and Chapman presented at the 2025 Prizmah day school conference, offering a practical framework for building spaces of belonging and elevating diversity, including tools and insights for launching and sustaining parent affinity spaces. Following Prizmah, Senesh designed a half-day in-person “Diversity and Belonging Workshop” for a cohort of New York day schools with the goal of deepening participating schools’ capacity to build and sustain diversity efforts in ways that are meaningful and mission-aligned. Participant feedback showed that school leaders are eager not only for frameworks and tools, but also for spaces of ongoing reflection, accountability, and support as they continue this essential work in a challenging political environment.
Senesh’s journey of developing and maintaining a culture of belonging is ongoing. While Nash declares firmly that inclusion has become organic, and “it’s just what we do,” the Senesh team acknowledges that it is her visioning and vigilance in shaping initiatives that actualize the school’s values that keeps the process moving ahead, as well as a willingness to take risks and experiment. While every school culture is unique, and Senesh’s exact model is not replicable, their innovative approaches of empowering parents and reaching beyond traditional school stakeholders to wider community partners offer fruitful starting points for elevating the voices of marginalized groups such as JOC. Redefining community as “within and beyond” is a crucial move to synergize creativity and energy to sustain a culture of belonging.
References:
Belzer, T., Brundage, T., Calvetti, V., Gorsky, G., Kelman, A., & Perez, D. (2021). Beyond the count: Perspectives and lived experiences of Jews of color. Jews of Color Initiative. Retrieved July 9, 2025 from BEYONDTHECOUNT.FINAL_.8.12.21.pdf
Berger, S. (2020). Jewish Word | Jews of Color
Bitton, M. Why I Am Not a Jew of Color – SAPIR Journal
Katz, M., Kress, J. & Uhrman, A (2024). Jewish Day School Educators’ Perceptions of How Their School Communities Engage with Race and Racism. The Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE).
Jewish Educators on How School Communities Engage with Race/Racism | CASJE
Miller, H. (2020) We're All Helping Raise Black Jewish Kids – Kveller
Pomson, A., & Schnoor, R. F. (2008). Back to school: Jewish day school in the lives of adult Jews. Wayne State University Press.
Race, ethnicity, heritage and immigration among U.S. Jews | Pew Research Center
Rosen, The DEI Complex Will Never Protect Jews - Tablet Magazine;
Tremoglie, Are these Jewish organizations still supporting Black Lives Matter? - Washington Examiner
[1] Methodological and definitional differences result in a range of percentages. According to a 2021 Pew Study, “ 92% of U.S. Jews describe themselves as White and non-Hispanic, while 8% say they belong to another racial or ethnic group.”Race, ethnicity, heritage and immigration among U.S. Jews | Pew Research Center
[2] Partners included the American Sephardi Federation, AsefaMusic, Be'chol Lashon , Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, Beth Shalom v'Emeth Reform Temple, Encore Music, Flatbush Jewish Center, JCC Brooklyn, JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, Kane Street Synagogue, New York Andalus Ensemble, Park Slope Jewish Center, PJ Library in New York, Repair the World Brooklyn, Sephardic American Mizrahi Initiative - SAMi, Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network, Sprout Brooklyn Day Camp, and The Multitudes.
[3] Be’Chol Lashon, (literally, “in every language”) headquartered in San Francisco, has pioneered the celebration of multicultural Jewish life through educational programming and research since its founding in 1988.
[4] The program is designed specifically for Jewish day schools. It brings a team of teaching artists of color to introduce Black narratives through literature, interviews and performance. Our-program — Exploring Black Narratives
[5] Senesh piloted “Camp Kulam” in 2023 and 2024 during February break week for New York City public schools and some private schools.
Meredith Katz is a doctoral lecturer in the Secondary Education and Youth Services (SEYS) program in social studies education at Queens College (City University of New York). She recently completed twelve years as Clinical Assistant professor of Jewish Education in the William Davidson School of Jewish Education of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Meredith also serves as faculty for the Jewish Court of All Times online simulation program for Jewish day schools, previously funded generously by the Covenant Foundation. Meredith’s current research interests include citizenship education in Jewish schools, particularly as it relates to the teaching of Jewish history and schools’ efforts to engage with issues of diversity.
By Dr. Judith Shapero
- “It is beautiful to have this safe space to express myself with you sisters.”
- “These words filled my messy soul with light.”
- “I've never looked at a Torah text this way until tonight.”
- “It doesn’t matter who you are - just that you want to be there is enough -- and that’s just gorgeous.”
These heartfelt testimonials reflect the impact of SVIVAH’s groundbreaking programs, which offer pastorally-infused Torah learning and community-building designed for Jewish women of all backgrounds. How did SVIVAH create such an inspiring community? What can we, as Jewish educators, pastoral guides, leaders, and learners, glean in order to make our experiences more powerful? Specifically, what can we learn about the synergy between Torah education and pastoral-emotional well-being? This article[1] will 1) explore three key areas of this powerful synergy – the content of SVIVAH’s workshops, the training it provides its educators, and its workshop methodology – 2) articulate the reasons this integration of Torah learning with pastoral-emotional care builds a caring community; and 3) outline insights educators and institutions can apply in their own settings.
Who is SVIVAH and what is HerTorah?
SVIVAH, Hebrew for “surrounding her,” defines itself as a “multigenerational, inclusive, powerful community of Jewish women” (SVIVAH, 2021c) that is “committed to creating communal empowerment and support” (Mortkowitz & Sperling, 2022). Among SVIVAH’s many offerings, its signature HerTorah program recruits top scholar-educators to teach Torah and aims to “use our foundational Torah text as a medium for true community and connection building” (SVIVAH, 2021b).
