In response to the attacks of October 7 and subsequent events, Andy Robinson (board president of Beth Jacob Synagogue in Montpelier) took his cue from Erica Heilman of the Rumble Strip podcast, who says, "You can be curious. You can be judgmental. But you can't be both at the same time." So, Andy reached out to fellow Jews, asked a lot of questions, and tried to listen more deeply.

Please join us at JCOGS as Andy shares what he learned from 60+ conversations: how people are feeling, how they connect with Judaism, their experiences (or not) with antisemitism, their thoughts about Israeli and Palestinian societies, and possible paths to peace and reconciliation. A lite middle eastern dinner from Aladdin will be served.

After sharing his experiences, Andy will facilitate a few listening exercises. What questions would you like to ask each other? Are you prepared to listen without judgment? The presentation also includes a Q&A, debrief with the group, and an evaluation. Andy will help us as a community think about the wide ranging views right now, as well as teach us the skills to listen more actively to one another.

Following the presentations, if you are interested in being interviewed by one of our members, Andy will be training several of our members to do a similar listening project at JCOGS. JCOGS members will interview other members and compile their data, describing what they learned to our community later in the summer/fall. Stay tuned for more information.