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jewishatl

jewishatl
In JumpSpark

Announcing JumpSpark’s New Navigating Parenthood Coordinator

JumpSpark recognized early on that parents are an essential component to an engaged and healthy Jewish teen population.  In response, JumpSpark launched Navigating Parenthood in 2018. Over the past two years JumpSpark has hosted 16 Navigating Parenthood workshops, panels and films across Atlanta equipping almost 400 parents with the network and resources to raise thriving Jewish teens.

Introducing Amy

Amy Fox
Navigating Parenthood Coordinator
Email Amy

Now in 2020, Navigating Parenthood is entering an exciting new phase with the addition of Amy Fox as Navigating Parenthood Coordinator. Amy is no stranger to the challenges of parenting Jewish teens in Atlanta today.  She is the mother of boy/girl twins who graduated from The Epstein School and are currently in their junior year at Riverwood International Charter School.  She is also deeply rooted in the Atlanta Jewish community serving as a Wexner Heritage Fellow, Lion co-chair for Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy division, advisory board member of the Atlanta Jewish Foundation, member of the ACT (Agents of Change Training) Cohort for the Jewish Women’s Fund, and an alumna of the Frank Mission to Poland and Israel. Last summer she was able to connect with many of the parents in the community through her work as co-Chair of Administration for the 2019 JCC Atlanta Maccabi Games.

Learn more about Amy’s work as an ambassador for the Atlanta Jewish Community ›

Instead of starting with more Navigating Parenthood events, phase one of Amy’s part-time work will be to launch a listening campaign across the community to learn more about both parents needs and their challenges.

Reflecting on why her new position with JumpSpark is important, Amy shared, 

“As teen parents, for sure there can be rewarding moments, but these moments can be accompanied by the feeling of being isolated, ill-informed, and questioning one’s ability to support our kids and assist them along the road to becoming independent well-adjusted adults. One has the sense of being all alone in this endeavor, when, there are so many teen parents dealing with the exact same issues”

JumpSpark is invested in the parents in our community and wants to create a strong partnership to meet their needs and the needs of their teens.  Amy’s new role is full of potential to create the resources, programming and networks that are needed to do just that. 

Contact Amy

Are you the parent of Jewish teens in Atlanta? Amy would love to meet with you, hear your story, and bring you along on this journey. She can be contacted at AmyFox.ATLteen@gmail.com.

jewishatl
In JumpSpark

Kesher Fellowship Trains Jewish Teens in Leadership

First published by the Atlanta Jewish Times ›

With the objective of transforming the way Jewish teens can engage each other, an exciting new program launched in Atlanta called the Atlanta Kesher Teen Engagement Fellowship.

With the objective of transforming the way Jewish teens can engage each other in the Jewish community, an exciting new program launched in Atlanta called the Atlanta Kesher Teen Engagement Fellowship. The program is run by the Union for Reform Judaism and funded in part by a JumpSpark grant through the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.

The fellowship is based on the peer-to-peer engagement method that began in the Northeast and has been scaled to the Atlanta community. It emphasizes the impact Jewish teens can have on each other through face-to-face interaction.

“I think this program is a great example of having an inner circle of teens that are getting a huge amount of leadership training and mentorship and strengthening their own Jewish identities, and then impacting a much wider circle of teens throughout the community,” said Adam Griff, Kesher Teen Engagement Fellowship director. “They’re being empowered to co-create with their network these new events.”

The teens will develop social and leadership skills and receive mentoring from experts in peer-to-peer engagement. The program is designed to allow busy teens to participate by managing their own time and at the end, each fellow receives a $200 stipend.

“This model is unique in the Jewish teen landscape,” Bobby Harris, director of URJ Camp Coleman said in a press release. “The teen fellows are creating experiences that are fun and meaningful for them and their friends, instead of just trying to bring them to large-scale programming. Like the chavurah or ‘small circle’ model, this is about friends connecting to friends and building circles of peers living Jewish lives.”

The teens chosen through the application process range from 12 different high schools and six synagogues across metro Atlanta. The fellowship chose applicants who already have a strong Jewish identity and are involved and engaged in Jewish youth groups such as BBYO and NFTY or other high school clubs. “Not only do they represent a diverse range of Atlanta congregations, schools and neighborhoods, they are smart, passionate, and excited to be part of this endeavor,” Griff said in the release. “We know that building relationships is the key to increasing engagement. I feel confident that this group of teens will help us push the needle and reach teens that until now have stayed on the sidelines of Jewish life.”