SVIVAH’s pastorally infused Torah programs are led by its founding Director Ariele Mortkowitz, HerTorah Director Rabbanit Aliza Sperling, and Director of Pastoral Education, Rabbanit Dalia Davis. These leaders conceive and design the HerTorah programs, reach out to the community, recruit and train the educators for each workshop, and facilitate the learning. Each HerTorah workshop, held roughly monthly, attracts an average of 122 learners (Covenant Foundation, 2025), all of whom participate online.
Content of SVIVAH’s Programs Integrating Torah Teaching and Emotional-Pastoral Care
SVIVAH prioritizes creating a supportive community. For HerTorah workshops, the leaders choose Torah texts and approaches to those texts that serve this greater goal. They don’t start with the question of “What Torah do we want to teach?” but rather, “What Torah do people need?” (Sperling). The leaders then recruit Torah scholar-educators and pastoral and mental health experts in that particular area to teach in their workshops.
For example, a HerTorah Shavuot workshop on the Book of Ruth focused on how the complicated mentor-mentee relationship embodied by Naomi and Ruth might resonate for our lives today. To that end, the leaders did not ask their scholar-educators to just “give us your best shiur [lesson] on Megillat Ruth,” but rather to “see how this specific aspect plays out” (Schiowitz). With two Torah scholars teaching and three individuals sharing personal stories, the workshop explored power dynamics, how blind trust can be both beautiful and potentially lead to abuse, and how to hold and be held when we don’t have the answers ourselves.
Similarly, a workshop on Passover had a particular emotional-pastoral focus: the redemptive power of speech. The teacher, Rabbi Maya Zinkow, used the Passover Haggadah’s labeling of the Four Children to provoke a discussion about the dangers of assigning labels and judging others. She related this to the labeling (e.g., Zionist and anti-Zionist) and to the divisiveness she sees as a Hillel director on campus. The second teacher, Rabbi Dr. Erin Lieb Smokler, used a Chassidic text to affirm that “life is complex, difficult, and messy, and that’s okay.” The teaching of the texts served the holistic goal of resonating with participants’ feelings of imperfection and explored how speech can be harnessed either to divide us or to heal.
The workshop “A Time to Dance” wove together the Simchat Torah anniversary of the October 7th massacre at the Nova dance festival with ideas about the power of dance. Mortkowitz and Davis framed the learning with personal stories. Then JTS Professor Amy Kalmanofsky presented biblical texts about dance, showing how it is often connected to women, how it “captures an intrinsic relationship between suffering and joy,” and is a moment of “transformation.” Subsequently, Naama Sadan, a follower of a mystical school of Judaism, shared various musings, such as how “our bodies are wrapped in divine light.” A dance therapist then led the participants in a dance workshop where they were encouraged to use dance to explore their feelings. Finally, the participants learned and recorded a dance that was commissioned by a family of a Nova festival victim, to send to the family and give them strength. The workshop’s elements coalesced to address the pastoral-emotional question of, “How can we dance again?”
For these and the other HerTorah workshops, [2] SVIVAH’s leaders begin designing the Torah teaching by choosing the specific pastoral-emotional goal of the workshop, ultimately tied into their larger HerTorah purpose of using “our foundational Torah text as a medium for true community and connection building” (SVIVAH, 2021b). The leaders then choose specific Torah educators and mental health specialists to teach aligned with those goals.
Educating the Educators
All HerTorah educators are top scholars and highly experienced Torah teachers.[3] However, SVIVAH’s leaders recognized a need for these scholar-educators to be aware of the pastoral-emotional impact their teaching might evoke in learners, especially during these fraught times. For example, how would teaching a text from the Books of Esther or Eichah that alludes to gender-based violence be received by women who have experienced such violence themselves? Texts might trigger complicated feelings when taught without explicit empathy.
The organization’s leaders, therefore, created a powerful system for guiding scholars to teach Torah with pastoral-emotional sensitivity. The goal was to “prepare Torah educators by giving them tools they did not get in their semicha or PhD” (Sperling).[4] Mortkowitz explains that “you can’t just open a Pandora’s Box. You need to tend to these emotions. And [our system] gives teachers the awareness, the tools, and the confidence to do so.”
The training process itself consists of a pre-workshop joint meeting between the selected HerTorah educators, the SVIVAH leaders, and relevant mental health professionals. This meeting is designed to give HerTorah teachers the opportunity to ask the mental health professionals questions about potential emotional issues arising from the Torah passages they might be teaching, and for the mental health professionals to offer the teachers strategies for emotionally supporting learners. The meeting is also designed to define a common purpose and to align the HerTorah educators’ texts and teachings with SVIVAH’s specific emotional-pastoral goals of each workshop.
Through this process, the educators gain valuable skills. They become aware of the distinct goals of a SVIVAH Torah session: to enable learners to “interpret Torah in a way that resonates with each individual personally, and not just intellectually, but also psychologically and emotionally” (Schiowitz). Furthermore, they understand that SVIVAH’s primary goal is creating community, with Torah study serving this purpose: it is about “having the text be what brings the community together, but the community is the focus” (Tanchel). Educators also recognize SVIVAH’s openness in welcoming women of all backgrounds and skill levels, ensuring participants experience “warmth, authenticity, and acceptance” (Tanchel). Educator Rabbanit Thomas-Newborn noted that she “would not have had the awareness of the diversity and the open heart and the need for the warm pastoral” elements if not for the pre-workshop meeting. This collaborative process “aligns the teaching with SVIVAH’s vision” (Benchimol), and “deepen[s the educators’] readiness to teach the class” to a unique SVIVAH audience that is “diverse, has a range of skills, and has a desire to have a safe women’s space that can uplift them” (Thomas-Newborn). Schiowitz appreciated that SVIVAH’s collaborative meeting “brought us into the bigger process… and was necessary [for us] to reach more holistic goals.” This collaboration generates a thoughtful exchange of ideas, preparing the educators to lead a HerTorah workshop that flows smoothly and explores emotionally resonant ideas anchored in Torah.
