Climbing Sinai

This entry has been cross-posted at eJewish Philanthropy.

The theme was “anything is possible,” and yet the predominant mood of this year’s GA was anything but starry-eyed. Amidst the inspiring stories of hard-won campaign achievements and anecdotes from those whose lives have been touched by Federation, an overall sense of gravity pervaded. Steve Schwager, CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, informed us that this past year, JDC could not serve 60,000 frail Jewish elderly in the FSU due to a lack of resources. Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, reminded us of the dire threat to Israel posed by Iran’s nuclear program. Forums and workshops such as “Fundraising in Hard Times” and “Betrayal, Redemption and Reward in a Post-Madoff World” grappled with the unprecedented economic challenges that we face today.

Yet I found that this gravity lent the conference a strong sense of purpose. At the opening plenary, Joe Kanfer, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Federations of North America, recounted the story of the twelve spies. Why did Joshua and Caleb counter the report of the other spies, and encourage the Jews to continue on into the land of Israel? Kanfer argued that it was not only because they were inspired by the challenge, but that they kept their focus on what was possible, rather than on what was impossible.

The GA certainly echoed Kanfer’s sentiments – the enormous sense of gravity also lent the conference a strong sense of purpose. The entire hotel was abuzz with energy as ideas were exchanged and connections made. Personally, I attended a number of informative sessions, including workshops that addressed the shifting landscape of Jewish influence in political Washington, mobilizing community in response to economic crisis, and changing trends in philanthropy.

This was my first GA. Going in, I didn’t really know what to expect, other than that I would meet a number of interesting people, and hear from a few interesting speakers. And while I felt that there were a number of pressing topics that could have been better addressed, in the end, I found the experience highly educational and incredibly inspiring. Now I’m just counting down until next years’ GA in Orlando!

Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the US, addresses attendees

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

After a moment of silence in honor of those tragically killed at Fort Hood, Jewish soldiers serving in the American Armed Forces brought an small, portable (and still incomplete) Torah scroll to the stage. This Torah scroll is being donated to the military, so chaplains can carry it to Jewish soldiers on duty in volatile areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

All the way back in August, I wrote about the UJC Community Heroes contest, and I reminded you to vote early and often (as opposed to today, when you should have all voted early, but often… well, that would be illegal).  Well, it looks like UJC has finally revealed the 5 finalists:

They’ll be announcing the winner on Monday November 9th, and will be honoring all 5 finalists at the GA on Tuesday the 10th.  Time permitting, I’ll try to attend the press conference, and will report back to you!

It’s late, and I should go to bed.  (Big day tomorrow, hanging out with the family!)  But not before I quickly share this blog post from eJewishPhilanthropy which just caught my eye:

“BBYO – Writing the Playbook for Jewish Engagement”

Starting in 2002 when it became independent of B’nai B’rith and recommitted itself to engage Jewish teens in ways that were relevant to them, BBYO created a powerful model of online and real time connection that offers lessons for every Jewish organization. Whether your constituency is seniors, 40-somethings or young families, BBYO has developed a playbook for how to marry new technology tools with traditional ones and give teens the social connections they seek, the traditions we all want them to embrace and the ability to personalize and shape their Jewish world is ways that will last a lifetime.

Intrigued?  Read the rest of the post here.

Now I dearly wish that Bnei Akiva – the religious Zionist youth group where I was an active member for over a decade – had the know-how and the wherewithall to follow BBYO’s lead.  Sadly, BA is Zionist almost to a fault.  After all, you’re not really Zionist unless you’re just as disorganized as a real Israeli organization!  (This, of course, is said out of love, and with a healthy dose of good humor.)

Who wants to be Jewish nowadays?  I mean, we swindle billions of dollars (and from nonprofit organizations, no less), we throw lavish parties in jail, and our religious leaders get caught in stings involving money laundering and organ traffiking.  I mean, geez, we should be throwing away our yarlmukes and flushing our Chanukkah menorahs down the toilet.

… Oh. Wait.  Remember that old adage, “don’t confuse the Jew with the Judaism”?  Well, while it can easily be argued that these scandals are rooted in internal communal problems, we need to remember that Judaism is at its heart a religion steeped in ethics, social justice, and moral responsibility.  Yes, there will probably always be people who forget that fact.  But in the end, we would do well to realize that Judaism does a great job encouraging and nourishing those ethical values.  Every year, hundreds of Jewish students participate in programs organized by the American Jewish World Service or AVODAH.  There is a growing trend among bar and bat mitzvahs to do some sort of service project in honor of their big day.  And many, many Jews who self-identify as secular still look to Judaism for inspiration to lead moral, ethical lives.  So actually, we have quite a lot to be proud of.

