Climbing Sinai

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