Marisa Baggett
2026

Can a recipe be a sacred text? Join chef and storyteller Marisa Baggett for a lively, interactive virtual gathering that transforms the kitchen into a space for reflection, discussion, and storytelling. Using kugel as our text, we will look at the everyday act of cooking as a way to pause, reflect, and uncover spiritual ingredients like joy just in time for the New Year. Registrants will receive Tractate Kugel, a digital companion zine.

Joshua Eisenstat
2026

Joshua's capstone is a popular education zine series, focused on provoking conversations about how money, class, and tzedakah shape Jewish American life. The project includes three zines, with aspirations to create more. One zine, for example, is about Jewish Federations-- how they came to be, why they matter, and how we can learn about their grantmaking. A second zine is focused on creating an unbound "Torah of Money", in reference to an oldie but goodie book written in the 1990s by Jeffrey Dekro and Lawrence Bush.

Nick Wymer-Santiago

2026

This capstone project is a calendar of various loaves of Challah, taking several different forms. NIck expanded on the art of making Challah to create both physical representations of Judaism and nature, along with using non-traditional styles. After all, Challah, in its original meaning, describes the ritual of separating a piece of bread initially for the Kohanim, not the literal straightforward braided style many have come to know as Challah.

Lisa Heineman
2026

Inspired by Benay Lappe’s Crash Theory, Unbound philosophies for the Jewish future, and her teaching experience as a professor, Lisa Heineman created a daylong retreat for her community members exploring a central question: what happens when old systems crash, when the world as we know it is no longer sustainable? Using Judaism’s history as a framework for crashes and reinventions that draw on ancient tradition and wisdom, Lisa led “Dreaming in Jewish” on February 23rd, 2025 at the Sacred Collective in Iowa City for people who were “Jewish, Jew-ish, Jew-Curious, or Just Plain Human.” She intends to recreate this event in a variety of venues across physical and digital space. You can reach out to Lisa to learn more about bringing “Dreaming in Jewish” to a community near you

Sandra Razieli
2026

The Omerathon is a 49-day virtual journey that invites participants to simultaneously embody the qualities of the Omer while exploring the remarkable workings of our amazing brains. Through a series of daily short videos, filmed across the island of Maui, I guide participants through somatic practices that weave together Jewish teachings, and tools from applied neurology, tailored to each day of the Omer. The practice offers an embodied learning experience that is fun, engaging, and meaningful no matter one's prior knowledge of either Jewish or movement practices.

James M. Branum
2025

Combining his experience as a defense attorney and knowledge of military law, James Branum has created a curriculum about Jewish Conscientious Objection, culminating in a day-long hybrid seminar entitled “Exploring Jewish Conscientious Objection: Past, Present and Future” on August 10, 2025. With James as their guide, participants across ages explored the history, theology, and ethics of Jewish abstention from wartime drafts. James brought together several organizations into this three-part capstone seminar, including the Jewish CO Project, the Spinoza Havurah, and the Joy Mennonite Church of Oklahoma City. You can watch the recorded seminar here, learn more about the Jewish CO Project, and reach out to James to learn more about using his curriculum with youth or adults for synagogue or interfaith education.

Emmett H
2025

Like many other trans and nonbinary folks, Emmett H has felt a lot of fear and insecurity recently. For their capstone project, they wanted to help other trans and nonbinary Jews, especially young people, cope with these feelings. By creating their own sewing pattern, Emmett sewed a minyan of golem plushes in bright colors and soft fabrics, sending these plushies to trans and nonbinary youth. Emmett spent time researching the history of the golem legend in Jewish texts, and created a midrashic zine to accompany each golem, celebrating this project at their capstone siyyum “Golempalooza” on June 29th, 2025. Their capstone was inspired by Golem projects like Ketzirah haMa’agelet at Devotaj Sacred Arts and TherapyGolems. You can learn more about their project, the folkore of golems & order a Golem for trans and non-binary youth in your life here.