קול דודי

Kol Dodi

Jewish Spiritual Director Training

20-Month Training
Applications Open Spring 2026

The Institute for Jewish Spirituality is thrilled to announce the second cohort of Kol Dodi: Jewish Spiritual Director Training, a program that will prepare participants to serve as spiritual directors.

Kol Dodi translates from the Hebrew as “voice of my beloved.” Participants in this program will learn to accompany others on their spiritual journeys in one-on-one or group settings.

Kol Dodi is grounded in IJS’s contemplative and contemporary core spiritual practices for cultivating awareness of mind, body and heart, and for attuning to the Voice of the Beloved.

Learn More at Our June 24th Information Session!

 Join Rabbis Elisa Goldberg and Nicole Auerbach on

Wednesday, June 24, 7:30-8:30 PM ET on Zoom 

Please click this link to sign up to receive the Zoom link for the June 24th info session

You can find answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Kol Dodi here.

Spiritual direction is a unique practice that offers a distinct set of skills, ethics, and practices which are helpful for clergy and other spiritual care providers.

The program incorporates multidisciplinary approaches to contemplative soul companioning, drawing from both Jewish wisdom and the field of spiritual direction, with the aim of supporting the formation of self as a Jewish spiritual director. Towards this end, Kol Dodi’s formation program and curriculum centers the theory and practice of Jewish spiritual direction.

This unique training includes:

    • Teaching from core and guest faculty
    • Regular support and supervision from mentors
    • Chevruta (peer-based learning partners)
    • Small group experiential practice
    • Mindfulness and embodiment practices
    • Creative process and expressive arts
    • Trauma-informed orientation to spiritual director formation
    • Curriculum that integrates sacred activism into development as a spiritual director

The program is directed and taught by Rabbi Elisa Goldberg and Rabbi Nicole Auerbach. We will have several guest teachers, including Rabbi Myriam Klotz. 

Mentors for Kol Dodi include Cantor Ellen Dreskin and Ashley Plotnick, MEd, MAJS, MSW. Together, they will offer a curriculum grounded in relational mindfulness, sacred listening, prayer, and embodied wisdom, as well as creativity and liberatory imagination.

We are committed to providing a learning community that welcomes people from many racial, religious, cultural and spiritual traditions, as well as participants who embody sexual and gender diversity, disability and multigenerational perspectives.

Course Structure

Kol Dodi will run for 18 months, beginning with a five-day in-person retreat in April 2027 held at the beautiful Trinity Retreat Center in Cornwall, CT. The program will include one other in-person retreat and several  zoom intensives in addition to interim work.

Included in Course Tuition:

    • Access to IJS course dashboard
    • Ongoing Online Learning Sessions
    • Regular meetings with mentor
    • Chevrutah (peer-based learning partners)
    • Small group experiential practice
    • Mindfulness and embodiment practices
    • Trauma-informed orientation to spiritual director formation
    • Program Certificate upon completion of training requirements
    • Five zoom intensives, dates TBD
    • Two in-person retreats:
          • The first will run from Sunday, April 11 through Thursday, April 15, 2027
          • The second will run from Sunday, through Thursday, in March/April 2028, exact dates TBD.

Program Costs

Costs include all program components, including room and board for the two in-person retreats. The tuition level you select will be due in 4 equal payments over the course of the program. The level you choose will not have any bearing on your application. The higher tuition level enables participants to stay in a single room during the in-person retreats. The lower level enables participants to share a double room with another participant. All rooms have their own bathrooms. 

Tuition and Single Room at In-Person Retreats

$11,000

4 Equal Payments of $2,750

Tuition and Shared Double Room at In-Person Retreats

$9,000

4 Equal Payments of $2,250

Application

In order to ensure individualized and intensive training, the Kol Dodi cohort size will be up to 30 people.

Participants must apply and acceptance is not guaranteed. Requirements for admission include having at least six months’ experience being in Spiritual Direction before the program begins. Participants must also remain in spiritual direction for the duration of the program. If you need assistance finding someone to work with,  here is a list of spiritual directors who completed Kol Dodi. Additional spiritual directors can be found on the website of Spiritual Directors International.

Applications are due by Thursday, October 29 at 3:00 PM ET and require a $120 application fee.

Financial Support is available upon request. Jews of Color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities will receive priority support. Please fill out the Financial Support Request Form.

If you have any questions please contact Rabbi Elisa Goldberg at elisag@jewishspirituality.org.

Applications Open July 15

Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once applications open.

Name

Faculty

Rabbi Elisa Goldberg

For over two decades, Rabbi Elisa Goldberg has accompanied others on their spiritual journeys as a spiritual director, professional chaplain, congregational rabbi, and educator. Rabbi Goldberg served until 2021 as a long time spiritual director at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and currently at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She teaches at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College on Rabbinic Ethics and Pastoral Counseling, and provides clinical supervision for students. She has served as Director of the Office of Rabbinic Placement for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and led community chaplaincy services at the Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Philadelphia for fourteen years.

Rabbi Goldberg authored a guidebook on spirituality and recovery with Drexel University and consults on the integration of spiritually informed care. She was honored to be the first woman to lead the Philadelphia Board of Rabbis. She maintains a private spiritual direction and pastoral counseling practice and provides consultation and coaching for rabbinic colleagues.

Rabbi Nicole Auerbach

Rabbi Nicole Auerbach (she/her) is a rabbi, spiritual director, teacher of Jewish mindfulness meditation, and Hevraya member (CLP4). She is the URJ’s director of Community Growth & Strategy, focusing on bringing leaders of innovative and emerging communities into the Reform Movement. She has dedicated her rabbinate to creating opportunities for people to create and deepen relationships with one another, with Jewish community and tradition, and with sacred experience.

She is a co-author, with Dr. Ron Wolfson and Rabbi Lydia Medwin, of “The Relational Judaism Handbook: How to Create a Relational Engagement Campaign to Build and Deepen Relationships in Your Community” (Kripke, 2018).

Mentors

Cantor Ellen Dreskin

Ashley Plotnick, MEd, MAJS, MSW