The fellows are required to execute three pop-up events throughout the program that involve Jewish content, but the teens have some room to get creative. “This fellowship gives these teens the opportunity to think outside of the box; they are planning really unique programs for teens all around the metro Atlanta area,” said Jessie Schwartzman, Kesher Teen Fellowship engagement coordinator. She described one fellow who planned a Chanukah party at which the students made Chanukah cookies together. “We want their Jewish identity to translate on unengaged teens in Atlanta,” Schwartzman said. “We’re just really looking for ways to connect with teens on a different level.”

The program is having a positive impact on the teens involved, according to Schwartzman. “The fellows themselves who are part of this experience have really started to learn the value of leading a program – how to delegate tasks, what it means to share their Jewish story with others,” she said. “This type of training is not common in this generation; they’re so used to using their phones. [The fellows are] really learning the value of face-to-face communication.” This extends to a wider circle of Jewish teens who are being engaged by the fellows and growing in their Jewish connection.

The fellowship kickoff was Nov. 17. “I am excited to be a Kesher Fellow because I believe Jewish Atlanta is relying on today’s Jewish teens to ensure a strong Jewish Atlanta in the future,” Sophie Kieffer from Temple Sinai said in the release.

Schwartzman said that Atlanta is one of the few cities around the United States that’s participating in peer-to-peer training and they hope to expand their reach across the city. There are a growing number of organizations, such as OneTable, that are promoting this form of engagement with young adults, but it’s fairly new with teens, Griff said. “I think it’s exciting that Atlanta’s on the forefront of this.”

jewishatl
In JumpSpark

Spark Note: Learn About Our New 2020 Grants!

Let us help you build the future for Jewish Atlanta you want to see.

Kelly Cohen, JumpSpark Director

Since 2019, JumpSpark has strategically invested over $300,000 in the Atlanta Jewish teen community through Spark Grants, launching nine new teen programs and supporting the growth and development of six existing programs. Through these efforts JumpSpark grantees have reached hundreds of Jewish teens in our community providing high-level educational and engagement experiences. See past Spark Grant recipients ›

This year JumpSpark is doubling our bet on the Atlanta Jewish community and plans to invest $600,000 in programs that make a difference in the lives of Jewish teens and those who impact them. Our 2020 grant cycle includes three new types of grants to give more opportunities to a variety of programs, organizations, and individuals to apply.

Spark R&D Grants

Past Spark Grant recipients

As an Innovation Initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, JumpSpark is committed to meeting the needs of teens today by supporting organizations to take risks and try something new. JumpSpark’s new Spark R&D Grants provide up to $25,000 to an organization or professional to research and develop new models of teen engagement and education. If the Atlanta Jewish community wants to meet the needs of teens today, the conditions must be created to allow organizations to take risks and try something new.

Drawing on the inspiration of Jewish Federation of North America’s FedLab, these grants ask grantees to “Discover, Define, Explore + Build and Plan + Act.” Funding can be used to support staffing, professional development and program creation and design. JumpSpark is specifically interested in funding new models in engagement, support, education and leadership development.

Teen Thriving Grants

JumpSpark’s new Teen Thriving Grants are a two-year initiative aimed at making an investment in the well-being and development of our Jewish teens. With anxiety and depression on the rise, and the world that teens are living in growing increasingly scary, our youth serving organizations must have the resources to be the first line of support for our teens.

These grants seek to answer the questions posed in the Gen Z Now Study done by the Jewish Education Project, which asks, “What would it mean for organizations to see teen well-being as central to their mandate, perhaps even the primary goal of their mission and how do we create a culture that helps those who work with teens become the trusted adults who teens need, working together to support teen flourishing? “

The Teen Thriving Grant will provide a full subsidy (travel and tuition) for one professional to attend the Jewish Education Project’s Thriving Retreat 2020 and additional grant funding up to $5,000 for Community Partners to build teen wellness support into their organizational structure. These funds can be used for additional professional development for teen serving staff, the inclusion of mental health professionals in the planning and running of teen events and/or direct programming for teens through speakers and workshops.

Navigating Parenthood Grants

As JumpSpark’s Navigating Parenthood Series moves into its 3rd year, the program continues to grow and thrive. With workshops, panels and films, Navigating Parenthood has equipped parents with the network and resources to raise thriving Jewish teens. JumpSpark’s new Navigating Parenthood grants are a two-year initiative to grow impact by providing funds for communities to bring speakers, workshops and support for parents in their home communities, which will help build a strong Jewish future through a networked and resourced parent community.

