NEW! Spirituality Education Training Day for Jewish Educators

Program Description

Sunday December 27 – Monday December 28

Do you want to know more about how to bring powerful spiritual experiences to your students? Would you like to learn how to translate your own spiritual practice into successful educational initiatives? Would you like to understand the place of spirituality in Jewish education today and learn from experienced teachers who have been successfully teaching Jewish spirituality in a variety of educational contexts?

Come and join us for an extra day intensive on bringing Jewish spirituality into our educational settings. Coupled with Awakening the Divine: Pardes Jewish Spirituality Retreat, this extra day will enable you to take your transformative experiences on the retreat, and your other spiritual experiences and exploration, back with you into your educational setting. Learn from leading educators in the field in one of two tracks:

  • Educators who work with children, especially day school educators
  • Educators who work primarily with young adults, particularly Hillel professionals and student leaders.

This intensive is unique in that it directly follows your intensive retreat experiences and therefore brings you straight from your own transformation into an exploration of how you can facilitate other’s transformation. Working directly with your own insights and experience from the retreat combined with the practical, focused nature of the intensive, means that you will have concrete approaches and embodied understanding –rather than theory alone–to bring to your work as an educator.

Starting the morning of Sun. Dec. 27th with the completion of the Awakening the Divine: The Pardes Jewish Spirituality Retreat we will continue until early afternoon the next day giving ourselves over 24 hours to continue to deepen our practice and to take our practice with us into our educational settings.

Cost: $200
A limited number of significant scholarships are available for both tracks. Please contact meira@pardes.org for details.

Staff

Yael Shy is the Senior Director of Global Spiritual Life at New York University, and the Founder and Director of Mindful NYU, the largest university-based mindfulness initiative in the country. An original co-founder of the Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn and a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Jewish Meditation Teacher Training Program , Yael has taught and written about Jewish meditation and mindfulness at universities, synagogues, rabbinical schools, and community centers around the country and globe for the past seven years. In 2010, she was named by the Jewish Week newspaper as one of the “36 under 36” Jewish changemakers transforming Jewish life.

Rabbi Dr. James Jacobson-Maisels teaches Jewish thought, mysticism, spiritual practices and meditation at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and in a variety of settings around the world. He is the founder of Or HaLev: A Center for Jewish Spirituality and Meditation (orhalev.org/) and has been studying and teaching meditation and Jewish spirituality for almost twenty years. He received his PhD in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago and strives to integrate his study and practice and to help teach and live Judaism as a spiritual discipline.

Rabbi Sam Feinsmith has been a leader in the field of integrating Jewish spiritual practice into Jewish education for over a decade. Co-founder of Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning, he is currently developing a mindfulness and SEL curriculum for teens, and consulting to the Institute for Jewish Spirituality on developing a national program to integrate Jewish spiritual practice into Jewish day schools and camps in the service of mind-body wellness, social and emotional learning, and revitalizing Jewish life and authentic religious experience.

Larry Schwartz has been studying and practicing mindfulness in a Jewish and Buddhist context for over 15 years at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He has been teaching mindfulness in public schools and Jewish days schools for the last 5 years in NYC and at
Romemu. Larry is the Chair of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and is very involved in Impact Investing.

Rabbi Shuli Passow has over 15 years of experience as a Jewish educator and communal professional. She has taught Torah, yoga, community organizing, and Judaism and social change throughout the Jewish community, including Jewish Funds for Justice, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University, and Yeshivat Hadar. Shuli currently serves as Director of Community Engagement at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City.

Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement and Activation

Start date: ASAP

We are seeking a charismatic, creative, and action-oriented Assistant Director of Alumni Engagement and Activation to lead this initiative. This individual will play a key role in bridging the gap between the immersive Jerusalem-based Pardes experience and the ongoing life-long learning opportunities we offer in North America.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Implement and Iterate Alumni Engagement Strategies:
    • Enhance the current “menu” of opportunities for Pardes alumni to both “give” to
      and “receive” from, Pardes.
      • Give: Empower alumni to take action, create initiatives, and leverage
        Pardes as a platform for leadership and innovation.
      • Receive: Encourage alumni to engage in continued learning through
        classes, retreats, Shabbatonim, cohorts, and other programs.
    •  Ongoing internal evaluation of efficacy of strategies and implementing iterative
      updates to enhance outcomes.
  • Program Development and Management:
    • In collaboration with the wider team, develop and implement ideas for online and in person classes, including holiday programs, one-off shiurim, and limited series.
    • Oversee the execution of programs including but not limited to: email
      correspondence and registration, coordinating with marketing, Zoom production,
      and post-program evaluation.
    • Ensuring cross-departmental collaboration specifically with the engagement and
      development teams
    •  Serve as the project manager for select alumni cohort learning programs,
      ensuring smooth operations and successful outcomes.
  • Community Building and Leadership:
    • Foster strong, relational connections with alumni, encouraging their active
      involvement in the Pardes community.
    • Identify and cultivate connections with key alumni leaders. Lead efforts to inspire alumni to take on leadership roles within their communities, promoting Pardes’ values and educational mission.
    • Cultivate and steward and existing external partnerships with organizations and
      initiatives as it relates to our Pardesnik engagement and activation work
  • Alumni Coaching and Mentorship:
    • Provide coaching and mentorship to alumni interested in developing initiatives, such as micro-grants or local events, and support them in realizing their ideas. This may include group coaching within cohorts.
  • Targeted Recruitment and Outreach:
    • Engage in focused recruitment and outreach efforts to involve specific alumni in relevant Pardes offerings.
    • Collaborate with the wider team to manage recruitment for various programs,
      including necessary follow-up and evaluation.

Qualifications:

  •  Proven experience in alumni relations, community engagement, or a related field.
  • Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a talent for building and maintaining relationships.
  • Creativity and initiative in developing new programs and strategies to engage alumni.
  • Passion for Jewish learning and a deep connection to the mission of Pardes.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a collaborative team.
  • Willingness to travel as needed to engage with alumni across North America.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Pardes alumna
  • Experience working in Jewish education or community leadership.
  • Familiarity with the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and its programs.
  • Based in New York City

Benefits:

  • Competitive salary commensurate with experience: $70,000-$85,000
    100% health insurance coverage for the employee (dependent coverage available)
  • 403b retirement plan with Nationwide with up to 5% contribution by employer
  • Paid time off & Paid holidays (Jewish and secular)
  • FSA
  • Group Life and Personal Accident Insurance
  • Parental leave
  • Remote and hybrid working option and flexible hours
  • Opportunities to travel domestically and to Israel to collaborate across the team
  • Opportunity to contribute to a dynamic and growing organization with a meaningful mission.

How to Apply:
Interested candidates should submit a resume and cover letter detailing their qualifications and passion for this role. All applications should be sent to Assistant Director of Programs at Monica at monica@pardes.org.

Cover letters should answer the following questions

  • What makes you passionate about this role and work?
  • What concrete professional or personal experiences have prepared you best for this role?
  • What is one project, strategy or initiative that this job description stimulates in you?
  • How do you ensure great teamwork and successful collaboration?
    PLEASE NOTE:

Applications are due by October 8th and interviews will be the week of October 28th. We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.

Pardes North America provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants in all organizational facilities without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, pregnancy, childbirth, (or related medical conditions, including, but not limited to lactation), physical disability, mental and/or intellectual disability, age, military status or status as a Vietnam-era or special disabled veteran, marital status, registered domestic partner or civil union status, gender (including sex stereotyping and gender identity or expression), medical condition (including, but not limited to, cancer-related or HIV/AIDS-related), genetic information, or sexual orientation in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.

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