Programs & Services for Communities

Workshops and Teachings for Communities

Programs, lectures, workshops, in-service trainings and professional Jewish storytelling are available for virtually all topics addressed on this website and in Reclaiming Judaism Press publications. Our senior staff travel to communities, as well as most of the contributing authors to our publications. All fees are self-assessed by communities in order to ensure all that desire our services can benefit.

New program options include:

Mitzvah Stories Festival: Depending upon your needs, professional storytellers from Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning will come out to offer tales from the volume for your special event, e.g., Mitzvah Day, book club, Limmud or other conference. We often offer an open-mike option for Ted/Moth-talk like audience participation in addition. The program can be customized by theme and demographic.

Mitzvah Center-Life Workshop: Participants are guided in sorting a deck of 52 Mitzvah Cards into the mitzvot they practice, those they feel unready to take on, and those about which they'd love to learn more. Through Mitzvah Stories, traditional texts and experiential exercises, a number of mitzvot will be explored in a supportive way that inclines participants toward better understanding and more meaningful, spirited practice.

3 Mmm: Maggid, Mitzvah & Mussar Distance Learning Certification for Jewish Educators, Tutors, Counselors: Starting 2013 we are offering this three-year distance-learning training in Jewish storytelling, spiritual guidance and mitzvah-centered living for Jewish educators. Details.

Programs can be tailored to all age groups. Art and other types of projects are also available.

For more information use this link to e-mail our director, Rabbi Goldie Milgram. Here is an example of our programming approach, this B'nei Mitzvah Educator Training program given at NewCaje:

Revisioning Bar and Bat Mitzvah: New Principles, Methods & Materials: A Preconference Intensive given as a master class by Rabbi Goldie Milgram

Spirituality, meaning and motivation - national studies show these are what B'nei Mitzvah students and their families want and need. In this intensive you will experience and receive all necessary materials for effective turnkey methods and programs that will enable you to transform the season of B'nei Mitzvah into a process rich in these qualities by means of the following processes and programs: 
 

Under our Bar/Bat Mitzvah [R]Evolution (also see Bmitzvah.org) - Bar/Bat Mitzvah Action Plan (BMAP) involves a simple, yet profound process that deepens parent/child compassionate listening skills, while eliciting and building upon the emotions being experienced by students and families in anticipation of bar/bat mitzvah. All participants will receive a free copy of Rabbi Milgram's Make Your Own Bar/Bat Mitzvah: A Personal Approach to Creating a Meaningful Rite of Passage (Jossey-Bass Publishing), based on extensive research and used by congregational and day schools world-wide.

- B'nei Mitzvah Talent Adventure where the interests and skills of our students and their families are applied creatively throughout the b'nei mitzvah process. Discover how to make activities central to your students' lives directly B'nei Mitzvah relevant. We're talking from soccer to horseback riding to guitar, and much much more. Student attention to tasks, as well and pride and depth of accomplishments will soar.

- The Power of Chaver: You'll delight in the rapid rapport possible through a process that allows students to better appreciate who is "in the inner circle of their lives," the importance of being part of a community, and what the essence of healthy friendship can be.

- D'var Torah Olympics where the power of metaphor, a key portal to meaning for B'nei Mitzvah-age students becomes an empowering interpretive tool, bringing families closer to Torah for life.

-Mitzvah-Centering. The Talmud views this rite of passage as demonstrating students know how to live mitzvah-centered lives. We'll show you best practices for incorporation of meaningful mitzvah mentoring into your process and you'll receive a free deck of Mitzvah Cards to get you going with ease. Soon your students will every minute of the day in a mitzvah-centered, rather than self-centered way.

-Reach each student at the level of soul. While self-centered isn't the Jewish way, neither is the intention to become selfless. Rather, the path of mussar is needed to complement mitzvah, the cultivation of self as a vessel for healthy and holy living. You will also experience and add to your toolbox, methods drawn from the field of Jewish spiritual direction that help guide a young person across the threshold of childhood into empowered Jewish young adulthood.

-Thirteen Sacred Developmental Shifts are possible during the B'nei mitzvah season, our process together will reveal them and show you how to ensure success in all four dimensions of this rite of passage: physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual.