What’s Jewish about Resiliency?
Exploring Our Rituals, Teachings and Traditions.
BeWell welcomes you to explore the many ways Jewish life can promote resiliency. Join us to engage with ritual, text and other Jewish teachings and traditions that can support you as you’re caring for the young people in your community.
Grounding ourselves in the topic of Jewish resiliency and introducing Jewish tradition, ritual and community as a protective factor for youth mental health
Breakout 1
We'll have 2 breakout session blocks during our time together. Please read the session descriptions below and use this form to rank your breakout selections. We'll be in touch in advance to confirm your breakouts. Please note: if you do not mark your preferences by 1/17, you will be placed in a breakout.
Carrie Bornstein - Mayyim Hayyim
The emotional and spiritual toll that follows loss and struggle is not always acknowledged, though many people find that the mikveh can balance the changes wrought by pain, illness, and loss with a sense of healing and wholeness. Take a virtual tour of the Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center in Boston and experience your own ritual of transition with a handwashing ceremony.
Materials: Bring a cup of water, hand washing pitcher and bowl, and a hand towel for this interactive and grounding ritual.
Jory Hanselman Mayschak - Bamidbar
How do we balance our passion for our work with our need to protect and sustain ourselves as individuals? Through a mussar lens, we will investigate how and where our personal values are serving us and/or hurting us. We will practice recognizing our burnout trends and explore how to effectively hold boundaries to combat burnout. This breakout session will help professionals explore how the values that drive us can contribute to our burnout and will help professionals personally reflect on their values.
Michal Fox Smart - Institute for Jewish Spirituality
Jewish mindfulness cultivates awareness of our inner life and development of inner resources, growing our capacity to interact with the outside world with resilience, equanimity, wisdom and compassion. Come dip your toes in the waters of meditation through the rich wisdom of Jewish tradition! Wherever you are on your journey, whether you are just beginning or you have practiced mindfulness for years, we welcome you.
Rabbi Zalman Abraham - The Wellness Institute
Did you know: Resilience isn't just a trait that people are born with, it's a set of skills that can be taught and there's a science to teaching it. Developed in collaboration with foremost resilience experts, this media-rich, hands-on, skill-based workshop is culled from The Wellness Institute's evidence-based, Jewishly-informed Cultivating Resilience curriculum for middle and high schoolers. Discover how Jewish texts convey the most important life skills and humans need, including mental agility, self-awareness, emotion regulation, optimism, strengths of character, and connection.
Yoshi Silverstein - Mitsui Collective
In this session we will explore the use of embodied Jewish practices to promote wellness and regulate the nervous system. These practices will include movement, breathwork, song, and stillness. Dress in comfortable non-restrictive clothing. All bodies are welcome.
Rabbi Adina Allen - Jewish Studio Project
Creativity is inherent in each and every one of us. Accessing and activating that creativity is a skill we can practice. In this hands-on session we'll explore a Jewish perspective on why creativity matters more than ever in today’s uncertain world and what we might do to unleash and reignite our creative spark so that we may lead happier, more connected, more fulfilled, more satisfying lives. Through a mix of discussion and brief, facilitated hands-on experiences with basic art materials, we’ll explore ways in which we might reclaim our creativity - and the reasons why we might want to. You’ll leave with a new outlook on your own creativity and a set of tools to help you embody creative resilience.
Materials: please have a sheet of paper and any simple drawing materials you have around the house (markers, pens, pencils, watercolors, sharpies, crayons etc.)
Our second breakout block with the same offerings listed above. Please read the session descriptions below and use this form to rank your breakout selections. We'll be in touch in advance to confirm your breakouts. Please note: if you do not mark your preferences by 1/17, you will be placed in a breakout.
We invite you to explore a rich library of podcast episodes on Jewish resiliency before our time together.
Follow the link to... Hashivenu: Jewish teachings on resilience
Director, The Wellness Institute
Rabbi Zalman Abraham is the director of The Wellness Institute (TWI) leading vision and strategic planning. TWI brings evidence-based, Jewishly-informed youth mental health education to teens, parents, educators, clinicians, and community leaders through partnerships across North America. TWI focuses on building resilience in youth and preventing suicide by teaching vital life skills through school-based curricula, training events with experts, and white-label publications.
