Communal Tragedy

As individuals, we all know pain and loss. It is the rare person who escapes sorrow. But when one of us hurts, others are there to offer comfort. Communal tragedy is different. When something bad happens to us as a community—whether that is a school, a town, a people, or a country—we struggle to figure out how to tend to our own wounds while taking care of each other. Drawing on compassion, empathy, justice, and love, we can bring out the best in each other, and perhaps, find a theology of hope in the midst of despair.

Latest Rituals

Pittsburgh: A Trial Begins

“Four and a half years have passed / Much of the world seems to have / forgotten / But we never will”
  • by Sara Stock Mayo
dandelion fluff blowing in the wind

Prayer for Israel between Demise and Rebirth

“May we remember that there is no future for any of us without all of us.”
  • by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein
Israel, peace
view from above of the mediterranean coast at Jaffa

A Prayer for a Mass Shooting, Before You Know What is Going On

“When the time comes, grant us wisdom, fortitude and stamina.”
  • by Esther Teverovsky, MD
mass shooting
a woman in a ponytail silhouetted against a white wall

Be Safe: Prayer for Those Affected by Floods in California

“Be safe, / Be warm, / Be dry”
  • by Trisha Arlin
environment, natural disaster
flooded street in forest with sign that reads road closed by flood and another sign that reads causeway and another sign that reads give way

On the second night of Hanukkah the miracle is Ukraine

“On the land / we were forbidden to light / candles, they now burn / under rocket-fire”
  • by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
hanukkah, Ukraine
close up of five hanukkah candles burning in the dark

Ceremony: For Sandy Hook, After 10 Years

“Teach us to spin apart the light in this dark.”
  • by Rabbi Annie Lewis
grief, mass shooting, Sandy Hook, Uvalde
person holding lit tea light candle near rows of other lit tea lights

Shekhinah’s Lament

“In a field of lilies trampled by warriors / the Shekhinah weeps”
  • by Elizabeth Caplun
peace, Shekhinah, war
close up of light yellow-white lilies with black background

Against Gun Violence

“The voice of lamentation echoes across the land”
  • by Alden Solovy
gun violence, guns, justice
Against Gun Violence

After Roe: A Havdalah Ritual for Losing Abortion Access

Ritual to acknowledge loss of abortion access
  • by NCJW (National Council of Jewish Women)
abortion, America, feminism, gender, social justice
After Roe: A Havdalah Ritual for Losing Abortion Access

Unprayer for Uvalde

“I am tired of praying to a silent God”
  • by Sara Stock Mayo
gun violence, Uvalde
Unprayer for Uvalde

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Learning to Say "We": Writing Identity

In this immersion, we will reflect and expand on our personal experiences of identity, using writing exercises and in-depth discussions to think about, challenge, discover, explore, and experiment with different ways to identify ourselves, to consider how those ways connect us to and separate us from others, and how they represent and misrepresent aspects of who we are.

Four sessions, starting June 15th

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