Winter Solstice: A Jewish Gathering for Grief and Growth

As the winter solstice approaches, join us to gather in the long night to listen, breathe, and tend what is alive within us. As the year turns toward lengthening days, what needs room to rest? What grief is asking to be witnessed? What small sources of warmth and connection can we nurture together?

Join Dev Brous and Yaakov Ginsberg-Schreck for a 90-minute virtual gathering on the Winter Solstice. Together we’ll weave guided breath and meditation, seasonal Jewish wisdom, gentle ritual for trauma-informed grief support, personal reflection, and community belonging. We’ll make space for loss and change, for overwhelm and joys we carry as we explore how grief and growth can take root in the same winter soils.

Rooted in Jewish tradition and open to people of all backgrounds, this gathering offers an accessible way to meet the season with emotional honesty, embodied practice, and shared presence. Whether you joined us for Summer Solstice learning and reflection, or are arriving for the first time, you are welcome.

No prior Jewish knowledge or meditation experience is needed. Come as you are, with whatever this season holds.

Facilitated by Dev Brous (FromSoil2Soul) and Yaakov Ginsberg-Schreck (RUACH), and co-sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Registration information is shared among these partner organizations.

Meet Our Facilitators

Devorah Brous (she/her) is the founder of FromSoil2Soul, a regenerative healing practice rooted at the intersection of Jewish mysticism and grief science. As a certified Compassionate Grief and Bereavement Care Counselor, herbalist, and community ritualist, Devorah has spent over 25 years creating intentional containers to guide people through rupture with fierce tenderness. She facilitates twice-weekly "Grief Gardens"—trauma-informed, Torah-rooted support circles designed for collective tending. A two-time nonprofit founder with deep roots in environmental justice and community care, she holds Master’s degrees in Conflict Resolution and Development Studies from Hebrew University. Devorah is currently completing a book on Jewish Grief Tending and pursuing licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), bridging systemic community resilience with mental health support. She lives with her family on a thriving urban homestead on unceded Tongva land (LA).

Yaakov Ginsberg-Schreck (he/him) is the founder and Executive Director of RUACH, a Boston-based nonprofit exploring Jewish belonging through breath, movement, meditation, and embodied spiritual practice. Drawing on Jewish tradition, contemplative practice, and cross-cultural dialogue, his teaching invites people into forms of Jewish life rooted in presence, relationship, and lived experience.

A graduate of Yale University and a former student in Hebrew College’s pluralistic rabbinical program, Yaakov facilitates spaces that weave reflection, ritual, learning, and emotional honesty with warmth and accessibility.