NextGen Federation is partnering with Moishe House to bring you Hanukkah in a box! Why sit on Zoom for another hour when you can get everything you need to celebrate your way sent right to your house? We’ll send you a menorah, candles, gelt, and more!
Thank you for your interest. This form is now closed.
This Purim (like this entire past year) is a bit different from years past. While we can’t get together in costume to read the Megillah and celebrate, we can fulfill another mitzvah for the holiday – sending Mishloach Manot (Purim gift baskets). Your free Purim box from NextGen Federation contains enough supplies to create four Mishloach Manot bags filled with a Hamantaschen-making kit and recipe, snacks, fun crafts, and more. Register today to pick up your free box.
You know the saying, “Two Jews, three opinions.” It’s funny and true. Jews seem to enjoy taking ideas apart and examining them from every angle. What is the Talmud, after all, but a book of debate?
The Jewish tradition of argument has given the world more than its share of brilliant Jewish scholars, leaders, lawyers, and teachers. I guess outspokenness and debate are byproducts of being a people devoted to repairing the world. But how do we handle argument right now when deep political divisions enflame the nation and bubble up within our own Jewish community?
In last week’s Atlanta Jewish Times, reporter Dave Schechter asked Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal of Ahavath Achim Synagogue how to cultivate civility and turn down the rhetorical heat. Rabbi Rosenthal pointed to unique ways Judaism helps people find common ground.
In this moment when Georgia is at the center of the news, and when one of the run-off candidates for Senate is Jewish, political passions are boiling over once again.
Marc Gopin is another rabbi who has dedicated his life to conflict resolution in Afghanistan, Syria, Ireland, and Israel. He counsels people embroiled in political argument to “Stop talking, listen, and keep asking questions.” Thoughtful questions, he believes, illuminate the mind and move us towards what we have in common. Gopin has discovered that kindness and concern literally create new neural pathways that can change the mind. Our words can take us from fear and hate to openness and compassion.
At times like this I sometimes hear from people who feel that this Federation, and Federations in general, favor a particular point of view. I want to be really clear: Federation celebrates engagement in democracy. However, as a nonprofit, we cannot and do not participate in elections, including endorsing candidates or parties.
Federation remains focused on our mission to care for, connect, and strengthen our Jewish community throughout greater Atlanta, Israel, and the world, with our focus on impacting people, not politics. About this there should be no argument.
This article was featured in the Atlanta Jewish Times for November.
Uncertainty abounds amidst a global pandemic and at a political crossroads. Our children and grandchildren are in various models of school – face-to-face, remote, and everything in between – aware that a positive COVID-19 test result can call for change at any moment. These are challenging times, to put it mildly.
And yet, these are also opportunities for us – both as individuals and as part of a larger kehillah (Jewish community) – to practice and uphold the very Jewish principles and values we celebrated during Rosh Hashana and recommitted on Yom Kippur. Even when we are stressed, it is imperative we support each other, our community, and the organizations we hold dear.
As you may have read, after many months of having no cases of COVID-19, the William Breman Jewish Home experienced an outbreak which, sadly, has taken eight lives. Together, as a community, we mourn for these individuals, and we offer our heartfelt condolences to their loved ones. We have in our thoughts those who are in the hospital; we are grateful for the caregivers. We are fortunate that Jewish HomeLife is served by leaders who responded quickly, instituting the comprehensive COVID response plan they had prepared months ago. And, while we know that across the country COVID-19 rates have been rising in older adult care communities, agencies are being reassured that this vulnerable population will be among the first to receive a vaccine. Thankfully, the numbers at the Breman Home are steadily declining, and currently there are nine residents and two staff who have tested positive for the virus. They continue to conduct weekly testing and have not had any new positive cases at the William Breman Jewish Home since November 1.
Just last month, we admitted our shortcomings to G-d and asked Him for forgiveness. We pledged to be better Jews, to be better humans. Our job, as good stewards of the greater Atlanta Jewish community, is to support the Breman Home through this time. Our individual – and collective – response to this news should be one filled with compassion and helpfulness.
Bikur Cholim (visiting the sick) and the shiva ritual is steeped in our Jewish heritage. Unfortunately, the pandemic has brought myriad challenges to observing these traditions in their usual manner. We, as a community, have an opportunity – an obligation as Jews – to support the families who are suffering losses in whatever ways we can. At the very least, we can provide sympathy, empathy, and compassion.
