Tony, one of the earliest experts in community co-working, had already pivoted to online community building before the pandemic. In this episode, Tony talks to us about using old and new technologies for creating meaningful communities across physical distance.

Access more resources and ideas at: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/

More about our guest:
Tony Bacigalupo has been an organizer, entrepreneur, artist, gatherer, experimenter, alliance builder, and dreamer for his whole adult life. He built Manhattan’s first coworking space as a community gathering center. He organizes unconferences. He speaks, he writes, he looks for ways to get good people together in the room. 

Knowing the landscape in which we are working helps us meet the real needs--and Dr. Daniel Olson provides data on how the American Jewish community is experiencing and responding to Covid-19.

Additionally, it is critical that we know how to evaluate the impact of our minimum viable projects—our first tries at testing our new ideas—in order to figure out what we can and should change for next time so that we are more likely to achieve our intended outcomes. Daniel provides tips to quickly and easily evaluate your new projects.

Access more resources online at: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/

Priya is an expert on how to make our gatherings purposeful and meaningful. In this episode, she focuses on suggestions for how we can make our High Holiday gatherings meaningful, whether virtual or distanced-in-person. Priya invites us to think about how we can bring our people together across the generations, and honor the perspectives and expertise of each participant, of every age.

The first 25 people to sign up at this link will receive a copy of Priya’s book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/podcast/priyaparker

Find more resources and support to make your Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, or any holiday more meaningful for your community by visiting CRI here: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/

More about our guest:
Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a master facilitator, strategic advisor, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters and the host of the New York Times podcast, Together Apart. Parker has spent 15 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community and identity and vision at moments of transition. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, Parker has worked on race relations on American college campuses and on peace processes in the Arab world, southern Africa, and India.

Parker is a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Values Council and the New Models of Leadership, and a Senior Expert at Mobius Executive Leadership. She studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia.

Parker’s The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (Riverhead, 2018) has been named a Best Business Book of the year by Amazon, Esquire Magazine, NPR, the Financial Times, 1-800-CEO-READS and Bloomberg. She has spoken on the TED Main Stage, and her TEDx talk on purpose has been viewed over 1 million times. Parker’s work has been featured in numerous outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, TED.com, Forbes.com, Real Simple Magazine, Oprah.com, Bloomberg, Glamour, the Today Show and Morning Joe. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Anand Giridharadas, and their two children.

Matan and the team at Respectability are providing free resources to ensure that your programs and services are accessible and inclusive. Sign up below to receive the free and comprehensive guide to Making Online High Holiday Celebrations Accessible to All.

Find more inspiration and resources from the Center for Rabbinic Innovation: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/

Learn more about our guest:
Matan A. Koch is the Director of RespectAbility California and Jewish Leadership at RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for and with people with disabilities. A longtime national leader in disability advocacy and a wheelchair user himself, he leads Project Moses, RespectAbility’s Los Angeles-based Jewish leadership project, and is also on the front lines in many other areas of RespectAbility’s work, including: disability inclusion in philanthropy and nonprofits, Jewish outreach and impact, leadership, legal affairs and our continuing Los Angeles expansion.

Koch is a longtime leader in disability advocacy, and was a Senate confirmed Obama appointee to the National Council on Disability, for a term that ended in 2014. An inclusion expert, he has developed training and materials for many Jewish organizations, including Hillel International, the Union for Reform Judaism and Combined Jewish Philanthropies. He has also spoken and taught at law firms, and at Johnson & Johnson. He recently finished a 4 year term on the Advisory Council of Jewish Vocational Services in Boston, as their disability subject matter expert.

A graduate of Yale College and the Harvard Law School, Koch began his legal career as counsel to the Procter & Gamble Company, where he rose to become the primary legal support for a $2 billion portfolio of brands. He then transitioned to an AmLaw 100 Law Firm in New York, where he worked on a broad range of high-value commercial litigation matters, and was privileged to do pro bono work in the areas of criminal appeals and guardianship. For his commercial work, Koch was recognized as a “Rising Star” by New York SuperLawyers in 2012 and 2013, a distinction allotted to the top 2.5% of New York metro area lawyers, based on peer recognition and professional achievement. For his pro bono work, Koch was awarded the Legal Aid Society Outstanding Pro Bono Services for 2013, based on a victory at the highest court of New York.

Aliza Kline, is the Executive Director of One Table, which has helped many thousands of people plan, host and lead their own Shabbat dinners for years. In this episode, Aliza explains how she and the team behind One Table has created a free platform called herefor.com to help us explore how we can invite and support our people to be co-producers and even hosts of their own Jewish experiences this Elul and Tishrei.

Find more inspiration and resources from the Center for Rabbinic Innovation: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/

Learn more about our guest:
Aliza Kline is a dynamic leader and social entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and CEO of OneTable, empowering young adults to become producers of Jewish life by hosting (and guesting!) Shabbat dinners that feel authentic, sustainable, and valuable. Aliza was also the founding executive director of Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh and Education Center, an international model for re-imaging Jewish ritual open to the full diversity of the Jewish community. A trained coach and design thinking facilitator, Aliza works with clients throughout North America and Israel. She has a B.A. from WashU and an MPA from NYU. 

Elie, and Hadar, are working double time to produce materials to allow for meaningful preparation for the holidays, even if they must be observed alone or only with family, at home. Clergy can offer these to their members, and can also use them as resources in preparing sermons, adult education programs, and in setting up virtual chevruta learning in your community. 

Get inspired for the High Holidays with ideas, resources, and connections from the Center for Rabbinic Innovation: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/

Learn more about our guest:
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is President and CEO of the Hadar Institute. Elie has previously worked as a journalist, banker, and corporate fraud investigator. A graduate of Harvard College, he completed his doctorate in liturgy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was also ordained. A Wexner Graduate Fellow and Dorot Fellow, Elie is a co-founder of the independent minyan Kehilat Hadar and has been named multiple times to Newsweek’s list of the top 50 rabbis in America. He was selected as an inaugural AVI CHAI Fellow, and is the author of Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us About Building Vibrant Jewish Communities (Jewish Lights, 2010). He also received semikha from his long-time teacher, Rav Daniel Landes. Elie serves on the board of Natan and on the advisory board of Upstart.

Tara, inspired by Rabbi Alan Lew, has used the concepts of Yirah and Pachad to help us think about our leadership--and jump into trying new things that will serve the real and emerging needs of our people.

This high holiday season is real, but your don't need to be completely unprepared. Learn more about how the Center for Rabbinic Innovation can help you drive engagement nad make meaning: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/

More about our guest:
Tara Sophia Mohr is an expert on women’s leadership and well-being, and an author, educator and certified coach. Tara is the author of Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead, published by Penguin Random House, and named a Best Book of the Year by Apple’s iBooks. She is the creator of the pioneering Playing Big leadership program for women, and Playing Big Facilitators Training for coaches, mentors and managers who support women in their personal and professional growth. Her work has been featured on The Today Show and in publications ranging from The New York Times to goop to Harvard Business Review. She lives in San Francisco and loves dance, art, and long walks with her family.

Rabbi Bogard, a rabbi and tech hobbyist, has figured out how to use free technological solutions to stream images of the siddur, while also moving seamlessly from live interaction to pre-recorded video. In this episode, he explains how to do so, even for those of us without advanced technical skills.

Learn more about the Center for Rabbinic Innovation and get prepared for a unique high holiday season: https://centerforrabbinicinnovation.org/