Jewish Learning + Community, Reimagined
Empowering you with the wisdom and rituals to build the
Foundations of your Jewish Life
A living, growing community rooted in lifelong learning through the foundational cycles of Jewish life.
Designed to meet you where you are and bring meaning into core areas of life: how we rest, how we nourish, how we love, and how we transform, all drawing from the well of Jewish practice and wisdom.
This is a journey through the 2022 calendar year. $36/month
Foundations Course + Community Connection begin January 16th.
All the ancestral wisdom, none of the dogma.
-
The Foundations Course
Jewish learning designed to enhance your life.
Empowering you with the wisdom and rituals to build the Foundations of your Jewish Life, on your own terms.
Each week, you’ll receive a concise and comprehensive lesson in the form of audio, a beautiful PDF, and ritual guidance. You can learn and integrate in your own rhythm, and join live Ritual Labs and office hours to connect with others.
-
The Community
We designed our online platform to be community first, and we are excited to get to know you and to learn with and from you.
We are crafting a culture of belonging. It's pluralistic, global, and intergenerational. Regardless of where you are in your Jewish journey, we welcome you to co-create the community with us.
We have a great team of Rabbis, educators, ritualists and innovators ready to support you.
-
The Platform
Our innovative online platform leverages technology to provides the opportunity for asynchronous learning, so that you can join us from all across the globe, at your own pace, from your own home. The platform is easy to use, beautiful, tech-forward, and brings PDFs, audio, visuals together with virtual gatherings seamlessly.
Our vision is that our platform enables deep, meaningful connection between many different kinds of people, expanding all of our understanding of what it means to live, Jewishly.
A living, growing community for lifelong learning.
No matter where you are in your journey through Jewish life, we welcome you.
-
Young Adults
Interested in connecting with Jewish life on your own terms? We welcome your big questions and your curious mind. We developed our community and curriculum to give you the knowledge and tools to design your Jewish life in an informed, empowered way.
-
Engaged, Newlywed, + Creating a Jewish Home
At this phase of life, you and your partner have the opportunity to consciously co-create your Jewish life together. Whether both partners are Jewish or you’re in an interfaith marriage, our courses are a great way to grow, and will empower you both to step confidently into this new chapter together.
-
Parents
You are raising the future, and we honour you! We are mindful of the challenges of parenting, and have designed our program to be flexible and supportive for you. We trust that the more confident and creative you are when leading rituals and answering the big questions, the more grounded your children will feel in their Jewish identity.
-
Elders
You may have thought your school days were over, but we warmly welcome you into a new phase of deepening and broadening your relationship with Jewish life. We know that learning never ends, and we’re eager to hear your stories!
-
Curious?
Whether you’re dating a Jewish person, have recently learned about Jewish heritage, or are simply drawn to and curious about Jewish life and theology, you are warmly welcomed to join us.
-
Converting?
If you’re curious about or committed to converting, we have a special track of this program for you to go through and complete your conversion in a supported, meaningful, and empowering way! Click here to request more information.
-
Love to Learn?
If you feel connected with what we’ve created here, but don’t fit into any of the categories above, you are of course welcome to join us. This is an openhearted, inclusive space where all of who you are is welcome.
-
Are you a Rabbi, Jewish educator, entrepreneur, or community leader?
We want to connect with you, hear your voice, and support your growth, and the best way we can do that is if you join our community as a member in our early stages. Click here to learn why.
One Foundational Course in Four Units, throughout the 2022 calendar year:
-
REST
For 8 weeks in the Winter, starting in January. This unit focuses on our weekly cycles: working with the rhythms and rituals of Shabbat to enrich our everyday life.
-
NOURISH
For 8 weeks in the Spring. This unit focuses on the spiritual and physical nourishment in the cycles of our days. We will explore daily prayer, food (kosher and beyond), and our relationship with the Earth.
-
LOVE
For 8 weeks in the Summer. This unit focuses on our life cycles and how they shape the many dimensions of love in our lives: marriage and sexuality, family, community, loss and grief, and love of the divine.
-
TRANSFORM
For 8 weeks in the Fall. This unit focuses on our Hebrew calendar cycles: the healing art of the Hebrew calendar and Jewish holidays, looking at practices, ethics, mythologies, and Jewish histories.
