Equipping Jewish Leaders for Depolarized Dialogue: Eastern Cohort

Each congregation may have a maximum of 3 participants. Please select your preferred cohort and the number of participants from your congregation from the available options. You may provide participants’ names and email addresses either during registration or at a later date. If you choose to provide them later, please email the names and email addresses to Vanessa Aruitt VAruitt@ReconstructingJudaism.org. 

If you would like to have additional participants placed on the waiting list, please email their names to Vanessa.

Jewish leaders carry immense influence in shaping how their communities engage across difference. At their best, congregations and communal institutions cultivate spaces where people can hold complexity, sit with discomfort, and remain in relationship even when they disagree. That work has become increasingly challenging as antisemitism and polarized discourse around Israel and Palestine surface within Jewish communal life. We recognize that today’s Jewish leaders are often navigating this moment without a shared language ora practiced skill set for the conversations before them. Project Shema’s Changemakers Arc equips Jewish leaders to meet this moment with clarity, nuance, and confidence.

Across five sessions, participants deepen their understanding of how norms shift within networks, explore the power of story, and build practical skills for facilitating difficult conversations. The Arc is designed not only for personal learning, but for application; participants leave prepared to bring this learning back into their communities, strengthening their capacity to foster connection, resilience, and meaningful engagement.

Cohort Schedule
All Sessions 12–1:30 PM ET

• Session 1, Breaking the Binary: Depolarization Foundations: Thursday, Dec 10, 2026
• Session 2, Storytelling Part I: Story of Self: Thursday, Dec 17, 2026
• Session 3, Storytelling Part II: The Stories Told About Jews: Thursday, Jan 7, 2027
• Session 4, Difficult Questions & Making an Ask: Thursday, Jan 14, 2027
• Session 5, Beyond the Binary: Thursday, Jan 21, 2027