Many times a day, we make split-second, often unconscious, decisions about how we regard people we interact with. Lauren Tuchman, a rabbinical student who is blind, discusses her discomfort with a Jewish blessing about seeing someone who is disabled and offers a new way of thinking about it.

How are we seen (PDF File)

However we define family, we learn powerful lessons from the people with whom we live in intimate connection. This guide features a speech by actor and Genesis Prize winner Michael Douglas about the lessons he learned about Judaism from his son and his father.

How do we welcome (PDF file)

In a world increasingly defined by individualized, customized experiences—from the ads Instagram shows us, to our ability to choose where and when we watch our favorite tv shows—community is something we know we need, but also can seem hard to achieve. This guide includes a story from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom.

Who is in your community (PDF file)

When we work to understand one another, we forge the tools to create caring communities. This guide uses a trio of stories from the Talmud, the 3,000-page collection of Jewish law and lore, to open the conversation about how humans connect— and when, and why, we don’t.

How do we connect (PDF File)

As the author and scholar Bell Hooks writes, “Privilege is not in and of itself bad; what matters is what we do with privilege…. We have to share our resources and take direction about how to use our privilege in ways that empower those who lack it.” In this guide, Christine Miserandino, who has Lupus, shares her “spoon theory” analogy to explain the choices she makes every day in navigating a chronic illness that is invisible to those around her.

What advantages do you have (PDF file)

Many people make new year’s resolutions, but it seems it’s often easier to change our principles than our habits. To say we’re going to do better is one thing; to do it is another. This conversation features a poem, “Coming Up on September,” by Marge Piercy.

What will you do better this year (PDF File)

Are we responsible for family members? For fellow students? For all human beings? In this guide, Rabbi Sharon Brous shares ideas on NPR’s On Being about Yom Kippur’s countercultural notions of taking responsibility rather than distancing ourselves from mistakes and errors.

For whom are we responsible (PDF File)

As the poet Maya Angelou put it, “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” This conversation guide is centered around tradi­tional teachings on Sukkot and a set of images.

Where do you feel at home (PDF file)

The trajectory of the Torah invites us to think about stories both universal and particular, and  how we choose to locate ourselves within them—the stories of our own lives, of our families, the Jewish people, and all of humanity. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the for­mer Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, wrote about this in his book, A Letter in the Scroll, featured in this conversation guide.

What story do we tell (PDF file)

Sometimes we take a stand in grand ways; sometimes the personal simply becomes political in small, everyday gestures; and, sometimes, we decide that the risks of a certain situation are simply too great. What informs your decision to act—or not—in a given situation? This guide uses an essay by S. Bear Bergman about Hanukkah and Trans Day of Remembrance and images to open up this conversation.

When do you take a stand (PDF file)

This conversation guide offers four questions, and can be used as a Tu BiShvat Haggadah or as simply a discussion about some of the various dimensions of growth: the ways we protect ourselves, are trans­formed, how we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, and how we engage with the mysteries of being alive. It utilizes images, teachings from a 16th century Kabbalist and Rabbi Abra­ham Joshua Heschel, and the author Brené Brown.

How do we grow (PDF file)

To conform is to behave according to the needs and expectations of the people or culture we find ourselves in. Doing so can foster trust and build connections, but it can also involve becoming complicit in oppression or tyranny. This conversation looks to the story of Purim and uses powerful images to open up the conversation about when and how we conform in our own lives.

When do you conform (PDF file)

This guide uses a set of images and an excerpt from the Passover Haggadah to build a conversa­tion on the nature of, possibilities of, and perhaps responsibilities that come with freedom. The Passover-specific guide is a four-part conversation that can be used as part of the Passover seder or used independently.

Are we free (PDF file)

Israel is a lot of things to a lot of different people. And for a lot of Jews, the conversation about Israel is layered, complex, full of our personal, historical, religious, political and social associations. This guide uses Tourists, a poem by the Israeli poet Yehuda Ami­chai, to open the conversation in an accessible way.

What do we choose to ignore (PDF file)

Israel is a lot of things to a lot of different people. It’s an important place to people of a number of different ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds, both historically and today. Israel is too complex a subject for one conversation, as there there are many different conversations to have. This conversation guide uses the poem “Tourists,” by the great Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) to begin to have such a discussion. 

How should we talk about Israel (PDF File)

Different people think and talk about the word “God”—one of the most loaded words in our culture—in different ways. This guide uses an excerpt from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s book, Surprised by God, to explore the different ways people encounter questions around belief, spirituality, and perhaps the absence thereof.

What do (and don't) you think about God (PDF file)

We all mourn. Some of us have mourned for loved ones who have died. Some of us mourn for great hopes that we have had to surrender, for oppor­tunities we have passed up or missed, for relationships or friendships that have ended, for a dream that doesn’t resemble the reality. This conversation uses a poem, The Five Stages of Grief, by the contemporary Jewish poet Linda Pastan, to make space to think about not just when we mourn, but how.

How do we mourn (PDF file)

This guide uses the Reboot Manifesto as the centering text for an open conversation about Shabbat, recharging, self-care, and the different ways in which people might seek out time to renew themselves.

