Institute for Jewish Spirituality

06/01/2026

We are so excited to be co-sponsoring this upcoming event with RUACH! We also can't wait to welcome one of RUACH's instructors, Yaakov Ginsberg-Schreck as a guest teacher for our YA retreat this summer.

At the turning of the summer solstice, we gather for an evening of reflection, ritual, breath, and honest human connection.

This 90-minute virtual gathering will weave together meditation, seasonal Jewish wisdom, gentle ritual, and small-group conversation as we explore grief not as something to overcome, but as part of being fully human.

Rooted in Jewish tradition and open to people of all backgrounds and experience levels.

🌞 Sunday, June 14
🕯 7:00–8:30 PM ET | 4:00–5:30 PM PT
💻 Virtual Gathering

🔗Learn more and sign up here: https://bit.ly/4dIFmkf

An intimate online solstice-season gathering weaving meditation, Jewish ritual, reflection, and community connection in a time of grief and growth.

06/01/2026

Meditation Sit

06/01/2026

Join host and teacher Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife for Sharing Our Torah: A Mindfulness Affinity Space for Jews of Color and Sephardim/Mizrahim - Wednesday, June 10th at 12:00 PM ET via Zoom ✨

Keshira (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and is a Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality; she also enjoys working with Jewish Studio Project and Kirva among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a facilitator, teacher, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, shlichat tzibbur, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a q***r, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person living with chronic illness, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
We invite Jews of Color and Sephardim/Mizrahim (JoCSM) to join us for a monthly opportunity to slow down together and take a mindful pause.

🔗Registration is at no cost to participants. This space will be one part inspiration, one part meditation, one part community connection - we hope you’ll join us! Register for free here: https://bit.ly/3Ko8nWl

05/31/2026

Last chance! Our class on mindful speech starts tomorrow! Register now to learn with Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, Rebecca Schisler, and guest teacher Danny Cohen.

So many of us are feeling an upswing in our reactivity, especially around speech: We know how easy it is to get reactive. How hard it is to say what we really mean. How often conversations leave us feeling more distant, not more connected.

If you’re feeling this too, this class is a chance to step into those moments differently. Not by saying the perfect thing, but by learning to pause, listen, and speak with greater awareness and care. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You don’t need to be “good with words.” You just need the desire to practice.

🔗Register here:

05/29/2026

✨The four levels of speech in Judaism teaches us how to be mindful when speaking to ourselves, our friends, the Divine, and when the Divine speaks through us. 🌿

Thank you to for sharing these teachings, and more in our upcoming Mindful Speech course!

🔗Learn more and register at the link in our bio!

05/29/2026

Meditation Sit

05/28/2026

In Naso, we learn of the offerings the 12 tribes bring to anoint the new altar. We also learn that all tribes bring the exact same offerings. This shows us the unique specialness that each one of us holds, even if we do the exact same things as those around us, it is distinct because we are unique individuals.

Thank you to for sharing this week's

05/27/2026

Join Rabba Dr. Mira Neshama Niculescu for today's IJS Daily Sit: a beautiful short teavching and meditation on blessing ourselves and others, based on the Priestly Blessing (Birkat Kohanim) in this Shabbat's Torah portion, Naso. Source sheet link in comments below.

05/27/2026

Meet the teachers for our upcoming annual Young Adult retreat! Keshira, Rebecca, Jes, and Yael all bring so much to our table, don't miss the opportunity to practice with them in person this summer!

Learn more and register here: https://bit.ly/3OWMsbe

05/26/2026

Do you ever catch yourself responding to common questions like "How are you?" mindlessly? Do you want to learn how to speak with greater clarity and honesty?

Our upcoming course on Mindful Speech as a Spiritual Practice will teach you all that, and more!

In a time where words fracture and divide us, this is an opportunity to reclaim the power of speech as a force for connection, presence, and healing.

Join and as they lead this class, sign up now at the link in our bio!