The Shalom Hartman Institute Of North America

Programs: North american community leadership program: the shalom hartman institute of north america (shina) develops study programs in partnership with professional and lay leaders at major communal organizations providing curricula, faculty, and ongoing collaborative partnership to bring jewish values-based discussions to the forefront. Through seminars and text-based study programs, shina convenes jewish organizational leaders to animate a culture of learning about major jewish questions affecting their communities. Currently, programming is focused in boston, new york/new jersey, los angeles, san francisco, seattle, and toronto. An annual week-long summer study retreat in jerusalem is the capstone to the leadership programs.

rabbinic programs: through hartman rabbinic programs, rabbis enrich their textual knowledge, broaden the range of ideas they encounter, and deepen their relationship with israel. The rabbinic leadership initiative (rli) is a three-year intensive fellowship program that immerses rabbis in the highest level of jewish learning, equipping them to meet contemporary challenges with ever-increasing intellectual and moral sophistication. Participants spend a month each summer and a week each winter studying at the hartman institute in jerusalem. Four cohorts of more than 100 rabbis of all denominations have completed rli and a fifth is currently underway. This program receives wide support from private donors and numerous jewish federations. The rabbinic torah study seminar (rts) is an annual ten-day study seminar that brings together rabbis of all denominations to study at the hartman institute in jerusalem to engage in thought-provoking, pluralistic study that helps them to enhance their spirituality, gain new insights, and enrich their capacity to inspire and meet the complex needs of their communities with renewed energy. The seminar is comprised of lectures by institute scholars, small group learning, and encounters with leading thinkers, artists, writers and leaders. The rabbinical students seminar provides north american rabbinical students of all denominations with an opportunity to engage in joint study with leading hartman scholars during their study year in israel. The program focuses on study of traditional and contemporary jewish and israeli sources, cross-denominational community building and cultivation of rabbinic identity.

iengage: the goal of the iengage project is to create a new narrative regarding the significance of israel for jewish life. This narrative can serve as a foundation for a new covenant between israel and world jewry, elevating the existing discourse from one with a crisis-based focus to one rooted in jewish values and ideas. The iengage team led by internationally renowned scholars in the fields of jewish studies, middle east politics and history, develops robust and easy-to-use curricula that provides a framework for ongoing study, enrichment and intellectual leadership training to empower educators and rabbis to lead values-based discussions tailored to the needs and questions of their communities. The following are current programs of the iengage project: iengage has produced three video-based lecture series (vls) that enable rabbis and educators to bring a more sophisticated discourse and conversation about israel into their synagogues and schools, and to challenge the prevailing wisdom that there cannot be an ethical and pluralistic jewish conversation about israel. Foundations for a new relationship and tribes of israel are both available and in use in hundreds of communities across north america. The third video lecture series, jewish values and the israeli-palestinian conflict will be available in 2015. The hartman fellowship for campus professionals brings together cohorts of the most talented and best-positioned campus professionals from across north america for study and discussion of israel's central challenges. The year-long fellowship trains this select group of leaders to think in values-based terms about israel as a core element of jewish life and provide them with a set of tools to help cultivate substantive, compelling conversations about, and equally substantive and compelling relationships with, israel. Fellows study the iengage curriculum through peer-study, lectures, discussions, field trips, and week-long seminars at the hartman institute in israel. The fellowship has expanded to engage directly with students through on-campus seminars and a week-long study program at the hartman institute in jerusalem. The muslim leadership initiative (mli) invites emerging religious and intellectual muslim leaders in the united states including clergy, chaplains, journalists, academics, entrepreneurs and cultural figures - to explore how jews understand judaism, israel, and jewish peoplehood. Through a rigorous academic curriculum entitled "encountering israel: foundations of peoplehood and faith," mli participants expand their critical understanding of the complex religious, political, and socioeconomic issues facing people in israel and palestine. Conducted over a 13-month period, the program comprises an orientation session, two seminars in jerusalem, mid-year retreats in north america, and monthly long-distance learning. The christian leadership initiative (cli) is a comprehensive, year-long study program run in partnership with the american jewish committee that introduces prominent christian leaders in north america to the rich tapestry of contemporary judaism and israeli society. The core curriculum is uniquely shaped for christian leaders and focuses on central ideas of jewish ethics and faith, the diverse ideologies and practices of contemporary jewry, the meaning of israel for world jewry, the foundations of religious pluralism and interreligious studies. The program begins and ends with a ten-day seminar at the hartman institute in jerusalem as well as a mid-year seminar and biweekly video conference study in the us. The iengage summer internship program brings together a select group of undergraduate students to live and learn for 6 weeks in jerusalem. Students work as research assistants for fellows at the kogod research center for contemporary jewish thought and participate in seminars built around the hartman institute iengage curriculum. Students engage deeply and substantively with israel by gaining exposure to new language and methodologies with which to express their relationship with israel.