Caption: Rabbi Jennie Chabon and Lisa Zeiler welcoming Soul FULL guests to the David Brower Center with their vocals and transcendent sound. The music in our highlights video is also by Rabbi Chabon and Lisa Zeiler.

Last week the Bay Area Jewish educational community came together at Soul FULL, a gathering created by Jewish LearningWorks to explore the neuroscience research that supports spirituality as a key component of health and fulfillment throughout our lifespan.

We are proud to share these highlights of our soulful day:

Dr. Lisa Miller, professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and author of New York Times bestselling books “The Spiritual Child” and “The Awakened Brain” offered a keynote address. Dr. Miller believes that the alarming increase of diseases of despair in our country, particularly among our youth, is directly related to the decline in spiritual life and religious observance in public life. She explained that even though spirituality is innate, hardwired in our brains from birth, it must be cultivated. She also observed that by engaging the “seat of spirituality,” the part of our brain that comes online when we have spiritual experiences, Jewish educators create the neuroprotective muscle that makes us more resilient when challenges arise, helping us thrive and live lives of meaning. Jewish LearningWorks agrees that teachers and educational leaders are uniquely positioned to counter cultural trends by centering the quest for spiritual life across all educational settings. Following the keynote, Soul FULL participants had the opportunity to participate in sessions on Processing Grief, Values Driven Leadership, Finding Glimmers, and Oscillating Family Narratives in Torah. This was only the beginning of this important conversation about the role educators can play in creating spiritual and emotional well being.

Inspired by our generative day together, Jewish LearningWorks is already imagining follow up opportunities that explore what it means to be what Dr. Miller called the torchbearers of a spiritually infused Judaism. If you are interested in giving input to shape what we offer, please contact Alisha Pedowitz at [email protected]. And if you want to receive early notice of related programs, please subscribe here to stay connected.