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Resetting the Table

Resetting the Table (RTT) and The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington are pleased to offer a four-session virtual training in facilitating courageous conversations across differences on Israel, U.S. politics, and other charged issues in Jewish life. In the face of immense polarization and division, RTT has developed one of the most road-tested and effective frameworks for facilitating transformative communication across political divides in the country. Trainees will learn and practice facilitation skills and interventions designed to support parties to move from destructive patterns of cross-conflict communication (e.g. confirmation bias, fight-or-flight, etc.) into mutual receptivity and connection, even while directly addressing heated differences.

This RTT Facilitation Training Cohort is supported by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and designed for DC-area educators, facilitators, and lay leaders who serve the Jewish community, with a particular focus on those who work with young adults, college students, and teens. 

Training participants will learn to:

  • Ask questions that unearth what matters most to participants
  • Demonstrate that what matters to disparate parties has been rightly understood
  • Name differences and invite participants to explore and discuss them
  • Apply the methodology to participants’ own contexts

Cost: $250*
This program is generously subsidized by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. 

*Cost should not be a barrier to participation. Scholarships are available. 

Application Deadline: Friday, March 17, 2023.

Contact: For more information, please contact Rebecca Powell, Senior Facilitator and Educator at Resetting the Table: rebecca@resettingthetable.org 

Resetting the Table (RTT) is dedicated to building meaningful dialogue and deliberation across political divides. Drawing from facilitation and mediation expertise, Resetting the Table’s unique approach supports participants to move through charged conversations with trained facilitators and carefully structured process, designed to support stakeholders to speak, listen, challenge each other, and make decisions together with honesty, mutual recognition and respect. RTT has provided communication skill-building workshops, multi-narrative educational sessions, and consultation to 30+ Jewish Federations, 100+ Hillels, and hundreds of other organizations across the country.

What are the goals of the program?

  • Equip a select group of DC-area Jewish professionals and emerging lay leaders with practical tools and skills to facilitate charged conversations on Israel and other contentious topics
  • Build confidence, skill, and hands-on experience in opening up meaningful dialogue across differences in Jewish communities, applicable to programs from Israel trips to educational programming to contentious decision-making
  • Create a core group of DC-area facilitators who will champion and model courageous, constructive conversations across differences in local Jewish communities and beyond

Learning Objectives:

  • Participants will learn and practice three core facilitation skills for achieving collaborative conversations across differences 
  • Participants will model dialogue across differences with one another 
  • Participants will learn concrete exercises they can replicate in their own contexts

The Facilitation Training includes one 5-hour, full-group, 2-day virtual retreat followed by two additional 2.5-hr full-group sessions.

Schedule (all sessions will take place from 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM EST):

  • Wednesday, April 19
  • Thursday, April 20
  • Wednesday , May 3
  • Wednesday, May 10

TESTIMONIALS

“The work they do is thoughtful and long-lasting. Their facilitators help people have difficult conversations, but also set people up to continue to have these conversations long after the facilitators have gone home. I use their techniques to run multiple Israel-related programs every year.”
— Shira, Rabbi of Mixed Multitudes, Podcast Host, & Former Senior Rabbi, Sixth & I

 

“The work Resetting the Table does to help people be in honest and safe dialogue with each other over difficult topics is simply holy!! Our world is plagued by our inability to sit at the same table and hear things we don’t agree with, and getting to learn how to help people do that through RTT was invaluable to me as a rabbi, a Jewish educator, and as a human being. I can’t thank this organization enough for all it’s given me and countless others.”
— Ilana, Community Rabbi, Gather DC

 

“RTT has been an absolute game-changer for me in the way I approach conversations, and being a part of the Hillel cohort with Resetting the Table was an irreplaceable professional development opportunity. I’m so energized by this work and excited to bring it to my students! I have never experienced a training like Resetting the Table before. The methodology is clear, the coaches are supportive, and the skills I’m building are immensely useful for both my professional and personal life. Participating in Resetting the Table helped me broaden my worldview, give grace to those whose perspective is different than mine, and feel more comfortable sitting with the multiple truths of living a Jewish life. This program will change you for the better.”
— Naomi, Assistant Director, American University Hillel