For the complete program schedule, please click here.
M²’s Research Fellowships are generously supported by The Covenant Foundation and Taube Philanthropies, and are delivered in partnership with The Z3 Project for Pedagogies of Peoplehood and The Hadar Institute for Pedagogies of T’fillah.
The Language of Intention: Kabbalistic Kavanot in Practical Translation
Rav Jeremy Tibbetts (T'fillah) Learn how kabbalists understood kavanah as a transformative state of mind, and consider how cultivating focused intention in prayer can unlock new patterns of thinking, deepen emotion, and renew our sense that prayer truly matters.
Imprinting the Words
Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer (T'fillah) Taste a Shaharit (morning prayer) practice developed with rabbinical students, and explore how moving from voiced liturgy to personal translation can transform fixed words into lived, resonant prayer.
Primary Sources as a Portal to Peoplehood
Shuvi Hoffman (Peoplehood) Explore how primary sources can serve as portals into distinct moments of Jewish life, and use the PaRDeS framework to uncover Jewish Peoplehood as a layered, evolving journey across time and experience.
Or Choice of Presentations (2 fellows will present for 15 minutes each):
הֲלָכָה חָדְשִׁית: A Pedagogy of Invitation to Playful Praxis
Scott Slarskey (T'fillah) Examine how a posture of playfulness can both elevate and deepen participation in communal prayer, and experience an embodied halakhic practice that sharpens awareness of your thinking, emotions, and curiosity.
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On Being a Lifelong Learner: Cultivating Hitlamdut and Growth Mindset in T'fillah Education
Aliza Abolafia (T'fillah) Dive into a pedagogy of hitlamdut that reimagines t’fillah education beyond fluency toward integrity and meaning, and consider how cultivating spiritual risk-taking and aspiration can nurture lifelong, authentic, and communally rooted relationships with prayer.
The Things We Carry: A Migrant's Passport Dr. Analucía Lopezrevoredo (Peoplehood)
Encounter an immersive, object-based pedagogy that explores migration, identity, and memory, and reflect on the “objects” we inherit and carry as portals into Jewish movement, belonging, and cultural continuity.&
A Practice of Awe for Families Deborah Niederman, RJE (Peoplehood) Through a sensory-based pedagogy that invites families to slow down and notice the world with intention, consider how cultivating shared moments of attention and awe can deepen belonging, connection to tradition, and Jewish peoplehood.
Praying Cards: Praying with Playing Cards, Playing with Praying Cards
Oren Kaunfer (T'fillah) Praying Cards is a flexible middle school tool built around 36 core Hebrew roots from weekday Shacharit, pairing visual prompts, layered translations, and reflective questions to help students form personal and spiritual connections to the essential language of the siddur through playful inquiry.
Girsa D'eYankuta
Isaac Mantagu (T'fillah) Revisit the synagogue as the original classroom of t’fillah, and consider how Sephardic models of prayer can restore a living girsa d’yankuta—a formative tradition absorbed through doing—by enabling learners to grow simply through praying. Bring your favored siddur!
From Believing to Beyonding: Rethinking Jewish Identity Education
Rabbi Reuven Spolter (Peoplehood) Engage the 4B framework—Believing, Becoming, Belonging, and Beyonding—and consider how it shifts education from content coverage toward meaning, connection, and the deeper work of shaping who learners are and who they aspire to become.
A Relational Mosaic of the Jewish People
Mikhael Kesher (Peoplehood) Experience the Mosaic of the Jewish People, a dynamic deck of character cards rooted in relational sense-making, and move from noticing who Jews are, to exploring their differences and connections, to discovering your own place within the global Jewish mosaic.
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