Every year, people go for a physical checkup. We get our teeth and cars checked annually. But when was the last time you went for a “spiritual checkup”? This session is the cornerstone workshop of Ayeka (Center for Soulful Education) and demonstrates the new paradigm of Soulful Education by focusing on sources from the Torah and Rav Kook and using our minds, hearts, and experiential exercises.
At first consideration, it seems nearly impossible and unimaginable to contemplate eliminating the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony as a milestone event in the Jewish lifecycle. However, with some exploration of the history of the ceremony, an examination of the current crisis in post-B’nei Mitzvah drop-out, and consideration of how Jewish education could be drastically better without it, you too will understand why eliminating this ritual might be good for the Jewish people.
This session will focus on using meditation as a tool for personal wellbeing and connecting or reconnecting Jewish educators with their own Jewish spiritual practice, which often (and ironically) gets lost while working in Jewish education. This session will also explore possibilities for adapting Jewish meditation exercises and practices for the classroom. Taught by leading Jewish meditation teacher, Alison Laichter, who loves teaching kids, tweens, and teens how to meditate, especially in a Jewish context, and whose favorite testimonial comes from Josh, a twelve-year-old hebrew school student: “This is a revolution!”
The centerpiece of this late Shaharit at 8:30 am will be a creative and collaborative Amidah prayer. You will explore the themes of this daily 19-part prayer before inserting your own personalized requests. This inspirational service will use a full-color Siddur lined with color photos, illustrations and diagrams of the service. It will feature discussion and a debrief for educators. Participate at your comfort level or come just to observe! (Open to middle schoolers through adults.)
People cite the high costs, the lack of time, the inadequacy of the teachers … and all of these may be true, and yet: Were we to solve all these problems, we still would not be addressing the real dilemmas intrinsic to the endeavor of Jewish education. We will look together at sociological research and philosophical theories from the past century leading to one inescapable conclusion: Jewish education can and does work, when we aren't afraid to let it!
It's all about you - for 15 minutes anyway! This session will provide a dedicated space for participants in small groups to present a challenge they are experiencing and for the Limmud NY support network of peers to offer advice. As seen at ROI Community events, each person present will have a chance to focus on his/her challenge and to offer advice to others.
This session will explore the halakhic (Jewish legal) and hashkafic (ideological) considerations regarding the handling and reporting of incidents of child molestation in camps, schools and other community settings, and the steps that need to be put into place in order to prevent and address this issue in the future.
Welcome to sex ed for grown-ups. Seven Wells reframes sex education for adults as a spiritual practice, a culture of conversation and action inspired by reflection, discussion, and engagement with the Jewish wisdom tradition. Join us as we explore the program, share in a model workshop, and learn more about becoming Seven Wells participants or facilitators in your community. Please note: This session is a safe space for learners 18 years of age or older.
Join us for this Coffee Break to learn more about career options in the rabbinate, Jewish education, Jewish studies, the cantorate, and in general, careers in the Jewish non-profit sector. Joel Alter and Abby Eisenberg, JTS Admissions directors and alumni, will be on hand to share with you all the details about JTS study and career training in these incredible and rewarding fields.
Why should I ask God for something? Doesn’t God already know? Is prayer all about being a nudge? The goal is not to pray or lead the prayers–but to become a prayerful personality. Personally, this approach transformed my praying and, more importantly, myself. We will use the Soulful Education paradigm for bringing spontaneity into formal prayer by studying a beautiful writing from Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Berkovitz.
Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East coast last fall and millions of lives were upended and thousands of Jewish children faced changed realities in the aftermath of the storm. This workshop will use Gertie, the feisty 9-year-old Jewish heroine of the novel When the Hurricane Came, to uncover both Jewish and psychological truths about developing resilience, including the importance of family, faith, friends, and the magic of tikkun olam, striving to make the world a better place.
Whether you work inside or outside of an institution, you can be an effective leader of innovation. This workshop will offer practical resources for building shared agendas and common practices among a broad constituency with varied (generally unarticulated, and sometimes incompatible) needs and goals.
Recently I bet twenty experienced rabbis that they had never asked the most basic question in Judaism or been asked it by others. Unfortunately, I won the bet. Tragically, the most important conversations of our lives will probably never take place. In this session we will discuss exactly why we have gotten off-track, what the most important questions are, and even have a quality conversation. This takes place in the paradigm of Soulful Education, with sources and reflection.
In this session Ariel Levinson will introduce the Jerusalem Secular Yeshiva, which has been running for two years. He will also share some dilemmas and insights on the challenge of the developing the right curriculum.
As seen at ROI Community events, Open Space Learning is an “unconference within a conference,” a place where anyone can host a Jewish conversation of their choice. Unlike the rest of Limmud, Open Space Learning has no pre-set agenda -- all of the content is generated by you, and you can participate in as many conversations as you want. If there are ideas that have been brewing in your mind that you need to share in a challenging community, then bring them here. This is your place for unrestricted discussion, reflection, and exploration.
