Fight Like a Mensch: TJMHC Explores Jewish Wisdom for Social Justice

Guest blog post from Gila Silverman, TJMHC Board Member

How can Jewish wisdom help us to promote human rights, protect democracy, and build community – all key pillars of TJMHC’s mission?

This is the question that a small group of us - TJMHC staff and board members, and Advisory Committee members of The Gumbiner Project - have been exploring for the last 5 months. Our conversations were part of a new program called Fight Like a Mensch, developed by Kirva, a national organization bringing the Jewish spiritual practices of Mussar (applied Jewish ethics) and Chassidut (applied Jewish mysticism) to social justice efforts. Kirva believes that personal growth and effective systemic change work hand in hand. With support from the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, 10 communities across the country piloted the Fight Like a Mensch curriculum. TJMHC was honored to be one of them.

The curriculum guided us as we explored the middot (character traits) of generative heartbreak (shvirat halev) and desire (ratzon), fear and moving from constriction to expansion, acting with humility (anavah) and courage (ometz lev), developing forbearance (savlanut) to build resilience, and finding joy (simcha) in dark times.

Through Jewish texts – ancient and modern – we moved through a process of envisioning the world we want to live in and naming our heartbreak at how far we seem to be from that world at times. We explored how not to be overcome by fear and how to identify the “right-sized” actions that are appropriate to each of us – as individuals, communities, and organizations. We looked at teachings about being in relationship and coalition with those who have different perspectives from ours and cultivating curiosity in uncomfortable moments. Taking guidance from Rabbi Nahman of Breslov (1772-1810), we wondered how to make space in our hearts for both grief and joy, and how to find good in each day.

Our discussions took place surrounded by pictures of survivors who had made Southern Arizona their home, images of their destroyed families in the rafters above us. Studying these concepts in this particular space was a powerful reminder of what is at stake and of the importance of TJMHC’s efforts to promote a more just, equitable, and non-violent world.

TJMHC hopes to offer Fight Like a Mensch again in the coming year. More information will be available this fall.