Mission
Mitsui Collective builds resilient community through embodied Jewish practice and somatic antiracism.
Vision
Mitsui Collective designs and facilitates holistic, whole-body Jewish learning and practice.
Our work explores the experience of Jewish life & learning through our bodies, and our understanding of how our Jewish identities and experiences are impacted because of the bodies we are in. We augment the spaces and methods through which Judaism prepares, supports, and nourishes both the individual and the collective for greater health, resiliency, and wellness in body and soul.
The need for spaces and practices that enable people to experience healing and wholeness in both body and soul has never been greater. Today, Jewish communities exist against a backdrop of ongoing racism and white supremacy, rising xenophobia, antisemitism, the existential impact of climate change, and a pandemic that has often necessitated a “disembodied” Jewish practice experienced primarily on screen but in isolation. Within this setting, we increasingly see the need and desire for embodied Jewish learning and practices that help to strengthen our personal and collective connection to place, community, personal identity, ancestry and lineage for Jews of all racial backgrounds.
In a world shaped and dominated by over five centuries of racist ideology, we all have racialized identities. This culture is dense and opaque — but it can and must be transformed into a culture thick with the ability to heal and transform. Racism impacts all of us, and addressing racism and healing from its impacts is critical to transforming equitable and thriving Jewish spaces.
Mitsui Collective is open to all spiritual seekers while centering our work and community-building around those historically placed at the margins of Jewish life — including but not limited to Jews of Color and non-Ashkenormative Jews, LGBTQ, interfaith / intergroup families, and those of varied socioeconomic status. We view diversity and representation as a vital building block for vibrant, resilient community.
Communities of Practice
Creating vibrant and diverse communities of practice are core to Mitsui Collective’s long-term vision and ability to activate communities in the work of resiliency-building. Our aim is ultimately to center embodied Jewish practice and somatic antiracism as immersive and transformational foundations of contemporary Jewish life. As we continue to hone our internal capacity and operational strength for carrying forward our existing work to date, we are also laying the groundwork to expand our footprint both vertically and horizontally.
Vertically this includes further depth both in our local work in the Cleveland area — where we hope overtime to establish a physical homebase both for local community building and as a national headquarters for immersive programs and ongoing research & development — and our intensive work resourcing and training the growing field of embodied Jewish practitioners and educators. Horizontally this looks like catalyzing and growing the ecosystem of opportunities and platforms (both in person and online) to be in communities of practice with others for whom embodiment and liberatory antiracist practice are core to their Jewish expression and spiritual identity.
For more on our pedagogical practices and areas of work please visit our Working Definitions page.
Interested in being involved? Check out our program offerings here plus make sure you’re on our mailing list and please be in touch!