JSU South Florida Goes Israel To See Young Judaea’s Year Course – Day 2

Kotel at sunrise this morning

After clearing customs at Ben Gurion Airport I grabbed my carryon luggage and headed for the airport exit. Just at that moment two photographers ran over and started snapping pictures, I thought maybe the new radio show had reached Israel, but of course they weren’t taking pictures of me, there must have been some celebrity standing next to me. I looked over and I didn’t recognize him at all, it must have been some European guy. Anyway I found the driver and met up with the group at a restaurant in Baka. After meeting and getting to know each of the other participants, we headed to the famous Kings Hotel and went to check into the room. I was already confused about the time and I am not even sure if I slept last night, all I know is that I called in a wakeup call for 6:30am and woke up at 4:30am to cancel it. I just couldn’t fall back asleep so I watched the Late show with Jay Leno and decided to go to the Kotel for a Netz Minyan. On the way to the Kotel, I passed the Waldorf Astoria construction site and walked through the outdoor Mamila Mall. The place was empty, because why would anyone be there at 5:30 ib the morning. When I arrived at the Kotel I found a nice mix of people to Daven with outside and at the moment that the sun rose, everyone that was gathered in the dozens of Minyanim were silent. It’s a truly remarkable experience, the only time of the day where everyone that is gathered at the Kotel is literally on the same page!

After breakfast, we departed for Ein Gedi and Masada to meet with students on Year Course that are volunteering at each of these places. As we were driving past the Dead Sea, we received word that there was a change of plans and the students that were supposed to meet us at Ein Gedi wouldn’t be able to, so we headed right to Masada instead. I have been to Masada almost a dozen times but this time was going to be different, because for the first time I had questions about the historical event. Over the past year I have begun to study Jewish History and I was trying to understand the context of the events that occurred, both for the Jews who lived there and also Herod and the Roman Empire. We have a great tour guide and we had a great discussion on the mountain top and everything seemed to fall right into place. We also received VIP treatment while at Masada. First, we had a private meeting with Eitan Campbell, the Director of Masada, the man who is literally the king of the mountain. Besides being a very nice guy and also a good friend of the Struhls from our community in Boca Raton. He took us up to Masada to meet three of the students that are currently working on the mountain on a number of projects. They told us exactly what they were each responsible for and also what makes the experience so meaningful. Next we headed to Bedouin tent, it was actually the same one that we had visited on the the March of the Living this past May. Year Course sent their students to this site to help teach the children in their local schools and also be on hand to assist with chores, such as tending to the animals and building fences. We heard how the students have a new appreciation for what they have in America but also have anew found love for Israel. So much of their lives have been spent with a preoccupation about their lives, but in this environment they are forced to think about others. Finally, we stopped at one of the Year Course apartments where we met with another six students. Year course rents apartments for all of the students and they are given the freedom and responsibility of an adult. They have to clean their apartment, they have to go shopping for food and make arrangements for meals. Another benefit of living in an apartment building is that you have neighbors. Many of the students have befriended their neighbors who have intern invited them over for dinner. This environment certainly forces a teenager to mature at an accelerated rate over their friends in America. The flip side is that this option is not for everyone. I am already beginning to build a composite of who this program would be good for and once again I want to thank Young Judea for letting me come to see their program. We are back in the car and heading back to Jerusalem for dinner.

Stay tuned for Day 3.

JSU South Florida Goes Israel To See Young Judaea’s Year Course

One of JSU’s missions is to expose students in our local public schools to other Jewish programs in America and abroad. There are now many different organizations that run programs all over the world, but nothing can compare to a trip to Israel. In addition to great summer programs, like The Jerusalem Journey, there are some great gap year programs for students that have just graduated from high school. Taking the opportunity to experience life in Israel before staring college is a transformative experience and will make the college experience so much more meaningful. I personally spent two years in Israel at a Yeshiva call Ner Yaakov and then Toras Moshe, both of which were located in Jerusalem. Just having the opportunity to be away from home, on your own is very exciting, but to do it with friends and even with new friends makes it even better. But a Yeshiva environment is not always for everyone and certainly not for someone with any Jewish background. I am a huge fan of Aish Hatorah and Ohr Sameach and each of those Yeshivas have smaller affiliate programs for beginners. I also have friends that run Judaic tracks at two of the most famous universities in Israel. Rabbi Tully Bryks started a program last year at Bar Ilan University and a new program has just begun by Rabbi Glazer at Hebrew University. I’ve heard a lot about those programs, but haven’t seen them personally, but they are all on my radar. I hope over the next few months I will get to see those programs as well.

About two months ago I received a message from Danielle Rubinstein, a colleague who works at Young Judea in Florida. She urged me to call back as soon as possible and said she had amazing news to share with me. Apparently Young Judea selects five people from different areas in America to travel to Israel to see their gap year program called Year Course. To be honest, I wasn’t so familiar with the program other than having seen a promotional video and hearing from a few students who had participated. But I was excited to be able to see this famous program first hand. They certainly believe in their program and really want people that are involved with teenagers to come and experience their program. To be honest after I land at Ben Gurion I don’t know where I’m headed. I’m not sure if there is one campus or multiple campuses, I don’t even know what city I’m headed for. But I guess that’s what makes this experience so important. I am always looking for meaningful experiences to add to the list of other great programs that JSU South Florida promotes. I really give credit to Young Judea for sponsoring this trip and I can’t wait to see Year Course. Stay tuned for daily updates!!

