B’Yachad: Rekindling Light and Joy Workshops
*workshop details subject to change
Workshop Slot 1: Thursday, 10:00 am - 11:15 am
Speaker(s): Amy Weiss
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: In this session, Repair the World will guide you in their approach to ethical and effective Jewish service learning, highlighting key practices and principles that you can adapt and apply in your own communities. Participants will receive a physical Facilitator’s Toolbox and experientially navigate how Repair integrates issue-based education, helping volunteers engage with the tensions and challenges inherent in service, and using Jewish teachings to navigate these complexities. By integrating these conversations into service experiences, Repair has found that the approach fosters a stronger sense of Jewish identity and purpose while inspiring volunteers to make a meaningful impact in their communities. Participants will leave with practical tools, strategies, and frameworks they can immediately use to design or enhance service learning experiences that are transformational, reflective values-driven, and impactful.
Speaker(s): Jonathan Markowitz
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: This dynamic, general survey workshop will begin to equip your congregation with the knowledge to help harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for enhanced operations. Discover how AI can serve as your intelligent assistant, streamlining tasks, fostering creativity, and empowering your team to focus on what matters most – serving your community.
Speaker(s): Elsie Stern, Ph.D.
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: The Torah is full of stories of migration: From Adam and Eve to the Israelites in the wilderness, our Torah ancestors are often on the move. In this workshop, we will explore how migration is portrayed in Torah and reflect on how these portrayals would have helped early audiences make meaning out of their own experiences during and after the Babylonian exile.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Melissa Heller
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: This is a reflective, participatory worship for those who identify as caregivers. Rooted in Jewish tradition and informed by a Reconstructionist lens, this workshop invites caregivers to pause and notice the holiness that lives within the everyday acts and experiences of caregiving. Drawing on Jewish text, ritual, and our stories, we will lift up the some of the mundane and the extraordinary created through human relationship, intention, and presence. Together, we reflect on caregiving informed by Jewish values to include b’tzelem Elohim (honoring the dignity of every person), chesed (loving kindness in action), rachamim (compassion and tenderness), areivut (shared responsibility), anavah (humility and recognizing limits), and emet (truthfulness and honesty). This workshop honors both the beauty and the challenges of caregiving. It makes space for gratitude, joy and humor, as well as exhaustion, grief, and spiritual questioning.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Asher Sofman
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: TBD
Speaker(s): Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg (Moderator), Jonathan Kuttab, Yael Berda
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: Courageous visionaries are working tirelessly to create a better future for Israelis and Palestinians in a moment where durable trust and shared society seem nearly impossible. Join Jonathan Kuttab, international human rights attorney and co-founder and of Noviolence International and Al-Haq, and Yael Berda, Associate Professor at Hebrew University and co-founder of A Land for All, for a conversation on what this work looks like on the ground. This conversation will be moderated by Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg, Senior Educator at BINA who oversees RRC’s summer immersive in Israel, and is hosted by the Joint Israel Commission as part of our Shutafut Initiative.
Speaker(s): McKenzie Wren
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Step into the stories of the women of the Bible — as bold, complex individuals whose voices still echo in our lives today. Together, we’ll engage Biblical text, midrash, poetry, and art through a feminist, justice-centered lens that reclaims and reimagines these women’s lives. This is more than a study — it’s an invitation. As we explore how our biblical ancestors navigated power, identity, and faith, you’ll be invited to respond with your own voice. Through guided writing or art-making, you’ll create work that brings new life to their stories — and your own.
Speaker(s): Nina Korican (Moderator) with representatives from Ahavath Sholom, Temple Beth Israel, Dorshei Tzedek, Bet Am Shalom, Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, and Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: In these times, when communal and societal challenges can dim our spirits, we gather to rekindle light and joy so we can build the world we yearn to live in. In this poster session, communities will share examples of how they are strengthening democracy, activism, tzedakah, and community service; embracing the diversity of Jewish peoplehood; cultivating Jewish creativity and spirituality; and building thriving Jewish communities. Come learn from one another, ask questions, and gather inspiration to bring back to your own community.
Workshop Slot 2: Thursday, 2:15 pm - 3:30 pm
Speaker(s): Rabbi Rayna Grossman (Moderator), Rabbi Shira Singelenberg
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: Hear from Rabbi Rayna (Director of Field Education, The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College) and a panel of current and recent RRC field supervisors and students about RRC’s internship programs and how fieldwork enriches and strengthens congregations and helps to prepare future rabbis.
Speaker(s): Amanda Mbuvi, Ph.D., Kara Wilson
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: African diaspora Jews will share their transformative experiences of Jewishness through an African-centered lens — traveling to West Africa, connecting with their ancestral and spiritual heritage, and meeting African Hebrew communities.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Maurice Harris
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: Drawing on material from his forthcoming Guide to Fundraising for Reconstructionist Congregations, Rabbi Maurice Harris will present three very manageable fundraising initiatives that congregations can implement in a short time with the right preparation. We’ll learn about specific forms of legacy giving, retirement account giving and birthday giving that can bring in new revenue. We’ll also touch on the art of getting thank-you’s right. Participants will also get a sense of what the fundraising guide will be like to navigate as an interactive resource created exclusively for Reconstructionist communities.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, Rabbi Rachel Weiss, Rabbi Marisa James
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: Rabbis James, Weiss, and Wechterman are each involved in direct grassroots support of the immigrant communities where they live. They will share their stories as white allies who are U.S. citizens and answer questions about what is happening on the ground and how you and your Jewish community can get involved.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Jacob Staub, Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Writing memoir encourages us to explore our inner lives and pinpoint pivotal events that have shaped our spiritual journeys. Join Rabbi Jacob Staub and Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, both writers and spiritual directors, for a unique opportunity to write, listen and discover. Our focus will be on creative expression. No previous writing experience needed.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Tamara Cohen, Rabbi Miriam Grossman
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: Join two rabbi youth educators, from Moving Traditions and Tivnu, to learn about and experience frameworks and practices for engaging today’s Jewish teens in meaningful explorations of self and community. How do we, as their guides, provide a space for hope and possibility as they confront today’s overwhelming and often destabilizing reality? Together, we’ll explore methods of engagement that empower and celebrate youth leadership. Walk away with concrete activities, resources, and national opportunities available to teens in your circles. Bring your questions, challenges, concerns, and local success stories to share. Join others grappling with what it means to raise and guide teens to embrace joy and curiosity as Jewish adults and justice seekers.
Speaker(s): Rabbi William Plevan, Ph.D.
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: In this session, we will examine two dimensions of Mordecai Kaplan’s Zionism. First, we will consider Kaplan’s vision of Zionism as a project of Jewish renaissance in light of the challenges of modern social and political life in the West. Why did he think his approach to Zionism responds to these challenges better than other available options in modern Jewish life? Second, we will look at how Kaplan’s distinct approach to Zionism shaped his engagement in practical Zionist politics over his decades as an American Jewish leader. In particular, we will consider points where Kaplan differed with Zionist leaders such as David Ben Gurion on the importance of statehood and relations with Palestinian Arabs.
Workshop Slot 3: Thursday, 4:30 pm - 5:45 pm
Speaker(s): Jenna Weissman Joselit, Ph.D., Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D.
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: Using a new biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan that captures his long and tremendously compelling life as a jumping-off point, our conversation explores how and why he loomed so large not only for Reconstructionists but also for Jewish communal leaders across the board, as well as scholars and thinkers. We will reflect on what emerges from looking closely at Kaplan’s decades of introspective diary entries, locating his thoughts and reflections amid the challenges and opportunities of 20th-century American Jewish life. Through this lively exchange between two historians — and, in a way, with Kaplan himself — we show how, in Professor Weissman Joselit’s words, “Kaplan belongs to all of us.”
Speaker(s): Rabbi Sandra Lawson, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: TBD
Speaker(s): Rabbi Michael Strassfeld
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: For too many people, the traditional liturgy seems disconnected from anything in their emotional and spiritual lives. I will share some examples of “new Psalms” created by editing the traditional Psalms or by collecting verses on a theme such as hope. There will also be new prayers written in rabbinic Hebrew and focusing on middot-ethical qualities. These will all be in Hebrew and in English. There will be time for people to reflect on the challenge of praying and on these “new prayers.”
