our mission
TischPDX works to bolster the leadership of marginalized Jews in Portland, OR.
our vision
We are an incubator of new Jewish ideas and Jewish spiritual creativity on Portland’s East Side.
Much of the Jewish emerging creativity taking place today in Portland and nationally is happening outside the framework of the organized Jewish community. East Side Portland Jews – many of whom are young, or queer, or in interfaith partnerships and feel marginalized by traditional Jewish organizations – are innovating a new era of Jewish life, what Rabbi Yitz Greenberg calls “Third Era Judaism,” and in so doing offer a tikkun (healing) for where organized Judaism has become irrelevant.
TischPDX provides financial support, mentorship and Torah that grounds these emerging local leaders in wisdom and roots them in the ancient so they can meaningfully explore the new and renewed.
TischPDX seeks out Jewish “start-ups” on Portland’s east side and offers Jewish learning and professional mentoring to help our community's emergent expressions of Judaism thrive.
our history
In 2016, TischPDX founders Rabbi Ariel Stone, Kalyn Culler Cohen and Eleyna Fugman, all long time residents of the Portland’s east side, met to discuss the fact that much of the creative Jewish leadership being taken in their community took place outside the framework of the organized Jewish community. Without mentorship, resources and other forms of institutional support, they noticed that many of these creative upstarts can not sustain themselves.
To remedy this situation and bolster Jewish community building efforts on the east side, TischPDX launched its first cohort in August 2018, Elul 5779.
Individuals who have already demonstrated the commitment and ability to create and implement new and innovative secular or spiritual Jewish programs on Portland’s east side were invited to join the inaugural TischPDX Jewish Leaders Cohort in August 2018. You can read more about our cohort below.
our national work
Since launching TischPDX, the program has created ripple effects outside of the Portland area. After beginning the first TischPDX cohort, Rabbi Ariel Stone was invited to serve as a Rabbinic mentor of the Clergy Leadership Incubator based in New York City.
In 2020, TischPDX was invited to join Upstart’s 2020 National Entrepreneurial Sprint Cohort. Read more about it here.
In 2019, TischPDX was invited to attend the Kenissa Network Annual Gathering. Kenissa is a national Jewish organization led by Rabbi Sid Schwarz that connects individuals from around the US who are leading contemporary efforts to re-imagine Jewish life and community. TischPDX was asked to present at the conference.
Co-founder Eleyna Fugman has also been invited to join The Conversation: Jewish in America, sponsored by the Jewish Week. This national gathering brings together 55 American Jews yearly who are leaders or potential leaders in their respective fields to talk about the future of Jewish life in this country and what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century.