Character development course to be offered at Dwares JCC

Congregation Beth Sholom, Core Connects Rhode Island, the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island, Temple Beth-El and Temple Emanu-El will offer a new collaborative 12-week in-person program: “Spiritual Accounting: Benjamin Franklin and Rabbi Mendel Lefin’s Course of Character Development.”

Taught by Providence’s Rabbi Eliahu Klein, a mussar (practical Jewish ethics) instructor and the author of “Meetings with Remarkable Souls: Legends of the Baal Shem Tov,” the program is funded by a grant from the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and is free for all participants.

A group of up to 15 Jewish adults from across the religious and communal spectra in the greater Rhode Island area will embark together on the course of reflection and character improvement outlined by Benjamin Franklin in his 18th-century autobiography and later presented in a Jewish context by Rabbi Menahem Mendel Lefin in his 1808 mussar work, “Sefer Heshbon Ha-Nefesh” (Book of Spiritual Accounting).

With in-depth textual study and close-knit, pluralistic community building, there is a significant time commitment (12 in-person meetings, as well as reading and journaling at home) from participants, who it is hoped will return to their organizations, synagogues and homes with a fresh Jewish religious and communal perspective that they can share with others.

The 12 in-person meetings will be held Sunday mornings, 10:15-11:45 a.m., beginning March 13 and concluding June 26, 2022. There will be no meetings on April 17, May 8, May 29 or June 5 due to Jewish and secular holidays.

All meetings will be held in the board room of the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906.

For more information and to apply to this fully funded program, contact Shai Afsai at shai.afsai@ppsd.org

Submitted by Shai Afsai