Year 1
Circle 1: Me/The Self (Shleimut)
1. Standing Together
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Establish guidelines for themselves to make the space a place for honest conversation
- Feel more connected and comfortable with the rest of the group
- Describe what to expect from these curricular sessions
- Describe more than one aspect of their identities
Jewish Text: Torah
2. A Listening Heart
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Identify the difference between empathy and sympathy
- Identify where empathy is reflected in Jewish values
- Practice reframing sympathetic situations they might encounter with an empathetic response
- Articulate where and why it is important to practice empathy
Jewish Text: Kings
3. Stressed Out? Tune In!
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Learn more about the body’s physical response to stress and brainstorm some de-stressing techniques.
- Discuss how their physical response to stress and stress relief techniques might be informed by gender and gender stereotypes.
- Use Jewish wisdom to help remind them that they can take action to reduce their stress levels.
- Reflect on how they responded to the prolonged stress and uncertainty of the pandemic.
Jewish Text: Jewish Folklore, Talmud
4. Jewish Identity
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will…
- Explore the personal experiences and emotions that are connected to Jewish identity.
- Reflect on the relationship between their Jewish identity and their other identities.
- Support their peers in connecting to Jewish identity.
5. Self-Care Does a Body Good
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will…
- Deepen their understanding about the many dimensions of self-care
- Read and reflect on Jewish texts/wisdom to explore the meaning of self-care and its relationship with their body and their community
- Nurture empathy and self-awareness by identifying obstacles to practicing self-care, by sharing self-care strategies they use, and by learning new strategies from their peers
Jewish Text: Pirke Avot & Rav Kook
6. What’s Your Purpose
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will…
- Explore the meaning of “purpose” and articulate some ideas of what their life’s purpose might become in the future.
- Consider the components that can guide them as they pursue their life’s purpose.
- Create a visual representation of their purpose.
Jewish Text: Rabbi Zusya
Circle 2: Relationships/Family (Hesed)
1. Risk Taking & Courage
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will…
- Explore the messages that teenagers receive about risks and courage from media, society, and Judaism, including messages about gender norms and risk/courage
- Reflect on their personal relationship with risks
- Reflect on their personal “fallback setting” and how to check in with themselves in a new or stressful social situation in order to make thoughtful, healthy, and safe decisions
Jewish Text: Talmud
2. FOMO & Filters & Facetime, Oh My!
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Inquire into the role that social media plays in students’ own lives
- Understand the pressures that they and their peers feel related to using social media.
- Reflect on ancient Jewish wisdom, and consider how it may speak to the adolescent challenges and experiences related to social media use.
- Create a resource of Jewish wisdom, for self and/or fellow-students, to draw on when considering social media use
Jewish Text: Proverbs
3. Friendship: “I’ll Be There for You!”
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Identify the characteristics of healthy and supportive friendships
- Describe what they value most in friends
- Apply Jewish wisdom to the participants’ understanding of their own friendships
Jewish Text: Torah
4. Conflict Resolution
Objectives : By the end of the session, participants will …
- Reflect on the ways they feel about conflict.
- Identify their personal style when addressing moments of conflict.
- Practice ways to work through conflict in order to create positive relationships.
Jewish Text: Talmud
5. Boundaries
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Practice how to set boundaries and communicate their needs.
- Understand why setting physical, emotional, material, and time boundaries is important to their well-being.
- Identify the importance of boundaries in Judaism.
Jewish Text: Talmud
6. Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Examine their feelings about competition and jealousy.
- Reflect on the drawbacks and benefits of the various competitions (academic, athletic, artistic, etc.) that they are pursuing or might pursue in the future.
- Practice healthy ways of dealing with competition and jealousy.
Jewish Text: Torah
Circle 3: Community/World (Tzedek)
1. Jewish Peoplehood
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Reflect on their own sense of belonging and connection to the Jewish people.
- Explore the plurality of ways that Jews around the world connect to Jewish identity.
- Feel inspired to connect to Jewish peoplehood/Judaism in at least one new way.
Jewish Text: Kabbalist Wisdom
2. Antisemitism 1
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Explore the personal experiences and emotions connected to antisemitism.
- Describe what antisemitism is and how it manifests in the wider world along with the Jewish world.
- Reflect about their role in responding to anti-Jewish hatred.
3. Understanding Racial Bias
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Be able to define “learned implicit bias”
- Make connections between historical and current systems of oppression that impact their learned implicit biases
- Begin to explore ways they can address racial bias and think about their responsibility
Jewish Text: Pirke Avot
4. Gender Inclusivity and Transphobia
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Reflect on the Jewish value of Kavod Ha-Briyot, honoring the inherent worth and dignity of every living being, including trans, non-binary, and gender expansive folks.
- Begin to form an understanding of the differences between sex, gender, and sexual orientation.
- Learn and reflect on the fact that a multitude of genders and sexes have existed throughout history, including during the time of the Mishnah.
- Experience a heightened awareness of some of the everyday issues trans and nonbinary people may encounter.
- Become aware of how they can show up as allies.
Jewish Text: Talmud, Torah
5. Dreaming Better Futures
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Imagine the future with hope and optimism.
