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2024 NHC Summer Institute Call for Course Proposals

We invite you to submit a proposal to teach at the 2024 National Havurah Committee Summer Institute, to be held at Pearlstone Retreat Center in Maryland. This year will mark to our return to a full week of programming from Monday, July 29 to Sunday, August 4.
The National Havurah Committee is a community of people of all ages dedicated to deeply rooted, vibrantly creative Jewish living and learning, community building, and tikkun olam (repairing the world). Our volunteer-led community is egalitarian, pluralistic, multi-generational, and highly participatory.

Each year, we hold a Summer Institute plus weekend retreats. At these gatherings, we live our motto that “every student is a teacher and every teacher is a student” with a wide array of opportunities to learn from each other. The backbone of the Summer Institute schedule is the courses, which meet daily Tuesday to Friday. As a teacher, you can expect to engage with enthusiastic students interested in exploring the subject or skill that you want to share.

Topics

• Course proposals can cover any Jewish subjects or themes: religious life, spirituality, contemporary issues, history, literature, art, music, personal growth, or whatever you dream up.
• Courses will be selected reflecting a balance of styles: text study, crafts, movement, creative writing, and so on.
• The Torah portion for our week together will be Matot-Masei, so we are particularly interested courses on Numbers 30:2-36:13 or on Tribes and Travels—however you define those terms.
• Proposals focused on topics generally available in the broader Jewish community, such as teaching liturgical skills like reading from the Torah, are not generally accepted.

Teachers and Students

The Course Committee aims to assemble a teaching roster that is diverse in background, approaches, and experience with Summer Institute. If you aren’t sure about submitting a proposal, go ahead and give it a try!
All teachers should expect students with differing viewpoints and should be open to lively discussion with openness and mutual respect. Teachers may require a specific background (such as Hebrew reading skills, experience studying Jewish texts, or the ability to read music); please describe these expectations in your application.

Format

Most courses meet for four sessions, either in the morning or the afternoon, on Tuesday through Friday. Teachers can limit class size if needed, and NHC will work with teachers who need AV resources or accommodations to be able to teach effectively.

Financial Arrangements

To recognize the work of teaching and to ensure anyone invited to teach is able to attend, NHC reduces the registration costs for teachers. Teachers will pay 20% of the registration fee, which covers housing, meals, and programming for the week. To celebrate our return to a full week of Summer Institute and to encourage fresh faces to apply, registration costs will be waived for teachers who have not participated in the past five years. (Registration prices have not been set yet.)

As a non-profit, NHC asks teachers to contribute to costs of running Institute when they are able; any amount that teachers pay at registration will be considered a tax-deductible donation. Additionally, teachers must join NHC, which has membership dues of $40 per adult or $80 per family.

Deadlines

Submissions are closed for this year.

For further information,  see our FAQs page or contact the Course Committee at courses@havurah.org.