Parents are an essential component to an engaged and healthy Jewish teen population. The data shows that Jewish beliefs and practices are closely linked with family in the hearts and minds of teens. Being Jewish is not simply a religious or ethnic practice but also an expression of family bonds. Teens today enjoy spending time with their family and often look to their parents to help them make sense of the world.

Our Jewish community must learn from this data and recognize parent’s important role in the lives of teens and strive to meet their needs and address their challenges. Just as we must dedicate time and resources to the wellness of teens, we must do the same for parents and caregivers of teens in our community. Parenting teens today is hard, and parents are looking for supportive community and guidance.   

With funding up to $2,000 per Community Partner, a community could create one large event, a series of smaller events and classes or think innovatively about additional resources and events for parents of teens. JumpSpark staff is available to help develop these opportunities in partnership which will help build a strong Jewish future through a networked and resourced parent community.

JumpSpark connects the community and collaborates to create more defining moments for Jewish teens in Atlanta, and our Spark Grants provide funding and support for those with big ideas to invest in Atlanta’s Jewish teen community. We don’t simply stop with funding. Recipients of Spark Grants are those with a plan for community involvement and advancement with whom we build relationships and work together to make the biggest impact possible on Jewish teens and those in their sphere. – K.C.

APPLY FOR A GRANT
jewishatl
In Federation News

My Jewish Journey to Rwanda

Today is my birthday, and I’ve received an incredible gift. In about two weeks I leave for a very special invitation-only trip to Rwanda curated for Jewish leaders, educators and influencers, spearheaded by OLAM — a collaborative platform of 53 Jewish and Israeli organizations committed to engaging the Jewish world in global service and international development.

Why Rwanda? Because surprisingly, Rwanda is a place where Jewish organizations are deeply engaged in driving social change and social justice in agriculture and international development. And because Rwanda is linked to the Jewish people through a joint history of genocide and growth. Israel has just established an embassy in Kigali, the capital, plus, the city boasts a Genocide Memorial, and also a new Chabad center that will include the nation’s first synagogue served by the country’s first permanent rabbi.

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African mainland, yet it has a rapidly growing Jewish community of men and women assisting with poverty relief, health care and economic development. Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, for example, a Rwandan-based organization founded by an American Jew who was inspired by the Israeli youth village model. It works with vulnerable and orphaned children, drawing inspiration from how Israel helped Jewish orphans after the Holocaust.

The trip excites me because it’s all about shared values and the potential of the Jewish people to address urgent global challenges.  I’ll spend five days in “The Land of 1000 Hills,” seeing the work of Jewish organizations and individuals who are supporting vulnerable communities. Along with Israelis and other American and British Jews, I hope to learn about some of the pressing issues facing the developing world and think deeply about our Jewish responsibilities to the wider world.

Rwanda is a beautiful and challenging nation and I’m beyond excited to travel there.  I’m hoping to see first-hand, some prime case studies that model Jewish engagement in global service, international development, and philanthropy. Watch my Facebook page for updates and insights from the trip!

jewishatl
In JumpSpark

New Teen Engagement Fellowship Kicks Off in Atlanta

ATLANTA, GA – The Atlanta Kesher Teen Engagement Fellowship, an exciting new peer- to- peer engagement opportunity for Jewish teens in grades 10-12 offered by the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), has officially launched in Atlanta. The 15 fellows participating in 2019-20 represent 12 high schools, 6 synagogues, and 11 zip codes across the metro Atlanta area.

Based on the successful URJ North East Teen Collective’s approach to teen engagement, the Atlanta Kesher Fellowship brings a different engagement experience to Atlanta’s Jewish teens. Tailored training on peer to peer engagement allows teens to strengthen their relationship building skills, understand the importance of face to face communication, and learn a new way of engaging their peers.

Funded in part by a JumpSpark grant through the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, this fellowship doesn’t involve a strenuous amount of hours, rather it is created for the busy teen and allows them the to create their own schedules strengthening time management skills. Teens will develop a variety of practical business, social, and leadership skills throughout the fellowship and receive expert mentoring and support to create meaningful Jewish engagement for their peers. At the end they receive a $200 stipend for all their hard work!

“This model is unique in the Jewish teen landscape,” says Bobby Harris, Director of URJ Camp Coleman. “The teen fellows are creating experiences that are fun and meaningful for them and their friends instead of just trying to bring them to large scale programming.  Like the chavurah or ‘small circle’ model, this is about friends connecting to friends and building circles of peers living Jewish lives.”

