Tiferet Project: Julie Newman’s journey to enrich Jewish lives through meditation
Jewish texts through a lens of mindfulness
Every online session of the Tiferet Project is the same. And every session is different.
Julie Newman starts the hour-long virtual sessions — held Sunday and Tuesday each week — with an “arrival sit.”
Much of the session revolves around Jewish meditation, a practice of settling the mind and exploring introversion and emotional insight. Nearly one in every three Jews in the U.S. meditates at least once a week, according to the Pew Research Center.
“We just check in to see what we’re coming in with,” said Newman, a cantor, Jewish educator and McCandless resident who formed the nonprofit group Tiferet in 2017. “It’s ‘Is this the first time I’m sitting down today?’ … It’s a great practice to just pause and notice that.”
What follows is 15 or 20 minutes of Jewish teaching. Each session, Newman said, she’ll dive into a Jewish text and analyze it through a lens of mindfulness — say, reading Psalm 85, Verse 11, and talking about the intersection of truth and loving kindness.
After the core of the session — a roughly 45-minute “guided sit” — Newman takes questions and the group talks about Jewish practice.
Jane Liebschutz, a physician who lives in Squirrel Hill, started attending Newman’s sessions after participating in a Jewish meditation retreat in 2020.
The thing she finds unique about Tiferet’s sessions is how each one supplements, in a different way, her more traditional Jewish rituals, attending religious services at Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative shul in Squirrel Hill.
“There’s a scaffolding to the traditional stuff,” said Liebschutz, a Rochester, New York, native who moved to Pittsburgh from Boston seven years ago. “Then, there’s the ability to experience it, to feel it on a spiritual level. And that’s what Julie does.”
“The thing about Julie is she’s really well-schooled and has a deep knowledge of Jewish practice,” Liebschutz added. “She’s knowledgeable in a mindful way — she’s practical and very generous. She makes you feel really comfortable.”
Newman’s had a lot of practice — though that’s not the route the first part of her life might have predicted. She grew up in a very secular family of Jewish immigrants from Russia – she called her mother “a refugee from an Orthodox family.”
“We definitely identified as Jewish but I never belonged to a synagogue,” she said.
Newman was first called to the Torah at 40 years old, at a Temple Ohav Shalom service led by Rabbi Sharyn Henry. She went on to study at Hebrew College in Boston, receiving her cantorial ordination and a master’s degree in Jewish education in 2017.
“I was never going to cantorial school for a regular, full-time job,” she said. “I knew I didn’t want that.”
So, she carved out her own path.
She studied with influential Jewish composers and songwriters, and took part in an 18-month cohort with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
Then, she started teaching and leading services at several Pittsburgh synagogues: Rodef Shalom Congregation and Temple Ohav Shalom, Dor Hadash and Temple David.
She also began pursuing different forms of Jewish education. In her words, she became “passionate about bringing Jewish wisdom and contemplative practices to creating lives rich with meaning and joy.”
“I came from nothing,” said Newman, when asked about her exposure to Jewish teachings in her early years. “And, then, it was — ‘Oh! I really like this! And I want more.’”
At Rodef Shalom, Newman led monthly chanting services with Sara Stock Mayo, a vocal presence — pun intended — in Pittsburgh for more than 20 years. Mayo is active on the board of Tiferet.
Newman said she started attending retreats around Shalosh Regalim, the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. She also dived into — and became inspired by — Vipassana, or insight meditation, a practice that originated with Buddhism.
The Tiferet Project was the next natural step.
“I started Tiferet because I wanted to bring in contemplative practice —Jewish mindfulness, meditation and Jewish-inspired yoga,” she said.
Tiferet is one of the spheres of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Newman said Tiferet is the balance between loving kindness and having wise limits.
Newman continues to expand her reach. She taught meditation for the first time this year at Chautauqua Institution, a New York-based nonprofit “dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times,” according to its website.
But she also remains rooted in Pittsburgh.
She’ll lead meditation during an Oct. 19 retreat titled “Attentive Heart, Spiritual Harvest” at Tree Pittsburgh, a nonprofit on Lawrenceville’s 62nd Street. There are multiple ways to pay to take part, she said.
In November, Newman also plans to lead yoga services at Congregation Beth Shalom.
“It’s about mindfulness — when we can be present, we have better outcomes in our lives,” said Tom Michael, a Tiferet board member who lives in Shadyside. “Meditation helps me to be happier.”
“And Julie?” he added. “She’s the real deal.” PJC
Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
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