Peace Studies 2: Character, Conflict and Community Leadership

Catalog description

"It's alright for a shul to be a business – so long as you know what business you're really in." This cute aphorism begs a serious question: what's the real business of Jewish spiritual professionals? How can we wisely leverage character traits (flaws), moral leadership (failures), and peacemaking (conflicts) to nourish vibrant Jewish institutions? Blending traditional texts, socio-political literature and real-life case studies, this course will explore spiritual models of authority and legitimacy, middot (character traits) in spiritual leadership, Jewish pastoral and psycho-spiritual dynamics of conflict, and change agency in spiritual systems. Students will expand their community governance toolkits while accelerating their personal formation as spiritual leaders.