American Mussar

21st century Jewish spiritual practice for an authentic and meaningful life

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Looking To Inspire Your Members or Empower Your Institution?

inspire your members
Empower and Inspire The Rest of Your Community

Jewish Wisdom can engage men, parents, young adults and others who are not the “regulars.”

Engage Greg Marcus as a speaker, scholar in residence, or as  Jewish marketing consultant

 

The regulars in your organization are the ones who are getting the most value from what you offer. Offering new types of programs or content can bring in and engage a whole new set of people. Not only does this further your mission, it opens the door for new leaders and volunteers, so it isn’t always the same group of people doing everything.

Speaking & Mussar Experiences

Whether you are expecting 10 people or 100, Greg Marcus can design an interactive, empowering, and inspiring experience for your community. With smaller groups, you’ll sit in a circle, begin with a centering meditation designed for non-meditators, and then explore the inner world of the soul. He is a master at creating a safe space for people to both share authentically and to listen to their peers with an open heart.

For larger groups, Greg will use a combination of slides and handouts. Authentic and safe sharing will take place in breakout groups or in chevruta.

Greg is a thoughtful, and engaging educator.  His workshops enabled our congregants at Beth Israel-The West Temple to both learn about the practice of Mussar and acquire practical tools that will help them lead lives that are more balanced and meaningful. As our scholar-in-residence, he shared his knowledge and insights with kindness and respect; he walked the talk! – Rabbi Enid C. Lader, Beth Israel-The West Temple, Cleveland, OH

Topics Include:

Jewish Wisdom For Stress-Free Parenting

Jewish Wisdom for Adulting

Mussar: The Spiritual Practice of Good Actions

Healing The Political Divide Through Mussar

From Dead Bodies to Baristas: Creating a Talmud for the 21st Century

Whatever the topic or demographic of the group, Greg Marcus can create a space in which people feel comfortable talking about the real issues in their lives. To hear a man in his late twenties admit in front of a group that his high paying job in financial services is meaningless to him is a sacred moment. When a group of parents admit how often they feel like a “bad mom” or “bad dad” the door is open to talk about the Divine Spark we all share.

If you’d like to explore having Greg as a speaker or to lead a Mussar experience, please contact us. 

Workshops

In December 2017, Greg Marcus co-created a weekend retreat at 1440 Multiversity called Transform Yourself through Jewish Wisdom. Over the course of the weekend, participants embarked on a step-by step journey to look within, and craft a spiritual action plan to grow towards their best selves.

AmericanMussar.com has hosted several virtual workshops, such as the Personal Transformation High Holidays Mussar Workshop which focused on preparing for the High Holidays and then crafting an action plan to make your aspirations a reality.

Workshops are multi-day spiritual journeys. If you’d like to explore having Greg create a workshop for your community, please contact us by clicking here

Curriculum to Engage Parents Through Jewish Wisdom

Do you have trouble engaging parents? Do they drop their kids and leave? Do you see families resigning post bar or bat mitzvah? Have you ever had to shelve a program because you did not have the bandwidth to run it?

What if you could have a curriculum at your fingertips designed to help parents connect with Jewish wisdom in a way relevant to their lives? And what if it came with a training, to allow lay leaders to facilitate, so that you didn’t need to dedicate a clergy member or master teacher to lead the group.

If this sound interesting, you should check out the Mussar For Parents Curriculum, and contact us to discuss.

Mussar Training For Jewish Educators

More and more, Mussar is becoming a part of education for teens, tweens, and elementary school kids. Teaching kids Mussar without experiencing Mussar is like teaching about Israel without visiting Israel. There is an emotional connection an authenticity one gets from the experience that can’t be replicated by book knowledge alone.

Even a single 60-90 minute Mussar experience can bridge that gap between head knowledge and a heart experience.

Inquire here to explore either a remote or in person Mussar training for your educators.

Jewish Marketing Services

Want to infuse Mussar into existing programs that today are more about Jewish culture? Want to use Jewish wisdom to bring an element of personal growth to what today might be a purely intellectual learning program? Considering a small groups approach for your members? Wondering what people are getting out of your existing programs?

Here are a few examples of ways we could work together:

Infuse existing programs with Mussar – Emory Hillel

For the spring semester of 2019, I worked with Dave Cohn who was at that time the director of Emory Hillel to train his staff on Mussar, and to encourage them to infuse existing programs with Mussar content to allow students a deeper experience of Jewish wisdom.

Understanding Your Community – Judaism Unbound

We shared an interest in learning why people were attracted to a podcast that helps re-imagine and redesign Judaism for the 21st century. I conducted a listener survey according to the ASK method. ASK solicits long free text answers, which I analyzed in partnership with a few JU leaders. We found 5 categories of listeners, each with a distinct problem they were trying to solve.

Creating a Small Groups Program

Greg was the co-chair of the Small Groups leadership team at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos. In four years, they initiated a culture shift that resulted in hundreds of members participating in one or more “Sh’ma Groups” helping make a large congregation a lot smaller.

Looking to create a more relational community, understand your people, or just want an out of the box thought partner? Let’s talk.

Photo by Natalie Pedigo on Unsplash

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Recent Posts

  • Understanding Mussar Wholeness
  • Practicing Mussar Equanimity, Even When You’re Not a Basket Case
  • Is It Worth Losing a Friend Over the Truth? A Mussar Perspective
  • A Mussar Approach to the Congregation Beth Israel Hostage Situation
  • Don’t Let Your Spirits Be Crushed in 2022

LINKS

  • Judaism Unbound
  • The Mussar Institute
  • Center For Contemporary Mussar
  • Character Day
  • Kirva
  • Rabbi Chaim Safren video blog

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