Despite the uncertainty we all undoubtedly feel right now, we can cultivate some ‘best of times’ through our responses to events, and through our actions.
Pivoting from Fashion to Service
by Deborah Plotsky
I spent the first seven years of my career in fashion, but I’ve always had another passion for food and gardening. In 2019, after seven years of attempts to grow basil and compost in my tiny New York City apartment, I decided it was time to return to the hometown of my alma mater, Atlanta. I convinced my company to let me work remotely in Atlanta and decided I would find a more food or earth-focused job once I got here. Before I even really began networking in my new city, COVID-19 struck and left me jobless for the first time in my adult life. In good company and in the face of an overwhelming wave of need, I saw it as an opportunity to finally redirect my time and attention to a career of service.
It was all quite serendipitous; I happened to run into Claire, a Repair the World Fellow, at my community garden, she happened to mention Serve the Moment, a program that mobilizes young adults to engage in critical racial justice work, tackle food insecurity, strengthen our education system, and combat social isolation. And I happened to apply right on the application deadline. I knew it was my moment to pivot my career, but I knew no one in the field in my new city. Serve the Moment came to the rescue. After explaining my interests, my city coordinator paired me with Wholesome Wave Georgia, a nonprofit that facilitates access to and awareness of healthy food for all Georgians in need through local farmers and community partners. I’ve specifically focused on building a program to offer highly discounted Thanksgiving produce and protein boxes to families receiving SNAP food assistance. I’m able to leverage my relationship building and program management skills from my fashion career to deliver nutritional, sustainable food to the community in Atlanta.
Serve the Moment has been an excellent crash course into food injustice and the extreme needs in my community. Aside from my work with Wholesome Wave Georgia, we have weekly national and city learning sessions. Coming from a completely different background, the national fsessions with Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger are invaluable to me. At the local level, last week, we had the director of Grove Park Renewal talk to our city cohort about gentrification and how they’re working to protect citizens’ historic homes. I’m getting both a macro and micro view of the needs all around me while building a network of changemakers in my community.
The Jewish teachings of Tikkun Olam are at the root of this work. I’ve been able to meet people in my community who dedicate their lives to leaving this world better than how they found it. Together, we are able to spread the message and the work in a meaningful way. I’m so thankful for my Serve the Moment experience, I know it’s just the beginning of an impactful service-oriented career for me and perhaps even more importantly, the foundation of my new community (and especially the Jewish community) in my new home.
About Serve the Moment: In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Repair the World and a coalition of partners created “Serve the Moment.” This part-time program connects Jewish young adults and college students (ages 18-29) to meaningful service and learning to address the COVID-19 crisis, its economic fallout, and the current movement for racial justice. Corps Members earn a stipend for 10 hours a week volunteering with service partners, and an additional 2 hours a week elevating their professional skills and accelerating their personal growth through virtual learning sessions. Applications for the spring cohort open December14 https://servethemoment.org/join-the-corps
SHINSHINIM LIFE
By Amit Toledo
When the Shinshinim landed in Atlanta on September 27, I was feeling excited about the unknown and ready to tackle the two weeks of quarantine. Yet I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the fact that I was actually here. There were so many times over the last many months when all of us were worried the program would be cancelled for the year.
My adventure only began to feel real when I met my family, the Seitz’s, over Zoom just a few weeks before boarding a plane to Atlanta. I learned very quickly that they were the epitome of the “All American Atlanta Family” with their photo of the Braves in the background. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with my host sister Barri, who showed me her bedroom as we began getting to know one another.
Spending Yom Kippur and Sukkot in quarantine was the beginning of a new chapter in my adventure. Being quarantined with my Shinshinim cohort I learned quickly how to lean on and trust my new friends and colleagues. We cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and bonded over the two weeks in a beautiful Airbnb in a Roswell neighborhood. (I recommend the quarantine experience for future Shinshinim, not for Covid-19 but for bonding purposes.)
Many different supervisors, rabbis, Israeli community members, as well as current and past host families came to visit us and shared their experiences with our new group. It was overwhelming but I took it all in and learned a lot about the Atlanta Jewish Community.
