April 27th, 2025 - May 4th, 2025, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
The recordings of the two sessions are at https://youtu.be/Kg0H6XCjCms and https://youtu.be/87ALYqy8ui8.
Two-Session Community Workshop on Bioethics and Jewish Values
When faced with complex end-of-life decisions—about life support, organ donation, or the moment of death—how do we know what’s right? Join us for a 2-session interactive workshop exploring how Jewish ethical principles can guide us through some of life’s most difficult choices.
Session I will introduce the foundations of bioethics and contrast American individualist approaches with Jewish communal and religious perspectives. Through engaging text study, ethical comparisons, and key concepts like Pikuach Nefesh (the obligation to save life), participants will begin to uncover a deeply rooted framework for making compassionate, values-based decisions.
Session II brings it all together. Participants will apply these Jewish principles to real-life scenarios—grappling with dilemmas, mapping ethical tensions, and working through structured models for decision-making. Whether you’re personally confronting these issues, supporting others, or simply curious how Jewish texts speak to modern ethical challenges, this workshop will offer both intellectual depth and personal relevance.
No prior knowledge required—just a willingness to learn, reflect, and engage.
Workshop 2 on 4 May will include a small group discussion focused on the file “Jacob Case Study for Small Group Discussion.” That file and other documents related to the content of this workshop are at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1W3QIA5TGRS9N1DgMHoJRJRf9ibUlLg17?usp=sharing.
Dr. Renana Brooks is a clinical psychologist, political consultant, and senior rabbinical student whose career spans the intersections of mental health, spiritual leadership, and public discourse. She is the founder and Clinical Director of the Sommet Institute in Washington, DC, where she has maintained a full-time psychotherapy practice since 1990. Dr. Brooks also consults nationally on political communication, specializing in power dynamics and framing strategies, and has advised multiple presidential and gubernatorial campaigns.
She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from George Washington University and previously served as an adjunct to the clinical faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency at Harvard-affiliated hospitals and pursued further training in mindfulness, family therapy, and integrative health. As part of her spiritual path, Dr. Brooks is a senior in the rabbinic ordination program at the Academy of Jewish Religion and completed a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in DC.
Her writings on politics and psychology have appeared in The Nation magazine, and she continues to be a sought-after voice on issues of emotional engagement, persuasion, and healing—both in the therapy room and the public square.
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