Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out Sept 2024-Feb 2025

Form antiracist habits and behaviors through Jewish spiritual practice in our course, Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out. This cohort is open to all and is in partnership with the Jewish Bridge Project.

Our first of 13 sessions begins on September 18th, 2024 and end on February 26th, 2025. See full course schedule here with Eastern and Pacific Times.

Efforts to dismantle racism are often comprised of education, advocacy, and systemic change. These efforts are not enough —it’s crucial that we also do the inner work necessary to change our habits of mind, body, and spirit to wholly dismantle racism. Indeed, it's through strengthening our habits of mind, body and spirit that we’ll be most effective and successful in our advocacy and organizing to dismantle racism systemically. We have ancestral wisdom available to support this change; Mussar is the Jewish spiritual discipline designed to integrate what the head understands with what the heart feels through daily practice. Emerge from this program with renewed ability and resilience to disrupt racism, a regular spiritual practice, and a set of concrete tools to support your antiracism efforts. Do note while this work is not directly connected to I/P, it is ultimately about strengthening our inner life to bring more equity and justice into the world and thus can support us in living our values at the highest level in this issue area as well.

Impact: 80% of respondents share they're better able to resist burnout and sustain themselves in the fight for racial justice, and over 85% share they feel more equipped to confront and undo racism within themselves, others and communal spaces.

The Course: This is a 13-sesssion virtual Zoom training from April through early September and includes: two 135-min orientation sessions; six 135-minute monthly learning and practice sessions; and five 60-min monthly anti-racist group-exercise sessions. The full course schedule can be found below.

Level: Intermediate -- This course builds on an existing understanding of systemic racism and focuses on the application of antiracism through communities of practice.

We know that this work of building our antiracist muscle and integrating Jewish spiritual practice is best done in partnership with others from your community. We encourage you to come to this learning with a co-conspirator or ally that’s also committed to racial justice in your communal spaces.

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This course and community of practice was developed by Yehudah Webster and Rabbi David Jaffe of Kirva, a network of activists, educators, and spiritual leaders in the Jewish community that supports activists in exploring Jewish spiritual wisdom and developing Jewish spiritual practice. Learn more about this course and their work at Kirva.org.

This cohort is being offered in partnership with the Jewish Bridge Project and will be co-facilitated with a faculty member of Kirva (R' David Jaffe or Yehudah Webster) and Andrea Jacobs of the Jewish Bridge Project.

Andrea Jacobs is a facilitator, consultant, coach, and artist, whose approach is deeply rooted in cultivating people’s innate creativity and curiosity in service of transformation. Some of the projects she is currently engaged in include being a principal co-conspirator for the Jewish Bridge Project’s work on combating antisemitism and anti-Black racism; serving as Chief Program Officer at Ta’amod where she develops and leads workshops on the centrality of psychological safety for creating healthy communities; and co-leading her theatre company, Yes…AND Playback, to create story-based improv workshops and performances for audiences in the Philadelphia area. She is also co-founder of Rally Point for Collaborative Change, a consulting practice that invites people to step outside their comfort zones and embrace curiosity as a pathway to growth and evolution. A white, queer, Ashkenazi woman, Andrea has been leading spiritual gatherings infused with music and poetry while wrestling with text, practice and representation in Jewish spaces since she was a teen. She holds a doctorate in sociolinguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA from Brandeis University. She is a member of Tzedek Lab, the Selah Network and 4Circles&Beyond community. Andrea lives in Northwest Philadelphia, PA, where she loves walking in the Wissahickon Creek Park and kayaking in local waterways.