Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out - Leaders Targeted by Racism (POC)

Form antiracist habits and behaviors through Jewish spiritual practice in our course, Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out. This cohort is open to those targeted by racism.

Our first of 12 sessions begins on April 16th, 2025 and ends on September 11th, 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 12-sesssion virtual Zoom training from April through early September and includes: two 135-min orientation sessions; five 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 will be co-facilitated by Yehudah Webster and Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife.

Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh, Program Director for beloved, inaugural Faculty Fellow with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and also enjoys working with the Jewish Learning Collaborative. Additionally, she delights in serving as a shlichat tzibbur, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, teacher, facilitator, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, Jewish person, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS 2000 and MS 2001 at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023. www.keshirahalev.com

Yehudah Webster is a Spiritual activist and community organizer who works to animate and integrate anti-racist behaviors and culture in communities, supporting the collective organizing, advocacy and direct service efforts to dismantle racism systemically. As Senior Faculty of Kirva, directing their Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out Program, Yehudah equips communities with the daily concrete spiritual tools of Mussar to subvert racism within ourselves and others through facilitating workshops, consulting with organizations, and building a community of anti-racist practice. Yehudah is a graduate of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice’s Grace Paley Organizing Fellowship, Bend the Arc’s Selah Leadership Program, Kirva’s Ovdim Fellowship, and a recipient of both the Pomegranate Prize through the Covenant Foundation as well as the Beerman Foundation Fellows for Peace and Justice Award.