Rabbi Jessy had always imagined that creativity would be a vital ingredient of Third Space, a project to reactivate a 100 hundred year old synagogue in West Baltimore. Rather than develop her own version of JSP's process from scratch, R’ Jessy reached out to JSP: “We don't need to create what they're already doing so well. We need to figure out how to partner to do it together.”

Now in its second year, the partnership is helping creative Jewish practice take root at Third Space. After regularly hosting JSP-led programs that brought, on average, 30+ community members together, JSP is now training Third Space staff to facilitate the Jewish Studio Process, making creativity an increasingly embedded part of community life.

The momentum is already growing: double the participants have signed up for this year's Elul practice at Third Space, many of whom will stay involved through new Creativity Circles and who will show up for quarterly opportunities in the JSP Community Studio at Third Space. F

or R’ Jessy, the impact is about more than participation. Creative practice gives people a way to move beyond simply thinking about Jewish life and into experiencing it, to discover something they can feel. “When you're trying to penetrate the cerebral,” she explained, “they have to discover it.”

As JSP's practice takes root in Baltimore, R’ Jessy sees the possibility of something that will continue to grow from within the community: “It's not just for this world,” she said. “It's for the world to come.”