I was nervous as I entered my new host home for the first time but quickly felt at ease. Though I expected it to feel awkward, it felt both natural and overwhelming — in the best way possible. Of course, the Braves were on TV, the energy was high, and my first American Shabbat dinner of hamburgers was delicious. Our family hike was the topping on the cake!
I’m very excited to see all of Atlanta and am looking forward to making an impact and seeing the changes that will happen in the year to come.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
by Saren Schapiro, Host Family to Shiraz Bar Haim
Why did you choose to host a Shinshinit? What were you and your family hoping to gain?
Over the last few years, our family has seen the incredible experience our friends had hosting teens from Shinshinim Atlanta. Also, our two girls had unforgettable experiences learning with the Shinshinim at their Hebrew school at Or Hadash. When life slowed down this year and forced us to be home from work and school, the opportunity to devote time and attention to a Shinshinit was there. We signed up right away and were so excited when we heard that we would be hosting! I hope this year will be a year to remember for both our kids and Shiraz. We are excited to gain a daughter, big sister, and lifelong connection to Israel.
Tell me about your family’s feelings during the application process.
We were hopeful! No one really knew whether this year would happen or how it would look. We really just went with it, put ourselves out there, and looked forward to a unique opportunity.
So, you heard that you were chosen as a host family. It took a while to be officially introduced to your Israeli daughter. When you were introduced, how did the first meeting go? How did your family begin preparing for her arrival? What were your thoughts, plans, and emotions during this time?
That’s right! We didn’t find out this was happening until very close to the arrival time. The minute we found out Shiraz was paired with our family, we set up a time to FaceTime with her and her family in Israel. We met her mom, dad, and sister, and asked her all about herself. We showed Shiraz her new room as our girls jumped around in the background with excitement! Getting our guest room ready for her was a good incentive to do a little organizing around the house!
Tell me about the drive-by meeting on the day of Shiraz’s arrival. And then the Shinshinim’s two-week quarantine. How did your family manage that?
Meeting Shiraz that first day during the drive-by of their quarantine house was awesome! The girls made big Welcome signs, we brought our puppy along, and got to connect in person for the first time. We were able to get a feel for Shiraz’s personality and communication style. The two-week quarantine was HARD!!! We just wanted to hug her already! Shiraz’s birthday fell on the second day she was in Atlanta, so we were able to bring her a birthday cake and delicious lunch for an outdoor socially distanced party. We visited Shiraz in quarantine a few times over the two weeks, which really allowed us to get to know her. I was shocked and happy to see how quickly she clicked with my kids and was excited to engage with them and play, and how easily she seemed to fit into our family.
Tell me about Shiraz’s first week with you. What were the things you did together to begin the bonding experience?
The first day Shiraz was with us, we spent a quiet afternoon helping her unpack, showing her around the house, and exchanging gifts. Shiraz is such a kind, thoughtful person. She brought gifts for the kids, lots of games and toys, and asked them to help her unpack. They had a blast! My girls gave Shiraz a big basket of things we bought her to help her settle in. The first two nights Shiraz was here, my husband and I, and Shiraz stayed up late and talked forever. We discovered that Shiraz is an incredible young lady, very mature and insightful, with so many ideas and views. Over the first week we have been cooking (shnitzel night was the best!), hiking, playing, talking, having Shabbat dinner, watching movies, and making s’mores! Shiraz has quickly and easily fit into our family and made our house feel complete. We love her already!
What does it mean to be a Shinshin in the midst of a global pandemic? It means summoning up courage and curiosity, dedication and drive! These young Israelis have already shown us they have all of that! The five Schoenbaum Shinshinim are currently working with over 25 Jewish and non-Jewish institutions in the Metro-Atlanta area this year — in person more often than not! Each Shinshin(it) spends time in our Jewish Day Schools between 2-4 days per week, and then in the afternoons and evenings they may engage in an after-school Hebrew School or youth group through Zoom.
Some of our synagogue religious schools have classes in person, some in a hybrid model, or on Zoom over the weekends. We are constantly finding creative ways to reach organizations that we were unable to add to our weekly calendars. The Shinshinim recently participated in Senior Week at the MJCCA, leading a program called “Growing up in Israel” where they shared their personal stories, their thoughts on serving in the IDF, and life in Israel during COVID-19. We plan to share a lesson on social media about the Ethiopian Holiday Sigd and will also amplify the MJCCA celebration of Hanukkah.
