Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society
A working record of the conversations IJSS has convened since 2012, spanning Hasidism, education, social vision, and spiritual environmentalism. Browse the current gatherings below, or search the full index further down the page.
Conferences & Gatherings
Featured Conferences
Conference & Gathering Index
2012 - present
Philadelphia, 2012
10 sessions
Rabbi Shmuel Lew
A Twenty-First Century Encounter: Educational Thought and Chabad
Dr. Barry Chazan
Changes in Society, Theory and Education
Dr. Philip Wexler
Mysticism Amid the Four “M”s of Religion
Dr. Randall Collins
A Twenty-First Century Encounter: Educational Thought and Chabad
William Pinar
Learning, Heart and Soul in Habad Psychological Theory
Jonathan Garb
Where To, Now? A Seminar Discussion About How We Can Advance This Discussion and the Implications for Action
Rabbi Menachem Schmidt
2012
8 sessions
The Soul in the Later Writings of RaShaB
Jonathan Garb
Reflections on the Habad Hasidic Weltanschauung
Rabbi Yoel Kahn
Jerusalem, 2014
6 sessions
University of Pennsylvania, 2016
1 sessions
Elliot Wolfson and Rachel Werczberger
January 2017
2 sessions
Summer 2017
22 sessions
Case Western Reserve University, October 23, 2017
Theology, Theory and Human Distinctiveness: Some Observations
Professor Dale Dannefer
From Definition to Measurement: Empirical Research on Spirituality and Aging
Professor Eva Kahana
Traditional Views of Aging in Judaism: Lessons from Chassidic Texts and the Field
Rabbi Menachem Schmidt, Rabbi Shaul Wertheimer, Rabbi Mendy Alevsky and Sara Alevsky
The Role of Spirituality in the Holocaust and Other Losses in Aging
Miriam Katz, BA, MSSA, LISW-S
From Mystical Sociology to Cosmic Education
Professor Peter J. Whitehouse
Professor Philip Wexler
2020
1 session
September 2020
11 sessions
Daniel Reiser, Jonah Gelfand, Eli Rubin, Marcia Brennan and Kate Loewenthal
Shlomo Fischer, Bruce Gitlin, Jeffrey J. Kripal, Chris Myers and Dale Dannefer
Michal Etzion, Bill Parsons, Rachel Werczberger and Jonah Gelfand
January 2021
13 sessions
Sam Shonkoff, Estelle Frankel, Rachel Werczberger and Jonah Gelfand
Catherine Casey, Philip Wexler and Heinz Sünker
Tricia Seifert, Claire Robbins, Sean McCarthy and Ben Selznick
Rabbi Shalom Ber Lipskar, Catherine Casey, Philip Wexler and Heinz Sünker
January 2021
2 sessions
Janna Siller, Adam Berman, Ariel Mayse and Ellen Bernstein
October 2021
9 sessions
Ethan Youngerman, Ben Selznick, Dr. Teniell L. Trolian, Kirk S. Robinson and Shalhavit-Simcha Cohen
Stanford University, Fall 2025
4 featured participants
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University
Faculty Director, Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union
Professor Nathaniel P. Deutsch
Distinguished Professor, Murray Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies, and Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Assistant Professor of Jewish Education, Brandeis University