The fellows are tasked with planning three small events (3-10 people) throughout the school year. These events include things, like a Shabbat dinner, Havdalah hike, or a philanthropic father and son basketball game. The idea is to create small events relating to Judaism that have large impacts on the teens who aren’t as engaged in Jewish life in Atlanta. Creating more ways for teens to positively interact with Judaism will allow them to pave their own Jewish journey and lead to a greater impact on their lives.

At the inaugural fellowship on November 17th, the teens learned the importance behind the work they are doing, why face -to -face communication is beneficial, and the power of inclusivity. The fellows left the kickoff ready to take on Jewish Atlanta!

Sophie Kieffer (18) reflected after meeting her fellowship peers at the kickoff: “I am excited to be a Kesher Fellow because I believe Jewish Atlanta is relying on today’s Jewish teens to ensure a strong Jewish Atlanta in the future.”

The 2019-20 Kesher Fellows Include:
Lola Bessoff, Temple Beth Tikvah
Adam Boehm, Temple Beth Tikvah
Tali Cohn, Temple Sinai
Danielle Faulhaber, Temple Kehillat Chaim
Harrison Frank, Temple Emanu-El
Nicole Frysh, Temple Sinai
Katie Hurwitz, Temple Beth Tikvah
Sophie Kieffer, Temple Sinai
Simon Klee, Congregation Gesher L’Torah
Andrew Levingston, Temple Sinai
Tali Lipton, Temple Sinai
Lily Ragals, Temple Emanu-El
Sara Serrano
Deirdre Weissman, Temple Kol Emeth
Sophie Wilson, Temple Beth Tikvah

“Our 2019-2020 fellows are a remarkable group. Not only do they represent a diverse range of Atlanta congregations, schools, and neighborhoods, they are smart, passionate, and excited to be part of this endeavor. We know that building relationships is the key to increasing engagement. I feel confident that this group of teens will help us push the needle and reach teens that until now have stayed on the sidelines of Jewish life,” says Adam Griff, Atlanta Kesher Fellowship Director.

The Union for Reform Judaism’s youth programs instill a sense of joy, compassion, and pride in being Jewish while nurturing a young person’s innate desire to make a difference in the world. Central to the URJ’s strategy is collaboration with Reform congregations, other Jewish organizations and individuals who are committed to youth engagement.

jewishatl
In JumpSpark

Creating New Jewish Spaces in the Middle Schools of Atlanta

As an innovation initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, JumpSpark supports new projects in Atlanta that enhance Jewish engagement and build community among Jewish teens and preteens.

One new initiative launching in 2020 are Jewish Clubs at metro Atlanta middle schools. These pluralistic, non-denominational, and unaffiliated clubs give preteens a safe, low-barrier environment to hang out with other Jewish preteens at their school, fostering community and sense of Jewish values. Jewish clubs at many area high schools and a small number of middle schools – such as the Jewish Student Union, North Springs Charter School’s Jewish Culture Club, and the Jewish Federation’s grant to Chabad of North Fulton middle school clubs – have been very successful at creating welcoming spaces that Jewish teens and preteens gravitate towards each month and find lasting relationships with other Jewish youth.

To accelerate this success and create continuity for Jewish teens in Atlanta, JumpSpark is working with community parents and teens to launch even more clubs. With a helpful toolkit and a Spark Grant to support costs, JumpSpark is equipping families to create clubs in their schools.

Jewish middle school clubs meet once a month at a time that’s convenient for your community. Middle schoolers will gather over food and have social time to get to know each other. The preteens will also engage in a short, fun activity with Jewish content led by a local Jewish educator.

Interested in a club at your teen’s school? Learn more below!

Your Role As a Parent

As a parent, your role will be to help sponsor the launch of a Jewish club within your teen’s middle school. JumpSpark will offer support on the direction and vision for the club in its first year and as a partner, will provide program planning, curriculum, and financial resources throughout the year.

After the pilot year, JumpSpark will offer grants to parents taking on more of the club’s program planning of the club. JumpSpark will continue to support the conceptualization and execution of monthly club meetings.

Steps to Success

  1. Decide on a creative club name that fits with your school’s culture
  2. Connect with Jewish teachers or teachers interested in supporting Jewish students to be official club sponsors
  3. Meet with the principal or upper school administration to talk about the club objectives
  4. Put together a list of communication mediums to use recruit and disperse info for parents and students
  5. Run the first meeting
  6. Watch your teen’s Jewish identity grow!

