Ritualwell

Drawing from Torah: A Generative Jewish Poetry Workshop
2026-02-15 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Sunday, February 15th, 2026
12-1:30 p.m. EST

How do poets weave Jewish imagery, Torah stories, and sacred language into their work in ways that feel alive and authentic? And how might you do the same in your own poetry?

This generative poetry workshop invites you to explore Jewish themes through reading, writing, and conversation. Together, we’ll read poems by writers such as John Keats, Sharon Olds, Dan Pagis, Yehoshua November, Marie Howe, and Lucille Clifton—poets who draw on the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts to shape their work. We’ll look closely at how these writers transform ancient stories and symbols into powerful, contemporary poems.

You’ll be guided through writing prompts inspired by these texts and poems, with a special focus on moments from the Torah that spark imagination, memory, and meaning. During the session, you’ll have time to write, share your work (as you feel comfortable), and receive thoughtful, supportive feedback.

This workshop is open to anyone interested in reading and writing poetry with Jewish themes—whether you’re an experienced poet or just beginning, and whether your connection to Jewish texts is deep, curious, or newly forming.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Dr. Eve Grubin is the author of the book of poems Boat of Letters (Four Way Books). She is also the author of Morning Prayer (Sheep Meadow Press), The House of Our First Loving (Rack Press) and Grief Dialogue (Rack Press). Eve holds a PhD on the poetics of reticence, and she is a lecturer at NYU London and a tutor at the Poetry School.

Lifting the Threads: Writing Past and Present
2026-02-17 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-02-24 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-03-03 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesday, Feb 17 & 24 and March 3, 2026
12-1:30 p.m.
$154

As storytellers, how do we balance our present lived experience with the past that shapes it? In Jewish tradition, memory and narrative carry profound weight—from the retelling of ancestral journeys in the Torah to the intimate stories passed through our families. In this 3-week workshop, we’ll explore strategies for seamlessly integrating backstory, experimenting with time shifts to deepen meaning rather than interrupt narrative flow. Through readings, discussion, and writing prompts, we will move fluidly between temporal layers—the “forward momentum” of the lived story and the “backwards glance” demanded by memory.

By the end of the workshop, you will produce a short memoir piece that demonstrates fluid interplay between present and past—using backstory as a source of resonance, not digression, and honoring the threads of memory that connect us to our histories and communities.

All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Megan Vered writes about family, friendship, and the dazzle of daily life. Megan lives in Marin County, where she facilitates local, international, and Jewish-themed writing groups. Her essays and interviews have appeared in HuffPost, Kveller, The Jewish Writing Project, High Country News, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Writer’s Chronicle, among others. Megan holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and chairs the board of Heyday Books. Learn more about her work at www.meganvered.com

Exploring Disability Torah: Text, Reflection, and Creative Voice
2026-02-23 12:00 - 13:30
Monday, February 23, 2026
12-1:30 p.m. EST

Join Ritualwell and the Disability Torah Project for a powerful, inclusive gathering exploring disability, Jewish text, and creative expression. We’ll hear from Mat Wilson, Founder and Director of the Disability Torah Project, and a dynamic panel of writers including Dr. Amanda Mbuvi and rabbinical students Raphael Morris and Nora Chernov, working at the crossroads of disability and Torah wisdom, then move into a guided text-study session designed to invite your own reflection and writing.

Through a short writing prompt, you’ll have the chance to respond to what you’ve read and experienced, exploring how disability Torah can deepen our communal conversations, spiritual imagination, and sense of connection.

This event welcomes everyone—whether you identify as disabled or nondisabled, whether you’re a seasoned text-studier or new to it. Come ready to listen, reflect, and write in a space of curiosity, care, and shared meaning-making.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Mat Wilson (he/him) enjoys board and video games, road trips big and small, and any opportunity to be in the water. They discovered a love for Torah study through the art of source sheet creation and are currently expanding their written reflections through the Disability Torah Project. Outside of their free time, Mat is a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and is pursuing a Master’s in Nonprofit Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania.

Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Ph.D., is a scholar and teacher with expertise in Tanakh, ethics, and multifaith studies, and a special interest in the way stories shape communal identity. In addition to serving as the director of the Center for Jewish Ethics, she also helps students with disabilities get the accommodations they need to participate in the RRC learning community. Mbuvi is passionate about dynamic, inclusive Jewish communities that cultivate what she likes to call “blessed interdependence.” In addition to numerous scholarly articles, she is author of the 2016 book, Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation, published by Baylor University Press.

