Teaching and Mentoring
I am available for one-off and ongoing group classes, and individual mentorship. Here are some of my favorite things to talk and teach about:
Trauma, Healing & Resilience
I teach introductions to core concepts of trauma studies and healing, and offer practical tools and frameworks to apply these concepts to Jewish life, specifically addressing the communal work of rabbis, Jewish educators and organizers, for the sake of creating nourishing communities. I believe that having shared frameworks and vocabulary about trauma, healing and resilience can support our communities to be places of healing and thriving.
Yearcycle & Holidays
Jewish holidays are layered and multifaceted: routes for remembering, retelling, and embodying Jewish collective memory and history; practices of feeling our interdependence with the earth; opportunities for personal and communal spiritual growth. My teaching dives into:
• the yearcycle and holidays as a way to explore Jewish practice, ritual, culture, history, and resilience;
• how experiences of harm and violence, survival and resilience, have shaped Jewish holidays and the Jewish year;
• how ritual leaders can work with the wisdom within each holiday to create experiences of sustenance and connection for diverse Jewish communities.
Ritual
I believe ritual is a tool for transforming ourselves and the world around us, and that planning and facilitating ritual are skills that can be learned. I love teaching the mechanics of ritual, teaching Jewish specific ritual traditions, and empowering all people to be ritual leaders in their lives and communities. I teach workshops on creating trauma-informed rituals that are values-aligned, political powerful and spiritually transformative.
Jewish History
I love teaching introductions and overviews of large swaths of Jewish history, and zooming in on particular moments (the Crusades) and themes (exile and dispersion, communal organization, relationship to place).
Past Classes
Jewish Histories: Who Are We? Where've We Been? How've We Changed? at Hinenu Balitmore
November-December, 5782
Join us for a six-week introduction to Jewish history. Students will gain a foundational understanding of the development of Jewishness and Judaism, where Jews have lived, and how Jewish communities formed, transformed, and sustained over centuries and across continents. Each class will cover key texts; how Jewish thought, cultures and practices changed; and how Jewish communities related to, shaped, and were shaped by their political contexts. We will explore the implications of Jewish histories for our lives and organizing, and seek to actively challenge Ashkenazi-centric and solely Zionist readings of history. This class will offer a high-level introduction to Jewish history, while providing students to investigate particular areas of interest more deeply. Each class will include both lecture and discussion.
Intro to Judaism: Traditions, Texts and Transformation at Tzedek Chicago, with Rabbi Brant Rosen
October-February, 5783 & 5784
A 16-week exploration of Judaism, Jewish history and traditions, and living Jewishly in our times. Over these months We will engage with diverse histories, examine texts, theologies and philosophies, and learn about ritual and prayer as dynamic aspects of Jewishness with powerful potential for our lives. Judaism and Jewishness continues and continues to be meaningful because we, the living inheritors of the tradition, make it meaningful. Thank you for being here, and for bringing your experience, knowledge, and desires to Jewish life and Judaism.
Key questions of the course include:
• How have Jews organized ourselves over time and related to other peoples?
• How do we relate to land, place, and power?
• How do we understand and relate to aspects of Jewish tradition that replicate oppressive systems?
• How can we bring our liberatory values to Judaism and create Jewish lives that nourish and sustain ourselves and our communities and feed our work for justice?
Rabbinic Responses to Trauma: Theory and Practice at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
January 5780
Rabbis work at the intersections of individual pain and joy, and collective survival and struggle. Trauma theories and strategies for healing and resilience offer tools that support and strengthen our work with individuals and communities, while offering frameworks for our own sustainability and care. In this two-day workshop, we will learn foundations of trauma theory and practical applications of trauma-sensitive principles in different rabbinic work settings. We will explore how historical traumas have impacted Jewish self-conception, and surface Jewish sources and expressions of resilience and healing.
Resilience and Healing in Jewish Tradition and Communities
Building on Rabbinic Responses to Trauma, we will learn about a range of healing practices and modalities, explore the potentials of ritual, prayer, and Jewish traditions in healing; and deepen our understanding of spiritual health and wellness. We will learn about and co-create methods and practices for Jewish communal healing.