What Parents Are Saying

“As a parent of two middle school kids, I see the value in a Jewish middle school club to instill in the kids their sense of community and appreciation for their cultural. While this does not have to be an exclusive club for only Jewish students, it does provide a sense of identity for kids and allows them to share their perspectives and experiences with their peer network.” – Ben Taube

“One great thing about our large public middle school is the true and vast diversity of the student body. In this environment, though, it can be difficult for my daughters to meet and foster friendships with other Jewish students. This club allows for Jewish students in different grades and from different elementary schools to meet and to explore their shared valued and beliefs. It also provides an opportunity for interested non-Jewish students to learn more about Judaism and to work on service projects together.” – Sydnei Terry Rubenstein

Questions? Interested in starting your own club? Contact Jessie Schwartzman, JumpSpark Manager, at jschwartzman@jewishatlanta.org

 

 

jewishatl
In Federation News

An Even Brighter Light

Here’s what makes my fire burn — it’s when many flames in our community come together and, like the shamash candle, become an amplifying torch.

A great example is how Jewish Family & Career Services joined with Jewish Homelife, the MJCCA, and Federation to create AgeWell Atlanta.  This is a brilliant partnership that leverages the expertise of each organization to help our community’s older adults live their best lives. AgeWell Atlanta streamlines access to the incredible services and resources that already exist for older adults, then adds the human touch of a Concierge who can guide users to referrals and support services.

In a time when antisemitic incidents are on the rise, another big light is how the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Atlanta Rabbinical Association have come together to strategize about combatting antisemitism and the growing Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) movement. We’ve never needed their collective wisdom more.

Another light: Did you know that our Atlanta Jewish ecosystem consists of more than 90 schools, synagogues, agencies and organizations? The ecosystem now meets quarterly to talk in depth about mutual concerns, from how to make our community more welcoming, and ways to improve customer service, to opportunities for collaboration.

It thrills me to see the community coming together to elevate the work we are all doing. It shows that in spite of our diversity and geographic sprawl, we are one community working together to make this the best Jewish community in the world.

jewishatl
In JumpSpark

Insights on Building Honest Communication Between Funders and Grantees

By Aaron Saxe, first published by the Jim Joseph Foundation ›

If you’ve seen one foundation…you’ve seen one foundation.

This common refrain in the nonprofit world is a reminder of the singularity of every funder. In turn, with this premise, grantees, potential grantees, consultants, and others spend significant time and resources getting to know each funders’ preferences, habits, and other traits. Doing this for one funder is challenging; for multiple funders even more so. And, of course, doing it while also continuing to carry out the everyday work of the organization is most challenging.

Those on the funder side gain a new perspective when we step back and try to put ourselves in the shoes of grantees. We gain compassion for the professionals at these organizations and the challenges and windy paths they navigate. And we exhibit humility when we say, clearly, that the outcomes of our actions toward them don’t always align with our intentions.

Two recent interactions of mine with grantee-partners demonstrate this—and represent a moment of learning for the Jim Joseph Foundation. Our starting point for a funder-grantee relationship is a desire for frequent, relatively informal correspondence to build a relationship premised on partnership. Our mentality is that we—the funder and grantee-partner—are in this work together. These types of interactions, we believe, will create a level of comfort for the grantee-partner that makes sharing challenges and shortcomings easier. When those occur, as they almost always do to some degree, we can problem-solve together.

Yet, these two grantee-partner interactions opened my eyes to the very real challenges with this approach. One grantee-partner said they were not in touch with me for a much longer period of time than I would have expected because they were not comfortable sharing a half-baked idea regarding the Foundation-supported initiative. The other grantee-partner said they lacked the confidence—they even felt like imposters in their work despite strong momentum and learning outcomes—to proactively maintain ongoing communication with the Foundation. As the funder representative, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that my first inclination was to question why both grantee-partners felt this way. However, after a short time, I began to reflect on the reasons these grantee-partners hesitated to interact with the Foundation in the way we hope all grantee-partners do. I quickly recognized that this was as much of a learning opportunity for the Foundation as it was for the non-profit executives.

Here are some takeaways that we think are beneficial to share and digest with the field:

The funder-grantee relationship will not look and feel the exact same across the board.

Certainly we still strongly believe that relational grantmaking is the ideal for which to strive. Yet that ideal is easier to achieve with some partners than others. True relational grantmaking means taking cues from the grantee-partner on the structure, tone, and frequency of the engagement they want to have. While we set some of these parameters, we also can listen more and have the listening inform the tenor of the relationship.

