In the summer of 2020, outraged by racial and social injustice in this country, young Jewish activists in NYC came together for 40 days of protest culminating with the holiday of Tisha B’Av, which marks several major disasters in Jewish history including the destruction of the second temple. This short film, 40 Days of Teshuvah, weaves together a story of bringing Jewish spiritual practice into the fight for racial justice. Following the screening, we’ll join together in a discussion with featured activist Yehudah Webster and community leader Rabbi David Jaffe around the themes and spiritual tools present in the film, and share ideas around how Jewish spiritual practices can be integrated into our own efforts for repair and justice.
The program will begin at 6:00pm with a welcome reception and pizza on our patio plaza followed by the film screening and discussion indoors. Please contact Olga if cost is an issue or for special accommodations.
All are welcome.
The IOWA Project
@The IOWA Project is a network of activists, educators, and spiritual leaders in the Jewish community supporting social justice leaders in exploring Jewish spiritual wisdom and developing Jewish spiritual practice. We are driven by the belief that integrating deep spiritual wisdom into our justice work allows activists to lead from a place that is more visionary, creative, sustainable, and grounded. The IOWA Project aims to help community members build bridges between their spiritual lives and their activist lives through study groups and leadership and facilitators cohorts to learn, practice, and grow into deeper Jewish spiritual practice through Mussar and Chassidut. Learn more about their work at InsideOutWisdomAndAction.org and follow them at @insideoutwisdomandaction.
For special accodomations or if cost is an issue please contact Olga@vilnashul.org
Rabbi David Jaffe
Rabbi David Jaffe is the founder of the Kirva Institute and leads the Inside Out Wisdom and Action Project. He is the author of Changing the World from the Inside Out: A Jewish Approach to Personal and Social Change, which won the National Jewish Book Award for Contemporary Jewish life.
His teaching, writing, organizing and consulting explore the intersection of moral and spiritual development and ethical action in the world. He teaches Mussar (applied Jewish ethics) and Jewish spiritual wisdom widely throughout North America with organizational and social change leaders, educators and spiritual seekers of all ages.
David was a founding board member of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps and helped start the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, an IAF affiliate. He has a masters in social work from Columbia University and private rabbinic ordination from Israel. He is a senior faculty member with the Mussar Institute, a visiting research fellow at Boston University and adjunct faculty at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School. David serves on the Board of Directors of the Brockton Interfaith Community and lives in Sharon, MA with his partner, Janette and two teenage boys.
Yehudah Webster
Yehudah Webster is program director and faculty at the IOWA Project where he leads Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out.Yehudah Webster is a community organizer and political educator who works to ensure the Jewish community remains committed to the fight for racial justice and collective liberation. With an analysis of unconditional / revolutionary care, Yehudah facilitates anti-oppression trainings and offers organizational consulting, developing unique programs to bring pitted against communities together. As a board member for Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, he supports the police reform campaign and the Jews of Color Caucus, organizing and leading meaningful political actions infused with Jewish ritual and moral grounding.He is a graduate of JFREJ’s Grace Paley Organizing Fellowship and Bend the Arc’s Selah Leadership Program.
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