CRC on the Front Lines David Lentz,
Chair, Community Relations Committee of MetroWest NJ
Next Shabbat
Super Sunday 2010
What Café Europa Means to Me
Meeting the Needs of All Our Residents
Let's Retake Control of the Branding of Israel
CRC — Act Now!
January 16
Night at the Museum
January 28 & 29
Caring for Your Special Needs Family Member Seminars
February 4
METROmagic: An Evening of Entertainment Featuring Paul Shaffer
The "Work Activity Center" at Daughters of Israel is a joint project of Jewish Vocational Services and Daughters of Israel. Over 100 residents work throughout the year on projects such as packaging combs and plastic flatware. The work provides the residents, who receive a paycheck, a sense of dignity and enhances their self-esteem.
Next Shabbat
by Rabbi Daniel Brenner
Over the past year, Birthright Israel NEXT has quietly built the largest national program for young Jewish adults in America. Next Shabbat, a home-hospitality-based project, averages 2,000 participants a week and is on target to include over 70,000 guests this year. The average age of hosts is 25 — and the average size of a dinner is 14. The program costs roughly $20 per participant. We've had over a thousand participants in New Jersey during the past few months.
I recently met with the two post-army shlichim (Yotam and Natasha) who are serving the Metrowest community. In their effort to connect to Taglit-Birthright Israel participants, they are going to be hosts for the Next Shabbat program this year at their apartment. We are hoping that the program will attract the many young adults in the Metrowest area who are post-college who have not found jobs and are living at home.
The premise of the large-scale, peer-based "home-hospitality" program is a rather revolutionary one. Rather than pull teeth in getting young adults to go to places where they will be in the minority as participants, the goal is to bring Jewish life to the places where they spend most of their time. Through online communications, we reach over 3,000 hosts. The hosts receive a shabbat host kit from us which includes a kiddush cup, a challah cover, candles, and guides to the rituals. There are also recipes and essays reflecting on the spiritual themes of Shabbat. 92% of our events have included Jewish ritual, but we do not have any requirement that participants say blessings or eat challah.
Many questions have been asked about Birthright Israel NEXT and how our programs can pass on a sense of Jewish responsibility to the next generation. Our response is that before we get to a sense of responsibility, people have to feel a sense that they are part of the community. The Next Shabbat program is remarkably effective in this regard, with 97% of hosts now saying that the experience of hosting their friends built a sense of Jewish community. Since a majority of these hosts have never hosted a Shabbat meal before, and a majority of guests are infrequent participants at a Shabbat meal, the program is reaching out to people who are not served by other efforts.
I hope that in the coming months that the shlichim will find their apartment filled with guests — and will have to invest in another folding table.
Rabbi Daniel Brenner is Executive Director of Birthright Israel NEXT.
Copyright © 2010 The Jewish Federations of North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Directions to Aidekman Campus