Values | Schusterman.org

April 26th, 2013

Book Excerpt: Jewish Family Foundations “Come Together, Right Now”

What will it take to ensure a vibrant and relevant American Jewish community? It’s the question at the heart of Rabbi Sidney Schwarz’s new book, Jewish Megatrends: Charting a Course for the American Jewish Community of the 21st Century.

In the book, Schwarz and 14 leaders from all sectors across the Jewish community explore the challenges and opportunities the American Jewish community faces as it adapts to a social landscape and works to effectively engage the next generation of American Jews. Read More »

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March 29th, 2013

The Promise of Passover

Passover, in many respects, is among the most accessible and relatable moments on the Jewish calendar. It invites us to immerse ourselves in the Jewish narrative in a way no other holiday does. It allows us to adapt the ritual to be relevant to our lives. And its lessons transcend far beyond the Jewish experience.

Because of these attributes, Passover has become the most well-known and widely celebrated Jewish holiday, one that continues to inspire people and in which we find new meaning year after year, even as the story itself remains largely the same.

Indeed, at the heart of Passover is a story as epic as any in the history of humankind and not just because it has all of the trappings of a Hollywood drama: It is a great story because it is timeless, as much about the future as it is about the past. Read More »

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March 12th, 2013

Haggadot.com Launches a Campaign for Passover to Create Crowd-Sourced Haggadah

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HAGGADOT.COM LAUNCHES A CAMPAIGN FOR PASSOVER TO CREATE CROWD-SOURCED HAGGADAH

The Neverending Haggadah is a partnership with Schusterman Philanthropic Network to encourage people to personalize their Seders

Los Angeles, CA—March 12, 2013 – Every year, Jews around the world gather at the Seder table to re-tell the story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. While some still reach for the same standard Maxwell House Haggadah, increasingly people are personalizing their Seders by developing their own custom creations. At the forefront of this movement is Haggadot.com, an online platform that allows people to curate and publish haggadahs.

This year, Haggadot.com has joined forces with the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropic Network to crowd-source a modern-day haggadah using Haggadot.com’s first-of-its-kind group collaboration tool. Over the next two weeks, up until the first night of Passover on March 25, individuals, groups and organizations are invited to contribute content to and download The Neverending Haggadah. Learn more here.

“Our group collaboration tool is a new feature on Haggadot.com that we are excited to share just in time for Passover,” says Eileen Levinson, an artist who founded Haggadot.com in 2011. “It allows multiple users to subscribe and contribute to one collaborative haggadah. To pilot this new technology, we asked the Schusterman team to help us reach out to their partners, friends and allies. We look forward to seeing the conversation that unfolds as people around the world contribute to The Neverending Haggadah.”

On March 13, at 1:00 pm EST, Haggadot.com and Schusterman will host a free webinar for users who want to learn how to host a more interactive Seder by curating their own haggadahs. For more information and to register for the webinar, click here.

Currently Haggadot.com has more than 230 contributors who have added a total of 1,500 pieces of content.

Haggadot.com works like an interactive scrapbook. Users can login, upload personalized texts, graphics and audio and video content, and mix and match pieces from other contributors to create a standard 15-part Haggadah that fits their unique interests. Haggadot.com’s intuitive user interface and design makes the process simple.

In addition to essays, commentary and poetry, Haggadot.com offers artwork, music and multimedia content. Among the clips on Haggadot.com, users will find:

Passover yoga poses co-existing with selections from a traditional haggadah from the 1500s;
Options for Ashkenazi and Sephardi families that include both traditions in one haggadah;
A haggadah with the central theme of the Four Children, combining artwork, a game, a ballad and a lecture by Rabbi Benjamin Englander; and
A haggadah featuring poetry by A. E. Housman, Langston Hughes and Yehuda Amichai’s ruminations on the Seder’s popular concluding song, “Chad Gadya” (One Goat).

Haggadot.com contains material in many languages including English, Hebrew, Italian, German, Yiddish and Ladino.

Seed funding for Haggadot.com was provided by the ROI Community, a member of the Schusterman Philanthropic Network, and the Natan Fund. Haggadot.com was also among the nine recipients selected for the pilot Jewish New Media Innovation Fund, a partnership between the Schusterman Foundation, Righteous Persons Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation.