YU Coast To Coast spends Shabbat at Boca Raton Synagogue

Every shabbos at BRS is very exciting. As someone who gets to work on the program along with Rabbi Goldberg and Rabbi Moskowitz, I am still blown away after the events actually take place. Every week seems bring something special that I won’t forget for a very long time. In addition to hearing from Mort Klein, the president of the ZOA, we also got to host college students from Yeshiva University and Stern College. This is not the first time that BRS has partnered with YU, in fact each year we have one Shabbos dedicated to the special connection that we share. But this shabbos was different.

A few months ago I had spoken to Rabbi Phillip Moskowitz, the BRS Assistant Rabbi and a former employee at the YU Center For The Jewish Future, about letting YU’s future community leaders see how important it is to have a synagogue based outreach program. In addition, show them what outreach tools we have used that have worked and let them know what we wouldn’t recommend based on our experiences. I then spoke to Rabbi Brander and Ari Rockoff at the CJF, who suggested that we participate in their Coast to Coast program. This select group of University students would be traveling to see different communities and perhaps one of those stops could be in Boca Raton. Traditionally, the trip was initiated to see smaller Jewish communities in the United States and a place like Boca was already established enough that it didn’t necessarily qualify. After kicking the idea around a little more we all came up with a great program that had never been done before. Instead of the students having a Shabbos lunch with the “regular” members of the community, why couldn’t they sit down and meet the regular participants of the outreach program. They would each gain something from that interaction that could never be taught in a classroom. Just imagine sitting at a shabbos table with people that could tell the students why they began attending beginner programs or services as JSU South Florida students or adults of all ages. Perhaps they could explain why they been turned off or in some cases turned away from Judaism. In turn the students could explain why it is important for them to attend a college like YU and the value of having a dual curriculum. Everyone loved the idea, or at least I did. But to tell you the truth, I had no idea it would work. Maybe the YU students wouldn’t open up to complete strangers and maybe none of the people that I invited to participate would show up for the lunch. But I was determined to get both of these groups to a shabbos table so that they can see that they both exist and more importantly that any negative stereotypes would instantly disappear.

Well after weeks of waiting to see what would happen, the shabbos finally came. I knew the moment that walked into Friday Night Live, our weekly Friday Night beginner service that this would be a special weekend. We had the biggest crowd we had ever had and some of the YU students got to experience their first beginner service/educational program. The next day at lunch, each of the outreach participants got to share their personal experiences and at one moment someone was even brought to tears. Each story was so unique and so special and I only wish that we could have had more YU students participate. All in all there were about twenty student and another twenty participants from the Boca Raton Jewish Experience, ranging in age from teenagers to a grandmother. It just goes to show you that you should never think that someone is to old or too young to start learning about their rich Jewish heritage. I hope that the students will take back the experiences that they had at Boca Raton Synagogue and not only bring it back to their friends at Yeshiva University and Stern College, but that they take the lessons back to their communities that they live in. I hope that each of them are inspired to get involved in programs like JSU, the Jewish Student Union, or ask their Rabbi’s in their hometown shuls, if they can start a beginner service. No more excuses just action and if they need any support I will be happy to put them in touch with the right people at NJOP or Project Inspire, the same people who helped us get started.

Thank you YU and Stern and we hope you send your friends to South Florida to see the magic first hand.

Inspire yourself to inspire others….

I’ll be in Israel this week, but when I get back I’ll be discussing the YU experience on the Josh Broide radio show – Jewish Pride, for more info or to hear archived shows just go to www.blogtalkradio.com/broide

Follow me on Twitter – www.twitter.com/broide
and please check out the following great websites
JSU (Jewish Student Union) http://www.jsu.org/  and like “JSU South Florida” on Facebook
Boca Raton Jewish Experience – http://www.myjewishexperience.org/
NJOP (National Jewish Outreach Program) – http://www.njop.org/
Project Inspire – http://www.kiruv.org/

JSU South Florida co-sponsor of Crossing the Line

Please join us for a community screening of this powerful short film with the producer Raphael Shore exposing the campaign to delegitimize Israel and learn what we can do about it.

  

The Intifada Comes To Campus

CROSSING THE LINE

  

Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 7:30 pm

This is a free program!!

Boca Raton Synagogue

7900 Montoya Circle

To rsvp & more info contact:FloridaCTL@gmail.com or call (646) 233-3211

www.CrossingTheLineTheMovie.com

In Conjunction with Boca Raton Synagogue, Jewish Student Union of South Florida, JCC of South Palm Beach, BRS Social Action Committee and Jerusalem Online University.

