Image above: R Mural Project, Union Square Market, Washington, DC.
Teaching Resilience Why does an institution of higher Jewish learning need to teach about resilience? In a recent article, Spertus President and CEO Dr. Dean P. Bell wrote about a subject you might be surprised to find on the Spertus curriculum: resilience, a concept that has become ever more important through the challenges of the past year. Dr. Bell wrote, “At Spertus Institute, we have integrated long-standing work on vulnerability and resilience into our leadership training, professional programs, and graduate courses. Grounded in findings from the Religion, Vulnerability, and Resilience Project, on which I am a co-investigator, we have differentiated between simple resilience—a return to the status quo—and complex resilience, which allows us to learn, grow, and adapt. Complex resilience teaches us to apply new-found skills and perspectives to yet unknown challenges ahead.” He continued, “Our work at Spertus is centered in the idea of high-impact Jewish learning, learning that provides the tools for important and positive change in the world. Our explorations of complex resilience teach adaptation, problem solving, responsibility, and resistance to doing things the same way, merely because that is the way we have done them before. This work will advance and improve our programs, our institution, and the many people we impact along the way.”
Read Dr. Bell’s full article at spertus.edu/news
