Institute for Jewish Spirituality

The Institute for Jewish Spirituality seeks to revitalize Jewish life by teaching spiritual practices that cultivate mindfulness on the individual and communal levels, so that we can act with enriched wisdom, clarity, and compassion. We teach the core practices of mindfulness meditation, Torah study, prayer, tikkun middot (the development of ethical character traits), and singing and yoga as embodied practices. These practices provide participants with valuable skills for effective leadership while creating opportunities for them to deepen their inner lives and connect meaningfully with the Divine. We utilize traditional and contemporary forms of authentic Jewish practice to enrich everyday life with Jewish wisdom, link the search for inner wholeness with tikkun olam (repair of the world), and create a vibrant, enduring Judaism now and for generations to come.

IJS envisions a world in which Jewish spiritual practice is a vital part of Jewish life. We believe

Goal One: Serving people across the lifespan: IJS’s core audience has been older adults seeking spiritual meaning. Our goal is to address the spiritual needs of younger and more diverse populations in our work.

Goal Two: Serving Jewish spiritual leaders: With over 530 clergy alumni, we will now go beyond congregational clergy to include chaplains, spiritual directors, educators, and Jewish spiritual communities.

Goal Three: We aim to continue our leadership in the field of Jewish spirituality by fostering research into Jewish spiritual practices, and developing shared standards of practice and professional development

This year, staff participated in IJS online courses and in person spiritual retreats. Many staff also took professional courses e.g., marketing, communications/social media and Excel, and brought in speakers to staff meetings and retreats for ongoing professional development on topics such as team building. In addition, IJS offered ongoing, personalized professional coaching for the CEO, COO, Chief Development Officer and Chief Program Officer, to provide support with leadership challenges. IJS was selected for Project Accelerate, a unique program offering capacity building support to leaders of strong, mission-driven organizations in the Jewish community. A two-year program, Project Accelerate provided IJS, our CEO, and other senior leaders with educational seminars; peer network support during the program and beyond; and grant opportunities, including a $20,000 consulting grant and challenge grant with a 1:2 match in the amount of $250,000.

Many external factors challenged IJS in the recent past as we navigated a pandemic, faced increasing antisemitism, on-going racism, threats of climate change and astounding gun violence. COVID made it impossible to conduct in-person programming for the first 18 months of the pandemic. Clergy, our spiritual first responders, were stretched as never before. In normal times, our Clergy Leadership Program would include four (4) five-day in-person retreats. COVID forced the cancellation of two of the planned in-person gatherings. In response, we extended the program by a year, which necessitated curriculum changes requiring IJS staff to expand efforts to engage clergy during these difficult times. When in-person retreats became ill-advised, IJS expanded offerings to include shorter term, free programming, brought directly to people’s homes. IJS also created new tuition-based on-line programming, bringing teachings and content to individuals, while also creating a sense of community. There is no question that the pandemic enabled us to reach vastly more people. In response to recent events, IJS also deepened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We recognize this is a change that requires intentional and ongoing efforts. IJS launched a monthly LGBTQ+ mindfulness sit and a similar sit for Jews of Color. IJS became a member of SRE, a Jewish network of over 150 organizations rooted in a shared commitment to safety, respect, and equity for all. We also incorporated a sliding scale for tuition-based programming with three payment options to increase participation by those from historically marginalized backgrounds. In addition, recruitment for our most recent Clergy Leadership Program (CLP5) “strongly encouraged JOC, LGBTQ+, and differently abled participants to apply,” leading to the most diverse cohort in IJS’s history. Finally, inflation created uncertainty. Since FY22, the IJS Board approved two COLA adjustments for employees.