Speaker(s): Rabbi Amber Powers, Rabbi Michelle Greenfield, Rabbi Sharon Stiefel
Track: Boldly Relevant
Speaker(s): Rabbi Toba Spitzer (Moderator), Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay, Rabbi Scott Perlo, Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: The horrific attacks of October 7, 2023 and the devastating war in Gaza that followed have polarized North American Jewish communities that already struggled to engage the diversity and complexity of our individual and collective relationships to Israel/Palestine. Join Rabbi Toba Spitzer (Dorshei Tzedek, Newton, MA) in conversation with Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay (Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA), Rabbi Scott Perlo (Adat Shalom, Bethesda, MD) and Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman (Shaarei Shamayim, Madison, WI) to explore the nuanced, messy, and rewarding aspects leading a diverse community through a painful and divisive moment.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Amber Powers, Rabbi Michelle Greenfield, Rabbi Sharon Stiefel
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: True inclusivity goes beyond tolerance — it’s about belonging. This workshop invites congregational leaders and members to reflect on how LGBTQ+ people can be fully embraced as integral to the life of the community. Together, we will explore what it means to create a culture where every person feels equally valued, celebrated, and empowered to participate fully. We will examine practical steps for building congregational life that radiates radical hospitality and genuine welcome.
Speaker(s): Nora Chernov
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: Through studying different versions of the famous story of the 4 who enter Pardes, we will explore important ideas for the ancient rabbis and our present moment. By comparing these stories, we will see how different versions of the same narrative show us changing attitudes towards the mystical in the rabbinic period. By bringing a disability studies lens to the text we will examine how the rabbis constructed and understood social norms and mental wellness in their time and what we can learn about it in ours.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Isaac Saposnik
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: Camp Havaya is one of the most intentionally diverse Jewish communities in North America. How do we do it? How do we create spaces where everyone can feel a deep sense of belonging, dignity, and joy? Grounded in exciting new research, we’ll explore how small changes can make a big impact, and we’ll dream together about how our congregations, schools, and communities can become more welcoming for all. This isn’t just for our kids — it’s for all of us!
Workshop Slot 4: Friday, 11:00 am - 12:15 pm
Speaker(s): Joel Abramovitz, Rabbi Ariann Weitzman, Rabbi Adam Graubart
Track: Educator (Open to All)
Description: Many of our families treat B-Mitzvah as an end to their children’s formal Jewish education. This workshop will help educators and congregational leaders develop strategies to keep families connected to synagogue life through the teen years and beyond. We’ll explore successful models for teen education and engagement, which can build meaningful relationships with teens and their families during adolescence. Participants will leave with concrete ideas for creating compelling teen experiences, strengthening family engagement, and reframing B-Mitzvah as a stepping stone to the next stage of our teens Jewish journey.
Speaker(s): Sharon Musher, Ph.D., Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D.
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: In 1922, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, first initiated the Bat Mitzvah as a rite of passage for Jewish girls. Characterized as a lifelong supporter of women’s rights, Kaplan’s family, including his wife and four daughters, played a role in shaping his ideas about women, culture, and Zionism. This was especially true of his second daughter, Hadassah Kaplan, who joined a small but influential cohort of American Jewish women who studied, worked, and volunteered in British Mandate Palestine. This workshop features a conversation between Rabbi Deborah Waxman and Professor Sharon Ann Musher regarding her book Promised Lands: Hadassah Kaplan and the Legacy of American Jewish Women in Early Twentieth Century Palestine. The book draws on a rich personal archive of diary entries, photographs, and letters, to follow Hadassah’s journey to Palestine and illustrate how travel shaped a cohort of American Jewish women who went on to shape American Jewry.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Rabbi Hannah Spiro
*Please note this workshop will run for 90 minutes, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: This workshop is designed for both professional and lay synagogue leaders who want practical guidance on how to increase member engagement and make their congregations more vibrant centers for Jewish life. We strongly encourage participants to come with 2 or 3 representatives of their community — this will help implement strategies when returning home.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Kelilah Miller
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Collage and Midrash have a lot in common — both involve bringing distant concepts into relationship with one another, or recontextualizing images and symbols so that new meanings can be revealed. In this hands-on workshop, we will explore the midrashic potential of collage, choosing a single verse (or even a single word) from the week’s Torah portion to illustrate through the hermeneutics of visual art. No artistic experience necessary, but an open and playful mind is required!
