The Spiritual Journey: a Lifespan Approach to Judaism

The Spiritual Journey: A Lifespan Approach to Judaism Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman – [email protected] Dr. Beulah Trey – [email protected] SYLLABUS

Seminar Objectives Through this learning experience, participants will develop the ability to:

1. Understand the key spiritual issues faced by individuals at different stages of the adult life cycle. 2. Conceptualize spiritual tools and middot/character traits that will help a Jewish person to face the inevitable challenges of illness, fragility and mortality. 3. View the synagogue as a context for spiritual growth and develop strategies for inculcating tools and middot through Jewish life across the lifespan. 4. Analyze a particular community in terms of how it is responding to people in different life phases and cohorts. 5. Design Jewish experiences that touch people and foster spiritual growth in different life stages.

Expectations Please bring your heart, mind and spirit to each session and be prepared to integrate insights from the reading.

Assignment #1 For session III, December 8: choose a life phase and interview someone about his or her spiritual questions, connection to Jewish life, and sense of what synagogues offer or don’t offer that connects to him or her at this point in the life journey. Analyze what you’ve learned from this individual in terms of the literature on life stages (how does it fit, not fit). Write no more than 2 pg. summary and present at the December 8 seminar.

Final project Choose a synagogue or institution. Choose a specific program or event within that context to which you’d like to apply the Lifespan Judaism approach. Make sure that the event could be relevant to at least 2-3 distinct cohorts. Interview the organizer/designer in advance and attend the program. Apply lifespan methodology to analyze engagement of various cohorts in this program and design a new, Lifespan Judaism infused, version. 1. Pre-event (Interview) a. What is the program’s goal? b. What cohorts does the designer hope to attract and include? 2. The event itself a. Who is in the room? What cohort/s are actually included in this program? b. How does the program speak to their life stages? 3. Post-event a. What could be added to speak more effectively to the life phase of the participants? b. What other cohorts might be included? c. Using the principles of Lifespan Judaism, design a program to meet the goals for this occasion. Describe your plan: i. What are the goals? ii. What cohorts are you targeting? iii. What is the design of the program (who, what, where, how) iv. How will you frame and market the program in order to attract the desired cohorts?

By session V (Feb. 9) please have a 1-2 paragraph proposal, including identifying the synagogue or program and the informant/s who will help you to gain access to necessary information. Present at our seminar April 13 or May 18.

Session I – Conceptual framework: life’s final exam William Crain, Theories of Development, Concepts and Applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 4th edition. 2000. Chapter 12, Erikson and the Eight Stages of Life. 271-296. Chapter 16, Jung’s Theory of Adulthood. 327-339.

Session II – Spiritual development across the life cycle

Helen L. Bee, Barbara R. Bjorklund. The Journey of Adulthood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 5th edition. 2004. Chapter 2. “Theories of Adult Development.” 31-58. Chapter 12. “Themes of Adult Development.” 363-380. From Chapter 14. “A Model of Adult Growth and Development: Trajectories and Pathways.” 409-417.

Session III – Spiritual development across the life cycle

Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, et. al., editors. The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. W. George Scarlett, “Toward a Developmental Analysis of Religious and Spiritual Development.” 21-33.

Christian Smith, Patricia Snell. Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. Oxford University Press. 2009. Chapter 3. Emerging Adult Religion in Life Course and Historical Perspective. 88- 102. Chapter 6. Six Major Religious Types. 166-179. Session IV – Congregations as contexts for spiritual growth: ideal and reality; conceptualizing how systems transform

Eugene C. Roehlkepartain and Eboo Patel, “Congregations: Unexamined Crucibles for Spiritual Development.” In Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, et. al., editors. The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 324-340.

Diane Tickton Schuster. Jewish Lives, Jewish Learning: Adult Jewish Learning in Theory and Practice. New York: UAHC Press. Chapter 1: Hineini: Showing Up as a Jewish Adult. 15-38. Chapter 2: Beyond Fear and Trembling: Supporting Adult Jewish Growth. 39-60.

Session V – Creating Jewish community for all ages

Nancy Z. Henkin, et. al., Communities for All Ages: Planning Across Generations. Baltimore, MD: Annie E. Casey Foundation. (pdf)

Session VI – The implicit curriculum: fostering spiritual growth across the lifespan

Roberta Louis Goodman and Betsy Dolgin Katz, The Adult Jewish Education Handbook: Planning, Practice and Theory. Denver, CO: ARE Publishing. Chapter 3, How Adults Learn Best. 54-76. Chapter 4, Theories and Models of Development and Learning. 77-121.

Session VII – Presentations

Session VII – Presentations (cont’d.) and SIYYUM