Nora Chernov (she/her) is a student at the Reconstructist Rabbinical College where she serves as the Advanced Intern for Community Life and assists in the RRC Beit Midrash. Nora is a passionate student and teacher of text, especially all things Talmud. When not at RRC she can be found going on long drives listening to podcasts and playing all manner of board games.

Raphael Morris (he/they) is an AuDHD rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He feels privileged to be part of an intellectual tradition where his preferred modes of cognition, learning, and communication are not just tolerated but actively valued. In his spare time, he enjoys wiki walking, TTRPGs, Talmud, long rambling conversations and anything else tangential.

Uncovering Feminine Strength and Wisdom
2026-02-24 14:00 - 15:00
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
2-3:00 p.m.
We invite you to join us and sample our upcoming Immersion, Sarah and Hagar: Uncovering Feminine Strength and Wisdom in community. Join poet Tzivia and Ritualwell’s Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer for an interactive conversation on Sarah, Hagar, and feminine wisdom, followed by a creative writing prompt and time for sharing what we uncover. Consider it an opening doorway—if you’re drawn in, the full series awaits.
To join us, register here.

Tzivia Gover is the author of ‘Dreaming on the Page: Tap into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing‘, and other books about dreams, writing, and everyday joy. She is the creator of ‘The Life of H: Sarah, Reimagined’ an online poetry project. The founder of 350 Dreamers, an online international community dreaming for global healing in this time of climate crisis, Tzivia is a board member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams and a past Director at the Institute for Dream Studies. Tzivia is a Certified Dreamwork Professional and a Certified Proprioceptive Writing Instructor. She has her MFA in writing from Columbia University, and has taught in college and community settings domestically and abroad. Learn more at www.thirdhousemoon.com and https://tziviagover.substack.com.
Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer is Ritualwell’s Director of Virtual Content and Programs. She is an author and educator whose work focuses on spirituality, creativity and disability. Her personal essays have been featured in Tablet, Shondaland, NBCThink, Wisdom Daily, WHYY and many other publications and she has published several nonfiction books as well as plays for children. Gabrielle is currently working on a memoir about the power of intuition and ongoing conversations with her ancestors. She writes a Substack newsletter called “Journey With The Seasons,” a weekly practice of meditative reading with creative self-expression prompts. Gabrielle holds a BFA in theater and creative writing from Emerson College and an MA in Jewish Studies from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Purim & the Poetry of Resistance
2026-02-26 20:00 - 21:30
Thursday, February 26, 2026
8-9:30 p.m. EST
$18

Whether Purim is your favorite, somewhat problematic holiday or the source of some of your least favorite rabbinic takes, this generative poetry workshop invites you to unpack, reclaim, and rewrite the sacred words we need now.

Led by poet Anna Goodman Herrick, author of A Speaker is a Wilderness: Poems on the Sacred Path from Broken Whole , this Ritualwell gathering turns to the Book of Esther as a text of hiddenness, inversion, and holy disruption. Purim asks us to question power, unmask false authority, and listen for voices that have been pushed to the margins—including our own.

Through playful, mystical writing prompts and shared reflection, you’ll craft poems, blessings, and sacred language rooted in resistance, courage, and joy. Open to both new and seasoned writers; no prior writing experience is necessary. Come ready to play with language, embrace the chaos, and enter Purim as a time of celebration, courage, and creative rebellion.

This event will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Anna Goodman Herrick is the author of A Speaker is a Wilderness: Poems on the Sacred Path from Broken Whole (Monkfish, 2024). They work at the intersection of spirituality, sacred words, and human rights, towards collective liberation. Anna has performed their poetry at the Emily Dickinson Museum, Patagonia’s Earth Day, and One Billion Rising’s Artist Uprising at the El Paso Border, and shared their work at the Library of Congress, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Bloomsday on Broadway. They have poetry in Spirituality + Health Magazine, Rattle, and The Los Angeles Press. Anna has created work for television and branded content for Teen Vogue, Sony, ABC Family, Oprah Winfrey Network, MTV, and the Sundance Channel, and created installations based on their poetry for museums and galleries worldwide.

