National Days of Jewish 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.