Mussar Leadership is a community of learners dedicated
to transforming themselves, their relationships, and their institutions
by fully integrating the values of Mussar
into daily practice and daily life.
Jews are looking for a relevant Judaism – one which can help them in their daily lives and help them contribute meaningfully to their community. They want to rediscover the values that they associate with their Jewish heritage, apply them and continue to pass them to the next generation. Often, however, they have neither the education nor the orientation to be able to distill those values from a traditional Jewish practice or to determine how to integrate them into daily life. While they want to know what is good and how to infuse their lives with goodness, they are often unaware of how to make that thought a reality.
The Mussar Leadership program addresses these important concerns within a contemporary Jewish content. The 19th century Mussar Movement, initiated by Rabbi Israel Salanter, provides an accumulated body of knowledge and literature to answer the question: “If everyone knows what it means to be good, why is it so hard to be good?” 
Through specific practices (intense text study, personal self-reflection and weekly group dynamics), the practice of Mussar creates an environment which brings unconscious impediments to light and replaces them with a consciousness of a living Torah.
Mussar Leadership, under the direction of Mussar scholar, Rabbi Ira Stone, augments the techniques of Salanter by adding contemporary insights into the roots of human behavior and interpersonal relations and integrating relevant theological context drawn from 20th century Jewish sources.
With an end goal of strengthening Jewish individuals, families and institutions, Mussar Leadership empowers and educates Rabbis about the value of offering this practice to their broadest communities. Through a two-year training program and ongoing contact with Mussar Leadership, Rabbis will receive practical tools that will allow them to inspire Jews in their communities through Jewish practice and tradition while searching for a more meaningful life.
Rabbis will be instructed in the traditional textual curriculum and the contemporary lenses through which to view it; they will practice self-reflection and participate in a va'ad or “working group” in which to learn to internalize the fruit of these reflections. Most importantly, they will learn how to use this program design to bring a program of Mussar Pathways to their communities.
Mussar Pathways will support individuals as they struggle towards goodness, fostering better relationships among people. It will help to clarify the content of their moral commitments and engage them in a specific practice leading to the implementation of these commitments. The experience of Mussar Pathways transforms the way that people choose to live their lives everyday. Currently, the Mussar program, which was launched in Philadelphia in 2003, has close to 40 students who attend a weekly shiur and va’ad. Some of whom are entering their fifth year of study. Rabbi Stone also teaches Mussar to rabbinical students at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
Mussar Leadership also offers programs (Mussar For Parenting and Family Mussar) to engage families in living daily with Jewish values as expressed in the Mussar principles. This is an important avenue in teaching parents how to responsibly and proactively pass these values onto the next generation.
Finally, Mussar Leadership is developing tools to use Mussar practice for Jewish organizations to reflect on their institutional values and implement the kind of changes that will allow them to align their practice with those stated values.