Introducing Cohort א!

by Rabbi Nate DeGroot

As bombs fly and the world continues to spiral, we are sending deep care to each of you. It feels a bit disorienting to share great news in this moment, and yet we also know how important it is to celebrate and uplift the places where deep wholeness and possibility is percolating in the world and amongst dear ones.

In that light, we are incredibly excited to introduce you to Cohort א, our inaugural cohort of 22 creative thinkers, unconventional activists, and ritual artists from around the country and world exploring a Jewish post-activism and experimenting with expressions of it. Scroll down to meet the cohort members!

To learn more about the cohort vision, process, and structure, and to get to know the members more fully, visit our Cohort א landing page here.

Meet the cohort

While this email follows in our series of Legacy Fund emails, it also marks the celebratory beginning of a new chapter for us. So while the subject of this email no longer includes “Legacy Fund Week X,” know that this is the emergent future of sacred justice that the Legacy Fund is helping to build.

We are grateful to Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah for investing in us, believing in our vision, and providing generous funding for this initial cohort launch. We are also thankful to Fetzer Institute for graciously hosting our cohort’s convening. If this project seems aligned with your own funding interests or vision for the world and you would like to discuss future investment or collaboration, please email The Shalom Center’s Director, Nate DeGroot, at ndegroot@theshalomcenter.org.

By the end of this cohort arc, we expect there to be a proliferation of original and transformative expressions of Jewish post-activism created by cohort members. We expect that cohort members will have connected more deeply to themselves, Judaism, each other, and the world. And from this cohort, we expect the world to be - perhaps even just a tiny bit - more whole and filled with love.

Thank you for joining us on this journey and supporting the path ahead,

With blessings and care,

-Nate