First-hand accounts of moments that transformed a Jewish consciousness

In recent years a good deal of attention in Jewish educational discourse has been given to so-called “transformational experiences.” These are the events and encounters that can dramatically change a person’s beliefs, values, self-understanding, and behavior – in short, one’s life. Some have argued that creating such experiences and fostering such transformations should be a cardinal goal of our educational efforts. Other are more measured, believing that there is a serendipitous element involved in transformational experiences that makes attempting to “engineer” such experiences difficult, and even potentially counter-productive. Nonetheless, there is much that we can learn and potentially apply to our Jewish educational work by understanding better when, how, and why such transformations take place.

The Lippman Kanfer Institute’s Program Assistant, Monica Rozenfeld, set out to do just this. She invited friends, colleagues, and individuals who read her blog or heard about her quest from others to share their stories of transformational experiences, what she came to call “Jewish Sparks.” The narrative that follows recounts a number of these stories and offers Monica’s reflections on what we might learn from them. We also invite you to continue the conversation by contributing your own stories and offering your own reflections on "Jewish Sparks" and what we can do to ignite them.  Read on and let us know what you think.