Peaceful Family
The Peaceful Parent Project®
The Peaceful Grandparent Project
Program Overview
Orot's Peaceful Family Programming ~ including The Peaceful Parent Project® and Peaceful Grandparent, a specialized program for grandparents ~ is uniquely designed to support families across generations. This initiative aims to enrich the lives of parents and grandparents, helping them to cultivate spiritually connected, mindful, and compassionate families using ancient Jewish wisdom and teachings and practices from the mindfulness tradition. Open to families of all backgrounds.
Peaceful Family Program Goals
Fosters a nurturing community of peers to share challenges, find support, and learn to navigate the challenges of parenting and grandparenting
Offers a space for individuals and couples to nourish themselves, highlighting the importance of self-care in family relationships
Provides parents and grandparents with mindfulness teachings and tools, and concrete relational practices for everyday life, enhancing peace and connection within families
Introduces Jewish spiritual wisdom as a source of meaning and nourishment
“The Peaceful Parenting class helped me take a step back from all the day-to-day challenges and encouraged me to build stronger connections with my children during our busy lives. I thought it might be hard to commit one night/week, but I actually looked forward to each of the workshops as they bring mindfulness to the forefront and allow you to reflect on your week. For me, I liked being able to think critically about how my own interactions with my children could lead to better outcomes for all of us. In the midst of this very challenging year, I so appreciated the ability to explore parenting through the lens Jewish texts and bring that wisdom to my daily life.”
Learn More About Our Offerings
The Peaceful Parent Project®
The Peaceful Parent Project® is a cohort-based program designed to support parents’ well-being and nurture their families from the inside out. This transformative program offers parents powerful teachings and concrete tools to integrate Jewish wisdom and mindfulness into their daily lives, bringing deeper compassion, patience, and connection to the parenting journey.
6-week program with weekly 1.15-hour sessions led by Orot educators
Chevruta (partner) pairings for inter-session support
Home practice suggestions, recorded teachings, and meditations
Access to follow-up resources, workshops, and alumni gatherings
Do you want to support the parents in your community, but don’t have the time, bandwidth, or expertise to offer quality programming for them?
Are you looking for ways to connect your parents to Jewish teachings and supportive resources and practices?
Would you like to strengthen your organizational community in deep and impactful ways but don’t know how?
“Each of the weekly sessions provided meaningful, practical mindsets to apply to future parenting situations and other relationships. With well-curated Jewish texts, this course provides support to either refresh or complement your current parenting style or to learn to shift into a more mindful parenting style.”
The Peaceful Grandparent Project
The Peaceful Grandparent Project is a new Orot Peaceful Family initiative offering grandparents the tools to deepen connections with their adult children and grandchildren and begin to infuse family moments with sacredness and tranquility, using ancient Jewish wisdom and teachings from the mindfulness tradition. This is for grandparents of all different backgrounds.
Learning to see your children and grandchildren through a clear-sighted lens
Learning to listen deeply to your grandchildren and children
Learning to bless the everyday experiences of family and infuse them with sacredness and distinctiveness
Learning to find tranquility and peace within the context of family relationships
“Each session gives me the space to explore my grandparenting challenges and beliefs in the context of Jewish sources and other parents’ experience. Through the close examination of targeted Jewish texts, our small cohort shared, laughed and cried together. And more importantly, we reflected on our relationships with our children and grandchildren”
Meet the Educators
Amy Atkins
Boulder, CO
Amy Atkins is a devoted mother and advocate for mindful parenting, deeply involved in Jewish community building and mindfulness practices. Her extensive experience includes roles in key Jewish organizations and a dedication to yoga, showcasing her commitment to fostering a supportive, welcoming community for Jewish families.
Candice G. Rosene
Candice G. Rosene
Encino, CA
Candice G. Rosene leverages her expertise in parenting and early childhood development, coupled with a career in broadcasting and film, to support families through transitions and growth. She focuses on creating inclusive spaces for parents to connect, share, and enhance their journey through motherhood.
Michal Berkson Powell
Washington, DC
Michal Berkson Powell, a clinical social worker with extensive experience, focuses on supporting children, families, and educators. Her work spans public schools, Jewish organizations, and private practice, emphasizing mental health and educational success across various settings.
Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez
Atlanta, GA
Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez combines her rabbinic ordination and social work expertise to lead in Jewish education, engagement, and non-profit consulting. Her leadership in several volunteer roles underscores her commitment to building inclusive, values-driven Jewish communities.
DR. AVIVA LEVINE JACOBS
Aviva completed a joint degree in Psychology and Judaic Studies at Brown University. She received her PysD in clinical psychology from the CA School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco with a focus on children and families. Aviva has worked as a therapist supporting children, teens, and parents in both clinic settings and private practice. She has extensive experience supporting children, teens, and staff members at Jewish overnight camps, where she has worked for over a decade as a staff trainer, educator and currently as Director of Camper Care and Staff Wellness at Camp Ramah in CA. Aviva has a passion for supporting parents of young children and works as a mental health consultant.
Jessie Lavintman
Minnesota
Jessie Cohen Lavintman, a mother and experienced Jewish educator, combines her passion for life coaching, doula services, and education to support parents in the Orot PPP. Her journey includes significant ties to Israel, a love for cooking, and a commitment to creating a nurturing community for families.
Jess Berlin
Philadelphia, PA
Jess Berlin is a seasoned Jewish educator and retreat director, dedicated to enriching family experiences through immersive retreats and spiritual practices. Her work in meditation, yoga, and outdoor education has impacted many, fostering deep connections within the Jewish community.
Mara Bragg
New York, NY
Mara Bragg, a dedicated educator and community builder, excels in supporting families through early childhood and Jewish life exploration. Her leadership in creating engaging, supportive programs reflects her commitment to nurturing family connections and facilitating community growth.
Dr. Jane Shapiro
Jane Shapiro is an Orot co-founder and passionate about all aspects of Jewish teaching and learning. She has been a teacher to many over the last thirty years, in classes ranging from weekly Torah study to Jewish thought, history and literature. Jane teaches all Peaceful Grandparent cohorts and brings “The Torah of Bubbiehood” to life. The Peaceful Grandparent Project launched in 2023 and Jane is working to bring this initiative to communities across the country.
Sue bojdak
Sue Bojdak has been a Jewish educator for over 20 years, teaching and learning with kids, families and adults. She currently serves as the Director of Education at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco. Sue has a BA in Religious Studies from SUNY Stony Brook, an MA in Divinity from the University of Chicago, a California Adult Education credential, and is currently completing a certificate in Spiritual Direction at the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Sue is the mother and stepmother of four young adults aged 18-20. She lives in Berkeley, CA.
Jessica Soria Korsunsky
Vista, CA (San Diego)
Jessica Soria Korsunsky brings her rich background in Jewish community service and mindfulness to her role, emphasizing parent empowerment and community building. With a history of impactful roles in Jewish organizations and as a yoga instructor, she fosters creative and inclusive experiences for families.
Jodie Honigman
Milwaukee, WI
Jodie Honigman, a passionate Jewish educator and counseling psychology MA candidate, contributes her expertise to the Milwaukee Jewish community. Her dedication to learning, teaching, and providing therapy enriches her role, making her a valuable resource for families navigating their Jewish journeys.
Elana Pollack
Cambridge, MA
Elana Pollack's passion for Jewish education and community engagement shines through her work in various roles. Her experiences in summer camps, day schools, and community organizations highlight her dedication to creating inclusive, educational spaces for Jewish families.
Rebecca minkus-lieberman
Rebecca is an Orot co-founder and Executive Director. Rebecca is a communal Jewish educator in the Chicago area who has taught in a variety of Jewish educational settings, including the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School for seven years, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Chicagoland Jewish Day School. Rebecca is the director of the entire Peaceful Family program and has built the impactful curriculum that is currently being scaled across the country.
Rabbi Jordan Bendatt-Appell
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is a teacher of Jewish mindfulness and text and has spent years leading retreats and immersive experiences for adults in various settings through the National Ramah Commission, Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Jordan was the founding Director of Ramah Beyond and was Director of Camp Ramah in Canada from 2019-2022. Previously, he worked for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program. After being ordained in 2008, Jordan served as a congregational rabbi outside of Chicago and co-founded Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning. Jordan is a recipient of the 2014 Covenant Foundation Pomegranate Prize. He and his wife Yael live in Toronto and are the proud and grateful parents of three.
