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The Israel Conversation: Speaking Across Conflict for Jewish Communal Leaders

As our community conversations on Israel become increasingly polarized and stuck, Rabbi Melissa Weintraub (founding Director of Encounter) and mediator and sociologist Eyal Rabinovitch offer trainings, coaching, and consultation for communal leaders to successfully play the role of conveners, healers, and facilitators. With two decades of experience in supporting communication across lines of division and conflict, we work with rabbis, educators, and Jewish communal leaders to create an enduring infrastructure for constructive engagement across our differences.

Skill-Building: Learn key conflict resolution skills for effective interpersonal communication and public speaking that allow you and others to share views and experiences while inviting curiosity, collaboration, and constructive debate. Program Design and Policy Development: Create a programmatic road map to foster meaningful, inclusive conversations that allow people to learn, listen, and speak openly and passionately. Create and articulate a thoughtful policy of organizational and communal boundaries for engaging Israel in ways that live up to core Jewish values.

Training, Coaching and Consultation


Mediation Skills for Communal Leaders This training is designed for leaders seeking to play a healing or convening role when others are stuck in toxic, tense communication. Learn to help community members listen fully to one another, find solutions to shared problems, and speak directly to what matters most to them. Effective Advocacy Training This training strengthens the capacity of advocates and activists to speak persuasively to skeptical or hostile audiences. Learn to make arguments in ways that are most likely to be heard by those that dont agree with you, maximizing your ability to create change in your audience and your relationship to them. Coaching and Consultation For those seeking to defuse tension and create generative engagement across divisions, we also offer personalized one-on-one coaching to leaders and consultation to institutions. Through individualized coaching, leaders build their communication skills and learn to advocate, mediate, or facilitate conversations amidst toxic communication and heated conflict. We work closely with leaders to build successful programs, norms, and systems that support people to do conflict well.

Who we are
Eyal Rabinovitch is a mediator, facilitator, and trainer focused on supporting individuals and communities communicate with integrity, passion, and respect. He consults with organizations grappling with divisive and contentious social issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and abortion in America. Rabinovitch has mediated dozens of interpersonal, community, and

criminal court cases, supporting parties in intense conflict to express themselves and create their own collaborative solutions. He has a doctorate in sociology and has taught at Wesleyan University and Baruch College. Rabbi Melissa Weintraub is a facilitator, consultant, and trainer working to transform conflict in the face of polarized, entrenched divisions. She is founding director of Encounter, an organization dedicated to strengthening the capacity of the Jewish people to be agents of change in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2011, she was awarded the Grinnell Young Innovator for Social Justice Prize in recognition of her contributions and impact as a young social entrepreneur. An alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship program, Weintraub is a noted speaker and educator. She has lectured and taught on four continents, and is the author of several articles examining the ethics of war and peace in Jewish sources.

A Few Testimonials:

"Eyal and Melissa were wise and impressive. I loved this program, feel privileged that I was involved, and believe that it will lead to change in my community." "It was outstanding. Community communication is unraveling and the civility conference has provided us tools for addressing it. The faculty was both inspiring and mindful of the need to provide 'real-time, real life' experience from the field." "The program and facilitators were incredible. They helped me realize how (and why) ineffective I have been in dealing with confrontational/adversarial people. Very deep and complex work."

A Few of our Past Clients:


Jewish Council of Public Affairs Civility Campaign Hillel International Minnesota Rabbinical Association Minnesota and St. Louis JCRCs Avi Schaefer Fund Wexner Graduate Fellowship Women Donors Network JCRC directors from across the country Many individual Rabbis and synagogues from across the country

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