Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

“Congregational Growth: The Dynamics of Membership, Outreach and Financial Resources”
Sunday, March 2, 2008, 9 am to 4 pm, at Ezra Habonim – The Niles Township Jewish Congregation, Skokie, IL

Come learn how to use a congregational systems approach to understand the dynamics of congregational growth. Gain important skills and ideas about how to effectively reach out to attract new members, reach in to strengthen already-existing members and volunteers, and how to creatively grow the congregation's financial resources.

All JRF affiliates are invited to send representatives to this special one-day workshop! We strongly encourage you to come in teams of three or more to maximize the benefits.

Presenters: Barry Nove, JRF Director of Development and Rabbi Shawn Zevit, JRF Director of Outreach & External Affairs/Tikkun Olam.

Tuition: $72 per person includes breakfast, lunch and materials.

REGISTER ONLINE NOW and download the event flyer and registration form at www.jrf.org/north_american_leadership_workshop_skokie.[/b]

This workshop is part of JRF's North American Leadership Series. For information contact Shoshi Braman at jbraman@jrf.org or 215-885-5601, ext. 10.

Goals and Benefits

• Learn how to use a congregational systems approach to understand the dynamics of congregational growth.
• Discover how a congregation’s stage of development relates to issues of membership and financial resources.
• Come away with important skills and ideas about how to effectively reach out to attract new members, reach in to strengthen existing members and volunteers, and to creatively grow the congregation's financial resources, qualitatively and quantitatively.
• This workshop will benefit all those working on congregational growth and development, including board members, membership and development committees, treasurers, planned giving and capital campaign advocates, senior administrators, and education and program directors.

About the Presenters

Barry Nove, JRF’s Director of Development, who is becoming known as “Dr. Fundraiser” by Reconstructionist congregations/havurot from coast to coast, wants to help your congregation treat ailments of raising money by sharing approaches other communities are finding and have found successful. Barry serves as JRF’s fundraising consultant to affiliates; his fundraising expertise is wide ranging and includes planned giving and endowment.

Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit (RRC '98), JRF’s Director of Outreach & External Affairs/Tikkun Olam, has over 25 years experience in spiritual leadership. He has conducted leadership training and developed numerous resources on outreach and volunteer development for JRF and its congregational affiliates across the country. Shawn is well known for his work in the area of the “Torah of Money,” and is author of Offerings of the Heart: Values-Based Approaches to Money in Faith Community (Alban Inst). Since 2005 he has been the visiting rabbi for JRF affiliate Dor Hadash, Pittsburgh, PA.

This year, the New York-New Jersey Region of JRF is taking its annual Evening of Celebration to the stage.

We are planning a wonderful evening at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre where we'll be among the first groups to see South Pacific! The Evening of Celebration will honor "Those Who Bring Joy and Creativity to Our Congregations" in the NY/NJ Region.

Mazel Tov to our Honorees:

Richard Woodrow, Bet Am Shalom
Andy Kaplan & Singers, Congregation Beth Hatikvah
Marty Fogel & Dan Epstein, Bnai Keshet
Harriet Chomet, Kehillath Shalom
Ron Falcon, Reconstructionist Congregation Beth Emeth
Roz Altman, Reconstructionist Temple Beth Israel
Lauren Pulver, Reconstructionist Synagogue of North Shore
Rabbi Joy Levitt, Society for the Advancement of Judaism
Julie Sandler-Friedman & David Friedman, West End Synagogue

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, April 8th, for it will be some enchanted evening!

NY/NJ Evening of Celebration: "Honoring Those Who Bring Joy and Creativity to our Congregations" in the NY/NJ Region.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Lincoln Center Theatre
Curtain 7:00 pm
Honoring & Dessert Reception to follow.

The Evening of Celebration supports and sustains the growth of the Reconstructionist movement and its congregations throughout North America.

Tickets are limited, so reserve yours now! For registration and details call the JRF NY/NJ office at 212-870-2483.

Make sure that your child has the summer of a lifetime at Camp JRF on the Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman Campus in the Pocono Mountains. Register online at www.campjrf.org in the Parents section, or print the application and mail to our camp office.

For more information, call the Camp JRF office at 877-CAMP-JRF (877-226-7573).

Camp JRF is still accepting applications for scholarships for Summer 2008. One special grant for campers is the Jessica Kaufman Memorial Scholarship Fund, established in Jessica’s memory by her father, Ben Kaufman. Jessica was a committed camper and nurturing counselor whose memory lives on at Camp JRF and whose scholarship enables campers the opportunity to experience the magic of Camp JRF.

Register now at www.campjrf.org. To request a scholarship form please call (877) 226-7573 or e-mail info@campjrf.org.

New donor stories are going up every month. Perhaps there’s one from your congregation. Make a difference for your community and/or the Reconstructionist movement. Go to http://www.jrfplannedgiving.org and click on Donor Stories. For further information contact Barry Nove, JRF director of development, at bnove@jrf.org
and 215-885-5601, x. 19.