Poems of Freedom: A Reading & Writing Experience
2026-03-17 20:00 - 21:30
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
8-9:30 p.m. EST

Prepare for Passover—the festival of liberation—through poetry, reflection, and creative expression. Join Ritualwell and the Philly Yetzirah Regional Chapter for a special reading, sharing poems inspired by themes of freedom, liberation, and the Passover story.

After the reading, you’ll be invited into a generative writing experience with a guided prompt designed to help you begin crafting your own poems of freedom. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or simply curious, you’ll have space to write, reflect, and explore what liberation means in your own life and in our collective moment. Featured poets are Cathleen Cohen, Henry Israeli, Lynn Levin and Maya Pindyck.

This event is a beautiful way to enter the Passover mindset—through listening, creativity, and shared inspiration. All are welcome; no prior writing experience is necessary.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Cathleen Cohen was the 2019 Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, PA. She created the We the Poets program for children from diverse cultural and faith communities (www.theartwell.org). Currently she teaches poetry and painting through local venues, including Ritualwell, Or Zarua, Cerulean Arts Gallery and Kol Tzedek. Her poems appear in literary journals and four collections: Camera Obscura (2017, Moonstone Press), Etching the Ghost (2021, Atmosphere Press) and Sparks and Disperses (2021, Cornerstone Press) and Murmurations (2024, Moonstone Press). Three of her poems were nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Her artwork is available through Cerulean Arts Gallery (https://ceruleanarts.com/pages/cathleen-cohen).

Henry Israeli is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Our Age of Anxiety (White Pine Poetry Prize: 2019), and god’s breath hovering across the waters, (Four Way Books: 2016), and as editor, Lords of Misrule: 20 Years of Saturnalia Books (Saturnalia: 2022). His next collection, Between the Trees (or the Lonely Nowhere) will be published by Four Way Books in 2028. He is also the translator of three critically acclaimed books by Albanian poet Luljeta Lleshanaku. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals including American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Plume, and The Harvard Review, as well as several anthologies including Best American Poetry 2025. He is Director of Jewish Studies, Drexel University; Director of Drexel Writing Festival; and Teaching Professor, Drexel University.

Lynn Levin is a poet and writer. She is the author of nine books, most recently the short story collection House Parties (2023) and the poetry collection The Minor Virtues (2020). Her work has appeared in Boulevard, Plume, Smartish Pace, Southwest Review, Kerem, Shofar, Nashim, Jewish Fiction Journal, and several anthologies including The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, and Keystone Poetry: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. She teaches at Drexel University and for many years taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her website is lynnlevinpoet.com.

Maya Pindyck’s third book of poems, Impossible Belonging (2023), won the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Plume, GRANTA (Hebrew edition), Beloit Poetry Journal, and Seneca Review. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, Maya is an associate professor and director of Writing at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia, and co-author of the educational textbook A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers (2022). She grew up in Boston and Tel Aviv. Her website is mayapindyck.com.

Holding The Sweet and The Bitter: Four New Questions for Passover 2026
2026-04-01 12:00 - 13:00
How do I hold a sprig of parsley — fresh as the first days of spring — and dip it into salt water, the taste of tears? How do I sing familiar songs with joy while also carrying fear, grief, or anger about the world around me? And how do I leave the Passover seder not only remembering liberation, but claiming joy and resilience for the days ahead?

To spark thoughtful and heartfelt conversation, the Ritualwell team has created a new collection of curated Passover resources, including four new questions to complement the traditional Four Questions. This printable PDF will be delivered electronically and accessible online, ready to bring to your table when you register.

You’ll also receive a recording of our meaningful event with Rabbi Isabel de Koninck reflecting on beloved Passover traditions, rituals, and the questions you are bringing to the holiday.

Creative Containers: Writing With Poetic Forms
2026-04-16 12:30 - 13:30
April 16, 23 & 30 and May 7, 2026
12-1:30 p.m. ET
$180

Creative containers — ranging from sonnets and sonnenizios, to pantoums and triolets — can offer structure while also inviting depth, complexity, and even surprise into your writing! In this series, poet and author Susan Comninos will guide participants through the rich possibilities of using poetic forms as tools for cohesion and focus, as well as exploration, expression, and musicality. Taking as our springboards poems by Jewish voices or on Jewish themes (including work by Rochelle Nameroff, Jaqueline Osherow, Emma Lazarus and Robert Morgan), we’ll play with prompts and shared writing time to help you develop your own poetic voice within the shape of a received form.
In each session we’ll:

Learn techniques of specific forms and how they shape content and create tone;
Read and discuss examples that illuminate craft and purpose;
Practice generative prompts tailored to the form of the day; and
Share work in a supportive environment with thoughtful feedback.

