Jewish Studio Project – To expand the reach of The Educator Studio by offering a fourth national fellowship cohort to reignite Jewish educators’ passion and purpose, codifying the program model, and developing new collaborations.

What have you learned about how The Educator Studio fulfills educators’ needs?

Interview questions answered by JSP Director of Learning, Rabbi Adam Lavitt

The Educator Studio meets educators at a critical point — many arrive burned out, disconnected from their deeper purpose. Through the Jewish Studio Process and sustained cohort community, they reconnect with their creative vitality and learn to teach from a more integrated, authentic place. Tools like intention-setting, witness writing, and participant-facilitation help educators lead with curiosity rather than performance, shifting from “delivering” Jewish wisdom to curating spaces where it’s collectively constructed. The structured, non-evaluative container allows educators to take creative risks and discover new ways of leading. Fellows show up as their whole creative selves, moving toward greater wholeness in their work.

How have Educator Studio alumni been able to apply what they’ve learned, whether to their own teaching practice or in their school communities?

Fellows find that the Jewish Studio Process — through practices like intention-setting, witness writing, and art-making — helps them deepen their creative capacity and lead from a greater sense of purpose. That renewal flows outward: as one fellow put it, “I no longer deliver Jewish content — I create a space where people bring their own wisdom to the table.” One fellow’s workshop at an antisemitism symposium sparked a conversation that led to two years of grant funding for community art-making havurot. Again and again, moments emerge when educators lead from the inside out, opening unexpected doors.

Can you share a highlight from your experience learning and making art alongside Jewish educators?

My most powerful moment came after October 7th, leading my first in-person Educator Studio retreat in Berkeley. The room held people across the political spectrum — all shattered, all making art together. Standing next to someone I knew I disagreed with politically, I listened to them breathe, heard brushes moving, felt us ground together despite not sharing common ground. Art-making became a “third thing” that held us when words couldn’t. This moment wasn’t unique — I’ve witnessed it again and again. In polarized times, the Jewish Studio Process creates conditions for people to be held together, even amid profound difference.