Powerful Methodology
In addition to aligning around a powerful emotional-pastoral goal (see above), all the sessions follow a consistent framework. Mortkowitz warmly welcomes attendees and reads the SVIVAH guidelines, which include “צלם אלוקים -respect the godliness of the others in the room,” “צימצום - embrace vulnerability,” and “קודש קודשים - honor the sanctity of this safe and secure space.” Participants are encouraged to come as they are – messy mascara, messy room, and messy thoughts included – to contribute however they are comfortable, and to stay for as long as they want. Guest educators teach, and Davis and/or Sperling offer words of Torah learning and conclusions before and after the guest speakers. Each educator weaves into her teaching an acknowledgement of life’s complexities, the challenges we face, and the power of “holding one another” (Mortkowitz). All these elements coalesce to create a community of care.
Throughout each session, the SVIVAH leaders are highly active on the Zoom chat, sending a personal “So glad you joined us” message to each attendee, posting comments, and reacting to others’ contributions. This vibrant atmosphere leads participants to engage similarly, resulting in hundreds of chat comments and reactions of engagement and appreciation. Examples include: “I’m blown away,” “I loved the teaching,” “I’m taking the feeling that I’m NOT ALONE in this madness and stress!” “This year the heartbreak feels so completely present, overwhelming. I am deeply grateful for you,” and “We’re all walking each other home.”
Grounding emotional-pastoral care in Torah
Just as Torah learning is enriched by emotional-pastoral insights, so too is emotional-pastoral care enriched by insights from the Torah.[5] Those in need of support often respond better when that support is rooted in spirituality, tradition, and community.[6] Centering emotional care around Torah resonates more powerfully because the care is anchored “in our traditions, and thus ourselves” (Benchimol). For example, in the Tisha B’Av workshop, which explored texts in the Book of Eichah referencing sexual violence, educator Tehilah Eisenstadt drew parallels between Jewish rituals of mourning – specifically, the ritual of sitting shiva – and new rituals we can use to support survivors of sexual violence. A participant wrote in the chat, “I love that you offered a ‘survivor shiva’[7] because it feels like something we KNOW how to do, at a time, and in the face of something we SO do not know how to handle.” Grounding the new ritual in a familiar one makes the former more accessible and impactful. This anecdotal response aligns with a recent Israeli study which demonstrated the positive impact on Jewish recovering addicts when they engaged as a community in Jewish culture and practice (Pagis et al., 2025). Sperling explains that this integration of Torah into emotional care leads participants to realize that “the Torah is not transcendent, outside of myself, but that the Torah that is in the text is in me - with my own flesh I will see God.”
Seeing familiar Jewish traditions when creating a creating a caring community for Jews is especially needed because mainstream chaplaincy often has a Christian flavor. Thomas-Newborn, president of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC), and a SVIVAH educator, explains that NAJC certification requires a high level of Torah expertise[8]because “we need to be intentional about using Jewish ideas.” A study by two other NAJC-certified rabbis observes that clinical pastoral education is “heavily laden with Christian orientation and terminology,” so does not resonate with Jewish clients (Taylor & Zucker, 2002). Studies across various faiths concur that there is a critical “need for culturally sensitive approaches in mental health care” (Kopparthi, 2025) that align with the participant’s spiritual needs. Integrating the traditions of Torah into mental health support enables Jewish participants to feel a sense of belonging within the supportive community.
According to Benchimol, connecting emotional care to our community's texts and traditions has an additional benefit of prompting an acknowledgment that these problems exist within our own community. This acknowledgment validates people’s experiences of harm, tasks the community with supporting the vulnerable, and pushes the community to alleviate systemic problems which have led to that harm. In this spirit, the Tisha B’Av workshop ended with participants creating a word wall to express support for survivors. Showing her gratitude, one SVIVAH participant commented, “This is so appropriate to share pain and trauma during this time. All Jewish spaces can and should [acknowledge] this, should have steps toward real healing.”
Ultimately, a significant reason for grounding emotional care in Torah is Torah’s capacity – when taught with thoughtfulness and care – for spiritual healing. The power of this approach is illustrated by a client who told Benchimol that she had done many hours of therapy to deal with past abuse but “could never heal the spiritual part that was killed by the abuse” until she anchored her therapy in Torah.[9] Torah addresses our spirits and souls. As Mortkowitz described, “Torah is not an intellectual pursuit; it’s a life guide and soul compass.”
Conclusions and lessons for the field
Torah teaching without emotional sensitivity can trigger discomfort and alienation for some, while emotional support without Torah content misses out on spiritual inspiration and community-building. SVIVAH has designed a distinct methodology for integrating Torah and pastoral-emotional care that can serve as a powerful model for other educators and organizations:
- Understand the value of integrating Torah teaching and emotional-pastoral care, and intend to cultivate it.
- Decide on an overarching thematic goal (rather than just a Torah topic) that aligns with creating a supportive community.
- Recruit educators and consult mental health experts who can speak to this theme.
- Create a tentative workshop outline. Then hold a thoughtful pre-workshop meeting with the educators and the mental health experts to discuss the overarching theme, texts that might support it, emotions those texts might trigger, needs the learners will have, and methods for supporting learners through the workshop. Together, create the flow of the workshop.
