The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) will present How Happiness Thinks: Jewish Perspectives on Positive Psychology, the institute’s new six-session winter course that begins Nov. 5.

“The science behind positive psychology has been become very popular in recent years, and has drawn a lot of attention,” Rabbi Zalman Abraham of JLI’s headquarters in Brooklyn said. “People innately understand that to be happy and to have a positive attitude, can greatly impact their work and personal life.

Prepared in partnership between JLI and the Washington School of Psychiatry, the course offers as many as 15 American Psychological Association (APA) continuing education credits. While positive psychology may be in mode today, Jewish wisdom and mysticism has addressed questions of what it means to be truly happy, when it is appropriate to be happy, and being happy in times of great difficulty for centuries. Combining Jewish thought with the latest research in the fast-growing field of positive psychology, How Happiness Thinks promises to offer a fresh perspective on this highly relevant and potentially life changing subject, according to Rabbi Mordey Richler of the Chabad of Lake Tahoe.

“This course is based on the premise that to be happy, you can wither change the world, or you can change your way of thinking,” said Richler, who is the local JLI instructor in Lake Tahoe. “How Happiness Thinks contrasts 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom on happiness with the latest observations and discoveries in positive psychology,” he added.

Like all previous JLI programs, How Happiness Thinks is designed to appeal to people at all levels of Jewish knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular synagogue, temple, or other house of worship.

Aside from the APA, this course additionally offers participants the ability to earn as many as 15 CE credits from the American Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (CBBS), the Social Work Board of the State of Maryland, and the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC).

Interested students may call (530) 545-3163 or visit www.myJLI.com for registration and other course-related information.

JLI, the adult education branch of Chabad Lubavitch, offers programs in more than 350 U.S. cities and in numerous foreign locations, including Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. More than 260,000 students have attended JLI classes since the organization was founded in 1998.

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