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Chris Harty
December 2nd, 2011
A Story in the Tapestry: Rosetta Stone Hebrew in Israel

Chris Harty is a Teach For America alumnus who taught first grade in the small town of Clinton, Louisiana. He is also a 2011 REALITY Israel Experience participant and part of the OTZMA Israel Teaching Fellows. You can follow his blog on JewishinStLouis.com.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said that “Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.” Blood of the soul?! That’s some pretty heavy language (excuse the pun) used to describe language. Although I’ve never thought of language in such terms I, like Holmes, believe that language is incredibly important.

“How am I going to learn the language?” This was one of the many questions racing through my head after I decided to move to Israel in August. Three months ago, I moved to Petach Tikvah to join the OTZMA’s Israel Teaching Fellows (ITF) program. As a member of this program, I am volunteering as an English teacher’s assistant at an Israeli public school, Amir Elementary School, where I help teach students (grades 1-6) how to speak, read and write in English. Read More »

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Leah Meir
December 2nd, 2011
Catalyzing Jewish Networks: How Can Jewish Schools and Camps Join In?

Cross-posted from AviChai.org blog and eJewishPhilanthropy. Leah Nadich Meir is a Program Officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation.

“Jewish geography” is a favorite game among Jews who meet up anywhere—conferences, social gatherings, work meetings, street corners. You know the game questions: “So where are you from?” “No kidding, New Jersey! Do you know my brother (son, daughter, sister), who went to school (camp, college) there?” “Sure, I know your brother (son, daughter etc.) We were really friendly at school (camp, college etc.)! I actually just connected with him (her) again through Facebook (Twitter, LinkedIn).”

Jews have been master networkers since the Babylonian exile 3,000 years ago—our survival as a people has depended on the ability to stay connected with fellow Jews wherever they were scattered across the globe. Our networking helped us hold fast to our shared values, texts, behaviors and religious traditions.

Jewish geography was just the jumping-off point at the recent “NetWORKS” conference in Boulder: “Exploring the Power and Possibilities of Networks in the Jewish Community.” Read More »

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Team Schusterman
December 1st, 2011
Gatherings & Events: Community Screening

Make plans to attend the free community screening of American Teacher hosted by the Tulsa Metro Chamber and OSU-Tulsa!

December 13, 2011
3:00 p.m.
OSU-Tulsa Auditorium (700 N. Greenwood Ave)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Annie Lumerman
November 29th, 2011
Reflections on NetWORKS: Sparks of Connectivity

Annie Lumerman is the Director of Jewish Programming at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

Growing up in St. Louis, it seemed like every Jew was either a doctor, a lawyer or a social worker. Kiddush was always a room full of doctors consulting lawyers consulting social workers. Even though I didn’t want an MD, JD or MSW, I liked that these professionals were able to make connections and help each other.

The synagogue served as an open space to bring separate communities to work together outside of work. Like many communities, that of doctors and lawyers and social workers are complex, but it was this spark of connectivity that got me interested in the power of networking.

Participating in the NetWORKS Gathering felt like a continuous series of sparks. The conference was boundless. I expected the conversation to be controlled, but it was fluid and open-ended. A non-facilitated facilitation-of-connections. Read More »

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Evonne Marzouk
November 22nd, 2011
Reflections on NetWORKS: Networks and the Jewish Environmental Movement

Cross-posted from Jewcology.org. Evonne Marzouk is the founder and Executive Director of Canfei Nesharim and a member of the ROI Community.

On November 8-10, I traveled to Boulder, CO, for a unique post-GA event: the NetWORKS Gathering, organized by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. According to the organizers, the event brought together “a group of exceptional innovators, activists and network curators pushing the boundaries of the most vibrant organizations, projects and communities comprising Jewish life today.” It was an honor to participate and to represent a network that I’m quite fond of—the global Jewish environmental community as gathered together on Jewcology.