Get in touch with the Orot Peaceful Family Growth Manager
Meet Amanda
To bring Orot Peaceful Family programming to your organization, contact Amanda Murov at Amanda@orotcenter.org
Bring Peaceful Family to Your Community
Becoming an organizational partner with the Orot Peaceful Family Programming will help you offer an invaluable resource to parents and grandparents in your community, supporting them in their continuous journey of growth, connection, and spiritual enrichment. Strong Jewish family members lead to strong Jewish families, and strong Jewish families lead to strong Jewish communities. Subscribe for information or contact Amanda Murov at Amanda@orotcenter.org
Upcoming Peaceful Family Programs
May 2024
The Peaceful Parent Project® & Ramah Wisconsin Present: Prepare Yourself as You Prepare Your Child
May 2, 9, 16, & 23 from 8-9:15 CT on Zoom with Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
Join other Ramah parents who are navigating the same challenges and questions for this special program to support you - the parents. Ramah is partnering with Orot’s The Peaceful Parent Project® to offer a special 4-session program to provide grounding Jewish teachings, mindfulness practices, and parenting approaches that will help you feel more balanced and grounded so that you can send your child off to camp from a place of peace, comfort, and confidence.
June 2024
National Cohort of Peaceful Grandparent
Four Tuesdays: June 25, July 2, July 9, July 16 | 9-10:15am Central on Zoom
Our program fosters empathy, compassion, and love, redefining grandparenting as a sacred journey. Embrace this opportunity to bring joy, spirituality, and love into your family's life.
The Peaceful Parent Project® Video
A 6-week live immersive group experience to teach, support, and nourish Jewish parents during challenging times.
The Peaceful Parent® Program Integrates:
Jewish Texts+
Mindfulness Tools and Practices
+
the Support of a Virtual Community
+
Recorded Meditations to Use
in your own Daily Parenting Life
Right from my initial conversation with Rebecca, I knew that the Peaceful Parent was a unique program for our JCC community. Rebecca’s warm repour and passion for her program quickly solidified our decision to move forward in partnership. The entire process was seamless and nothing but positive. Our class facilitator, Sue Bojdak, was full of personality, yet sensitive and intuitive to each family’s needs. Through her teaching, she developed meaningful relationships, trust among the participants, and was the perfect fit for our group. The Peaceful Parent nourishes the souls for those seeking a spiritual approach to being a family. Parents learn together, make connections, and build a community. Our initial cohort created such a positive buzz around the JCC that we plan to offer the Peaceful Parent again so others can experience the magic that is created in the sessions.
Liz Kaufman Family Engagement Manager, JCC East Bay
We offered Peaceful Parent to our school community this past fall and about 12 parents participated in the 8-week workshop. The response from our parent participants was overwhelmingly positive. They expressed appreciation that the school offered this workshop and said that Rebecca was a wonderful teacher and facilitator. They also said that the workshop gave them a unique opportunity to share very personal experiences in a supportive and reflective environment that was focused on parenting and mindfulness in a Jewish context and they learned so much from Rebecca and from one another. As a Head of School, I would add that Rebecca was extremely professional and a pleasure to work with in terms of planning and promoting the workshop. We hope to host another Peaceful Parent series with Rebecca soon.
Nicole Nash, Head of School, Hannah Senesh Community Day School, Brooklyn, NY
“It was a gift to be able to bring the Peaceful Parent project to the Brandeis community. We have done a lot of work with mindfulness and Jewish meditation with our students and staff, and the Peaceful Parent project allowed us to extend a related and very mission-aligned learning practice to our parent body. Participants appreciated being supported in their parenting journey, and learning language and approaches that resonated with their kids' education here at school. We don't often get parent education opportunities that are so clearly an extension of what we do in the classroom, while also being such a hit with our parents. This was a slam dunk.”
Dan Glass, Head of School, The Brandeis School, San Francisco, CA
Find out about Upcoming Peaceful Parent® Opportunities
If you would like to join a cohort yourself or if your organization or community would like to bring this program to your area, please reach out to set up a conversation.
How the Peaceful Parent® Program Works?
Orot will collaborate with you at every step along the way to design a parent cohort experience to meet the specific needs of your community. We can help with the marketing, enrollment, and will run the 6-week program from start to finish, handling all instruction, communication, and post-program follow-up and evaluation.