- During the workshop, ensure the learners feel warmly welcome and supported. This can be done through inclusive words of welcome, caring guidelines, personal messaging, teaching that is aware of its effects on the learners, language that acknowledges emotional needs, and prompting learner involvement.
- Communicate before and after each workshop using language that similarly acknowledges the diversity and emotional needs of the community.
Together, these elements create a powerful community of care. The hundreds of learners who join each workshop, and their comments on the support, inclusivity, and inspiration they feel, attest to the community's thirst for this type of learning and the success of SVIVAH's methodology in nourishing it.
Even for organizations that are not structured like SVIVAH, elements of SVIVAH’s methodologies and sensitivities can elevate their practice. As well, broader implementation could include deeper training in spiritual care for rabbinical school students, professional development offerings for rabbis and educators, and enhanced communication between chaplaincy and scholar-educator organizations.
Rabba Yaffa Epstein, a scholar and SVIVAH teacher, summarizes the connection between Torah and emotional care that SVIVAH has carefully cultivated: “People desperately need community and care, and the depth of Torah helps provide it, because Torah is meant to be about your soul.”
Personal Interviews
Benchimol, Dr. Guila, Senior Advisor at the SRE Network. Interview. September 25, 2024, and March 20, 2025.
Davis, Rabbanit Dalia, Director of Pastoral Education, SVIVAH. Interview. April 10, 2024, and March 5, 2025
Epstein, Rabba Yaffa, Senior Scholar and Educator-in-Residence at the Jewish Education Project. Interview. June 23, 2025.
Kalmonofsky, Dr. Amy. Blanche and Romie Shapiro Professor of Bible and Dean of List College and Kekst Graduate School, Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Interview. December 16, 2024.
Mortkowitz, Ariele, Founding Director, SVIVAH. Interview. January 25, 2024, May 6, 2024, January 25, 2025, April 7, 2025, and April 30, 2025 and May 28, 2025.
Schiowitz, Shira, Teacher, mentor, and PD co-director at SAR High School. Interview. June 21, 2024.
Sperling, Rabbanit Aliza, Director of Education, SVIVAH. Interview. January 19, 2024, May 6, 2024, April 7, 2025, and April 30, 2025 and May 28, 2025.
Tanchel, Dr. Susie, Vice-President of Hebrew College. Interview. June 26, 2024.
Thomas Newborn, Rabbanit Alissa. President of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains and Rabbanit at Netivot Shalom. Interview. June 18, 2025.
HerTorah program observations
This article incorporates data from observing HerTorah workshops offered between April 2024 until May 2025.[10] The full list of SVIVAH’s workshops and each workshop’s educator bios can be found at svivah.org/gatherings.
References
Kopparthi, G. S. (2025). Rituals, religion, and recovery: Exploring the role of spirituality in mental health interventions. European Economics Letters, 15(1). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390340036_Rituals_Religion_and_Recovery_Exploring_the_Role_of_Spirituality_in_Mental_Health_Interventions
Leung, J., & Li, K.-K. (2023). Faith-based spiritual intervention for persons with depression: Preliminary evidence from a pilot study. Healthcare, 11(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152134
Levitz, Y. N., & Twerski, A. J. (Eds.). (2012). A practical guide to rabbinic counseling. Feldheim Publishers.
Miller, L. (2021). The Awakened Brain: The new science of spirituality and our quest for an inspired life. Random House.
Mortkowitz, A. and Sperling, A., (2022) SVIVAH full proposal cover sheet, Covenant signature grant, Covenant Foundation.
Mortkowitz, A. and Sperling, A., (2025) SVIVAH semi-annual report narrative, Covenant Foundation.
Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains. (2023). NAJC certification handbook. https://najc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NAJC_Cert_HndBk_Jan2023.pdf
Nganyu, G. N. (2025). Pastoral care and Christian psychotherapy: Exploring the intersection of spiritual direction and mental health support in the local church. Global Journals. Retrieved from https://www.gjournals.org/2025/05/07/050625078-nganyu/
Pagis, M., Elbaz, A., & Ben Yair, Y. (2025). The different faces of religion in therapy: An exploratory qualitative study of a religion-based therapeutic community for addiction recovery in Israel. Journal of Religion and Health, 64(1), 64–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-024-02152-y
SVIVAH. (2021a). Gatherings. https://www.svivah.org/gatherings
SVIVAH. (2021b). HerTorah. https://www.svivah.org/hertorah
SVIVAH. (2021c). Home. https://www.svivah.org/
Taylor, R. B. E., & Zucker, R. D. J. (2002). Nearly everything we wish our non-Jewish supervisors had known about us as Jewish supervisees. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 56(4), 327–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/154230500205600403
Ukpo, S. D., Imohiosen, C. E., Akello, J. O., & Ajuluchukwu, P. (2024). The impact of religious and spiritual counseling on mental health outcomes in geriatric care. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Growth Evaluation, 5(6), 1538–1547. https://doi.org/10.54660/.IJMRGE.2024.5.5.1538-1547
West, W. (2000). Psychotherapy & spirituality: Crossing the line between therapy and religion. SAGE Publications.
Wonder & Repair. Projects. wonder-and-repair.square.site/projects
[1] This article is based on a study conducted by Dr. Judith Shapero on behalf of the Covenant Foundation. The study involved multiple in-depth interviews with SVIVAH founding Director Ariele Mortkowitz, HerTorah Director Rabbanit Aliza Sperling, and Director of Pastoral Education, Rabbanit Dalia Davis, as well as interviews with HerTorah teachers. A list of educators quoted in this article can be found in the ‘personal interviews’ section below. Data was also collecting through direct observation of eleven HerTorah classes and a review of relevant project files. I analyzed the data qualitatively in order to identify learnings worth sharing with the wider field.