Speaker(s): Ruth Messinger
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: We will look at how and why immigration is a Jewish story, at what is happening with and for immigrants in our country today, and at how and why we should respond. Any individuals or communities doing immigration work are invited to attend and share their stories.
Speaker(s): Rachel Gordon, Hadar Susskind, Adina Vogel Ayalon
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: Reconstructing Judaism is proud to participate in the Progressive Israel Network, a group of values-aligned organizations working collaboratively to advance a just, democratic, and inclusive vision for Israel/Palestine in the North American Jewish community and beyond. Join our partners Rachel Gordon from T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Hadar Susskind from New Jewish Narrative, and Adina Vogel Ayalon from JStreet for a conversation on how North American Jews can organize for democracy, peace, and a vibrant shared society for Israelis and Palestinians.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Mira Wasserman, Ph.D.
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: A Taste of Text Study at RRC: The talmudic story of R. Yohanan and Resh Lakish (Bavli Bava Metzia 84 a) dramatizes the power and challenge of talking to loved ones with whom we disagree. Through close reading and discussion, we will analyze what went wrong for our Sages — and how we can do better.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Alex Weissman
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: We will have a seudat amenim — a feast of amens! This is a creative ritual experience grounded in saying blessings over food as a form of prayer for others. Very light snacks provided. Bring your curiosity and openness for this ritual.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Elliot Skiddell, Rabbi Elyse Wechterman
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: A healthy, collaborative relationship between the rabbi and president is essential to congregational success. This workshop provides tools for building mutual trust, clarifying roles, and navigating disagreements with grace.
Workshop Slot 5: Friday, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Speaker(s): Rebecca Hirschwerk
Track: Educator (Open to All)
Description: This workshop invites participants to explore art as a lively and accessible entry point into Jewish learning and identity — no art history knowledge required! Together, we will discover works of visual art and use them to explore the three B’s of Reconstructing Judaism: belonging, behaving, and believing. Through guided looking, conversation, and collaborative meaning-making, we’ll reflect on how these ideas show up in our own Jewish lives and how art can help illuminate and tell our Jewish stories.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Solomon Hoffman
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: TBD
Speaker(s): Susan Levine
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: In 2025, Ner Shalom incorporated a methodology of calculating member dues based on being radically inclusive. Membership dues doubled that year. This workshop will describe how it did that.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Mira Wasserman, Rabbi Alex Weissman
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: TBD
Speaker(s): Rabbi Rachel Weiss, Danny Greene, Marla Baker, Nancy Katz, Abby Harris-Ridker, Sam Frolichstein-Appel
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: On October 8, 2023, JRC formed our Israel/Palestine Working Group to ensure that our congregation could hold the needs of our Zionist, Antizionist, Nonzionist, and other members during the escalating crisis. Learn how our lay-led working group created our Congregational Statement, maintained space for everyone through dialogue, debrief, and programming, grew our congregation, and kept our shared values at the forefront. This workshop will be led by Rabbi Rachel Weiss, along with members of JRC’s Israel-Palestine Working Group.
Speaker(s): JT Waldman
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Dive into the world of graphic memoir, where words and images coalesce to tell deeply personal stories. Drawing inspiration from groundbreaking works like Fun Home and American Splendor, we’ll discover how top-tier storytellers transform memory into compelling visual narratives. Then it’s your turn! You will mine your own experiences, from the biggest to smallest, and craft a graphic memoir that brings your unique story to life on the page. Whether you’re a seasoned artist or picking up a pen for the first time, all storytellers are welcome. Your graphic memoir deserves to be told — let’s make it unforgettable.