- Identify obstacles in the way of positive change.
- Choose small changes that can make their own lives happier and closer to their ideals.
6. How Smart is Artificial Intelligence?
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Deepen their understanding of the limits and opportunities of current artificial intelligence technology.
- Explore ethical frameworks for using artificial intelligence in particular cases.
- Connect the ethics of artificial intelligence to traditional and modern Jewish wisdom.
7. Closing Session: The In-Between
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Reflect on the past year including what they’ve learned and how they’ve changed
- Consider the challenges they have faced over the past year individually and as a group
- Explore the concept of liminal spaces using the Israelites as an example
Jewish Text: Torah
Year Two
Circle 1: Me/The Self (Shleimut)
1. Happy Self, Happy Brain
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will…
- Describe the meaning and importance of happiness to them.
- Understand the role of happiness in Jewish tradition.
- Apply concepts from the neuroscience of happiness to improving their own lives.
Jewish Text: Likutei Moharan
2. Who Do You Think You Are
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Identify their personal and social identities.
- Consider how others can make assumptions about us based on our social identities.
- Explore how identity norms can be challenged and can change over time.
Jewish Text: Torah
3. Achieving Balance When So Much Is Wrong
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will…
- Identify their own right balance of work and self-care.
- Systematically prioritize work and self-care.
- Break large projects down into small steps in order to make work, particularly change work, more manageable.
Jewish Text: Pirkei Avot
4. Me, Myself, and I: How to Be Alone
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will…
- Explore their feelings about being alone.
- Differentiate between aloneness and loneliness.
- Appreciate the Jewish practice of hitbodedut.
- Identify concrete ways they enjoy spending time alone.
Jewish Text: Likutei Moharan
5. Some BODY to Love
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will…
- Understand that self-talk creates, strengthens, and perpetuates our perceptions of our bodies.
- Reflect on the ways in which physical appearance is valued in Jewish texts.
- Explore and practice various frameworks for relating to one’s body.
Jewish Text: Torah
6. The Limits of Ability
Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will…
- Understand that people have a diverse range of abilities and limitations, and recognize degrees of ability and limitation within themselves.
- Fully welcome and include people with disabilities in their communities, families, and friendships.
- Recognize the advocacy that has been done, and is still being done, for a fully inclusive society.
Jewish Text: Torah, Talmud
Circle 2: Relationships/Family (Hesed)
1. Reinventing Family
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Understand the similarities and differences in different models of family.
- Relate their own family model to others in the diversity of Jewish families.
- Imagine their own ideal future family.
Jewish Text: Torah
2. When Friendship Isn’t Forever
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Evaluate the healthfulness of their friendships
- Consider their current needs in a friendship and how those may have changed over time
- Understand different ways to go about distancing themselves from a friendship that no longer serves them
3. Consent & Communication
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Understand what consent is, in terms of relationships and sexuality.
- Understand and discuss pressures, including gendered pressures, that impact how people communicate about consent.
- Recognize signs of an abusive relationship.
- Develop skills for communicating about consent.
- Learn about Jewish wisdom about consent and communication in relationships.
Jewish Text: Various Historical Texts
4. Disagreement For the Sake of Heaven
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Fluently use the skills of “Disagreements for the Sake of Heaven.”
- Engage in dialogue with others whose beliefs differ from their own.
- Develop a plan for talking with members of their community about a topic of personal importance.
Jewish Text: Torah, Hillel & Shammai
5. Desire: Do You Know What You Want?
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Reflect on what they might want and not want in romantic relationships.
- Reflect on their own boundaries within potential or actual romantic relationships.
- Understand and discuss pressures, including gendered pressures, on how people should behave in relationships.
- Learn Jewish wisdom about boundaries and relationships.
Jewish Text: Torah, Talmud
6. The Pressure to Be Perfect
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Discuss achievement culture and its effect on teens’ mental health.
- Examine approaches to perfectionism from religious and psychological sources.
- Brainstorm about how to respond to the pressures associated with achievement culture.
Jewish Text: Reshit Hokhma
Circle 3: Community/World (Tzedek)
1. Home/Land: Exploring Israel Through the Theme of Home
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Explore the idea of home: Where is home for you? What or who connects you to home? .
- Reflect on what it means to call America home, and like other Jews from all over the world, what it means to have a “home” in Israel.
- Describe the concepts of am, eretz and medinat Israel.
2. Climate Justice/Vent Diagrams
Coming Soon
3. Social Hierarchy & Power Dynamics
Coming Soon
4. Media: Can You Believe It?
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Develop and apply strategies for discerning truth and bias in media.
- Reflect on how they come to believe things are true and the extent to which this depends on the opinions of others.
- Practice applying their critical thinking skills to real world media.
Jewish Text: Talmud, Sefer Halkkarim, Prophets
5. Antisemitism 2
Coming Soon
6. Touchy Subjects
Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will …
- Discuss sensitive topics in a safe and supportive space.
- Understand new perspectives on difficult subjects.
- Model approaches to discussing controversial and/or emotional topics in the future.
7. New Closing Session
Coming Soon