This workshop is open to writers of all levels — from beginners curious about form to experienced writers looking to stretch their practice!
This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Susan Comninos is the author of a recent book of poems, “Out of Nowhere” (SFA Press/Texas A&M, 2022). Her individual poems have appeared in the Harvard Review Online, Rattle, The Common, Prairie Schooner and North American Review, among others. She’s taught writing to undergraduates at Siena College, The College of St. Rose, and SUNY Albany, as well as adults in the community. At present, she serves as poetry editor of Judith magazine and is at work on a second collection of poems, “Wild Joy of Receiving.” The title poem, published by The Baltimore Review, is forthcoming this spring in the anthology “The Color Wheel” (Terrapin Books, 2026).

The Art of the Unexpected: A House Parties Reading
2026-04-27 13:00 - 14:00
April 27, 2026
1-2:00 p.m.

Join us for an intimate book talk and reading with Lynn Levin, acclaimed poet, writer, and author of the celebrated short story collection House Parties. In this special Ritualwell gathering, Lynn will read from her vividly imagined, witty, and deeply humane stories that traverse everyday moments, unexpected predicaments, and unforgettable characters.

With her poet’s eye and storyteller’s heart, she invites us into narratives that are both surprising and resonant, ranging from the comic and absurd to the quietly profound. Whether you write, read, or simply love great storytelling, come be inspired by Lynn’s craft, engage with her work, and explore what makes these stories linger in the mind long after the last page.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Lynn Levin is a poet and writer. She is the author of nine books, most recently the short story collection House Parties (2023) and the poetry collection The Minor Virtues (2020). Her work has appeared in Boulevard, Plume, Smartish Pace, Southwest Review, Kerem, Shofar, Nashim, Jewish Fiction Journal, and several anthologies including The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, and Keystone Poetry: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania. She teaches at Drexel University and for many years taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her website is lynnlevinpoet.com.

Writing Memoir from Photos
2026-05-04 13:00 - 14:30
Mondays, May 4, 11 & 18, 2026
1-2:30 p.m.
$154

Photographs are powerful vessels of memory—small artifacts that live in albums, frames, and on our phones, holding moments of joy, longing, love, and loss.
In this three-week memoir writing workshop, led by Lisa Grunberger, we will explore how photos can serve as meaningful starting points for writing about the past. Together, we’ll consider how images invite stories forward, helping us approach both cherished memories and more difficult ones with care.
Alongside our own writing, we will engage with reflections on photography from writers such as Susan Sontag and John Berger. Through guided prompts and gentle exercises, participants will use personal photographs to generate new creative work, including short “micro-memoirs” that can stand alone or grow into longer pieces.
Each session will include time for sharing, discussion, and supportive feedback. Working with photos can be a tender, accessible way to honor our experiences and deepen the stories we carry.
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Poetry Pushcart nominee and Temple University English Professor Lisa Grunberger is a first-generation American writer. Her award-winning poetry book For the Future of Girls is a lyrical reflection on life as a woman, a mother, and a daughter of Holocaust survivors. It was nominated for an Eric Hoffer Independent Press award. She’s the author of Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss and the Lotus Position (Harper Collins); Her poems appear in Breaking the Glass: A Contemporary Jewish Poetry Anthology (The Laurel Review, 2023). A widely published writer, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, The Southern Review, The Paterson Literary Review, Mudfish, Bridges, Of the Book Press, The Jewish Literary Journal, and Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture and Heritage (ELJ Editions), Crab Orchard Review, Mom Egg Review, The Baffler. She’s been translated into Slovenian, Russian, Spanish, Yiddish.

ALMOST PREGNANT, her play about infertility and motherhood, is published by Next Stage Press; Her play, Alexa Talks to Rebecca won the Audience Choice Award at the Squeaky Bicycle Theatre. She’s working on a memoir called Me and My Makers: A Memoir of Adoption, Genes and Love.

A Special Omer Gathering: Finding Purpose in Challenging Times
2026-05-20 13:00 - 14:00
Join Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg for a powerful live conversation on living with purpose, integrity, and resilience.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
1-2:00 p.m. EDT

Join Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg—an activist, author, and spiritual leader known for her work on justice, accountability, and Jewish ethics—for a powerful live conversation on living with purpose, integrity, and resilience.
Rabbi Danya brings a rare ability to weave Jewish wisdom with the urgent questions of our time, offering guidance that is both deeply grounded and immediately relevant. Her teaching helps us navigate complexity with clarity and compassion—especially when the path forward feels uncertain.
As we move through the Omer and approach its culmination, this gathering offers a space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters most. Together, we’ll explore how we continue to show up with intention in a world that asks so much of us.
Come ready to listen, reflect, and leave feeling renewed in your sense of purpose.

Deepen Your Omer Journey
This gathering is part of Omer Counting for Purpose—a seven-week journey of reflection and creativity rooted in the sacred qualities of the Omer.
When you join, you’ll receive weekly teachings, short videos, and writing prompts to help you explore your purpose through qualities like love, strength, resilience, and connection.
What You’ll Receive

Weekly email teachings + short videos
Reflective writing prompts and practices
A guided journey through the seven sacred qualities of the Omer
Access to our culminating live event with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

When you join Omer Counting for Purpose, you’re not only stepping into a meaningful personal journey—you’re also supporting Ritualwell’s work of creativity, connection, and Jewish meaning-making.
Your gift helps keep these resources accessible and this community thriving.

Come to be nourished by community, guided by wisdom, and reminded that your presence—and your purpose—matter.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is an award-winning author of eight books who now makes her primary writing home with the newsletter/magazine LifeIsASacredText.com. She has received the Lives of Commitment Award from Auburn Seminary, and the Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award from the human rights organization T’ruah, was named by Newsweek as a “rabbi to watch,” and as a “faith leader to watch” by the Center for American Progress, and has been a Sunday Washington Post crossword clue (83 Down). Her most recent book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World is a National Jewish Book Award winner and an American Library Association’s Sophie Brody Honor Book. It was hailed by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley as “A must read for anyone navigating the work of justice and healing.”
She has written for a number of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and been featured on NPR, the Today Show, USA Today, MTV News, and elsewhere. Her activism has taken her from the jail cell to the White House and back again, and has included advising lawmakers; organizing 2,500 rabbis in the fight for reproductive freedom through the fall of Roe; and mobilizing Jewish communities around economic justice and abuse accountability. Her North Star is the belief that we have a moral and religious obligation to care for one another, and to fight for a more just world.

Tree of Life: A Mind‑Body‑Spirit Practice
2026-06-09 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
12-1:30 p.m. EST
$18

As we move through the luminous days following Shavuot and step toward the fullness of summer, join us for a unique exploration of ritual, awareness, movement, and light.
Rabbi Tsurah August, a teacher rooted in somatic practice, mindfulness, and Jewish mystical tradition, invites us into Embodying the Light — a session to awaken our bodies, our hearts, and our spiritual vision.
In this gathering we will:

Set a mindful tone for the season, grounding our awareness and centering in presence.
Use gentle movement, breath, and guided reflection to awaken our capacity to sense light within and around us.
Explore how revelation continues in the body — how we receive, carry, and radiate the light of insight, wisdom, and connection.
Offer prompts and moments for creative embodiment — through movement, drawing, journaling, or simply listening and witnessing.

Shavuot invites us into revelation; summer invites us into expansion. Together, we’ll explore what it means to embody what we’ve received — to let wisdom take root in muscle and breath, and to carry it forward into our lives.
Whether you’re familiar with mindfulness or new to embodied ritual, this practice is open and inclusive. Come as you are — with openness, curiosity, and your own unique presence. Bring a journal or sketch pad if you wish, wear comfortable clothing, and prepare to move, breathe, reflect, and kindle the light that is already within you.
We look forward to gathering with you — to awaken together, and to carry that light into our lives, our relationships, and our world.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Before becoming a rabbi and chaplain, Tsurah was a professional dancer, choreographer and movement educator for people with a broad range of movement and cognitive abilities. Dance is still her beloved form of prayer.

Sacred Words for a Fragile Democracy: A Jewish Creative Writing Lab
2026-06-16 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-06-23 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-06-30 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-07-07 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesdays, June 16, 23 & 30 and July 7, 2026
12-1:30 p.m.
$54

What does it mean to bring our full Jewish selves into this moment in American democracy?

