A Ten-Month Fellowship Program

Kivvun (“Direction”) is a ten-month fellowship program beginning September 2025, developed by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for 20-25 Jewish lay leaders seeking to:
  • Live and lead with greater calm, clarity, resilience, and wisdom
  • Develop and deepen consistent Jewish spiritual practice 
  • Grow experientially in a supportive, intimate community of fellow-travelers
  • Apply these practices and resources in their leadership and lives
Nomination Form

Kivvun provides a unique opportunity in the field of adult Jewish learning: deep, continuous in-person and virtual Jewish study and practice over 10 months in an intimate and supportive community, led by brilliant teachers of Torah, prayer, meditation, character, and embodied awareness.

Kivvun helps participants integrate these practices into their daily lives and apply them to their work, relationships, leadership, and social action. These practices help develop and sustain the inner resources to meet challenges such as stress, fear, loss and grief, and to live with greater joy, courage, presence and gratitude.  The community of practice provides participants with a supportive container to cultivate thriving Jewish communities of depth and meaning. 
Kivvun was created by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) to educate, inspire and nourish those who can bring spiritual, emotional and intellectual vigor and vision to Jewish life. Since 1999, IJS has pioneered retreat-based educational experiences for thousands of rabbis, cantors, educators, and lay leaders and learners. 

The Kivvun application process gives future participants a chance to reflect on their own spiritual strengths and challenges, and on expectations for ways that this program might help them take their next steps personally and in their roles as Jewish leaders.

Program Details

Kivvun is a ten-month program framed by two retreats (see below for dates and locations); in the interim period between retreats, participants will engage in weekly text study and spiritual practice, and periodic individual sessions by Zoom with one of the faculty members. The elements of the program are as follows:

Virtual Orientation

A period of virtual orientation and preparation in September, prior to the opening retreat

Two In-Person Retreats

Two five-day in-person retreats in beautiful settings with private rooms and   kosher meals

    • Wednesday-Sunday, Sept. 10-14, 2025 at the Brandeis-Bardin Campus of American Jewish University in Simi Valley, CA
    • Wednesday-Sunday, June 10-14, 2026, at Trinity Retreat Center, West Cornwall CT

Study and Practice Support

Supported Jewish study and practice between retreats, developed and led by IJS’s world-class faculty

Chevruta Study

Curriculum and ongoing support for weekly chevruta study

Weekly Live Sessions

Weekly live whole cohort learning via Zoom (sessions recorded)

Individual Guidance

Regular individual guidance session with a faculty member

Two In-Person Retreats

 

Opening Retreat: September 10-14, 2025

Brandeis-Bardin Campus of American Jewish University

Simi Valley, CA

The theme is the Jewish spiritual journey, focusing in particular on the primary task of developing da’at (awareness) through Jewish mindfulness practice. Mindfulness meditation will be introduced as a foundational awareness practice, framed in Jewish terms, grounded in traditional Jewish language. Participants will also become familiar with some basic Hasidic texts and the theological perspectives they provide as a pathway for understanding the practice of mindfulness meditation as a resource for deeper Jewish practice.  The food at Brandeis is kosher under Orthodox supervision.

Concluding Retreat:

Wednesday to Sunday June 10-14, 2026

Trinity Retreat Center

West Cornwall, CT

Trinity will serve kosher food, under IJS supervision.

Faculty

The program will be directed by Rabbi Marc Margolius, IJS Vice President of Faculty & Program, and taught by IJS President and CEO Rabbi Dr. Josh Feigelson, and Rabbi Miriam Margles.

Rabbi Marc Margolius

IJS Vice President of Faculty & Program

Rabbi Marc Margolius directs the faculty and overall programming for IJS, and oversees programming for lay leaders and alumni of the Hevraya, the alumni of our Clergy Leadership Program. He hosts IJS’s online daily mindfulness meditation sessions and teaches Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, our online program in tikkun middot practice, integrating Jewish mindfulness with attention to core middot, character traits.

Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA, where he pioneered a Shabbat-centered model of congregational engagement. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund from 2005-2010, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in congregations around the globe.

