What will I learn?
What is included?
What is a Selah cohort?
What is Selah’s definition of social justice?
What are the criteria for eligibility?
Where and when does the next cohort take place?
What is the Boston Selah Cohort Leadership Team?
How much does Selah cost?
How do I apply?
How do I tell others about Selah?
What does the word Selah mean?
What kind of Jew do I need to be?
What is the Selah Advisory Board?
The Selah Curriculum is unique. It integrates personal transformation, organizational performance, collaboration skills, and social change theory within a Jewish framework.
Personal transformation skills help participants facilitate clear communication, give and receive effective feedback; and manage their emotional state. Organizational performance and collaboration skills trainings help participants develop systems for work and staff management, goal setting and planning, and implementation of effective meetings. Social change theory trainings help participants develop a shared understanding of power and models to analyze both the political landscape and the social change work of our organizations. Jewish learning and values exploration are infused throughout most training modules and include Jewish practices of partnership, personal sustainability, community building and contemplative/reflective practice.
What is included in the Selah Leadership Program?
- 8 days of intensive leadership and management training (through one multi-day training, and four monthly follow up days).
- Peer coaching.
- Monthly homework and organizational tools that you will be able to use with your home teams and organizations.
- Selah Leadership Program Binder and On-line Learning Lab, complete with readings, materials, and resources that bring together the best of organizational development and personal leadership practices.
- The 175 members of the Selah Network are some of the most innovative and inspiring change leaders in the progressive community today. Upon completion of the five month training program, Selah participants automatically become members of the Selah Network. Selah organizes regional learning and networking events for the network, which has included everything from leadership training sessions to Shabbat dinners. Network members also self-organize projects and events based on their interests, which has included skills-sharing sessions, management best-practices and coaching clinics, a Torah study group, get-out-the-vote organizing, and much more. Selah also provides monthly leadership tools to the network for members to bring back into their organizations.
- Membership to the Selah Network email list-serve.
A Selah cohort includes 20 - 25 leaders who participate in all trainings together over the five month time period, depending on cohort, forming a learning community. Through training together, cohort members develop a common skill set, and a sense of accountability and mutual support. Members foster an aligned vision for movement building, and build the trust necessary for risk taking and innovative collaboration. Selah cohort members gain skills in personal mastery, organizational effectiveness, collaboration and social change theory.
What is Selah’s definition of social justice?
Selah works with Jewish leaders in secular and Jewish organizations that are engaged in systemic social change - work that challenges existing power relationships to produce long-term, sustainable solutions to social and economic justice issues. Participants who have been accepted to Selah in the past come from secular and Jewish organizations that work on systemic change from a variety of different approaches including, but not limited, to: community organizing, direct action, advocacy, education, social change philanthropy, and arts and culture. Individuals and organizations whose work is primarily the provision of social services are not eligible unless they or their organizations are also engaged in wider policy change, organizing, or systemic change efforts.
Past participants include:
- Community organizer working on affordable housing campaign.
- Documentary filmmaker who directed film and created dialogue initiative highlighting Palestinian and Israeli peace activists.
- Rabbi at a large synagogue with a community organizing initiative.
- Legislative campaign director for health-care advocacy initiative.
- Performance artist working on GLBT awareness in the Jewish community.
- Program coordinator at environmental justice organization who serves as community lay-leader and co-founder of Jewish spiritual group with orientation toward social justice and community activism.
- Development director of Jewish organization dedicated to education and advocacy serving low-income communities.
- Feminist philanthropist funding cutting-edge organizations and programs for women and girls.
What are the criteria for eligibility?
- Minimum of 7-10 years of social change experience
- Position of influence within your organization
- Job requiring collaboration with others, and/or supervision of personnel
- Religious, cultural, or other Jewish identity that informs your social change work
- Desire to be part of an "intentional network/purposeful community"
- Commitment to personal growth
- A social change leader working in a Jewish organization, OR;
- A social change leader with a Jewish identity working in a secular social change organization
- Live in greater Boston and do social change work that is based in greater Boston.
(NOTE: Selah is a multi-generational program)
Where and when does the next Cohort take place?
Training dates and locations for Selah Boston Cohort 8:
Training 1: Sunday, October 18 - Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Arrival Time: 1:00pm on October 18. The training begins promptly at 2pm.
