The High Holy Days are not only a season of accounting, they are a call to return, asking what growth requires of those willing to show up for it. Drawing on Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Maimonides, and the practice of havdalah, this learning explores the tension between service as obligation and service as self-discovery, and the ways both can lead to a life of purpose. Holding together personal reflection and collective repair, it challenges participants to carry teshuvah forward not as reflection alone, but as action.
Neighbors in Times of Crisis: Commemorating 9/11
September 11 is not only a day of mourning, it is a call to show up, asking what remembrance requires of those who carry it forward. Drawing on Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner, Rabbeinu Bahya, and Pirkei Avot, this learning explores the space between compassion and justice, and the choice to act, witness, or accompany when a moment calls for it. Holding the tension between repair and brokenness, it challenges participants to respond to memory not with grief alone, but with service.
Homelessness
Creating Space: Sukkot and Community Care
Sukkot asks us to leave sturdy walls behind and dwell somewhere fragile, a practice that opens up questions about who we make room for. Drawing on Maimonides, the tradition of ushpizin, and Pirkei Avot, this learning holds the tension between tradition and renewal, and traces how gratitude for a good harvest is meant to move outward toward others. It challenges participants to treat their sukkah not as a private refuge, but as an invitation extended to strangers, neighbors, and people they have yet to meet.
Immigrant Support
Zachor: Jewish Memory, Resilience, and Collective Responsibility after October 7th
Zachor asks us to remember, but Jewish memory has never been passive; it asks something of the people who carry it. Drawing on Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Rabbi Shai Held, and the Hadran, this learning holds the tension between particularism and universalism, and traces how hope becomes a practice rather than a feeling. It challenges participants to treat service not as a substitute for grief, but as one way of choosing connection and community in its wake.
Civic Engagement
Civic Service & Strengthening Our Democracy
Civic service is not only about turnout, it is a call to strengthen what we depend on, asking what participation requires when a system feels imperfect. Drawing on Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, this learning holds the tension between repair and brokenness, and traces how one person’s engagement contributes to a healthier whole. It challenges participants to treat democracy not as something to inherit passively, but as something built and rebuilt together.
Latest Resources
29 Resources
Civic Service & Strengthening Our Democracy
This learning uses Jewish text on civic duty to explore what strengthening democracy asks of us, from registering neighbors to sitting with people who see things differently.
Civic Engagement
Civic Service & Strengthening Our Democracy
Civic service is not only about turnout, it is a call to strengthen what we depend on, asking what participation requires when a system feels imperfect. Drawing on Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, this learning holds the tension between repair and brokenness, and traces how one person’s engagement contributes to a healthier whole. It challenges participants to treat democracy not as something to inherit passively, but as something built and rebuilt together.
Zachor: Jewish Memory, Resilience, and Collective Responsibility after October 7th
This learning uses Jewish text on memory and resilience to explore what it means to carry forward loss without letting it become the whole story.
Immigrant Support
Zachor: Jewish Memory, Resilience, and Collective Responsibility after October 7th
Zachor asks us to remember, but Jewish memory has never been passive; it asks something of the people who carry it. Drawing on Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Rabbi Shai Held, and the Hadran, this learning holds the tension between particularism and universalism, and traces how hope becomes a practice rather than a feeling. It challenges participants to treat service not as a substitute for grief, but as one way of choosing connection and community in its wake.
Creating Space: Sukkot and Community Care
This Sukkot learning uses Jewish text on hospitality and impermanence to explore who we welcome into our lives and who gets left outside.
Homelessness
Creating Space: Sukkot and Community Care
Sukkot asks us to leave sturdy walls behind and dwell somewhere fragile, a practice that opens up questions about who we make room for. Drawing on Maimonides, the tradition of ushpizin, and Pirkei Avot, this learning holds the tension between tradition and renewal, and traces how gratitude for a good harvest is meant to move outward toward others. It challenges participants to treat their sukkah not as a private refuge, but as an invitation extended to strangers, neighbors, and people they have yet to meet.
Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur: Returning Through Service
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, this learning draws on Jewish text to ask not what we’ve done wrong, but who we’re becoming and how service helps get us there.
Immigrant Support
Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur: Returning Through Service
The High Holy Days are not only a season of accounting, they are a call to return, asking what growth requires of those willing to show up for it. Drawing on Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Maimonides, and the practice of havdalah, this learning explores the tension between service as obligation and service as self-discovery, and the ways both can lead to a life of purpose. Holding together personal reflection and collective repair, it challenges participants to carry teshuvah forward not as reflection alone, but as action.
Neighbors in Times of Crisis: Commemorating 9/11
On September 11, this learning draws on Jewish text to ask not why tragedy strikes, but what it calls each of us to do in its wake.
Neighbors in Times of Crisis: Commemorating 9/11
September 11 is not only a day of mourning, it is a call to show up, asking what remembrance requires of those who carry it forward. Drawing on Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner, Rabbeinu Bahya, and Pirkei Avot, this learning explores the space between compassion and justice, and the choice to act, witness, or accompany when a moment calls for it. Holding the tension between repair and brokenness, it challenges participants to respond to memory not with grief alone, but with service.
Remembrance and Rededication
On Yom Hashoah, this learning draws on Jewish texts and the legacy of the Holocaust to ask not why suffering happens, but what we are called to do in its wake.
Antisemitism
Remembrance and Rededication
Yom Hashoah is not only a day of mourning — it is a call to rededication, asking each of us what obligation suffering places on those who come after. Drawing on Rabbi Soloveitchik, Hannah Senesh, and the Talmud, this learning explores the danger of turning away from others’ struggles and the power of showing up as an act of remembrance. Holding the tension between caring for the Jewish community and responsibility to the broader human family, it challenges participants to carry memory forward not as grief alone, but as action.
Caring for Ourselves by Caring for the Earth
Rooted in the Jewish teaching that we are trustees — not owners — of the earth, this learning explores what it means to care for our planet and each other.
Sustainability
Caring for Ourselves by Caring for the Earth
From Genesis to Midrash, Jewish tradition has long taught that the earth belongs not to us but to God and future generations — placing the role of steward, not owner, at the center of how we are meant to live. Drawing on Rabbi Sacks, Rabbi Bernstein, and Midrash Kohelet Rabbah, this learning asks participants to examine how that ancient responsibility comes alive in the concrete, hands-on work of environmental service. At a moment when climate insecurity touches our health, food, and communities, the learning explores the tension between caring for ourselves and caring for the world — and how those two duties are ultimately inseparable.
Knowing the Soul of the Stranger
Drawing on Exodus and Nechama Leibowitz, this learning explores why memory of suffering doesn’t automatically create empathy — and what it truly means to build belonging.
Immigrant Support
Knowing the Soul of the Stranger
The Torah commands the Israelites to protect the stranger not once but repeatedly, grounding ethical responsibility in collective memory of their own displacement. Nechama Leibowitz observes that this repetition is intentional: some people are moved by personal experience, while others need a different kind of moral argument — suggesting that compassion alone may not be sufficient to build a just society. Using these ancient texts as a lens, this learning asks how contemporary American society navigates the tension between self-preservation and responsibility to others, particularly in the context of the challenges facing immigrant communities today.
Our Founding Report
This study examines Jewish service learning as a tool for engaging young adults through tikkun olam. Its findings on combining service with Jewish values led to the creation of Repair the World.
Our Founding Report
This foundational study examines Jewish service learning as a powerful tool for engaging young adults in their Jewish identity while addressing social challenges, drawing on the tradition of repairing the world, tikkun olam, which extends the obligation to give beyond the Jewish community itself. The report’s findings on how Jewish service learning uniquely combines hands-on community service with Jewish values and knowledge led to the creation of Repair the World, an organization dedicated to nurturing both personal transformation and social change while strengthening Jewish continuity and identity.
Latest Resources
Dive deeper into Repair the World’s collections of resources that encompass the intersection of service and learning, rooted in Jewish wisdom.