Co-Founder and Creative Director, Jewish Studio Project
Rabbi Adina Allen is co-founder and Creative Director of Jewish Studio Project (JSP), a nationally recognized Jewish learning organization that cultivates creativity as a Jewish practice for spiritual connection and social transformation. A recipient of the Covenant Foundation’s 2018 Pomegranate Prize for emerging Jewish Educators, Adina has brought JSP’s unique methodology to clergy, educators and lay leaders in Jewish communal institutions across the country. Adina’s writing is widely published and her chapter “What Else Can This Be?: Creativity as an Iterative Practice” is a part of the forthcoming anthology Creative Provocations (Springer Press, 2023). Adina was ordained by Hebrew College in 2014 where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow.
CEO, Mayyim Hayyim
Carrie Bornstein is passionate about creating a Jewish community that is inclusive, accessible, and welcoming to all. She first got involved with Mayyim Hayyim as a volunteer Mikveh Guide in 2006 and is now its Chief Executive Officer, having served in this capacity since 2012. She is working to transition Mayyim Hayyim to become a national organization, utilizing its Boston site as a “test kitchen” and innovation lab and through its Rising Tide Open Waters Mikveh Network. Previously Carrie worked in the field of experiential Jewish education. She holds an undergraduate degree in Social Work from Skidmore College and a Master’s in Social Work from Boston University with a focus on Macro Practice. She serves as the admin for the Mental Health in the Jewish Community Facebook group. She lives in Sharon, MA with her husband, Jamie, and their three children.
CEO, BaMidbar
Jory Hanselman Mayschak is the Founder and CEO of BaMidbar. Jory started her career in the world of Jewish camping, when she joined the Ramah in the Rockies team during its inaugural season. Jory has worked in a variety of wilderness therapy and experiential education programs. Jory has dedicated her career to empowering and inspiring youth, and is thrilled to work in an environment where her three greatest passions – experiential learning, mental health and wellness, and Jewish tradition – intersect. Jory has a BS from Tufts University, a MPA with a concentration in Nonprofit Leadership from University of Colorado, and a Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Stanford University. She is also an alumna of the Wexner Field Fellowship.
Yoshi Silverstein is a Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew and an educator, designer, speaker, husband, and father. A multidisciplinary practitioner of embodied creative and spiritual expression, he is a recipient of the 2022 Pomegranate Prize for emerging leaders in Jewish education from the Covenant Foundation, and was selected as a 2021 “Grist 50 Fixer” building a more just and equitable future. Yoshi earned his Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture at University of Maryland with a thesis exploring Jewish landscape journey and experience, and holds certificates in spiritual entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, permaculture design, and environmental education. Yoshi lives in the Cleveland area in Shaker Heights, OH on Erie, Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee land with his wife and daughter.
Chief Program Officer, Institute for Jewish Spirituality
Michal Fox Smart is the Chief Program Officer at Institute for Jewish Spirituality where she is responsible for developing and delivering all of IJS’s programs, guiding the work of the Institute’s faculty while envisioning ways to grow and deepen our offerings. Michal has crafted ground-breaking programs in personal and spiritual development for over 30 years. She previously served as Director of Ayeka North America, leading its celebrated programs to enhance spiritual development in Jewish day schools. She was the Executive Director of the Isabella Freedman retreat center, co-founder of the Teva Outdoor Learning Center and Associate Principal of Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy. Michal is a graduate of Princeton University (BA) and Cornell (MS), a Wexner Graduate Fellow, and a Fulbright Scholar. She co-authored Spirit in Nature and Kaddish: Women’s Voices. Michal lives in CT and is the proud “Ema” (mom) of five emerging adults, each deliciously different as people and as Jews.
We offer low and no-cost virtual and in-person courses for adults, young adults, and teens. Learn to identify and support those who are struggling, and promote wellbeing.
Contact Beth Lipschutz, Wellness Coordinator at beth.lipschutz@jewishfederations.org for more.
Clinicians can connect with a community of practice and trainings on evidence-based modalities to support youth offered by NJHSA. Contact Tricia Stern, VP of Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services at tstern@networkjhsa.org.