Speaker(s): Laynie Soloman
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: How does our liturgy change to incorporate, respond to, or reflect new realities? In this session, we’ll explore key Jewish legal principles for adapting and transforming blessings and closely examine a case study in liturgical innovation offered by the Trans Halakha Project–which seeks to create new forms of halakhic expression for and by trans Jews–that asks what blessing one should say over taking hormones as part of a medical transition. Along the way, we will ask questions about what halakha (Jewish law) is, how it changes, and how we can contribute to the evolving Jewish canon.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Maurice Harris (Moderator) with representatives from Adat Shalom, Kehilat Sukkat Shalom, Oseh Shalom, Leyv Ha-Ir, and Or Hadash
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: In these times, when communal and societal challenges can dim our spirits, we gather to rekindle light and joy so we can build the world we yearn to live in. In this poster session, communities will share examples of how they are strengthening democracy, activism, tzedakah, and community service; embracing the diversity of Jewish peoplehood; cultivating Jewish creativity and spirituality; and building thriving Jewish communities. Come learn from one another, ask questions, and gather inspiration to bring back to your own community.
Workshop Slot 6: Friday, 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Speaker(s): Rabbi Asher Sofman, Rabbi Nathan Martin
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: TBD
Speaker(s): Rebekka Goldsmith
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “It is the task of the human to reveal what is concealed…In singing we perceive what is otherwise beyond perceiving.” Sound can hold it all. Our questions, our longings, our joys, and our grief. This interactive session invites participants to explore the power of sound as a collective spiritual practice. Using breath, simple melodies, liturgically based pieces, improvisation, and silence, we will notice how sound moves within and between us, deepening awareness, strengthening connection, and creating space for mystery. These are practices that can be brought back to your communities. Come ready to listen and experience the transformative potential of making sound together.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Barry Dornfeld, Ph.D.
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: The recent documentary film, Reconstructing Mishkan: A Synagogue Evolves tells the story of Mishkan Shalom, a progressive Reconstructionist Jewish synagogue in Philadelphia. Founded in 1988 when a group of families left a mainstream congregation in support of Rabbi Brian Walt’s public criticism of Israel’s government during the first intifada, the synagogue has sustained itself for more than thirty years as an expression of an inclusive form of Judaism linked to political action and a progressive Philadelphia community. Rabbi Shawn Zevit, featured in the film, leads the congregation and collaborated with member Barry Dornfeld on the production.
Speaker(s): Josie Boskoff
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: Join for a text study exploring how the women in the book of Samuel shape the institutions of motherhood and patriarchy. Using Adrienne Rich’s “Of Woman Born” as a theoretical framework, we will study the characters of Hannah, Michal, Batsheva, and Ritzpah to understand how these women exemplify and push back against literary archetypes of motherhood and women.
Speaker(s): Ruti Kadish
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: In this workshop, you’ll enjoy a ‘taste of Tovanot’ (a 12-hour curriculum). Approximately 15 million people — almost an equal number of Jews and Palestinians — live between The River and The Sea. Both are there to stay. Both deserve to live with security, freedom, and self-determination. This is Tovanot’s starting point. Participants will first be introduced to the curriculum and to its use of a dual-narrative lens by participating in two activities on the Israeli and Palestinian Declarations of Independence. They will then understand the program’s scope and sequence. The workshop will conclude with another Tovanot activity that explores and questions the meanings and uses of terms such as pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, and what it means to assess them through a dual-narrative lens.
Speaker(s): Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, Cyd Weissman, Adva Chattler
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Ritualwell’s Jewish Writers’ Circles are grassroots peer-led communities of writers who meet monthly for in-person gatherings to explore Jewish wisdom texts, deepen relationships and grow in their writing practice. Join us for a ‘taste of’ a JWC and learn about how you can bring a circle to your community.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Joshua Boettiger
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: The stories of Rabbi Israel Salanter, the founder of what we call the Mussar Movement, are remarkable in how they demonstrate a fundamentally different way of seeing — a capacity to notice who is in the peripheral field of our vision, a capacity to forego an obvious mitzvah for a more hidden one. Join us we explore these stories and their possible implications in the work we do and the spaces we move in — essentially reimagining mussar as a practice of walking meditation.