[2] For a full list and more details about each of SVIVAH’s offerings, see Svivah.org/gatherings.
[3] A full list of SVIVAH educators and their bios can be found at svivah.org/gatherings.
[4] The lack of mental health training for rabbis has been recognized by many. For example, mental health professional Dr. Abraham J. Twersky writes that “traditional rabbinic training, while providing the rabbi with a wealth of knowledge from the rich heritage of Judaism, does not address many of the concepts that are essential for proper counselling” (Levitz & Twerski, 2012, preface).
[5] A similar phenomenon is observed in other faith communities. For example, Nganyu (2025) states that "The integration of pastoral care and Christian faith emerges as an essential paradigm for promoting holistic well-being.” See also William West’s argument for “crossing the line between therapy and religion” (2000).
[6] The impact of spiritual care on mental health of various populations has been examined in many studies, including Ukpo et al. (2024) which concludes that “religious and spiritual counseling has emerged as a significant intervention in geriatric mental health care, providing emotional support, resilience, and a sense of purpose.” See also Leung and Li (2023) whose study found that “faith-based spiritual intervention was effective in reducing depressive symptoms.”
[7] See wonder-and-repair.square.site/projects for more details about the ‘survivor shiva’ ritual created by Tehilah Eisenstadt.
[8] The NAJC Certification Handbook (2023) states that certification requires a candidate to demonstrate a “familiarity with and ability to integrate sacred Jewish texts and studies with chaplaincy practice.”
[9] See also psychologist Lisa Miller ‘s works on how spirituality helps us to move beyond “merely coping” to “transcend[ing]” (2021).
[10] The following pastorally infused HerTorah workshops were implemented from April 2024 until May 2025 and were observed as part of this study: April 3, 2024, Pesach HerTorah: The Redemptive Power of Speech (expanded on above) paired with April 9, 2024 Connective Conversations: Coming to the Table Across Difference • June 6, 2024, Shavuot HerTorah: ‘Show me the way:’ Guiding Others on the Journey of Life in the Book of Ruth and Today (expanded on above) paired with May 8, 2024 When Mother’s Day is Hard. • August 7, 2024, above). • October 21, 2024, HerTorah: A Time to Dance (expanded on above). • December 16, 2024, Chanukah HerTorah: Finding Light in the Dark. • March 11, 2025, Purim HerTorah: Stepping Up When It’s Hard • March 26, 2025, Freedom from Imposter Syndrome. • April 3, 2025, Passover HerTorah: What the Seder can Teach us about Living through difficult times. •May 7, 2025, When Mother’s Day is Hard: Circles of Support.
Dr. Judith Shapero is Director of Education at Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto, as well as a leader and researcher who supports schools, universities, and foundations in enhancing their Jewish educational programs. She has taught Jewish Studies and teacher-training courses at York University and at JTS, has conducted research and evaluations for the Covenant Foundation, Micah Philanthropies, the Walder Foundation, and Rosov Consulting, and has won numerous awards for her teaching and scholarship.
By Dr. Esther S. Friedman
What does it mean to bring wellness practices into Jewish educational spaces? Over the past two years, M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education invited two cohorts of senior educators to explore this question through a research fellowship focused on wellness. M² supports educators at various stages of their careers through professional development and educational resources, and this fellowship brought together nineteen participants to develop new ideas and practices. The result was a set of projects and research papers rooted in tradition, pedagogy, and personal growth that reimagined what wellness might look like in Jewish spaces. That mix of tradition and reinvention, of rootedness and reach, defined the M² Fellowship on wellness.
This report is based on a two-year evaluation that included interviews, project reviews, and conversations with M² fellows and program faculty, focusing on how participants understood and enacted wellness through their projects.
What Is Wellness in Jewish Education?
In the broader field of education, wellness is understood as a multifaceted construct, shaped by how educators feel, the relationships they build, and the environments they work in. Scholars have framed educator wellness through different lenses. Some highlight the importance of fit between people and their work settings, including leadership and workplace culture (Fox et al., 2022). Others focus on whether teachers’ and students’ expectations are in sync (Johnston & Lane, 2023). Many draw on ideas like Self-Determination Theory and transformative learning to emphasize care, autonomy, and growth (O’hara , 2017; Brooker et al., 2019; Wilson et al., 2023; Yager, 2011).
M²’s approach to wellness in Jewish education both echoes and expands on these ideas. It places emotional and relational well-being at the center, but begins by weaving in Jewish spiritual practices, a sense of belonging to community, and deep reflection. The fellowship highlights chavruta as a model of partnership and mutual support and sees Jewish learning and nourishment not just as tools for wellbeing but as essential expressions of it.
In the first year of the fellowship, Lisa Goldstein, who led the wellness fellows, and the M² team, intentionally resisted defining wellness, hoping fellows would surface their own understandings through their learning and creative processes. But, she reflected, the first cohort did not like this at all. The lack of shared language left many feeling unanchored. In response, by year two, M² introduced a working definition of wellness as “a state that includes high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning or purpose, a connection to something greater than ourselves, and the ability to respond with resilience to adverse circumstances.”
Lisa grounded this framework for the fellows in Jewish tradition. She drew inspiration from Birkat HaChodesh, the blessing for the new month, recited on Shabbat Mevarchim, the Shabbat preceding the new month. “This blessing names it all,” she explained. “It doesn’t reduce wellness to a feeling. It links it to values, to community, to the divine.”