“Innovative initiatives like Haggadot.com ensure that Jews all over the world are more than passive participants in our rich heritage and traditions,” says Lynn Schusterman, Co-chair of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropic Network. “They enable us to take an active role in shaping our personal Jewish journeys.”

As part of its broader efforts to strengthen the Jewish future, the Schusterman Philanthropic Network provides young Jews with opportunities to create meaningful Jewish experiences and communities in their own image. This initiative is part of Schusterman’s celebration of 25 years of working to empower young people to create change for themselves, in the Jewish community and across the broader world.

Learn more and contribute to The Neverending Haggadah here.

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About Haggadot.com:

Haggadot.com invites Jews of all backgrounds to find their place in the Passover conversation through the seder’s central text, the haggadah. Users can upload, exchange and personalize haggadot gaining simultaneous access to classical texts and contemporary interpretations from their peers, creating more meaningful Passover seders and connective Jewish experiences. www.haggadot.com

About the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropic Network:

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropic Network (CLSPN) is a global enterprise that supports and creates innovative initiatives for the purpose of igniting the passion and unleashing the power in young people to create positive change for themselves, in the Jewish community and across the broader world. CLSPN includes the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Schusterman Foundation-Israel, ROI Community and REALITY.

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March 11th, 2013

Holiday: The Neverending Haggadah

Every Passover, Jews around the world gather at the Seder table to re-tell one of the greatest stories ever: the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. As much as we love tradition, this year we are giving the Seder ritual a new twist—and we want you to join us!

So, how will this Passover be different from all other Passovers?

Because we are forgoing ye olde faithful Maxwell House Haggadah! We are working with our friends at Haggadot.com to pilot their new group collaboration tool to create an online (and downloadable) crowd-sourced Haggadah. Are you up to the challenge for collectively creating a never-ending Haggadah? This is your chance to share content that will add color and depth to another Seder and also to find content that will make your Seder more meaningful. It’s a Haggadah of reciprocity! Read More »

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January 21st, 2013

Shabbat Supper with Dr. King

This article first appeared on the Huffington Post.

This weekend, in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service, more than 1,200 people from New York to Knoxville to San Francisco symbolically invited Dr. King to Shabbat dinner.

Initiated by Repair the World–a national organization that mobilizes American Jews to address global and local needs through volunteering and service–the dinners were part of the Points of Light’s Sunday Supper campaign, designed to inspire dialogue and action on key issues affecting our communities. Read More »

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January 7th, 2013

From Our Partners: Make a Difference Without Leaving Your Living Room

Cross-posted from Repair the World.

Beyond posting an inspirational quote on facebook, when was the last time you did something meaningful on MLK Day?

We know you’re busy. And we know that your three-day weekend is sacred (and that you probably deserve the break!). But did you know that for over 15 years, MLK Day has been celebrated as a day of service by millions of Americans? Here at Repair, our team has partnered with NEXT: A Division of Birthright Israel Foundation, and with one of the organizations who pioneered the MLK Day of Service, the Points of Light Institute, to offer you a way to join the movement from the comfort of your own home!

MLK SHABBAT SUPPERS. JANUARY 18^th. YOUR PLACE.

Repair is challenging you to become part of the living legacy of Dr. King by turning your kitchen table into a table of brotherhood the weekend of January 18^th. Through our Shabbat Suppers initiative, you will be sent the tools to transform Friday night with friends into an opportunity for social action.

It’s ok if you’ve never held a Shabbat dinner. We know that not everyone “does” Shabbat. But you’ve gotta eat! Use this event, and this toolkit, as a foundation for a meaningful meal – whatever that means to you.

Shabbat Suppers will take many forms. They might be talks over take-out Chinese or screening parties with your friends from college. Some folks will have sit-down brisket dinners with friends of different faiths, and others will have potluck style meals in tiny apartments. At all of these events, food might get your guests in the door, but it’s the discussion will bring you together.