What’s included in each unit:
Weekly concise & thought-provoking lessons available in audio and PDF format, released every Sunday.
Office hours with our mentors where you can ask questions and receive thoughtful answers.
Live Ritual Lab zoom calls to practice the different rituals of Jewish life with confidence. The recordings of all Ritual Labs will live in a growing library that you can return to as often as you need to!
Prompts for your reflection and integration of core ideas, which you can take into a journal, a conversation, or a dialogue around the dinner table.
Community spaces designed for connection and cultural sharing. Our goal is that you will learn about the cultural richness of Jewish life, and make more than one friend!
So you can:
Understand the core ideas underpinning different areas of Jewish life,
Self-reflect to discover your own style and approach,
See and celebrate the diverse expressions of Jewish life around the world and right next door,
Be supported by mentors who will help you to be confident in how you're integrating and innovating in a good way,
Receive practical guidance in Ritual Lab workshops so you feel confident stepping into leadership in your family and community,
...and so much more!
In the integration time between each unit, you’ll still retain full access to all units you’ve participated in, and, most importantly, full access to the community we will have created together. You’ll connect with new and old friends, ask questions, share your own valuable insights, and feel the warmth of community on live calls- all with room for your growth into leadership within our community.
Who We Are
-
Ganga Devi Braun: Innovation + Community Director
Ganga Devi is a multi-passionate innovator and systems theorist who designs for a more compassionate, connected world. Born and raised in an Interfaith community, and ordained as an Interspiritual Minister by OneSpirit in 2020, open hearted pluralism in religious communities is a core passion that drives her. She developed the vision for SOLJ while going through her own conversion process, in which she craved opportunities to connect more deeply with the diverse expressions of Jewish life, as she believes that the richest blessings in life are found in the collective wisdom of many different people gathered together.
-
Rabbi Bluth: Creative + Spiritual Director
Rabbi Bluth is known for her art, her ritual guidance, and her passionate work for a more just world. Ordained from Beit Midrash Har El, and involved in inter devotional global work (including KAICIID and RFP), Bluth builds bridges and imagination. She calls the Holy land and Toronto home. She is committed to a more loving, more beautiful, more just world, and welcomes you to co-create that world with us within SOLJ.
-
Dr. Eliott Malamet: Director of Curriculum and Ethics
Elliott is known for pushing his audiences to think beyond the conventional. With decades of experience in Jewish education, Elliott has shaped our curriculum to include everything that’s wonderful about Jewish learning, and innovating where there are opportunities to do better.
-
Rabbi Yossi Sapirman: Visionary Founder of Living Jewishly
One of the most compelling and influential Rabbis in North America today, Rabbi Yossi believes the role of Living Jewishly is to take “the traditions of Jewish spirituality and translate them into very contemporary messages”.
FAQs
-
We are excited about the complete journey we’ve prepared for the 2022 calendar year, but we know that a whole year’s commitment can feel like a lot.
This is why we’ve made it possible to pay monthly, quarterly, or all at once.
You can end your membership by cancelling the next payment at any point, but our payments are nonrefundable, so please select the payment option that makes the most sense for you.
-
While we believe in the power of connection through community, we also believe in everyone doing what is truly right for them.
If all you want to do is listen to the ~20 minute audio lesson each week (you can listen from our app on a walk, washing dishes, looking at birds, anything!) and take your contemplations inward into your own life, you are more than welcome to do so.
Consider SOLJ a slinky- it can be small and compact, or extend widely to infuse as much space in your life as you’d like with Jewish wisdom, ritual, and meaning.
-
Yes! Our vision is that this is a community for lifelong learning that enriches and deepens all of our understanding of what it means to Live, Jewishly, together.
We want to hear your wisdom, your stories, and your traditions, and we also know that learning never ends- there’s a lot that you’ll be able to grow from and through by being open to the wisdom of others.
-
Yes! We created this to add richness, context, wisdom, and meaning to the lives of many different kinds of people, and as long as you have a curious mind and open heart, you are warmly welcome.
We love sharing the wisdom and rituals of Jewish life with people who are genuinely interested to learn.