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, many of us are reflecting on the promises, complexities, and unfinished work of this country. In this creative writing lab, we’ll explore how Jewish ritual, poetry, and prayer can help us respond—with honesty, imagination, and care.

Together, we’ll gather in a supportive, generative space to write original prayers and poems rooted in themes of justice, belonging, responsibility, and hope. Drawing on Jewish poetry and texts, personal and family histories, and our lived experiences, we’ll experiment with language that connects our inner lives to the wider world.

Our time together will culminate in an optional public reading and the opportunity to share your work as part of a broader collection on Ritualwell, amplifying Jewish voices in a time when they are deeply needed.

Come write, reflect, and imagine what is possible—together.
What to Expect:

A supportive, creative cohort space to explore writing Jewish ritual, poetry, and prayer
Guided prompts and inspiration from Jewish American poets, alongside Jewish texts and themes of democracy and justice
Time to write, reflect, and (optionally) share your work with others
Opportunities to connect personal and family stories to broader questions of civic belonging and responsibility
An optional public reading to share your work in community
The possibility of publication in a digital collection on Ritualwell, reaching a wide audience

This is a space for writers of all levels—whether you’re new to creative practice or have been writing for years. Bring your curiosity and a willingness to explore.
This initiative was made possible thanks to an ignition grant from A More Perfect Union as part of our participation in the Jewish Partnership for Democracy.

All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Dr. Joellyn Zollman holds a Ph.D in Jewish history from Brandeis University. She has taught classes on Jewish history, American religion, and religious art and architecture at San Diego State University, UCSD and the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture. Dr. Zollman also works as a writer, curator and travel scholar. She is the author of the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning’s forthcoming new curriculum in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States: We the People: The American Jewish Experience.

Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer is Ritualwell’s Director of Virtual Content and Programs. She is an author, educator and spiritual director whose work focuses on spirituality, creativity and disability. Her personal essays have been featured in Tablet, Shondaland, NBCThink, Wisdom Daily, WHYY and many other publications and she has published several nonfiction books as well as plays for children. She writes a Substack newsletter called “Journey With The Seasons,” a weekly practice of meditative reading with creative self-expression prompts. Gabrielle holds a BFA in theater and creative writing from Emerson College and an MA in Jewish Studies from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Find her work at gabriellekaplanmayer.com.

Advot End-of-Year Celebration and Poetry Reading
2026-06-25 19:00 - 20:30
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7-8:30 p.m. EDT

Join us to celebrate the contributions of our Advot@Ritualwell members and the unveiling of our fifth anthology showcasing their creations. Advot@Ritualwell serves as an online community for Jewish writers to learn, connect, and collaborate, providing a platform for mutual support in what can often be a solitary journey. Members bring their diverse backgrounds and expertise to share, co-create, and inspire one another. This event is their opportunity to showcase their work to you. Show your support by attending! Registrants will receive a 15% discount on their purchase of the anthology.

The members of our ADVOT community include: Nancy Abraham, Elliott batTzedek, Elizabeth Caplun, Alex Carter, Cathleen Cohen, Muriel Dance, Batya Diamond, Elisa Friedlander, Ona Gritz, Ziva Harmatz, Claire Helman, Chana Jacobs, Ann Kanter, Judith Kerman, Lucinda Kurtz, Rabbi Janet Madden, Meryl Paskow, Beverly Pincus, Rabbi Sonja K. Pilz, SJ Schlossman, Gail Simmons, Susan Spector, Janice Steinberg, Julie Stone, and Cantor Keren Webber.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants following the event. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Holding Each Other
2026-07-20 12:00 - 12:30
Monday, July 20, 2026
12-12:15 p.m. EDT

Now more than ever, we need each other.

Every Monday, join “Holding Each Other,” a 15-minute online minyan, facilitated by a leading Ritualwell contributor. Together, we’ll recite Mourners’ Kaddish and Mi Shebeirach, the prayer for healing. To foster our spiritual resilience, we’ll engage with a brief creative meditation.

Weekly, gather your strength and provide support to others.

