Tuesday, December 29, 2009

'Click the Share button to create links to this email on popular social networking and bookmarking size like Facebook, Twitter, and Digg.'

'Click the Share button to create links to this email on popular social networking and bookmarking size like Facebook, Twitter, and Digg.'
The next step is to divide the shul list into groups.
1) The most important list is the members of our shul that believe in the need for outreach. There are plenty of people that have a passion for outreach but there is noone else who is coordinating the effort. This group will be out on the frontlines, engaging people in converstaion and making a kiddush hashem with everyone.
2) The second level are those people who might not be an initiator, but is certainly willing toi host someone for a Shabbat meal. This list needs to be further divided into two lists, one whop needs to have lots of notice and those that can accept guests at the last minute.
The key to the success of wither of these lists is to maintain a good database> todd gave me the name of a guy that designed the new NCSY database, perhaps he could help me as well.
Take care,
Josh
Tonight I began teaching the first part of a five past series titled the "Crash Course in Jewish History". Its not easy to squeeze 1000 years of Jewish history into a one hour class but we did it. The class really enabled everyone to connect the dots between the famous stories we are all familiar with. It filled in the blanks and blended the stories into one cohesive story with a clear beginning and end. This class set the stage for all of the events that are about the happen. Jewish history is a subject that is essential to our future because as the cliche goes if we don't learn from our history we are bound to repeat the same mistakes again.
Project Inspire is taking off and inspiring people all over Boca Raton. The next step in the process is the add a Youth component for those families with children. Over the next three weeks I will begin advertising a bunch of exciting programs, including an outdoor movie night, a magic show and a new "version" of Veshinantam Levanecha, a program that enables parents and children to spend quality time learning together as well as bonding through singing.
This is only the beginning and the future is looking very brite!
All the best and your suggestions are certainly welcome.
Josh

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Second Shabbos was a Success

We ran our second Friday Night Live event this past week. it was really nice to see new faces come to the program. I really believe that each of the attendees are finding the event meaningful. My wife and I are hosting a Chanukah Party this week and anticipate a nice crowd. The weekly outreach committee meeting will take place at the shul as it does each week at 7:30 pm. We have an incredible opportunity this week to set up a small booth at our local Publix Supermarket. We will hand out some latkes, have a lit menorah and hopefully be able to teach those who are unaffiliated about the beauty of Chanukah. I hope that everyone I spoke to this past Shabbos, will find a family to host for a candle lighting on at leas one night of Chanukah this week.
Josh

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving Night

Simone just made a feast tonight and everything was incredible! She is an awesome wife and I am a lucky man!
Project Inspire really has a lot of people in the community talking. The initial e-mail went out on schedule this past Tuesday. The "subject" of the email was "Bad News". That is one of those phrases that will get people to open the email. The email which I tried to copy and paste into the blog, (but I found out that one of the rules is that you cant copy and paste on a blog) was the fact that the numbers of Jews are diminishing very quickly. Studies say that more than 4 million Jews have been lost in the last 40 years!!! I also attached a graph that was published by Professor Alan Dershowitz about ten years ago. The end of the email asked the pointed question "will your grandchildren be Jewish?".
This morning I sent out a followup email with the subject"and now for the good news" It officially launched the grass roots movement called Project Inspire in South Palm Beach County. It was important to list action items so that our community understands this is not a dream but a program that is happening and will change lives in South Palm Beach. We announced a meeting that will take place at 7:30 pm this Sunday night. this committee will meet each week for about 30 minutes to discuss goals and objectives. in addition I scheduled a screening of an inspiring movie next Sunday night.
This is only the beginning, but there is not a second that goes by where this program is not on my mind. with each conversation, new ideas come up and I know that I will find many people to partner on all of the programs.
I emailed Project Inspire to find someone who can come down to Boca to do a training seminar in our shul, but I haven't heard back yet.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there!!
Josh

Monday, November 23, 2009

The Revolution Has Just Begun

Today is a GREAT day. Its November 23rd, 2009 - its my sister Yael's Birthday. Its also Vav Kislev, the sixth day of the hebrew month of kislev, the ya'ahrteit of my father, Arnold Broide, Asher Yosef ben Binyamin. And finally its also the day when I am dedicating my life to Jewish continuity. Let me start by saying I am not a great writer, its not something I enjoy. I just told my wife Simone, that I am starting this blog and she why. I explained that one day in years to come, people are going to be amazed how about the changes that occurred in South Palm Beach and I want people to see exactly how from day one, it was simple. Nothing crazy, no staff, no budget, no building, no nothing just an incredible passion for people - Ahavas Yisroel. A complete honest and unconditional love of our fellow Jews. According to recent statistics in North America 100,000 Jews are being lost to assimilation each year for the last 40 years. That means we have already lost 4 million Jews - a true silent holocaust. We cant be silent any longer!
There were a number of incredible experiences that led me to theis day. BRS to Hillel to the March of the Living to Tisha B'Av to Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur to the Aish Hatorah Conference this past shabbos. I hope to go into more detail about that journey in future entries. The short of it is that every step of the way i have been truly blessed along the way and its never been clearer that this is something I have to begin.
I certainly have long term plans, but I have found that sometimes the long term plans prevent you from actually started so I am just jumping right in, right now and this is what will happen now.
First I am putting together a committee of local members of the BRS community who share these concerns. This committee will meet on a weekly basis to ensure that we will constantly look for new ways to grow and ensure that we are achieving all of our objectives. This committee will be an open committee and will hopefully grow.
I would like to take the film "One Soul" and have one showing each week to people in their homes and also have a monthly showing at the shul. The film is incredibly inspirational and will hopefully provoke people to want to get inspired.
I also plan on inviting unaffiliated Jewish Families to my home every Friday night to show them the beauty of Shabbos and the Jewish family.
With Chanukah just around the corner, I want to inspire every member of our community to invite a Jewish family to share in a Chanukah party.
There are also ways to purchase small Chankukah gift bags which I would like to hand out to people I encounter.
This is Day one and cant wait to tell you results of the meeting I am having with Rabbi Goldberg and Dan Katz at 11am tomorrow morning.