June 3, 2024: How can art produced by Israelis help us grapple with the changes that we are experiencing? JPro and M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education presented an interactive session, where participants explored one of three art forms –music, poetry, and visual arts – in breakout rooms with colleagues from across the Jewish nonprofit sector, to help process the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and geopolitical conflict.

March 27, 2024: JPro was honored to welcome back a lifelong friend of Elie Wiesel, respected Jewish community leader, and JPro board member Ted Comet. Ted presented five unique tapestries woven by his late wife Shoshana Comet, who was a Holocaust survivor, psychotherapist, and artist. This timely discussion illustrated how trauma can be converted into creativity and healing energy, and was followed by a fireside chat focused on the lessons from his career in the Jewish communal field. Click here to view documents and lessons from Ted’s legacy from the Berman Archive. 

February 12, 2024: Since the Hamas massacre on October 7 and subsequent outbreak of war, Jewish community professionals are navigating the new geopolitical reality and have been confronted with various types of interpersonal conflict within our workplaces. Gamal Palmer, Founder and Principal, Conscuious Builders, led a panel discussion to explore conflict management in Jewish communal workplaces and frameworks we can use as we continue to navigate the crisis in Israel. Panelists include: Meredith Bliss, Independent Management Consultant; Dr. Keren Fraiman, Dean & Academic Officer, Spertus Institute; Rabbi Dr. Joshua Ladon, Director of Education, Shalom Hartman Institute; and Dr. Deitra Reiser, Founder and Principal, Transform for Equity. Click here to view resources related to Conflict Management from the Berman Archive. 

December 7 2023: The ADL’s Vlad Khaykin and Tema Smith joined JPro for a timely conversation exploring the history of antisemitism, the connection to anti-Israel hostility, and how our communities can come together in allyship to support one another in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel. 

October 19, 2023: JPro, along with Leading Edge and the Jewish Federations of North America, welcomed professionals from across the Jewish nonprofit sector to came together, find strength in community, and practice strategies for resilience in times of challenge. Speakers Michal Eskenazi Becker, Director of Impact & Planning, Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, and Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein, Rabbinic Scholar and Public Affairs Advisors, JFNA, opened the program. Later, participants joined breakout rooms, led by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Reconstructing Judaism; Carrie Darsky, JCCA and Liz Fisher, JFNA; Rabbi Bec Richman, Jewish Studio Project; and Dana Childress and Abby Crawford, Leading Edge. Click here to view resources from the session. 

March 6, 2023: JPro led an honest conversation about the many challenges facing Jewish communal leaders and how leaders can behave and respond in a time of increased polarization featuring Felicia Herman, Erika B. Rudin-Luria, Cheryl Cook, and Doron Krakow.

September 19, 2022: Aaron Dorfman, Mike Berkowitz, and Julia Lipton spoke about how you can support Jewish communities, mobilize across partisan lines, and protect free and fair elections. 

March 8, 2022:  Faun Zarge joined us to let us know that burnout is not inevitable and how to take your role and organization to the next level without compromising your well-being.

Dec 14, 2021: Mordy Walfish of Leading Edge joined in conversation with JPro’s Laura Herman to discuss The Gender Gap in Jewish Nonprofit Leadership, which identifies the five “keynote species” of the persistent gender gap in our sector, and explore ways we can each take action to rejuvenate the Jewish organizational ecosystem and close that gap.

November 10, 2021:  Ilana Aisen, CEO of JPro, and Dr. Arielle Levites, Managing Director of CASJE explored the Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators Study, the recently-released multi-strand investigation of the recruitment, retention and development of Jewish educators, and dove into these issues as they relate to the entire Jewish nonprofit workforce.

September 13, 2021: JPro and Hadar explored what it means to rebuild from the ruins and ask how we, as Jewish community professionals, might partner with God in birthing the world anew this holiday season through acts of hesed, loving-kindness.