No'ar Hadash--The Reconstructionist Youth Movement, is excited to announce these upcoming events:

Western Region
Western Teen Kallah - Jan. 11 - 13
(Concurrent with the JRF Western Regional Gathering)
Irvine, CA

Pacific Northwest Teen Kallah - Feb. 15 - 17
Olympia, WA

Canada Region
Canada Teen Kallah - Feb. 1 - 3
Ottawa, Ontario

Midwest Region
Midwest Teen Kallah - Feb. 15 - 17
Grades 6-12
Camp Henry Horner in Ingleside, IL
Please register by February 1

Save the date for the North American Teen Kallah, April 11 - 13, 2008 in Philadelphia.

For more information, visit www.noarhadash.org, e-mail us at noarhadash@jrf.org, or call (215) 885-5601.

With the enthusiasm around JRF's Omer Learning Initiative, as well as the solid response of JRF congregations in the Climate Change Initiative, JRF is continues to deepen its greening work with member communities next year.

Our hope is to motivate and educate our congregations in sustainable practices, with the goal of reaching 100 percent participation in the years ahead, recognizing those JRF communities who excel at sustainable practices at the JRF Convention in Boston, 2008.

Learn about the Sustainable Synagogue Initiative on the JRF website's environment pages at jrf.org/green-call and jrf.org/climate.

For more information contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam, SZevit@jrf.org

We are excited to announce the addition of new and more comprehensive Jewish and general resources for social justice action and programming.

Please take a look at a new template on the JRF website, at http://jrf.org/tikkun-olam-issues, where we are creating an extensive listing of Tikkun Olam resources, organized by issue, that can help our congregations in their diverse programming needs.

The selected issues correspond with the top issues being addressed through Congregation-Based-Community Organizing (CBCO) throughout the country as well as in our member communities.

The initial resources include articles, curriculum, divrei torah, text studies, Haggadah supplements, general resource guides, and more.

For more information e-mail Rabbi Shawn Zevit at szevit@jrf.org.

JWW Backpack ProjectCongregation Bet Am Shalom in Whiteplains, NY, joins the Westchester Darfur Coalition and Jewish World Watch (JWW) in providing and education for children fleeing genocide in Darfur. JWW's Backpack Project will enable children in the Oure Cassoni refugee camp in Chad to attend schools run by the International Rescue Committee. Filled with shoes, books, school supplies, soap and toothpaste (all obtained as locally as possible), the backpack allows each child to make the most of school under the most difficult of circumstances.

Backpacks are $36 each. Every dollar donated to the JWW Backpack Project will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $100,000, through the generousity of a local family foundation.

For for more information on Bet Am Shalom's Giving Program, e-mail Fran Heyman at franheyman@msn.com, and visit www.JewishWorldWatch.org

Bet Am Shalom's flyer and donation form are attached below.

Click here for a full listing of JRF's resources and response to the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

Congregation Darchei Noam of Toronto will be celebrating and dedicating its new home on Sunday, January 27. The events will include a processional to carry the five sifrei Torah from the community’s present (rented) location to its beautiful new building at 864 Sheppard Avenue West, followed by a ceremony of dedication. On the following weekend, the community will celebrate its first Shabbaton with a Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday, Feb. 1, and Shabbat services the next morning with Rabbi Tina Grimberg.

Mitzvah Day at Kehilat Hanahar. In photo, from left: Michael Rothblat of New Hope, Brett Ackerman of Doylestown and Nell Sweeney of PenningtonKehilat HaNahar of New Hope, PA, held a successful Mitzvah Day on Oct. 21. That day, the community:
• Packed 500 lunches for a Trenton-area soup kitchen
• Cooked 65 meals for the Aid for Friends organization
• Sent care packages to 61 members of the New Jersey Air National Guard 108th Air Refueling Wing, stationed in the Middle East
• Signed people up to assist with HOPE (Helping People Every Day) and NOVA (Network of Victims Assistance)
• Enrolled people in the CROP walk in Lambertville

The activities were funded through a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Temple Beth Sholom in Salem, Oregon, celebrated its 60th year as a congregation on October 27. Festivities included hors d'ouvres, wine, dessert and a Havdalah service. The featured speaker was Jordan Schnitzer, art collector and namesake of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon.

B’nai Abraham congregation of Bordentown City, PA is celebrating 90 years in its historic home. In an article in The Register News, Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein shared the rich tradition of the synagogue he leads and the specialness of its Reconstructionist community: “For one thing, we have a membership that cares and supports one another. Reconstructionism really fits in with that, people taking responsibility for Judaism. It’s the idea that each generation needs to reconstruct (the faith) according to the past, but also keeping in mind their experience of the present.”

JRF Western Region Gathering
Friday January 11–Sunday January 13, 2008, University Synagogue, Irvine, CA

A JRF North American Leadership Workshop
“Congregational Growth: The Dynamics of Membership, Outreach and Financial Resources”
Sunday, March 2, 2008, 9 am–4 pm, at Ezra Habonim – The Niles Township Jewish Congregation, Skokie, IL

New York-New Jersey Region Evening of Celebration
Tuesday, April 8, 2008, Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre, New York, NY

Watch and listen to a 5 minute "screencast" about how and why to contribute material to the JRF web site at www.jrf.org/screencast/contribute_content.

Just click to play! You might have to wait a few seconds before the movie starts playing.