Elul Circles
A free, ready-to-run four-part experience for meaningful Jewish conversation before the High Holidays.
The High Holidays can arrive before we do.
We prepare SO MUCH around the High Holidays (meals, services, sermons, music, logistics, and lists) but many leaders arrive exhausted, and many participants show up feeling disconnected, unprepared, and just going through the motions.
After years of fracture in our communities and our world, many of us are longing for a way to slooow down, listen closely, and begin finding our way back — to ourselves, to Jewish wisdom, and to one another.
A full calendar does not always create meaningful preparation.
Your community may already offer beautiful services, thoughtful classes, inspiring sermons, and festive holiday programs.
All of these experiences matter. But they do not always give people the chance to speak honestly, hear one another deeply, or build relationships over time.
People do not necessarily need one more event to attend. They need a space small enough for their presence to matter and structured enough for meaningful conversation to unfold.
A small circle can change how the season begins.
An Elul Circle is not a class or a lecture. It is a series of four guided gatherings built around accessible Jewish ideas and timely personal questions.
The goal is not to cover material or arrive at the “right” answers. It is to create the conditions for meaningful conversation and deeper connection.
In a small, consistent group, participants have time to listen, share, encounter new ideas, and become known to one another. That is what makes a Circle different from another standalone program.
You gather the people. We make it doable.
When you sign up, you receive a complete Facilitator’s Guide with four ready-to-lead sessions, customizable materials to help you invite and recruit your group, and a ready-to-go registration form.
First-time leaders also receive a personal consult with an IYUN faculty member—often described as “so fun and helpful!”—so you can adapt the experience for your particular people and setting.
You do not need a large budget or months of lead time. You just need at least six people and the willingness to invite them. (Go get em, tiger.)
Built for people who build community
You may be an engagement professional, community organizer, rabbi, or educator working in a synagogue, JCC, Federation, Hillel, school, or other Jewish organization.
You may also be a parent who wants to gather others around a kitchen table, a 20s or 30s connector with a vision and an active group chat, or simply someone who knows a few people who would value a reason to come together.
If people trust you to invite them, you can lead an Elul Circle.
Really.
Ok, but what's in the curriculum?
The High Holidays carry us through reverent devotion, honest self-assessment, quiet contemplation, possibility, repair, and joy. Each Elul Circle gathering pairs rich, accessible Jewish texts with questions that invite participants to bring their own experiences into the conversation.
Participants do not need prior Jewish knowledge. They need only a willingness to listen, reflect, and share.
What can four conversations make possible?
People who have seen one another in passing begin to know one another more deeply. An existing community develops greater trust and shared language. Participants arrive at the High Holidays having reflected rather than simply rushed in and landed in their seats. A group gathered for one season discovers that it wants to keep gathering.
As one Elul Circle participant shared:
“The small, intimate group setting created a space for comfortable, rich, and meaningful conversation. Through this circle, I’ve formed some of my closest friendships and feel more connected and grounded in my Jewish identity.”
An Elul Circle lasts four sessions. What it begins can last much longer.
Ready to lead?
To run an Elul Circle, gather at least six participants and begin your Circle before Rosh Hashanah starts on Friday evening, September 11, 2026; you do not need to complete all four sessions before the holiday.
If this is your first time leading an Elul Circle, you will also schedule a 20-minute consult with our team before you begin.
That is it. A little initiative. A little intention. Everything else is ready for you. The High Holidays will come either way. The question is how you and your people will arrive. Let’s enter the New Year more connected to one another.