A SUPER COOL KIT…

On this year’s plate (we couldn’t help ourselves…) is of the defining civil rights issues of our time: education inequality. Once you sign-up as a host, Repair will send you a real, live toolkit via snail mail. These toolkits will contain a discussion guide, Repair swag for your guests, and a T-shirt as a thank you (just for you)!

Our discussion guide bears absolutely no resemblance to your AP Government textbook. Instead, it offers simple questions, real facts, and easy to enforce ground rules so that you can host a dynamic (and respectful) conversation around education and the legacy of Dr. King.

We want to arm you with the facts, and the tools to act on them. In honor of the MLK Day of Service, you will also receive information on how you can make a difference in the lives of public school children all over the country!

JOIN US!

Excited? Sign-up HERE to become a host, and we’ll send you a toolkit for free!

And there’s more exciting news for Birthright Israel alumni! Through our friends at NEXT, you can receive funding for your Shabbat Supper through the NEXT Shabbat program. Register your meal, and you will be able to click a box to receive our free toolkit.

As always, we want to hear you from you! Tell us about your Shabbat Supper plans, or send us a question, by emailing campaigns@weRepair.org.

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November 20th, 2012

Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators

Summary: Repair the World commissioned Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators to provide a comprehensive look at the qualities of effective immersive Jewish service-learning (IJSL) educators and the training they need to continue providing deep and engaging IJSL experiences. Though this study focuses on the IJSL field, given that IJSL is a subset of Jewish experiential education, its findings also have relevance to the broader field of Jewish experiential education. Many of the skills, capacities and knowledge areas that IJSL educators need to be effective are shared with other Jewish experiential educators. The framework that this study offers for testing these competencies serves as a model that can be used in other areas of education.

Author: Dr. Shelley Billig, RMC Research Corporation

Download: Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators

Download: Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators Executive Summary

www.werepair.org

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November 2nd, 2012

From Our Partners: Hurricane Sandy, Google and a Message From the Whirlwind

I’m looking at a Google map that showed up on my Facebook feed. It is filled with multi-colored virtual thumbtacks on my desktop that says Hurricane Sandy Recovery — Volunteer Opportunities. The colors represent the type of help needed. Red pin: volunteer opportunities at food banks and evacuation shelters. Yellow pin: donation sites for emergency supplies and food. Teal pin: volunteer opportunities to clean up damaged neighborhoods.

Between phone calls with colleagues, photos and new reports, and live Twitter and Facebook feeds, I felt I had entered the fourth dimension and was personally in the heart of Sandy’s path as it thundered up the coast and pounded the northeast. Read More »

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November 1st, 2012

Putting Who You Are Into How You Lead

Along with much of the country right now, I am captivated by the commentary surrounding the upcoming election—with sharper lines drawn between the parties’ most ardent followers and a seemingly ever-narrower space for thoughtful discussion. Despite the constant cacophony of pundits and public figures arguing over who is winning and who is losing on any particular day (which—I admit—I read voraciously), I am struck by the deafening silence on the issue I consider most critical: the core values we as a country believe should drive how we make decisions.

“Values” is a loaded term, especially when it comes to politics and religion. Too often co-opted by those on the extremes and ceded by those in the center, it becomes code for where one stands on abortion, same sex marriage and other hot-button issues. The effect is that thoughtful debate guided by a framework of clearly articulated values is subjugated to posturing and sound bites—and leaders focused more on declaring who they stand against rather than what they stand for.

Many exceptional individuals counter this prevailing norm, explicitly applying values to their leadership. Read More »

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October 5th, 2012

The Truth About Israel Advocacy

This article first appeared in The Times of Israel.

When asked to describe the activities of young Israel advocates, people often conjure up a rather stereotyped image: right wing and religious, protesting on the quad, arguing with speakers and student activists.

The fact is, those depictions could not be further from the truth.

A new study examining 4,000 young Israel advocates—from teenagers to young adults—paints a very different picture. The first and largest study of its kind, “Next Generation Advocacy” is invaluable in explaining what until now has been mostly guesswork: what compels young people to engage in Israel advocacy? Why do they stay involved? What can we do to ensure that they are effectively trained and their commitment nurtured? (Download Next Generation Advocacy: A Study of Young Israel Advocates) Read More »

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