We hope you will have a chance to interact with one of these inspiring and interesting young Israelis in the coming months.
We’ll find out on January 14 at Propel Pitch: A Virtual Showcase of Jewish Atlanta Innovation. Get ready for a nail-biting night of raw courage and chutzpah as 14 Propel Grantees who’ve been honing their pitches, bring their best ideas to a panel of luminary judges! In November and December, Propel grantees will receive pitch training from national and local Jewish entrepreneurs with opportunities to practice before their peers, and a professional film crew to capture their story.
It all culminates in a virtual live “final” Propel Pitch night. The stakes are high and very real as Atlanta’s Jewish community changemakers go before a panel of savvy business pros who with the community will award funding of up to $100,000 to three innovators in Jewish Atlanta!
Federation Innovation and the event host committee will share the pitches via e-mail, social media, and other marketing channels in the first two weeks of January. Then Propel grantees will share their video with their networks. The grantees who generate the greatest amount of social media engagement will earn an automatic invite to the final competition.
Propel Grantees up for consideration will represent these four categories:
It is a great heartache to want a child and not being able to conceive. Whether you are a couple or an individual wanting children, it is utterly demoralizing to see others sail through pregnancy when you cannot, and it is agonizing to discover that many reproductive technologies are financially out of reach.
It took a local Atlanta innovator, Elana Frank, to bring insights from Israel, where IVF treatments are affordable, back home to Atlanta where she launched the Jewish Fertility Foundation (JFF). Over the course of five years, this Federation Innovation grantee has had outsized impact on our Jewish community. JFF provides financial assistance, emotional support, and education for those in the Jewish community facing medical infertility. JFF’s mission and ambition is exactly what we look for in an Innovation grant recipient — a remarkable idea with potential for great impact in the Jewish world, and a team with genuine dedication to its success.
“With our initial grant from Federation Innovation, we were able to create a program which is literally now being implemented across the country” says Elana Frank. “We believe in partnerships, and that community investment is so important to our process. Innovation in Atlanta has gotten us where we are today.”
Elana and her team have more than delivered, and we won’t apologize for the pun! We’ve watched the Jewish Fertility Foundation enable the birth of 49 babies (so far!) and blossom into a network of support that is scaling beyond Atlanta. We continue to be inspired by their tenacity. With our support JFF was initially able to create a community support program specifically for the Atlanta orthodox community, as well as establish Fertility Buddies, an emotional support program which has been replicated nationally and continues to grow.
Since their first round of funding, JFF has been able to substantially expand their reach throughout the Jewish community, offering emotional support and resources for single mothers, multi-faith couples, and all those facing fertility challenges. “The Jewish Fertility Foundation embodies what we hope for in a grantee relationship at Innovation” says Jori Mendel, VP of Innovation. “We share the same belief in the power of community as JFF. Their contributions and participation in offerings like Path by Plywood and Propel grantee mentor cohorts show that working together makes us all stronger in our endeavors. JFF’s continual growth and success is a testament to that.”
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Discover Israel’s many treasures on a transformative journey with a focus on historical exploration, exhilarating adventures in nature, and cultural connections.
Travel from the far north in the Galilee to the deep south at the Red Sea as we visit ancient Jerusalem, modern Tel Aviv, the lush Golan Heights, the vast Negev Desert, the unsinkable Dead Sea, and the stark mountaintop fortress of Masada. Along the way, you’ll take part in an authentic archaeological dig, sample the world’s very best falafel, spend a night sleeping under the desert stars, and experience the innovative energy of Tel Aviv first-hand.
More than a tour, this is an opportunity to understand Israel’s dynamic society first-hand while finding your own connection to this storied land. Explore what it means to be Jewish from an Israeli point of view, understand the complex politics of the Middle East with real-world insights, and practice Jewish values through hands-on volunteering and Shabbat experiences.
Some of our Israel Journey trips will have the opportunity to attend The Maccabiah Games. Often referred to as “the Jewish Olympics,” this is the world’s largest Jewish athletic competition that takes place every four years in Israel.
