We are delighted to announce our new collaborative partnership agreement! Yerusha, co-founded by Rabbi Victor Gross and Rabbi Nadya Gross, offers “innovative and progressive spiritual programming dedicated to transforming Judaism, the Jewish people and the world.” Its programs include the Institute for Deep Ecumenism, in which I will teach; the Sage-ing® Legacy Program, and Interfaith Pilgrimages to Israel/Palestine.

Our organizations have worked together for ten years: I have studied with Rabbi Nadya and been proud and delighted to teach with her as well. She is a respected colleague whose wisdom, integrity, and friendship I greatly value; her steadfast vision and energy constantly amaze me. We co-created the course “Encountering The Tree of Life”, part of Yerusha’s Secrets My Grandmother Told Me Wisdom School curriculum, which we offer to the public as well.

Rabbi Victor, also a respected teacher of mine, won me over when we first met in Wisdom School, as I watched him model how men can support women’s spiritual leadership. Both Reb Nadya and Reb Victor, as they are affectionately called, are spiritual leaders not driven by ego. They embody compassion, empathy, a strong sense of justice and belief in the human potential for transformation, values also held sacred by The Lilith Institute for 26 years.

We are excited to develop new projects for both our communities. I must quote from Yerusha’s announcement, which describes our synergies so well: “[Ours] is a relationship of mutuality, of collegial respect and love, and of enthusiastic optimism for our shared potential.” That enthusiasm and mutual respect makes any work we do together fun as well as meaningful, a necessary formula for any successful partnership.

Rabbi Nadya Gross is Co-Founder and Chief Programming Officer of Yerusha, a spiritual director, congregational leader and educator with an M.A. in Sociology of Education. She transmits the mystical teachings passed down from her grandmother in a two-year wisdom school: Secrets My Grandmother Told Me, serves on the faculty of Yerusha’s Sage-ing® Legacy Program, and the Anamcara Project of the Sacred Art of Living Center for Spiritual Formation. She created a program to train volunteers to provide end of life spiritual support for dying persons and their families and formed the End-of-Life Doula Association in cooperation with the Boulder JCC. She is the co-author, with Rabbi Malka Drucker, of Embracing Wisdom: Soaring in the Second Half of Life. (Get it HERE!)

Rabbi Victor Gross, Ph.D is a congregational Rabbi and educator dedicated to paradigm shifting, and co-founder of Yerusha. He was a founding faculty, Director of Studies, and teacher of Deep Ecumenism, Jewish History, Jewish Thought, and Reb Zalman’s Thought in the ALEPH Ordination Programs. He served on the faculty and Academic Affairs committee of the Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality. He now serves as Department Chair of Yerusha’s Institute For Deep Ecumenism. Victor is the author of Educating for Reverence: The Legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel.