Community organizing training for seminary students in rabbinic, cantorial, and education school on zoom, with two meetings of NY students and Jeannie Appleman in person.
JOIN for Justice is currently accepting applications for its fall semester community organizing course on Zoom for seminary students in rabbinic, Maharat, cantorial, and Jewish education schools: Academy For Jewish Religion, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York), Jewish Theological Seminary, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Yeshivat Maharat, Yeshiva University, and Ziegler School of American Jewish University. The course is offered in partnership with the Religious Action Center.
The course will take place this fall in eleven Zoom sessions: a four hour session on Sunday, Sept. 28th (tentative date), and every Monday night from October 17 – Dec. 12, from 7:15 – 9 p.m Eastern Time. The class is interactive and has guest clergy from the field who have made organizing principles and practices a central part of their work, both for justice work and congregational development. HUC-JIR students will receive 2 credits for the course and have the opportunity to work with RAC NY on a local organizing campaign.
The Seminary Leadership Project has trained over 850 rabbinical, cantorial, and Jewish education students, helping them learn how to unite their communities around a common mission, develop leaders who can lead with them, not over or under them, and act collectively to realize their mission, both bringing new vitality to the Jewish community and acting for social change that reflects Jewish values.
The course covers topics such as:
- Understanding the fundamentals of organizing: developing relational communities, building power, connecting people around their values and interests, and navigating between public and private life
- Helping clergy cultivate themselves as leaders and protect their interests and time, and employing resilience strategies
- Identifying and developing other leaders and leadership teams and setting them up to lead on their own
- The relational tools of the relational meeting and house meeting
- Developing thriving congregations
- Identifying common concerns and developing a collectively owned purpose
- Moving beyond programming to run strategic campaigns that change the synagogue or change the world around us
- Bringing Jewish communities into partnerships with other communities to work together around common community goals
- Building respectful relationships across lines of difference, and showing up as partners
- Organizing Jewish communities to make a difference, not just a statement
- Learning to undergird an organizing framework with Jewish wisdom, texts and tradition
The course will utilize interactive and engaging training with discussion, role plays, small group work, and time for reflection on students’ current work. Sessions will be taught by experienced organizers and rabbis and cantors using these tools in the field. Apply here.
To learn more and apply for the course, contact Jeannie Appleman at JOIN for Justice: jappleman@joinforjustice.org, 516-375-9150.