How do you recharge (PDF file)

There’s something of a paradox inherent in our attempts to connect with—to deeply see—one another. What are the possibilities and limits of connection, understanding, and empathy? This guide contrasts a poem by the Sufi mystic poet Rumi with a teaching of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. It was created in memory of Avi Schaefer and is often used during Avi Shabbats on campus. For more information, please visit www.avischaeferfund.org/avi-shabbat.

How do we connect (PDF file)

When do we decide to make our traditions relevant for today, and when do we decide that innovation might destroy something precious? This conversation guide centers around the contem­porary history of Rosh Chodesh groups and an essay by writer Jay Michaelson on his vision for a more DIY—do it yourself—style Judaism.

How do we own our traditions (PDF file)

This guide was designed to be used as part of the Birthright Israel experience. Campuses have also adapted it to use during other Israel-focused programming on campus. It features three questions that open the conversation for participants to share their Israel stories: where do you feel at home? For whom are we responsible? When do you feel powerful?

What does Israel mean to you (conversation series) (PDF File)

Sometimes we choose to ignore behavior around us that we know is wrong because we’re afraid to intervene, or because we assume that someone else will step in. Actor/comedian Patton Oswalt wrote an essay in which he shared about the moment when he decided to start noticing.

This complimentary resource provides language and strategies for supporting survivors who disclose their assault to you.

How to respond to a survivor (PDF file)

Are we responsible for family members? For fellow students? For all human beings? This guide features a story involving a request to take care of a stranger and invites us to explore to whom and for whom we are responsible.

For whom are we responsible (PDF file)

Sometimes it can be difficult to motivate ourselves to take action, especially when it’s not always clear that our actions will make a meaningful, positive impact. So where does that leave us? This guide opens the conversation using an essay from The New York Times Magazine by food journalist Michael Pollan exploring this question as it relates to the monumental task of responding to climate change.

Why bother (PDF file)

In conflict, issues of truth and justice may feel as though they are—or may really be—on the line, and we often feel not only intellectually, but also emotionally invested in a debate’s outcome. This guide uses one ancient disagreement to help us explore how finding a way to disagree well can open up new possibilities. 

How do we disagree (PDF file)

Judaism has blessings both for when we’re feeling thankful, and for when we forget to feel thankful—the blessing itself can remind us to say thank you for the many wonderful, sometimes small, things in our lives. This guide features an essay from Robin Baudier, who lived in a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) trailer for 10 months, and who writes about paying attention to unexpected blessings. 

What are you thankful for (PDF file)

We hear frequently—especially on college campuses—about the need to create community. But what makes a community? In this guide, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom opens the conversation with the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt and a theory as to how the ancient Israelites, newly freed from slavery, were formed into a functioning community.

Who is in your community (PDF file)

Sometimes we take a stand in grand ways; sometimes the personal simply becomes political in small, everyday gestures, and sometimes we decide that the risks of a certain situation are simply too great. What informs your decision to act—or not—in a given situation? This guide uses an essay by S. Bear Bergman about Hanukkah and Trans Day of Remembrance and images to open up this conversation.

When do you take a stand (PDF file)

How do we decide what to ignore and what to notice? And what are the possible implications in and beyond our lives? This conversation guide centers around an interview with Walter Stier, who ran the “special trains” that transported millions to death camps during the Holocaust.

What do you choose to ignore (PDF file)

Identifying our answer to this question can be a key piece of developing our sense of purpose. Do we start with what we are passionate about or where the greatest need is or do we simply strive to be good people? This guide features two works of poetry, one by poet Marge Piercy and the other by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, to animate different ways of approaching this question. 

What does the world need from you (PDF file)

The word “represent” is defined as, “to be entitled or appointed to act or speak for (someone), especially in an official capacity.” But we are represented in all sorts of ways. This guide features an essay by Elana Maryles Sztokman, a scholar and author of several books on gender issues in Orthodox Judaism, about her relationship to traditional forms of representation in her religious tradition and how she answers this very question.

Who represents you (PDF file)

We hear frequently—especially on college campuses—about the need to create community. But what makes a community? This guide uses traditional teachings about community and Edgar’s reflections on the experience of community in Jewish life to open the conversation.

Who is in your community(PDF file)

Many of us have made new year’s resolutions but to say we’re going to do better is one thing, to do it is another. In this guide, Edgar discusses the Jewish ethic of reflection and self-improvement, the hard work of seeing ourselves honestly and holding ourselves to higher standards.

How do we grow (PDF file)

Of all the big questions of life, “Where is home?” may be one of the biggest. Home is many things. It can be a physical place, defined by relationships or even be in our experiences. In this guide Edgar invites us to explore the many roles “home” plays in Jewish tradition.

Where do you feel at home (PDF file)

If you ask three Jews about how they connect with Jewishness, you’re likely to get many more than three ideas. This guide invites us to explore these ideas with Edgar sharing his journey to identify the Jewish principles that informed his secular Jewish practice, and with twelve principals to share he provides us with many ways to open this conversation. 

How do you connect Jewishly (PDF file)