Grief and Healing: A Generative Poetry Workshop
2026-07-21 13:00 - 14:30, 2026-07-28 13:00 - 14:30
Tuesdays, July 21 & 28, 2026
1-2:30 PM EDT
$72

In this two-session workshop, you are invited to enter poetry as a sacred space—one that can help you hold grief, memory, reflection, and renewal.
The days leading up to Tisha B’Av are among the most solemn in the Jewish calendar, a time when we turn toward loss: the destruction of the Temples, the experience of exile, and the many forms of brokenness that echo across generations and in our own lives. In our session before Tisha B’Av, we will read poems that dwell within sorrow and tenderness, exploring the textures of grief—personal and collective, spoken and unspoken. Through guided writing, you will have space to give language to what is often hidden, difficult to name, or held in silence.
Together, we will read poems by writers such as Gerald Stern, Marie Howe, Yehuda Amichai, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost—voices that accompany us through ache, longing, memory, and meaning-making, offering companionship as you begin to write your own poems.
In our second session, following Tisha B’Av, we will explore poems that hold consolation and resilience, emphasizing how healing can emerge—not by erasing grief, but by learning how to carry it with greater tenderness. Together, we will write toward restoration, compassion, and quiet renewal.
No prior experience with poetry is necessary—only curiosity and a willingness to read, reflect, and write.
This series will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Dr. Eve Grubin is the author of the book of poems Boat of Letters (Four Way Books). She is also the author of Morning Prayer (Sheep Meadow Press), The House of Our First Loving (Rack Press) and Grief Dialogue (Rack Press). Eve holds a PhD on the poetics of reticence, and she is a lecturer at NYU London and a tutor at the Poetry School.

The Nearness of Shekhinah: Writing Through Elul
2026-08-05 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-12 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-19 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-26 12:00 - 13:30
Wednesdays, August 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2026
12-1:30pm ET
$180

The traditional Elul and High Holiday liturgy and ritual is brimming with images of God intended to inspire us to imagine God as close enough to hear and know and judge and forgive us. But evocative as these ancient images are, they can also make God seem distant, judgmental rather than compassionate, and inspire shame, guilt, and fear rather than teshuvah, the process of turning back to and experiencing divinity as the source and sustainer of our lives.

But Judaism also offers a radically different approach to divinity, the Shekhinah tradition, which encourages us to imagine divinity not as looking down on us from above but as with us, in us, all around us, present in human space, time, and lives.

The Shekhinah tradition is not only an ancient treasury of images that emphasize the nearness of divinity. The tradition empowers us to creatively adapt and develop the images we need to find, recognize, and respond to divine presence in ways that speak to our own joys, doubts, needs, vulnerabilities, angers, experiences, and lives.

This series is designed to help us participate in the Shekhinah tradition and make it our own by discussing examples that highlight different ways to think and write about divine nearness. We will explore these texts from a creative writing perspective, treating them as models, inspirations, provocations, and foundations for our own ways of writing about, imagining, or otherwise relating to divinity. Each class will include voluntary writing assignments based on the texts we discussed, and include time for at least a little sharing of our writing.

The class is open to all who are interested, regardless of your beliefs or prior experience with Judaism, text study, creative writing, or theology. It’s designed to complement and build on earlier Shekinah classes offered by Dr. Joy Ladin, emphasizing class discussion and creativity over theory, theology, and history, and offering a different focus, examples, and writing prompts. Elul is the ideal time to immerse in the Shekhinah tradition.

All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Dr. Joy Ladin has published ten books of poetry, including her new collection, Shekhinah Speaks (Selva Oscura Press); The Book of Anna, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and Transmigration, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. She is also the author of a memoir of gender transition, Through the Door of Life, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and the Triangle Award. Ladin has received fellowships and scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies Research, among other honors. A nationally recognized speaker on transgender issues, she convenes an online conversation series, “Containing Multitudes,” which is available at JewishLive.org/multitudes. Her writing is available at joyladin.wordpress.com.

Jewish Writers' Circle Anthology Celebration and Reading (Daytime)
2026-09-08 12:00 - 13:00
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
12-1:00 p.m. ET

Join us to celebrate the contributions of our Jewish Writers’ Circles members and the launch of our first anthology showcasing their creations. Jewish Writers’ Circles are grassroots peer-led communities of writers who meet monthly for in-person gatherings (e.g. homes and cafes). Jewish Writers’ Circle (JWC) participants explore Jewish wisdom texts, deepen relationships and grow in their writing practice. This event is their opportunity to showcase their work to you as we launch our second year of this initiative,
We’re offering this special celebration at two different times so that Jewish Writers’ Circle participants and their across time zones have an opportunity to join us. Please choose the gathering time that works best for you!

