Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out: Collab Va'ad JBPxKirva

Form antiracist habits and behaviors through Jewish spiritual practice in our course, Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out.

About this learning community
This offering is part of the DRIO Collaborative Vaad, a learning and practice cohort hosted by Kirva. The Collaborative brings together multiple Jewish communal institutions for shared core learning and local practice groups. Our section of the Collaborative is a partnership between Kirva and the Jewish Bridge Project.

If you are joining this five month journey through our section of the Collaborative, you will participate in the core community wide learning sessions led by Yehudah Webster and Rabbi David Jaffe, and you will join a monthly practice and reflection group that is facilitated by Andrea Jacobs from the Jewish Bridge Project alongside either Yehduah or R' David.

Who should register here
Please register through us only if your organization is not already participating in the DRIO Collaborative as a partner institution. If your organization is one of the institutional partners, please register through your own institution so that each community can track and support its participants.

If you are unsure whether your organization is one of the partner institutions, please reach out to us and we will help you confirm.

Our first of 12 sessions begins on Jan 6th, 2026 and ends on June 4th, 2026. It includes two 135-min orientation sessions; five 135-minute monthly learning and practice sessions; and five 60-min monthly anti-racist group-exercise sessions. See full course schedule here with Eastern and Pacific Times.

The DRIO Approach and Impact

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.

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.

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.

Andrea Jacobs is a facilitator, educator, artist, and coach whose approach is deeply rooted in cultivating people’s innate creativity in service of transformation. With over 30 years of experience in program design, facilitation, and organizational change, she collaborates with people to create programs that support growth and healing. Andrea is 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. Some projects she is currently engaged in include Jewish Bridge Project’s work on dismantling intersecting oppressions of antisemitism and anti-Black racism; Shemati, an emerging Jewish Playback Theatre using the power of personal storytelling and improv to bridge cultural and ideological divides; founder of Wild Roots Collaborative where she develops and leads programs on psychological safety and power dynamics to support healthy communities; and creating story-based improv workshops and performances for audiences in the Philadelphia area as the artistic director of Yes…AND Playback Theatre. A queer feminist white woman of Ashkenazi heritage, Andrea has been leading spiritual and educational gatherings infused with creative expression while wrestling with identity, 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. A member of Tzedek Lab, the Selah Network, Kirva Yedidim, and 4Circles&Beyond as well as Kol Tzedek and Dorshei Derekh Reconstructionist communities and the Dyke ArtHaus Community, Andrea lives in Northwest Philadelphia, PA, where she loves walking in the Wissahickon Creek Park and kayaking in local waterways.