Now it's your turn to teach

"If you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it. Jewish women have an ability to cut through all the reasons why something should, shouldn't or can't be done and pull people together to be successful." So said an Arizona state senator, Gabrielle Giffords, when she was running for Congress in 2006. Ms. Giffords narrowly won, and became the first Jewishly identified representative from her state. Today, our prayers go out to Rep. Giffords, the other victims and their families. I don't know if you had a chance to see President Obama on television last night, but I must say that for the first time in a long I felt proud to be an American. There have been too many instances where American's didn't react fast enough or with proper judgment. The Gulf oil disaster, the earthquake in Haiti, which marked a one year anniversary yesterday, just to name a few. But this shooting was different, because people reacted right away. The President retold stories of incredible heroism, of people jumping in front of bullets so they would not hit a loved one. Individuals didn't run away from the terrorist they confronted him. For their acts of bravery, that enabled others to escape injury, they will never be forgotten. This week we also lost another famous Jewish lady, Debbie Friedman. Although I had never met her, I had learned to play her famous havdalah song that is sung around the world every Saturday night by thousands. And yesterday marked the second anniversary of the passing of a dear friend of mine, a lady who was taken much too early, Margo Allswang. This past Sunday her daughter Adina, just celebrated her Bat Mitzvah, as she turned twelve. That is an event that one would expect both parents to attend. But like the other victims of the shooting and the untimely passing of Debbie Friedman, we will never truly be able to comprehend Gods ways. We must always make sure to never let the valuable life lessons that we learned from those that were so close to us to evaporate. Their legacy must continue to burn strong through us in all that we attempt to do. And finally if there is a lesson that I have taken away from this past week's events is that we must always take advantage of every moment that we have, because we never know when our time will come.

Now its time for you to become the teachers.... I am so happy that twenty University students are visiting our community from Yeshiva University in New York. They are here on their winter break and have traveled to a number of communities on the East coast to see how different Jewish communities operate. Boca Raton has become synonymous with the Outreach Revolution that's taking place right now. These students will be participating in a number of programs with you! They will attend Friday Night Live and the Explanatory Experience to see how we run a beginner Service and attend a luncheon where a dozen couples from the Boca Raton Jewish Experience will meet with them and tell them what's working in outreach and what needs to be improved upon. I can't wait to see how the weekend unfolds and I will surely report back next week.

This week I will be heading to Israel for a special Young Judea trip and will be back in time for Friday Night Live next week. Also please take a look at all of the new programs that have just been added below including the recording of Rabbi Shuley Boteach's class last week as well as a screening of a movie called Crossing The Line. Finally, I did start my long awaited Radio Show; please see the right column for a link to all of the archived shows.

Inspire yourself to inspire others...
Shabbat Shalom and may God bless you.

Josh

Yeshiva University students meet with JSU South Florida

YU Students listening to Josh Broide and Steve Schauder

This afternoon undergraduate students from Yeshiva University came to Boca Raton on a special trip to see why South Florida and specifically the area of South Palm Beach is becoming known for it success with Jewish outreach. These students are on their winter break and are visiting Jewish communities on an East coast tour. Today, they got to hear why this community in particular is truly unique. The fact that this is the most densely saturated Jewish community in the United States, coupled with the important relationships that have been developed across the community make the Jewish engagement opportunities almost endless. They heard how JSU South Florida (http://www.jsu.org/) continues to inovate and how BRS created the Boca Raton Jewish Experience (http://www.myjewishexperience.org/). Unfortunately the only thing that we don't have on our side is time. Each day that goes by, there are more and more Jews that we are missing and losing to the winds of assimilation. I am so happy that the students got to hear from Steven Schauder, the Director of Education for South Palm Beach. He expressed how important it is to work with all segments of the community and that there are many issues that he struggles with in trying to satisfy the opinions of both the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative, when it comes to programing. The point is that sometimes we are so quick to criticize an organization, because we automatically assume that the no "Halachik" thought went into the equation, when they planned program. I cant speak for other Federations, but one of the reasons why I always work with our Federation is because they are always concerned and regularly debate the issues.
I hope that this was an eye opening experience for the students and that they can bring back some of the lessons that they learned from this experience to their communities as they become community leaders.
Inspire yourself to inspire others...

Jewish Radio has a new sound - Josh Broide is Live

It's always been a dream of mine to host a radio program, but up until this point it was very difficult to find the medium that could reach a large audience. Finally, with the growth of the Internet and advances in technology, I finally found the perfect match. So far I have only done two shows, but I have two more lined up and ready to go this Thursday and Friday morning. Were it not for a short trip to Israel, this program would already be a daily show.
The name of the program is Jewish Pride, a personal platform to express my views on current events Jewish lenses. There have also been a few requests for interviews and I will begin lining up some great personalities when I get get back to America.
Until then .... it's just you and me.
Tune in tomorrow at 9:00 am for a thirty minute show that you are sure to enjoy!
Go to www.blogtalkradio.com/broide to hear the Jewish Radio show hosted by Josh Broide and visit the Boca Raton Jewish Experience at http://www.myjewishexperience.org/.
Josh