Workshop Slot 7: Saturday, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Speaker(s): Rabbi David Teutsch, Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: Three long-time Reconstructionist leaders describe how they live their values through their political engagement and how they have sustained their actions and spiritual lives over careers that have spanned 50 years.
Speaker(s): Lev DePaolo
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Listen, learn, and reflect together as we explore the rich musical traditions of Jewish communities in Mantua, Venice, and Amsterdam in the late 16th-early 18th century.
Speaker(s): Tamar Kamionkowski, Ph.D.
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: Torah models the human capacity for holding complexity, a quality that is lacking in public discourse. The enduring power of Torah lies in its ability to inspire inquiry and reflection. In this session, we will study biblical texts that offer radically different ideas about God. We will also explore how it is these different ideas sit together in the Bible.
Speaker(s): Wendy Elliott-Vandivier
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: In this session, artist and long-time disability activist Wendy Elliott-Vandivier will guide participants through an exploration of disability, art, and advocacy rooted in her lived experience as a disabled woman and her decades-long art practice.
Speaker(s): Barb Richman
*Please note this workshop will run for 90 minutes, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: Rekindle your innate creativity and spark deeper wisdom as we study texts, engage in conversation, and then interpret what we’ve gleaned in a facilitated art session followed by reflective writing. Together we’ll explore the power of the Jewish Studio Process to reignite our inner joy, discover new insights, and illuminate creativity’s potential to help us thrive. You do not need to “be artistic” to participate. The goal is not to make beautiful pieces of art but to interpret creatively what we learn. All materials will be provided.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Jeffrey Schein, Elizabeth Caplun
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: For Kaplan, salvation comes from achieving personal and communal harmony through ethical living. Today, this path often goes through Mussar study and practice in ways Kaplan would not have predicted: the popularization of Mussar as a tool for personal and relational growth, shlemut and Tikkun Olam cannot be ignored. We also place this phenomenon in the context of Mordecai Kaplan’s early work in translating the 18th-century Mussar classic Messilat Yesharim (“Path of the Upright”) by Moshe Hayyim Luzzato and the forthcoming previously unpublished Kaplan book “The Art of Living: Salvation as Self-Transcendence.” Journey with Jeffrey Schein and Elizabeth Caplun as we explore what makes Mussar appealing and see how Mussar can help us make the right choices in a fractured world.
Speaker(s): Marisa Jackson, Ira Nash
Track: Thriving Communities
Description: TBD
Workshop Slot 8: Saturday, 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Speaker(s): Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: Israel’s Declaration of Independence has been at the heart of debates surrounding Judaism and Democracy in Israel, since 1948 and especially since the establishment of the current government in 2023. In recent years, BINA and others have been working to canonize Israel’s Megillat Haatzmaut as the “Sixth Megillah” in the Jewish tradition. Come learn what that means, experience what happens when we apply traditional and modern Jewish text study methods to this secular-sacred scroll, explore the hidden meanings in the Megillah, and consider how we can use the Megillah as a tool for more constructive conversations about Israel, Judaism and Democracy in our communities.
Speaker(s): Michelle Katz, Sandy Gerber, Rabbi Micah Weiss, Rabbi Steve Stroiman
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: TBD
Speaker(s): John Riehl, Wendy Elliott-Vandivier, Susan Levine
Track: Boldly Relevant
Description: TBD
Speaker(s): Rabbi Jacob Staub
Track: Deeply Rooted
Description: We will explore the practice of using sacred texts as a window or a membrane through which we can connect to the sacred, mysterious source/voice.
Speaker(s): Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde
Track: Rekindling Light and Joy
Description: In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how to create and sustain a nourishing personal Jewish prayer practice that feels authentic, embodied, and alive. Through guided meditation, heart-centered reflection, and hands-on engagement with key prayers, we’ll learn practical ways to bring more depth and intimacy into our prayer experience. Rooted in Neo-Hasidic and contemplative approaches, this session invites participants to rediscover prayer as a regular practice of connection and renewal.