Birkat HaChodesh
יְחַדֵּשׁ עָלֵינוּ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶת הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לְטוֹבָה וְלִבְרָכָה, לְשָׂשׂוֹן וּלְשִׂמְחָה, לִישׁוּעָה וְלְנֶחָמָה, וּלְפַרְנָסָה טוֹבָה, וְלִגְזֵרוֹת טוֹבוֹת, וְלִישׁוּעוֹת וּנֶחָמוֹת, וְלְשָׁלוֹם, וּלְסְלִיחָה, וּלְכַפָּרָה, וּלְחַיִּים טוֹבִים וּלְשָׁלוֹם, וּלְכָל טוֹב. לְחַיִּים שֶׁיֵּשׁ בָּהֶם יִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם וְיִרְאַת חֵטְא, לְחַיִּים שֶׁאֵין בָּהֶם בּוּשָׁה וּכְלִמָּה, לְחַיִּים שֶׁעָשֶׁר וְכָבוֹד מְתַמְּשִׁכִּים בָּהֶם, לְחַיִּים שֶׁתִּהְיֶה בָּנוּ אַהֲבַת תּוֹרָה וְיִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם, חַיִּים שֶׁתִּמָּלא מִשְׁאֲלוֹת לִבֵּנוּ לְטוֹבָה.
"May the Holy One, Blessed be He, renew it for us and for all His people, the House of Israel, for life and for peace, for joy and for gladness, for salvation and for consolation, for sustenance and for support, for pardon and for forgiveness, for atonement and for a good life, and for peace.May it be a month in which the Holy One, Blessed be He, satisfies us with the desires of our heart for good. May it be a month of life and of peace, of gladness and of joy, of salvation and of consolation, of support and of sustenance, of pardon and of forgiveness, of atonement and of expiation, of well-being and of blessing. May He renew it for us for good and for blessing."
(Koren Sacks Siddur, 2009, p. 452)
This blessing presents a holistic vision or “list” of the good life by embracing joy, peace, sustenance, forgiveness, and spiritual wholeness. Lisa noted that while “wellness” is a contemporary and accessible term, the Jewish framework of a “good life” may offer a more rooted and all-encompassing ideal.
The Fellows and Their Projects
Each fellow brought a unique lens to the question of what wellness could look like in Jewish education. Over the course of the fellowship, they developed a wide range of projects, from pedagogical frameworks and reflective practices to innovative programs, that creatively blended traditional Jewish ideas with contemporary approaches to well-being. As Lisa Goldstein encouraged them throughout the process, the goal was not to “sprinkle Judaism on top” of an existing model, but to excavate meaning from within Jewish tradition itself.
Some fellows entered the program with a clear vision but then shifted course as their ideas evolved. Others joined looking to explore the concept of wellness in Judaism and Jewish education. All were challenged to translate philosophy into pedagogy, and pedagogy into something that could be shared. Along the way, fellows were invited to ask deep and expansive questions: What does it mean to show up whole? What kind of Jewish space helps others do the same? What does it mean to teach with your soul intact?
The fellowship took place over eight months and offered a highly structured, collaborative learning environment. The wellness fellows met weekly as a cohort led by Lisa Goldstein, engaged in ongoing partnership with a chavruta or thought partner, and, for some, worked closely with a personal coach. They began by articulating their worldview, later workshopped their projects in group settings, and eventually presented their work at a culminating M² colloquium. Along the way, they received support in refining their ideas, developing a written research paper, and even collaborating with a graphic designer to visually represent their work.
The M² fellows were a diverse group of Jewish educators and communal leaders from across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. They represented a range of roles and settings, including day schools, seminaries, universities, youth programs, leadership development initiatives, and community organizations. Whether working in formal or informal contexts, all fellows were engaged in shaping Jewish education through the integration of Jewish wisdom, spiritual practice, and contemporary teaching strategies.
Their projects reflected this diversity. Several focused on cultivating reflective practices for students and educators, using tools like journaling, interactive learning, and pedagogies grounded in self-awareness and personal growth. Others reimagined Jewish ritual to support deeper spiritual engagement, adapting traditional practices to resonate with contemporary communities. A number of fellows created accessible educational tools that helped learners connect with Jewish texts, values, or ideas in meaningful ways. Still others addressed urgent social or communal issues, designing initiatives intended for broader use across Jewish educational and communal settings.
A Closer Look at Four Projects:
Na’anua: A Pedagogy of Jewish Transformative Movement
Dalia Davis arrived at the M² Fellowship with a clear vision: to explore the role of movement in spiritual and educational transformation. She developed Na’anua, a pedagogy of Jewish Transformative Movement, to unite body and soul in Jewish learning and spiritual expression.
Rooted in both secular and Jewish sources, her research highlights the pedagogical value of movement. For instance, Dalia cited a study showing that students who engaged in physical education earlier in the day showed improved focus and academic achievement (Ratey, 2008). Jewish texts also played a central role in her thinking. She drew inspiration from the verse “kol atzmotai tomarna, Hashem mi kamocha”. “All my bones shall say, ‘God, who is like You?’” (Psalms 35:10), which was interpreted by Midrash Tehillim to mean that every limb and sinew should be engaged in worship.
Building on the traditional Sukkot ritual of waving the Four Species, Dalia Davis reimagines the practice as a framework for spiritual alignment and embodied Jewish learning. In Jewish tradition, each of the Four Species is associated with a distinct part of the human being. Dalia assigns symbolic meaning to each as representing a different dimension of the self: aravot (willows) as mind (מחשבה), hadasim (myrtles) as soul (נשמה), etrog (citron) as heart (לב), and lulav (palm branch) as body (גוף), brought into alignment through purposeful, choreographed movement. The ritual of bringing the Four Species together and waving them in all directions thus reflects the integration of one’s full self in divine service.
