More on the Jewish Men’s Workshop
I attended the Jewish Men’s Workshop led by Billy Yalowitz and organized by Dan Alter. [See previous article.] More than seventy men attended, including several Israelis.
The workshop “started” online before it started at the site. We Jewish men have often been isolated, so Billy set us up in small groups by geography or other commonalities for phone mini-sessions prior to the workshop.
I met many men for the first time and felt easily close to them. Others I had known but had stayed away from. I had felt intimidated because they were leading more than I was, both in RC and in the wide world. I realized that Jewish men like me often carry distress recordings that tell us on the one hand, “I am better and smarter than anybody else,” and on the other hand, “I feel terribly insecure about my existence.” (These two patterns are related.) It seems that many of us feel intimidated by other Jewish men. But when I listened to these men and heard their stories, I could see them more clearly—both their humanness and their struggles.
Four of us drove to and from the workshop together, and we are setting up regular Co-Counseling sessions to continue working on issues we got a good start on at the workshop!
Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-maildiscussion list for leaders of Jews
(Present Time 198, January 2020)