With colleagues on-site at the Staenberg Family Campus of the St. Louis JCC.
In February, 2019, I participated in an invitational think tank dedicated to advancing the field of Relational Engagement. This group of Jewish professionals and clergy were brought together by the Dorothy and Myer Kripke Institute Center for Relational Judaism to discuss the state of the field, best principles, and paths forward.
Ron Wolfson, author of the book Relational Judaism and co-author of The Relational Judaism Handbook, reflected on this think tank, writing:
Jewish Relational Engagement is a perspective we can bring to almost every setting in Jewish life; an orientation toward the whole individual, allowing for people to access their vulnerability, their gifts, and their own deeper thoughts and feelings.
We marveled at how synagogues and religious schools across denominations, outreach engagement initiatives, Jewish Federations and Hillels are focusing on people over programs are growing substantially in a time when other institutions are in decline. There is concrete evidence that the strategies of Jewish Relational Engagement are working.
Ron Wolfson, “Lessons Learned from the First National Think Tank on Jewish Relational Engagement