The Na’anua practice unfolds in a six-step process designed to help participants align their mind, body, heart, and soul. It begins by creating a non-judgmental space for free movement and self-expression. Participants first reflect on the current state of each element of the self using a meditation worksheet. They then engage in structured swaying movements, modeled on the na’anuim of the Four Species, moving each part of the self in six ritual directions. This is followed by a period of free movement, allowing for personal expression beyond the structured motions. Participants are then invited to listen inwardly to what their bodies have expressed, and finally, they revisit their worksheets to reflect on any shifts or insights, concluding with the aforementioned verse “kol atzmotai tomarnah.”
Before joining the fellowship, Dalia had thought of wellness primarily as an emotional or spiritual state, something stable, even idealized, that one needed to achieve. Through her experiences in M², however, she began to understand wellness as a process: a set of ongoing practices that could take many forms and evolve over time.
This shift helped her reframe wellness as accessible and practical rather than niche or esoteric, no longer “just for certain types, but for everyone.” She originally designed her movement pedagogy with middle school students in mind but found that it resonated just as powerfully with adults. The fellowship’s emphasis on reflection, peer exchange, and creative iteration gave her the support she needed to expand and adapt her work. Dalia’s contribution illustrates how wellness in Jewish education can be both embodied and expansive, rooted in ritual yet flexible enough to meet the needs of diverse learners and educators.
Let’s Farbreng!
For Peretz Chein, the fellowship became an opportunity to reimagine Farbrengen, a treasured Chabad tradition, as a structured, shareable practice of wellness.
“Farbrengen is emotionally powerful; it creates space for deep sharing, listening, and reflection. But outside the Chabad world, most people have no idea what it is or how to enter it.” That was his starting point. Peretz, a longtime Chabad rabbi, has directed the Chabad at Brandeis with his wife Chani since 2001, and together they founded M54: The Institute for Insourcing. He joined the M² Research Fellowship on wellbeing with a problem: how to share the power of Farbrengen, a sacred circle of storytelling, song, and spiritual vulnerability, with students who had never experienced one. “I felt a disconnect from the practice myself,” he said. “I wanted to re-engage with it, not just spiritually, but pedagogically.”
At first, Peretz set out to articulate Farbrengen as more than just a cultural tradition. “I came in wanting to articulate Farbrengen as a practice. Something that others could experience and even lead.” The fellowship’s worldview paper requirement helped him distill its essential elements, the structure, flow, themes, and emotional landscape. This prompted a critical shift: “The worldview paper helped me clarify what I was really trying to do, to create a pathway for people to taste the emotional experience of Farbrengen, without needing to be Chabad, or even particularly observant.” He realized that he needed something people could actually use: “After some feedback, I realized it couldn’t just be theoretical. …. That’s where the game idea came from.”
Peretz created a structured board game that mirrors the emotional rhythm of a Farbrengen. It includes:
- Theme cards (e.g., joy, doubt, courage) to frame the conversation
- Turn tokens to guide participation
- A timer to hold space for silence and contemplative pauses
- A circular board representing non-linear emotional flow
- Three types of dice to prompt the conversation, the l’chaim toasting, and the contemplative silence
“The game models the flow of a Farbrengen. You start with a theme card and take turns conversing on the theme. There’s even a piece for silence, because that’s part of the rhythm too,” he explained. “There’s structure, but also openness. You can’t force authenticity, but you can create the conditions for it.”
Testing the prototype yielded enthusiastic feedback: “When we tested it, people said: ‘That felt real. I didn’t think a game could feel like that.’” Today, Let’s Farbreng is publicly available for purchase with additional resources, videos, and photos shared on the M54 website. More than 300 games have already been purchased, bringing the experience of Farbrengen to communities well beyond Chabad.
Reflecting on his experience and learnings at M2, Peretz shared:
(Before the fellowship), I generally associated wellness as something external you introduce into your life to bring you to a state of being well, however you may choose to interpret being well, like going to a spa, exercising, spending time doing enjoyable activities, prioritizing your commitments, or stopping the things that cause you to be unwell. After observing people of diverse ages and backgrounds experience the Farbrengen with Let’s Farbreng, I discovered that wellness can emerge from within oneself when the right systems and structures support it, elements like companionship, authentic conversations, singing, toasting, and contemplative silence that form the essence of a Farbrengen. This realization has fundamentally shifted how I approach wellbeing. Rather than constantly seeking external solutions or activities to fix what feels broken, I now understand that we each carry an innate capacity for wellness that simply needs the right conditions to flourish.
L’Hitatef: Ritual as Container
When Dr. Andrea Lieber joined the fellowship, she planned to expand a practice she had developed during the pandemic: a meditative drawing ritual inspired by the Zentangle method, which she’d been using with teenagers at Camp Ramah. At that time, Andrea was thinking about the effects of COVID on body image and mental health. The practice she had planned to translate for a Jewish space was calm, creative, and cathartic. But the fellowship asked for something different: a pedagogy grounded in Jewish text or ritual. After studying the mishnah about 48 ways Torah is acquired with the M2 fellowship group, she was struck by one pathway in particular: “Ahuv” or feeling loved. This led Andrea to consider the emotional safety required as a prerequisite to Torah study. So she pivoted. She “started thinking about what it means to create a container, not just for prayer, but for learning.” Her new idea: L’hitatef, the ritual act of wrapping in a tallit. Learners enshroud themselves in a tallit or a towel, or even just their own arms, recite the traditional blessing, and enter the learning space with intention and feeling held. The practice Andrea developed is now used as the start of middle school classes, camp programs, staff meetings, and adult learning sessions. It frames learning not as a task, but a sacred act of becoming. “Jewish ritual,” Lieber said, “has so many doorways into wellness. We just have to remember to walk through them.”
