When Kindness and Jewish Tradition Meet

Recently, I’ve been thinking that my unique lens on Kindness comes from my own Jewish culture.

On the Friday night of the k20 Kindness Without Borders summit, several of us were invited to the home of a wonderful couple. They hosted us for a special intimate dinner. As the 12 or so of us went around the table and shared our favorite take away from the first day of the Summit, I asked if I could make a Hebrew blessing, It is our Shehecheyanu Blessing and it gives us the opportunity to give thanks for reaching a special moment in time. Sitting there with this incredible group of human beings from around the globe felt like that moment. I told them they could say “Amen” when it was finished. It’s probably a 15 second blessing. And they did say Amen after I said it.

I also mentioned that since it was Friday night, I usually light my Shabbat candles and the host immediately jumped up and said you can light your candles here, “ What do you need?” I have chills reflecting on having this opportunity to have my own Jewish ritual together with this amazing group of other kindness leaders and thinkers. Over the next two days, everyone in that room came up to me to tell me how impactful my sharing my Jewish blessings was for them too.

Last month, I had the honor of delivering a virtual keynote for an Kindercare in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM), in all honestly, I hadn’t even heard about this, I didn’t know this was a thing until I got this invitation.

I LOVED adding my Jewish content to my Kindness program. It felt even more aligned with my kindness work.