ABOUT MITSUI COLLECTIVE
Our Story
Mitsui Collective began with a series of observations and questions
Judaism emphasizes balance between learning and doing.
We — the Jewish community — have gotten pretty good at the learning. How well are we doing at, well, the doing? How could we get better at integrating our core values and beliefs into our day to day actions and behaviors — aka our embodiment — in order to create more wholeness, freedom, and belonging for all of our communities?
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Our modern world contains an overwhelming amount of brokenness.
How might we bring the work of Tikkun Olam — repairing the world — into the way we care for ourselves, for others, and for our communities as we also do the larger work of systemic social change? Might we become even more effective by becoming more practiced in our embodiment at all scales?
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Cultural systems of embodiment integrate physical wellness practices and rituals with sacred text, ancient wisdom, and core beliefs and values.
Judaism has a deep wellspring of all of the above — except for a physical wellness practice. What happened? Where might we find artifacts and remnants of such practices? Who is doing this work now? How might a modern system of embodiment look that is rooted in Jewish wisdom and responsive to the emerging needs of today’s changing world?
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Our Work
Founded by Yoshi Silverstein in 2019, Mitsui Collective has become a leading organization in the Jewish embodiment space and a well respected thought leader and partner across the Jewish communal ecosystem. Whether through our antiracism and embodied healing work, innovative human-centered program design, groundbreaking research on intersectional Jewish identity, or professional Jewish embodiment cohorts, our work is built to help people and organizations respond to the never-ending challenges of our time with greater skill, capacity, and resilience.
Having now worked with over 42,000 participants across more than 250 individual programs and engagements, we’ve seen that our Jewish embodiment work helps people to …
Strengthen their sense of Jewish identity and expression;
Increase ability to confidently bring their whole selves into Jewish community;
Tap into Jewish wisdom and culture as wellsprings for growth, healing, creativity, and connection;
Develop skills and capacity to more effectively combat antisemitism, racism, and other forms of systemic oppression in and beyond the Jewish community.
Read on below for more on our impact and growth.
In 2023, we conducted a strategic planning initiative to upgrade our infrastructure so that we could continue to work across the Jewish professional ecosystem, strengthen the field of Jewish embodiment, and expand our capacity to work directly with individuals ready to get into practice with us.
We now provide two primary pathways — The Mitsui Institute for Jewish Embodiment, and Studio Mitsui — designed to help all of our people and communities deepen our embodiment and co-create a more healthy and whole world.
Mitsui Collective 2.0
National Recognition
Selected for UpStart National Venture Accelerator (now “UpSpring”) Cohort 13 (2022-23)
Winner of Covenant Foundation's Pomegranate Prize for Emerging Leaders in Jewish Education (Yoshi Silverstein)
Slingshot 2022 Ten to Watch List
Creatives in Residence at Prizmah 2023 National Conference for Jewish Day Schools
Our Impact
Growth Metrics
42,000+ — participant engagements
250+ — programs
1,000+ — program hours delivered
120,000+ — website and social media engagements
*updated as of Summer 2024
Program and Project Highlights
Kollel Community of Practice for professional Jewish embodiment practitioners working towards social change — thirty alumni across three cohorts (2021-2023)
Viva Nefesh five-day immersive embodied experience in El Salvador, planned and conducted in partnership with Jewtina y Co. (2023)
Interwoven Oppressions — research studying the intersectional embodied impacts of racism and antisemitism for Jews of Color (2022-23)
Tu b’Av Love and Liberation Festival — online (2020); hybrid online and in-person (2021)
Our Values
Principles of antiracism and counter-oppression have been ingrained at the center from the first beginnings of Mitsui Collective. They are not only core content in our programs and resources but core values for everything we strive to do.
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.
As stated in our vision, we seek to fully activate thriving, resilient, healthy, and diverse communities that embody Jewish values of equity, justice, compassion, and belonging in all our ways of being.