Explore The Program
Topics for the Peaceful Parent Project®
Session 1: Shema
Deepened Listening to Ourselves + Our Children
Listening with full presence is hard. When you are able to listen deeply to yourself as a parent - your triggers, your doubts, your dreams - you cultivate the capacity to listen more fully to your children and connect with their needs, hopes, and desires. In this lesson, we will dig into deep listening techniques that you can use with your children.Session 2: Ahava
Choosing the Path of Love
As parents, we can choose to show up from a place of fear and anger, or we can choose to show up from a place of love. When we are able to turn towards self-love and self-acceptance, we can offer that love and acceptance to our children. In this lesson, we will explore the complexity of the loves we feel for our children and learn ways to deepen this love in our parenting lives.Session 3: Shavat Va’yinafash
Finding Rest amidst the Chaos
Our daily lives are a jumble of demands, stresses and dizzying questions and doubts. As parents, we need to find sources of refuge and peace for ourselves, and when we find those, we are able to help our children discover their own places of emotional and spiritual rest.Session 4: Re-iyah
Seeing Our Children as They Really Are
We often see our children through the lenses of our own expectations and dreams. But when we are able to strip off those lenses, we can begin to see our children more clearly which helps us to connect with greater empathy and deeper understanding. In this lesson, we will develop the skills to see our children as they really are, not as we wish them to be.Session 5: Anava
Cultivating Humility and Embracing Vulnerability
How do we want to show up for our children? When we acknowledge our humanness with humility and face the ground of our vulnerability, we take the first step towards strength and growth. We can then make space for our children to grow and thrive as individual beings.In this lesson, we will explore how we can contract our own egos to make space for our children to thrive.Session 6: Ve'heye Bracha
Renewing our Relationship with Our Children
We are not perfect, and we will make mistakes, feel overwhelmed, experience doubt, exhaustion and frustration. That’s the life of a parent. But each day is a new opportunity for connection, love and renewal. We will discover how to approach each day as an invitation to restart your parenting life and invest holiness into the mundane parts of our days.
“I find myself doing much more deep breathing.”
I also find that I am more mindful of the small gratitudes in my children, in our moments together and around me in life....I wish the program went on FOREVER!
- Michele, Peaceful Parent Project® Participant 2020
Save your spot in this transformative parenting program today
“This course could not have come at a more perfect time.”
I feel like I need it more than ever as I am challenged as a parent more than ever. Remembering to see my children and truly be with them has been an important reminder as we spend a great deal of time together during social distancing. I'm also now trying to meditate in the mornings and it is helping me start the day on the right foot.”
- Naomi, Peaceful Parent Project Participant 2020
"The course gave me a place to feel held and to slow down.”
It was good to do something for me, in the midst of this challenging time and caring for others.
- Robyn S., Peaceful Parent Participant 2020
Meet the Peaceful Parent® Partners
The Peaceful Grandparent Project
Nourish your grandparent community with orot
Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning has adapted its renowned Peaceful Parent Project® program to cater specifically to grandparents, introducing specialized texts and topics that resonate with the unique experience of being a grandparent. This new initiative is led by Dr. Jane Shapiro, a proud Bubbie whose identity and experiences as a grandmother inform her approach to teaching and mentoring.
The Torah of Bubbiehood with Orot Educator Dr. Jane Shapiro
To gain deeper insights into Jane’s perspective, we encourage you to visit an Eli Talk called the Torah of Bubbiehood. This is a valuable opportunity for grandparents to connect, learn, and grow in their vital role within the family.
Meet Dr. Jane Shapiro
Jane is a founder of Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning where she teaches a variety of classes and workshops blending text study with other intentional practices. Jane is a graduate of the Mandel Teachers Institute and Vision Projects. Growing up in a family of four girls, Jane wondered what it would like to have a brother. As the mother of four sons and as Bubbie to five grandsons she now knows the answer: it is full of commotion and fun.
Topics in this course include:
Learning to see your children and grandchildren through a clear-sighted lens
Learning to listen deeply to your grandchildren and children
Learning to bless the everyday experiences of family and infuse them with sacredness and distinctiveness
Learning to find tranquility and peace within the context of family relationships
Listen to Jane on the Sacred Aging Podcast
On episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, David Raphael and Jane Shapiro discuss the Jewish Grandparents Network. The network envisions a Jewish world that embraces grandparents as vital to our families, our communities, and our future.
Peaceful Grandparent 2024 Branding and Marketing tools
The Peaceful Grandparent Project:
You may never have realized that being a grandparent is an experience of something sacred. Now you will be able to tap into that spirit and joy.
