Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry – To create a training program for regional chapter leaders that will provide them with skills and resources to bring meaningful Jewish poetry programming to their local communities.

What makes poetry an effective medium for engaging people and bridging divides?

Since Yetzirah’s founding in 2022, and particularly since October 7th, we have found poetry essential to building and sustaining Jewish communities. Where politics threatens to divide us, harden us, and alienate us from each other, poetry—even when expressly political—invites conversation, attention to nuance, the ability to entertain and hold seemingly opposite viewpoints. It offers an opportunity to gather and warm ourselves around the hearth of this beloved art form, so we may then share our differences with curiosity and care. For that reason, poetry remains the cornerstone of how we engage with and help cultivate Jewish communities of every scale.

What’s your hope for how your program can make an impact on the Jewish community?

We designed the Yetzirah Regional Chapters Program Training & Design Initiative so that participating Regional Chapter leaders come away feeling excited and better equipped to lead their chapters, encouraged by a cross-pollination of ideas and resource-sharing—deepening their connection to each other, to Jewish poetry, and to Yetzirah as a whole. Yet our vision for the program extends far further. We hope that, in a time of increasing isolation and division, our participating leaders can use what they’ve learned to offer innovative programming that inspires their local communities to continue gathering and growing around a shared devotion to arts grounded in Judaism. 

How will the local partners you plan to incorporate into your program enhance your initiative?

As a national organization, Yetzirah is a sum of its parts: we strive to create national programming that attends to the needs and dreams of our local communities. Having the opportunity to listen to participating Regional Chapter leaders throughout our time together will help us understand their communities’ evolving needs and dreams, and give us valuable insight into new ways poetry can be used to support and enliven diverse Jewish communities locally, as well across the country and around the world.