This event will be recorded and sent to participants following the event. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Jewish Writers' Circle Anthology Celebration and Reading (Evening)
2026-09-09 20:00 - 21:00
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
8-9:00 p.m. ET

Join us to celebrate the contributions of our Jewish Writers’ Circles members and the launch of our first anthology showcasing their creations. Jewish Writers’ Circles are grassroots peer-led communities of writers who meet monthly for in-person gatherings (e.g. homes and cafes). Jewish Writers’ Circle (JWC) participants explore Jewish wisdom texts, deepen relationships and grow in their writing practice. This event is their opportunity to showcase their work to you as we launch our second year of this initiative,
We’re offering this special celebration at two different times so that Jewish Writers’ Circle participants and their friends across time zones have an opportunity to join us. Please choose the gathering time that works best for you!

This event will be recorded and sent to participants following the event. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Out of the Depths: A Journey through the Days of Awe
2026-09-15 12:00 - 13:00
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
12-1 p.m. ET
$18

Prepare your heart for the Days of Awe with a new Ritualwell companion booklet of reflections, poetry, prayers, and creative prompts designed to guide you from Elul through Yom Kippur. Whether used for daily reflection or moments of pause throughout the season, this collection offers pathways into deeper awareness, renewal, and spiritual practice. This printable PDF will be delivered electronically and accessible online, ready to bring to your table when you register.

As part of this sacred journey, we invite you to gather live with Rabbi Yael Levy on September 15, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, for an exploration of Psalm 130. Rabbi Levy, author of Psalms: Ancient Songs for These Times, will help us engage this ancient prayer of longing and hope as a guide for the inner work of the Yamim Noraim. Together, we’ll reflect on what it means to call out from the depths, embrace the possibility of return, and remain openhearted in these challenging times.

This event will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Rabbi Yael Levy is the founder and rabbinic director of A Way In, Rabbi Yael’s teachings offer “a way in” to spiritual practice and awareness that uses the language of Jewish tradition and address universal issues. Named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by the Jewish Forward, Rabbi Yael has created daily and weekly online teachings and unique contemplative Shabbat and holiday services. She leads weekly call-in meditation “sits,” retreats and classes in Jewish Mindfulness. A Way In grew out of her part-time work as a rabbi at Mishkan Shalom Reconstructionist congregation for over 20 years. She is now Rabbi Emerita.

A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Yael has worked with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, co-leading retreats in Alaska for Jewish professionals and writing an online mindfulness guide to the Torah portions of the week. She also serves as a spiritual director to rabbinical students.

She is the author of Directing the Heart: Weekly Mindfulness Teachings and Practices from the Torah, Journey through the Wilderness: A Mindfulness Approach to the Ancient Jewish Practice of Counting the Omer and Chanukah Lights: Psalms for Hallel.

Grounded Poetry: Sensitivity to Setting
2026-10-14 12:00 - 13:30
Whether it’s the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a neglected backyard garden, or the landscape of memory itself, every place holds a story. In poetry, setting is never just a backdrop—it can reveal longing, loss, joy, identity, and what matters most. Sometimes, paying close attention to a place can also help us notice what is sacred within it—and within ourselves.
Together, we’ll explore how Jewish poets including Grace Paley, Louise Glück, and Gerald Stern use vivid details of time and place to create unforgettable poems. We’ll see how setting can deepen emotion, illuminate character, and invite us into a richer relationship with the world around us.
Through close reading, discussion, and a guided writing exercise inspired by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s “Abandoned Farmhouse,” you’ll discover how paying close attention to place can unlock surprising insights about your poem’s speaker—and yourself. Whether you’re writing about a sacred landscape, a childhood home, or an ordinary corner of your everyday life, you’ll leave with new tools for creating poems that are rich, grounded, and alive—and perhaps with a renewed sense of the holiness that can be found in the places we inhabit.
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Susan Comninos is the author of a recent book of poems, “Out of Nowhere” (SFA Press/Texas A&M, 2022). Her individual poems have appeared in the Harvard Review Online, Rattle, The Common, Prairie Schooner and North American Review, among others. She’s taught writing to undergraduates at Siena College, The College of St. Rose, and SUNY Albany, as well as adults in the community. At present, she serves as poetry editor of Judith magazine and is at work on a second collection of poems, “Wild Joy of Receiving.” The title poem, published by The Baltimore Review, is forthcoming this spring in the anthology “The Color Wheel” (Terrapin Books, 2026).