Departure Time: 3:00pm on October 21. The training ends promptly at 2:30pm.
Location: To Be Determined
Training follow-up days 2 - 5
Monday, November 16, 2009 / Monday, December 14, 2009 / Monday, January 18, 2010 / Monday, February 15, 2010
Arrival Time: 9am
Departure Time: 5pm
Location: To Be Determined
What is the Boston Selah Cohort Leadership Team?
The Boston Cohort Leadership Team's role is to advise on and assist with recruitment and outreach for the Boston cohort. The leadership team is comprised of Selah participants from prior cohorts who are living and working in the greater Boston area. Selah is grateful for their leadership and support.
- Nancy Kaufman, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, Chair
- Aliza Kline, Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh & Education Center
- Idit Klein, Keshet
- Daniel Rosan, Harvard Business School
- Catherine Bell, Jewish Organizing Initiative
- Miriam Messinger, Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation
- Yavilah McCoy, The Curriculum Initiative
Selah is generously subsidized through a grant from The Nathan Cummings Foundation. The cost of the Selah Leadership Program is on a sliding scale from $200 - $500, based on your organization's budget. Please see the scale below. Cost includes room, board, materials, and all training. It does not include travel. Selah is a professional development program. We encourage organizations, rather than individuals, to pay for the program. We can provide additional documentation to help secure professional development time or funding from one's organization. No participant will be turned away due to financial constraints.
Selah Leadership Program Sliding Scale Tuition
If your organization’s annual budget is: |
Selah Tuition |
$0 < $249,999 |
200 |
$250,000 - $499,999 |
250 |
$500,000 - $999,000 |
300 |
$1,000,00 - $4,999,999 |
350 |
$5,000,000 - $9,999,999 |
400 |
$10,000,000 and up |
500 |
We are now accepting applications for Selah Cohort 8, our Boston City Cohort. Participation is limited to those living and working in the greater Boston area. Applications are due by 5pm on Tuesday, July 7, 2009.
How do I tell others about Selah?
Help spread the word about Selah's Boston City Cohort. Click here to forward the application along. Applications are due by 5pm on Tuesday, July 7, 2009.
What does Selah mean and why is it the name of this program?
The name Selah, which means rock in Hebrew, was inspired in part by our collaboration with the Rockwood Leadership Program.
Selah has another meaning. In Hebrew prayer and song, including the psalms, the term Selah is often used at the break of a passage as a call to the reader to "stop and listen" before moving to the next passage. Selah believes that leadership requires the ability to "stop and listen": to cultivate the ability to reflect on our work, our skills, our mission, vision, and values. Being an effective leader requires inner awareness and self-management as well as skillful engagement with the world. Selah teaches Jewish social justice leaders how to cultivate the internal power and presence necessary to change external systems. We believe both are necessary for social transformation.
What kind of a Jew do I need to be?
Participants in Selah come from a diverse range of Jewish knowledge, background, and experience. Some participants have little to no knowledge of Judaism, practices or ritual, others come with Rabbinical degrees. Some identify as secular Jews, some as cultural Jews, others as religious Jews. What unites Selah participants is their shared interest in exploring the connections between their work for justice, leadership and Judaism. This range and representation of Jewish leadership creates a more expansive picture of what leadership means, where it happens, and who qualifies as a Jewish social justice leader.
What is the Selah Advisory Board?
Selah Advisory Board members are committed to providing guidance on strategic direction and stewarding Selah's vision. The Selah Advisory Board is composed of past Selah participants, experts in the leadership and organizational change field, and leaders in the Jewish social change field and social justice movement.
Robert Bank: American Jewish World Service - Cohort 2
Heather Booth: Consultant - National Cohort 4
Shifra Bronznick: Visioning Justice
Rebecca Epstein: The Management Center - DC Cohort 3
Michael Hirschhorn: Coro and Blaustein Family Foundation
Ilanit Gerblich Kalir: AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps - Cohort I
Jason Kimmelman-Block: PANIM - Cohort I
Aliza Mazor: Consultant - Cohort I
Stephanie Rapp: Walter and Elise Haas Fund
Nancy Kaufman: Jewish Community Relations Council - National Cohort 4
