PHOTO: Dr. Dean Bell of The Spertus Center for Jewish Learning and Leadership will lead a pair of workshops in Portland Wednesday, Oct. 29. (Courtesy Spertus)
The Spertus Center for Jewish Learning and Leadership, the Chicago-based center for Jewish adult education, is bringing Dr. Dean Bell to Portland for a pair of presentations Wednesday, Oct. 29 at Congregation Neveh Shalom.
The first, a Lunch and Learn session for Jewish communal professionals scheduled for noon, will focus on community leadership through challenging times and is rooted in Bell’s 2022 book “Interreligious Resilience,” co-authored with Dr. Michal Hogue of the Unitarian Universalist Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago.
“We sometimes think about resilience as snapping back or returning to a status quo,” Bell explained. “What became clear in COVID s there was no status quo. Resilience, if you think about it in a complex way, is how you learn, grow and adapt through change, and how the system transforms as a result.”
The workshop will dive into textual analysis and conversation about change, its obstacles and engaging across many perspectives.
“I’ll end with providing a framework that I think is really useful as they navigate their leadership-professional life and deal with change,” Bell said.
That evening at 7 pm, Bell will lead a program for volunteer leaders centered on addressing antisemitism.
“There’ll be a little bit of orientation about some of the big historical themes about antisemitism that will dovetail fairly quickly to talk about what are the contemporary challenges and issues and implications,” Bell said.
The subject is a major focus of the institute’s curriculum. Spertus offers leadership certificates in combatting antisemitism for both professionals and lay leaders – upcoming cohorts for both programs are at capacity. Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Director of Educational Initiatives and Associate Director of Community Relations Rachel Nelson will be participating in the upcoming professional cohort. The program for lay leaders is a new offering for Spertus.
“We’ve heard from a lot of lay leaders about these issues,” Bell said. “They have their very significant personal concerns, but they’re also deeply involved in a particular organization, and they work across the community, so they offer a lot of opportunities, because they are really building bridges in many different ways.”
The Portland program for volunteer leaders is built to be an interactive experience, beginning with discussion of historical examples and a broad look at contemporary issues.
“There’ll be some small case studies based on actual situations that we’ve seen in other communities, with the idea of getting people to learn a little bit and then roll up your sleeves; ‘How would you think about responding? What are the sort of ways we think about this as a community?’” Bell said. “Especially in the evening, nobody wants to go and listen to somebody talk at them. They actually want to engage their brains, and they want to think about what the implications are.”
In addition to the programs on combatting antisemitism, Spertus offers certificates in Jewish Leadership (of which Neveh Shalom Assistant Executive Director Michelle Caplan is an alum) and Synagogue Executive Leadership, masters’ programs in Jewish Professional Studies, Jewish Studies and doctoral programs in Hebrew Letters and Jewish Studies. The institute’s Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Keren Fraimen, received the 2025 Ilia Salita Excellence in Applied Research Award from the Jewish Funders Network for her work on conflict education.
“It’s launched a number of new initiatives we’re doing in Israel education spaces and Israel leadership,” Bell said of Fraimen’s work.
Registration the evening program online at members.nevehshalom.org/event/deanbellspertus. Professionals interested in the lunch event can reach out to Nelson at rachel@jewishportland.org. Learn more about all of Spertus’ programs at spertus.edu.