Cultivating Joy as a Practice
For Jessie, a Jewish educational leader based in the U.S., joy is not understood as a fleeting feeling but as a sustained, deliberate practice. Her project, The Pedagogy of Cultivating Joy, was designed to offer educators tools and structures for experiencing joy as a daily discipline. Through a year-long journey of self-reflection, chavruta partnerships, and creative modalities, participants explore how joy can be nurtured intentionally and shared communally. The program is built on voluntary participation, ensuring authentic engagement and deep commitment. As educators develop personal joy practices, they also cultivate a shared language of joy with their peers, creating a vibrant and supportive culture of wellness.
While the project was originally conceived for school-based implementation, Jessie has expanded and adapted it for other meaningful contexts, including with a learning group and even with her own daughter. These experiences affirmed the framework’s flexibility and relational depth. Participants select one of seven strategies each month to cultivate joy, supported by the accountability and reflection of a chavruta partner.
Jessie continues to explore how the pedagogy might evolve in new educational settings, adapting the model to meet the needs of diverse communities and organizational cultures. Her current leadership role provides new opportunities to consider how joy might be cultivated across both personal and professional domains. For Jessie, the M² fellowship helped sharpen her vision of wellness, not as episodic self-care but as the cultivation of sustainable practices rooted in intentionality, community, and joy. She came to see joy as a skill that can be developed and sustained, rather than a temporary emotional state. The fellowship also reinforced the idea that “wellness is not just individual but profoundly communal.”
This insight took on deeper meaning following the October 7 attacks in Israel, when the fellowship cohort became a source of connection and support. “The way we supported each other during difficult moments and celebrated moments of learning and growth,” she reflected, “reinforced that true wellness thrives in connection, shared wisdom, and a commitment to both personal and collective flourishing.” By integrating these insights into The Pedagogy of Cultivating Joy, Jessie offers educators a pathway to emotional resilience, relational strength, and communal well-being anchored in Jewish values and daily practice.
Toward a Jewish Vision of Wellness
Lisa Goldstein suggests that the Hebrew concept of a “good life,” as expressed in Birkat HaChodesh, may offer a more rooted Jewish language for wellness, a life of peace, joy, resilience, learning, dignity, and divine connection. “This blessing names it all,” she says. “It doesn’t reduce wellness to a feeling. It links it to values, to community, to the divine.”
The M² Fellowship became a kind of collective Birkat HaChodesh, a vision of what Jewish education could be when wellness is part of the curriculum, not just for students but for educators as well. Fellows were given the time, tools, and trust to turn abstract ideas into living practices. These practices took root in classrooms, communities, and personal lives.
But just as important as the tools were the frameworks the fellows developed for understanding wellness itself. Across their projects, fellows moved away from viewing wellness as a fixed state to be attained and toward understanding it as a dynamic, ongoing process. They framed wellness not as individual self-care but as collective flourishing, not as an escape from difficulty but as a set of practices that help us show up more fully for ourselves, for our students, and for each other.
For other Jewish educators and organizations, the fellowship offers both a challenge and an invitation:
- Make space for wellness as part of the educational mission. Not as an add-on, but integrated into teaching, learning, and leadership.
- Draw from Jewish tradition as a primary source, looking for rituals, texts, and values that can be adapted or re-imagined to support emotional, spiritual, and communal well-being.
- Invest in relationships and reflective practice. The cohort model, chavruta partnerships, and peer feedback all proved essential to sustaining wellness over time.
- See wellness as communal, creating conditions in which everyone in the learning environment can feel supported, connected, and able to flourish.
As Goldstein noted, “Jewish tradition already holds language for wellness. We just have to remember it.” Perhaps that is what this fellowship offered: not only new tools, but an ancient blessing rediscovered, one that calls educators to teach with their souls intact and to help others do the same.
References:
- Brooker, A., McKague, M., & Phillips, L. (2019). Implementing a whole-of-curriculum approach to student wellbeing. Student Success, 10(3), 55-63.
- Fox, K. E., Johnson, S. T., Berkman, L. F., Sianoja, M., Soh, Y., Kubzansky, L. D., & Kelly, E. L. (2022). Organisational-and group-level workplace interventions and their effect on multiple domains of worker well-being: A systematic review. Work & Stress, 36(1), 30-59.
- Johnston, K. A., & Lane, A. B. (2023). Metaphors of university educators: The expectation gap with implications for educator wellbeing. Student Success, 14(3), 1-17.
- O’hara, D. (2017). The intrinsic motivation of Richard Ryan and Edward Deci. American Psychological Association.
- Wilson, N., Smith, L., Taylor, R., & Kohler, F. (2024). Examining the experience of healthcare workers who led staff wellness rounding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Australian Health Review, 49(1).
- Yager, Z. (2011). Health education in teacher education: Evaluation of learning design with embedded personal wellness learning and assessment focus. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online), 36(10), 108-125.
Dr. Esther S. Friedman is the Founder and Lead Consultant of OMEC Consulting, where she uses research-driven inquiry to support professional development and educational innovation in schools, community organizations, and foundations. She recently completed a research fellowship with CASJE, where she led a national study on student voice in congregational learning, and she earned her PhD at the Seymour Fox School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examining how Orthodox Bible teachers navigate ideological tensions in non-Orthodox school settings. Esther has received multiple distinctions, including the Harold Wechsler Award for Emerging Scholars, the Sylvia and Moshe Ettenberg Research Grant, and the Journal of Jewish Education’s Article of the Year Award.