Partner Spotlight:

Institute for Jewish Spirituality

A Jewish Organization Supports Mindfulness in Democracy

The Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) has spent 25 years developing and teaching spiritual practices to bring about greater awareness, purpose and interconnection. Through in-person experiences, online courses, and programs from text study to meditation retreats to podcasts, they have reached tens of thousands of participants and supported thoughtful engagement with spiritual and daily life.

“What we’re really here to do is to teach Jewish mindfulness,” said IJS President and CEO Rabbi Josh Feigelson. “And to bring more meaningful Judaism to people across North America.”

IJS is working on a multilayered toolkit containing resources like podcast episodes, guided meditations, and written content designed to help people engage in civic behavior using mindful Jewish practices that also strengthen democracy in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

Strategic Priorities: Promoting ideological pluralism; Expanding opportunities for civic learning

Network Commitment: The Institute for Jewish Spirituality will develop a toolkit to help people bring Jewish mindfulness practices into their civic engagement leading up to the 2024 presidential election and beyond.

Partner since: 2023

In developing their commitment, IJS turned to what they do best – and found ways to connect it to a pressing civic need. Rabbi Feigelson credits A More Perfect Union with encouraging IJS to make the leap of developing this unique commitment, as well as amplifying its work alongside other partners. 

“We’re not in a position to do voter protection or create polling places, but we were looking at, what are our strengths?” said Rabbi Feigelson. “What can we bring to this? And we thought, well, the thing we do best is teaching. And the link from what we teach to the outcomes we need was very clear. What A More Perfect Union has been able to do is create a context for this work, and put our effort into a larger mobilization of the Jewish community for democracy.”

“This is going to be a time of tension and anxiety, and the practices we offer can help people respond to that mindfully with a little more light and a little less heat,” said Rabbi Feigelson. “Practices like choosing wise speech, engaging in wise listening, and discernment – those are prosocial behaviors that are important for maintaining democracy, but they are spiritual practices too.”

Get involved: For information about how your organization can work with A More Perfect Union,
contact our team at info@jewishdemocracy.org. 

Dig into our argument for democracy.

To help you understand our argument, approach, and evidence, we’ve published this brief white paper on the Jewish Imperative to Protect and Strengthen American Democracy.

What is transpartisanship?

We believe that protecting and strengthening American democracy is not a partisan issue.

That's why we pursue our work in a spirit of transpartisanship, which rejects the "us vs. them" mindset that characterizes so many political conversations.

We believe that whatever issues we care about individually – from religious freedom to climate change to fair elections – we all have a stake in American self-governance. Engaging effectively in self-governance requires respect and compromise, and we can only exercise these muscles when we focus on what brings us together rather than what sets us apart.

Ultimately, transpartisanship is both an approach and a commitment – to ourselves, to each other, and to future generations.