New York—A group of rabbis convened in New York City for a three-day seminar on mediation training, organized by Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF)-Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), in conjunction with the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution at YU’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The training was presented by attorneys Adam Berner and Sequoia Stalder, both expert trainers in the field of mediation and conflict resolution.
“By definition, rabbis here and in all places are serving so many different roles—in the pulpit, as teachers and as educators, working with many people. And people have differences,” said Berner, an alumnus of RIETS and Cardozo and an assistant professor at Cardozo. “This workshop is a frame of how best to help these leaders deal with differences, how to manage the realities of being in a community, and how to take conflict and see it is an opportunity for growth, learning, and change—for themselves and for others.”
Through a combination of discussion and collaborative role-playing activities, the training was designed to teach participants “how to maximize the chance of being on the positive side of a conflict,” said Stalder, who founded a company to provide workplace mediation training and serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution. “We create a framework for a dialogue, teaching specific skills that support that dialogue. We teach how to get to the root of the conflict, with the goal being collaboration, to determine how the needs of both sides can be met.”
“This training was about seeing conflicts from different angles and how to effectively work towards a resolution,” said Rabbi Jeremy Donath, who leads Congregation Darchei Noam in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. “It’s great to be able to come back to my alma mater to learn and engage in the growth process. To be connected to YU and have the opportunity to attend these trainings is really an asset for me in my perpetual education.”