That’s why it’s so great that the UJC – the umbrella organization for the Jewish Federations of North America – has just launched the first Jewish Community Heroes Award.  We need a reminder that there are still wonderful, passionate Jewish leaders who are doing incredible things.  The award is a grassroots effort – anyone can nominate a hero, and voting is open to all.  When the polls close on October 8th, the winner will be honored with a $25,000 reward to go to his or her cause.  The nominees are an incredible bunch – they run the gamut from the founder of Uri L’Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice organization, to Hebrew language teachers, to soup kitchen volunteers and rabbis.  They’re professionals and lay people, of every age and denomination.  It’s really inspiring to read through the list.

As a side note, the Darim Online blog has an interesting take on the award:

Using this open forum,  Jewish communal institutions will be able to listen unfiltered to leaders on the ground. The issues that are most important to the institutions may or may not be the issues that individuals are most passionately working on. For that reason alone, the Jewish Community Heroes Awards will be fascinating to monitor.

Further proof that Web 2.0 – and its underlying grassroots values – is changing Jewish communal institutions (for the better, I think).

I’m sorry to bring you some sad news… but it looks like eJewishPhilanthropy reported a few hours ago that the Professional Leaders Project (PLP), which for the past five years had been nourishing and mentoring young Jewish professionals and social entrepreneurs, will be phasing out its operations effective August 31st.

PLP is the first high-end Talent pool of outstanding volunteer and professional leaders, in their mid-20’s – early 30’s for the American Jewish community. PLP’s impact has been highly acclaimed by key foundations, organizations and top community leaders across the country.

Rhoda M. Weisman, Founding Executive Director, stated, “The Jewish community’s greatest resource is its human capital and in the case of PLP, we have identified, trained and placed Gen Y Talent in top leadership roles across the country. The investment in PLP and its Talent will be a lasting one. We are saddened to phase out the Professional Leaders Project due to today’s economic climate. And, we hope to resume it in the future with the support of the community and our active group of philanthropists.”

“PLP will continue to live on through its professional and volunteer Talent in new and established organizations. Examples range from Hillel to Jews United for Justice, the Jewish Federation to Hazon, Birthright Israel Next to Moishe House and much more. PLP expanded its initial vision by developing not 500, but 1,000 Talent in 5 years, and becoming a recognized expert on Gen Y Jewish leadership,” said Rhoda M. Weisman.

I truly hope that PLP will one day be able to resume operations.  It’s contribution to the American Jewish community has been extraordinary.

This entry is cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

One of the many hats I wear here at JPS is that of Official Internet Surfer.  (It’s a pretty cool hat actually – it’s got this wee little surfboard perched on top…  Ok.  Cue the tomato-throwing.)  In order to keep abreast of what’s happening in the Jewish book world, I keep a close eye on my Google Reader, do a regular scan of the Google Blog Search, and pay attention to the news shared by our many Twitter followers.  As a result, I regularly stumble across tons of interesting blog posts, websites, and articles.

Well, I’ve decided it’s high time that I start sharing my findings with my gentle readers.  Every once in a while I’m going to do a mini-compilation of my interesting and relevant findings for that day.  So here it is, the catch of the day:

● Marc Tracy of Tablet Magazine shares some original, awful Jewish poetry, as a tribute to MyJewishLearning’s Bad Jewish Poetry Contest.  “Shall I compare thee to a matzah ball?”  Oy vey.

● At Mixed Multitudes, Tamar Fox looks back at a full year of mourning and saying kaddish for her mother.  She’s been blogging about the experience this entire year – after reading this post, I think I’m going to go back and read her thoughts from the very beginning.  A tremendously moving meditation on an age-old Jewish tradition.

● At eJewishPhilanthropy, Joshua Avedon discusses the “innovation pipeline” for new Jewish nonprofit organizations.  His Google Chrome analogy is helpful to those relatively unfamiliar with the world of Jewish innovation and social entrepreneurship.

● According to Beattie’s Book Blog, Merlin Digital has just launched the slimmest e-book device in the market.  Is this development good or bad for the book world?  It all depends on how you look at it, I suppose.

Happy surfing!
-Naomi

This entry is cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

For the past few months, the team at G-dcast has been producing and broadcasting a weekly 4-minute cartoon about the parshah – the Torah portion read that week in synagogue.  The G-dcasts are colorful, they’re creative, they’re an easy introduction to the parshah’s content, and – almost always – they raise insightful and thought-provoking questions posed by the text.

The parshah this week touches on one of my favorite vignettes in the entire Torah – the story of the daughters of Zelophehad (now, here is where I would normally recap that story for you myself, but I’ll let G-dcast do the work this time).  I was curious to see how G-dcast would approach this material, and I really like the “spin” that they’ve put on the story.  There is definitely a feminist undercurrent in this week’s parshah, and G-dcast has decided to run with it.

Parshat Pinchas from G-dcast.com

More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com

-Naomi