JewishGPS

What if better dialogue isn’t enough?

Over the past few years, we’ve invested heavily in teaching people how to disagree better — and that work matters. But dialogue alone doesn’t rebuild trust, repair relationships, or strengthen civic life.

In my latest blog, “An Ecosystem of Social Change: Why We Need to Disagree Better AND Serve Together,” I explore a framework that pairs dialogue with shared responsibility. Drawing on Jewish wisdom, service‑learning research, and decades of practitioner experience, I argue that trust is built and repair begins, not just through conversation, but through doing meaningful work together.

If you’re thinking about leadership, civic engagement, education, or how we move forward in a polarized moment, I hope the framework introduced in this piece adds something useful to the conversation.

🔗 Read the full post here: https://jewishgps.online/2026/04/12/an-ecosystem-of-social-change-why-we-need-to-disagree-better-and-serve-together/

I’d love to hear what resonates and where you think this work still needs to grow.

Parashat Tetzaveh / Shabbat Zachor

Tetzaveh calls for the ner tamid to be tended constantly. Community, like the ner tamid, must be tended to stay alight.

On Shabbat Zachor we are asked to remember. Memory keeps a community alert, aware, and anchored.

Communal leadership is not spotlight but stewardship. At different moments, different kinds of leaders are needed to hold us together.

This week’s question: How are you helping keep the light on in your community?

Parashat Mishpatim

In Mishpatim, the people say na’aseh v’nishma, “we will do and then we will understand.”

I am drawn to this ordering. It reminds me that meaning often follows action. Commitment comes first. Clarity comes later.

In my work and life, I often learn by doing, by showing up, and by engaging before everything makes sense.

This week’s question: Where might understanding come only after you are willing to act?

Shabbat Shalom

In honor of my grandfather’s 68th yahrtzeit today, I published a long-form essay grounded in Jewish ethics, education, and lived experience: A Jewish Case for Gun Restraint, Regulation, and Responsibility.

The piece weaves together family history, classroom learning, Jewish legal texts, and contemporary debates inside Jewish communal spaces about guns, security, and fear.

My conclusion is not ideological. It is ethical. Jewish wisdom does not glorify weapons. It regulates them in service of preserving life.

https://jewishgps.online/2026/01/29/a-jewish-case-for-gun-restraint-regulation-and-responsibility/

A recent article in eJewishPhilanthropy about the Oklahoma Jewish charter school controversy prompted me to write a new blog piece.

It raised a deeper concern for me about what happens when Jews, even with good intentions, help blur the line between religion and government in public education. At a moment when Christian nationalism is reshaping schools, book bans are erasing Jewish history, and First Amendment enforcement often lags behind violations, precedent matters.

This is not abstract. It is about safety, democracy, and whether minority communities retain the ability to say “this is not OK.”

➡️ Read here: https://jewishgps.online/2026/01/21/when-jews-bring-down-awall-of-safety/