Long active in social justice activism, Marc is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and of Yale Law School and lives in New York City.

Rabbi Dr. Josh Feigelson

IJS President & CEO

Josh was appointed Executive Director of IJS in January 2020 and became President & CEO in April 2022. He received ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in 2005, and served for six years as the Hillel Rabbi at Northwestern University, where he also earned a PhD in Religious Studies. In 2011, Josh helped found and served as Executive Director of Ask Big Questions, an initiative of Hillel International, which won the inaugural Lippman-Kanfer Prize for Applied Jewish Wisdom. Josh has also been a consultant and Senior Fellow at The iCenter for Israel Education. Most recently he served as Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Josh is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and was the founding co-chair of the Wexner Fellowship Alumni Committee. He is the author of Eternal Questions: Reflections, Conversations, and Jewish Mindfulness Practices for the Weekly Torah Portion (Ben Yehuda Press, 2022). Josh lives with his wife Natalie and their three sons in Skokie, IL.

Rabbi Miriam Margles

IJS Senior Core Faculty

Miriam has a long and rich association with IJS, having taught on various retreats and programs over the years. She joins the Institute as a Senior Core Faculty after over a decade as the rabbi of the Danforth Jewish Circle in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Jerusalem Fellows at the Mandel Leadership Institute. Miriam as a founding faculty member at the Romemu Yeshiva, serving as a fellow with the Rising Song Institute, co-founding the award-winning educational program engaging with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Encounter, and recording her original Jewish music with the Hadar Rising Song ensemble.

Important Dates for the Nomination & Application Process

March 14, 2025

Participants in Kivvun must be nominated no later than March 14, 2025 (click here for the nomination form).

April 25, 2025

IJS will select nominees to submit applications no later than April 25, 2025.

May 16, 2025

Successful applicants will be notified by May 16, 2025.

Sept 10, 2025

Kivvun opening retreat September 10-14.

Cost

$10,000

Includes tuition and retreats, travel excluded. Limited subsidies are available.

Here’s What Kivvun Participants Have Told Us About How This Program Transformed Their Lives

“Kivvun was the most important personal development program I have done in my life. It transformed me, deepened my connection to myself and my loved ones, and provided me with a community of incredible friends and fellow-travelers. Beyond that, the mindfulness practices I developed in Kivvun have profoundly impacted my approach to philanthropy and Jewish communal life. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”

Dorian Goldman

Trustee, Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation

“Jewish leaders need mindfulness practices. The organizations and communities we lead are strengthened when we practice and model calm, connected, grounded, and mindful leadership. Kivvun was and remains the most transformative leadership program I’ve ever participated in. It has helped make me a stronger member of my family and community, and a far wiser Jewish leader.”

Monte Dube

Former Board Chair, American Jewish World Service

“IJS has changed my life. The Jewish wisdom I studied at IJS has deepened my prayer, my meditation and my mindset. Even more essentially, because of IJS I have changed the way I speak to myself, which has changed everything.”

Aliza Kline

Founder & Former CEO, OneTable, New York

Outline of the Year of Study/Practice

— UNIT 1 —
Preparation for a New Year of Practice

— UNIT 2 —
Meditation as a Jewish Mindfulness Practice

— UNIT 3 —
Tikkun Middot (Applied Meditation) as Jewish Mindfulness Practice

— UNIT 4 —
Speech/Prayer as a Jewish Mindfulness Practice

— UNIT 5 —
Talmud Torah as a Jewish Mindfulness Practice

To apply for the Kivvun fellowship program please have your nomination form submitted no later than March 14, 2025.

Nomination Form
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) is a sacred haven for nurturing the mind, body, soul, and spirit. Since 1999, we have helped countless people navigate our turbulent world by learning to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and find a greater sense of purpose — all grounded in mindfulness and the deep wisdom of Jewish tradition. From guided meditation and contemplative text study to leadership training and retreats, IJS creates opportunities to become more mindful, compassionate, and resilient — and build a more just and peaceful world together.