R' Yali Szulanski
Raising Humans. Growing Souls.
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Bio
Rabbi Yali Szulanski is a writer and spiritual educator who explores how families grow through Jewish wisdom and emotional wellness. She writes Running Commentary, a Substack on Jewish parenting and the inner life of caregivers, home to The Concordia Papers, her series tracing her family's history in Argentina. Her essays have appeared in The Times of Israel, My Jewish Learning, At the Well, and JOFA Journal.
As Director of Youth and Family Engagement at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale – The Bayit, Rabbi Yali trains a team of more than 70 teen leaders, and other synagogues now look to her model of teen spiritual leadership. She also serves as a spiritual counselor in Jewish recovery spaces with 14Y Selah. The Covenant Foundation named her a 2025 Pomegranate Prize recipient, and The Jewish Education Project gave her its Robert M. Sherman Young Pioneer Award.
She founded The "I Am" Project and The Neshima Initiative, which bring contemplative practice into schools and camps. Rabbi Yali holds rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat and a master's in Psychology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She lives in Riverdale with her family.
Yali worked with our sixth grade classes for three years. Her "I Am" Project workshops taught students and teachers to incorporate social-emotional wellness into the classroom environment. In a tracked study, students performed better on assessments and reported higher rates of positive feedback regarding their levels of anxiety, and mental wellbeing as compared to previous years, and throughout the year. Parents reported their children being more capable of expressing their frustration and anger at home in healthy ways, and exhibiting calm and informed approaches to problem solving.
Bala Cynwyd Middle School