We need to be more cognizant about the backgrounds and perspectives of the various organizations with whom we work.

For example, a decades-long leader of a major legacy organization that already received multiple Foundation grants approaches a conversation with us differently than a new leader of a young organization that just received its first Foundation grant. And some leaders may be new to institutional giving altogether. Acting like those differences do not exist—and understanding how those differences influence one’s inclination to share challenges—is a mistake on our part and simply an unfair expectation to set across the breadth of our portfolio.

We need to recognize that grantee-partners are corresponding in different ways with different funders.

Other funders with whom our grantee-partners work do not necessarily want the same approach as we do to communication and relationship-building with grantee-partners. It’s no easy task for grantee-partners to be sure, and they can find themselves in particularly tricky spots if they are speaking with multiple funders at the same time.

Communication is key.

Lastly, these recent conversations don’t mean we need to abandon the style of grantmaking that has led to many fruitful Foundation-grantee relationships. Our style is aligned with our priorities and principles and it has evolved this way over more than ten years for good reason. Perhaps, though, we need to better explain early on in relationships with grantee-partners why we take this approach, what it is intended to cultivate, and more directly what we hope they gain from our more frequent and informal correspondence than other funders may take. Importantly, it requires patience early on as relationships deepen and comfort builds.

We share this now with an understanding that the Jewish philanthropic sector is in the midst of a particular moment of change. Over recent years, major funders have or will sunset and other, newer funders will look to fill voids. Our field is also in the midst of numerous leadership changes among nonprofit organizations; those new leaders are younger and come from more diverse backgrounds. Their lived experiences mean they may inherently have different approaches and ideas about effective grantee-funder communications. Simply, increasingly new people will continue to occupy the funder-grantee roles in the coming years. As we move forward, we take this fact and our recent experiences and related learnings into account. The funder-grantee relationship is unique in every situation—so too are the communications that best suit each interaction.

Aaron Saxe is a Senior Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

jewishatl
In Federation News

So Many Blessings

Gratitude. It’s an attitude and a practice that underpins so much of what we do and believe as Jews. It’s why I love the rabbinic teaching about saying 100 blessings a day! The rabbis looked at Deuteronomy 10:12, which says, “Now, Israel, what does your God, ask of you? To walk in God’s ways, and to serve God.” The Talmud explains that the word mah (what) can be read as me’ah, meaning 100, suggesting that God wants us to recite (at least) 100 brachot (blessings) every day.

It’s the ultimate in mindfulness!

That’s the thought I had earlier this month when I was in Israel on our Men’s Journey. We had an evening program that wrapped up late. Many groups of guys on tour would either go to bed or go drinking afterward. But not our Federation men. Though I went back to the hotel, these guys said, “Let’s go to the Kotel!” And so they did, walking over in the darkness and expressing their gratitude for the friendships this trip had created, for the joy of being in Israel together, and for the privilege of having this homeland. So many blessings!

I love the ways Jewish tradition requires us to stop and think about all that we have, acknowledge all the ways we’re blessed and how we’re commanded share what we have. These mitzvot are not at all abstract, they’re rooted in real life and demonstrate that Jewish giving goes beyond charity (from the Latin caritas, or love), it is tzedek, justice.

There’s the mitzvah of Pe’ah, leaving the crops in corners of our fields for to the poor. We’re commanded, “You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit…you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.” And in the spirit of radical justice, the rabbis actually say that not leaving the corners of the fields for the poor is theft!

There are laws about how we treat animals, how we slaughter animals, and how we eat them. All express reverence for G-d’s creations, along with temperance about how we consume them.

There’s the shmitah year — the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle, mandated for the Land of Israel. We let the earth lie fallow, giving it a rest, with no plowing, pruning or harvesting allowed. Another agricultural mitzvah with much to teach mankind about stewarding a warming earth.

And finally, there’s Shabbat itself.  There’s no day I long for more. My family knows that my weeknights are ridiculous, and that most evenings I am out in our community. Without Shabbat to refocus me, bind me to what matters, and connect me to all my blessings, I could not do this work I that I love.

Thanksgiving is just days away. You may know that this uniquely American holiday, so reminiscent of Shabbat, has roots in Jewish text.  In 1620, William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, compared the pilgrims’ flight from persecution in England to the Jews’ fleeing Pharoah. The Pilgrims recited psalm 107 from the Hebrew bible, a song of thanksgiving to G-d. In their gratitude they identified with us.

Have a wonderful holiday!

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