Professional Development

“Eliana's excellent, well thought out, and creative presentations draw you into a more meaningful understanding of Jewish prayer, music, and your own experience as the pray-er. Each of her classes motivated me to reach out with new modalities and deeper ways to engage families and kids in meaningful moments in t’fillah.”

-Rabbi Audrey Pollack

Eliana is a sought after keynote speaker and workshop leader for Jewish educators, lay-leaders, and clergy. Eliana’s sessions are engaging, entertaining, and delightful. She balances big questions with practical tools, translating Jewish wisdom and helping you do the same. She offers PD at conferences and federations, as part of weekend residencies, and over zoom for communities around the world. Starred sessions can be given as workshops or keynote addresses.

Sample workshops and keynote addresses

  • Getting at the Core: The “Why” of t’fillah*

    We take it for granted that it’s important to do t’fillah with our young people- but why? Looking at the science of spirituality, we’ll explore how t’fillah has the incredible, counter-cultural potential to strengthen the spiritual core of our students. Why does this matter, and how can we make it happen? We’ll ask questions, go deep, and dream big about the potential for t’fillah transformation.

  • Jewish Tools for the Spiritual Core

    How can we put the science of spirituality into practice for our early childhood students? Judaism has baked into it a shared spiritual language through ritual, liturgy, and g?d-concepts. Building on the work of Dr. Lisa Miller, let’s explore this language; what it is, how to use it with kiddos, and how to connect ourselves no matter our background.

  • The Magic of Family Prayer*

    Family t'fillah is a sacred time- how can we make the most of it? How do we craft spaces for adults and children of any and all ages? Together, we'll dive into the opportunities and wonders of family t'fillah, along with techniques to make it meaningful online and in person.

  • The g?d Gap: Why (not) Talking About g?d Matters*

    God is the central character of the Torah and the subject of our prayers, yet we don’t often talk about what God is or how we relate to the Divine. Why does it matter, and where can we start? Together we’ll explore songs, texts, stories, and strategies for engaging with the idea of God in a healthy way with students of all ages. We’ll put the “?” in g?d, expanding a limiting word and making room for our beliefs, struggles, and questions.

  • A Sense of Wonder: Cultivating Spirituality in our children*

    Jewish life seeks to cultivate a sense of wonder at the world, something children already have in spades. How does spirituality manifest in our youngest children? And what does this mean for how we engage in Jewish ritual, and talk about g?d? Together we’ll dive into the spiritual lives of our youngest children, and learn developmentally appropriate songs, tools, and techniques to plant the seeds and help them grow.

  • Making Services Spiritual: Crafting Communal Prayer

    What if synagogues were places of deep spirit? Through intentionally crafting prayer experiences to fit our goals, we can help the most people access our tradition and spark something meaningful. In this session, we'll experience and explore what choices, questions, and skills can elevate your prayer services, share tools to bring back to communities of all kinds, and maybe even tap into spirit ourselves.

  • Music in the Classroom (for non music teachers)

    Music- it’s not just for music teachers! Together we’ll explore the why, what, and how of music music as a tool for learning, emotional engagement, spiritual growth, functionality, and fun. You’ll leave with new resources, perspectives, and melodies to get stuck in your head!

  • High Holiday Family T’fillah

    Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur offer beautiful opportunities for families to share sacred time together. Through repertoire, techniques, and asking the big “why,” we’ll explore how to craft services for all ages of children and their grown-ups that look backwards, forwards, and inwards.

  • Sing Around the Calendar

    Want to add some awesome new holiday songs to your toolkit for school-age kids? Want to explore music as a powerful tool to teach content, engage emotions, move the body, and inspire the spirit? Want to have a lot of fun singing together? Come sing around the calendar!