Institute for Jewish Spirituality: Creating Thriving Communities With Rich Spiritual Lives

For more than 20 years, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) has developed and taught Jewish spiritual practices to help individuals and communities experience greater awareness, purpose, and interconnection. This work takes on even greater importance today as young people encounter life’s unprecedented challenges and struggle with mental health. In this environment, IJS can be a vital source of support, engaging people through Jewish spiritual practices across the country, around the world, and online at any time of day.

In the past year, more than 10,000 people participated in IJS’s offerings—from online courses on Jewish mindfulness meditation, Tikkun Middot, and prayer as personal practice, to master teachers leading the daily sit, weekly Torah study, and online Yoga studio. IJS also offered specialized training for more than 300 JCC professionals and reached thousands more through its podcast, online retreats, and numerous other programs. These efforts are proven to have positive outcomes. 94 percent of participants in IJS programs say they are more emotionally resilient. And 87 percent of participants say that Jewish spiritual practice deepened their connection with their Jewishness.

At a time of anxiety and isolation for so many young people, this virtual fellowship enabled the students to connect with each other as writers, friends, and spiritual chavrutot (learning partners). Together, we built a remarkable community that spoke to the spiritual experience of writing, gaining a new understanding of the relationship between our bodies and our creative process. For Jewish writers in particular, this isn’t always an easy relationship.
– New Voices Editor-in-Chief Rena Yehuda Newman on the “Resilient Writers Fellowship, an eight-week cohort program from IJS and New Voices Magazine that brings together college-age writers in a virtual community to cultivate a Torah of creative, embodied Jewish spiritual practice. 

Integral to IJS’s broad reach is its work with clergy—more than 500 rabbis and cantors have engaged with IJS programs. They in turn engage more than 250,000 people. The Clergy Leadership Program (CLP), an 18-month fellowship experience, and Hevraya, which provides ongoing support for CLP alums help clergy reenergize and deepen their spiritual lives.

It’s essential that Jewish leaders provide our communities with offerings that are fully authentic, alive, and responsive to congregants’ needs as human beings in the world today. IJS helps us learn how to do this. What IJS has given me is invaluable—infusing my Jewish practice and my leadership with mindfulness, a deep connection to my body, and the understanding and language to draw others into contemplative practice. This matters because Jewish communal life must connect to our inner lives.
– Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a CLP graduate, an active participant in Hevraya, and a graduate of IJS’s Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program, which she credits with enabling her to lead online meditations for her congregation.

Now, IJS is positioned to grow and create even more thriving multigenerational communities with rich spiritual lives. Building on its success and proven outcomes, and drawing on the deep well of Jewish texts, rituals, and traditions, over the next few years IJS will expand efforts to:

1. Reach Young People. Through strategic partnerships with youth-serving organizations, IJS will help tens of thousands of young people develop greater emotional resilience and a deeper sense of belonging in Jewish life. 
2. Develop New Leaders. While continuing to support the vital role of clergy in the spiritual lives of American Jews, IJS will launch cohort programs for activists, community leaders, and agency executives to deepen their own leadership and become champions of Jewish spiritual practice. 
3. Become the Platform for Jewish Spirituality. IJS will power the development of a network of organizations, individuals, researchers, and funders to create research, develop media channels, host convenings, and train a new generation of teachers of Jewish spirituality.

Through this work, IJS aims to lead the Jewish community in making spiritual practice a vital part of meaningful Jewish life, increasing the resiliency and compassion of individuals and communities. 

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Visit jewishspirituality.org to learn more.