In addition to being—as you might guess—an excellent opportunity to network with other Jewish leaders, the event had a specific purpose.  In sessions ranging from panels and talks to participatory opportunities using models like World Cafe and Open Space, we had the opportunity to explore what networks are, how they work and what they can offer to us as a Jewish community.   Read More »

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Adam Simon
November 21st, 2011
Dr. King and the Jewish Organization Equality Index

On a chilly Sunday a few weeks ago, I took my children to see the new Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial off the National Mall. As we walked across the Potomac River, seeking distraction from the biting wind, we discussed why Dr. King deserved such an honor.

At five and eight years old, their questions were poignant and telling: it was not the fact that someone had fought for equal rights and freedoms that bewildered them—it was that he had to fight for it as recently as when their grandparents were in college.

To my young children, equality is a given and diversity a cause for celebration. The prospect that someone might be treated differently because of the color of his skin does not exist. And the idea that someone might not be accepted because of who she loves is beyond comprehension. Read More »

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Aviva Rosman
November 18th, 2011
A Story in the Tapestry: You Gotta Be the Book!

Aviva Rosman is a 2011 REALITY Israel Experience alumna and a second-year corps member in Chicago, where she teaches 9th-grade literature and leads a pull-out reading class for special education students. Aviva recently used a Make It Happen Project micro grant to attend the 35th Day of Reading Conference, a day-long series of workshops dedicated to the informal and formal exchange of ideas related to literacy. Aviva’s experience not only gave her practical skills to improve her work in the classroom but re-invigorated her to do the important work she does every day.

“You’re all going to need to go undercover,” Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm said to a room full of high school English teachers last Saturday at the Secondary Reading League’s Day of Reading Conference. “We are receiving reports that there is a drug being passed around the local high school that can make people fall in love. We need you to investigate this drug, and then report back on how it’s used, what are its advantages and any other possible side effects. Now, before I send you out on this mission, I will now accept any preliminary questions about this so-called love drug.”

Forty high school English teachers were suddenly on the edge of their seats. Read More »

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Joanna Ware
November 17th, 2011
Transgender Remembrance Day: An Open Letter

Joanna Ware is the Lead Organizer and Training Coordinator for Keshet, a national grassroots organization that works for the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) Jews in Jewish life.

As Jews, we know all too well the cost of being marked as other. We know the collective pain of injustice and loss, and we know the necessity of marking and remembering that pain and mourning, in order to move forward into the more just, whole world we are all partners in creating.

Every November 20th, transgender people and allies gather around the world to memorialize and remember the victims of transphobic violence killed in the last year. Since January of 2009, over 170 trans and gender non-conforming people were murdered for being themselves. Read More »

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Seth Cohen
November 17th, 2011
NetWORKS Gathering … Storified!

A networked report on a gathering on networks …

The Jewish community has changed dramatically over the past decade, as the rapid adoption of new technologies has expanded the number of ways people connect, create and even congregate. Networks, which have been part of the Jewish tradition for thousands of years, have taken on even greater importance as we identify, affiliate and express ourselves in ways once unimaginable.

On November 8-10, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation brought together leading thinkers, experts, innovators and activists in the Jewish community to discuss the implications of networks and network-thinking for the future of the Jewish community.

This is how the story unfolded … Read More »

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Stephen Kuperberg
November 17th, 2011
Reflections on NetWORKS: From Alchemy to Chemistry

Stephen Kuperberg is the Executive Director of the Israel on Campus Coalition.

Networks are slippery beasts. Like electrons subject to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in physics, they defy easy analysis. Pin one down long enough to describe it, and it may morph into something other. Try to describe its properties, and those properties may inexorably change.

The NetWORKS gathering in  Boulder allowed those of us working with networks regularly to begin to create a common lexicon around our common experiences regarding these exotic new animals in the bestiary of social change. What we individually struggled with over participation and ideology gained greater understanding when speaking in the common language of bounded and unbounded networks; what we individually intuited regarding relationship-building and reach gained greater conceptual potency when we collectively identified bonding and bridging capital. Read More »

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