Repair the World

DIY: Take Your Service Experience With You

Service work can be truly life changing – both for the community being served, and also for the person volunteering their time. And when that service is of the “immersive” variety (a seven-day experience or longer), the likelihood that the experience will profoundly shape the volunteer is all the greater.

One of the biggest challenges faced by immersive service participants is how to hold onto everything they learned after the program ends. But no matter how profound the experience was: whether they strengthened their commitment to service, discovered a new appreciation of Jewish tradition, or developed leadership skills, it is entirely possible to bring that new found inspiration back every day life. Here’s how:

July 4th Link Roundup

Yesterday, many Americans celebrated Independence Day by watching the fireworks, eating massive numbers of hot dogs (upwards of 150 million of them), spending time with family and friends, and sporting stylish combinations of red, white and blue. But as a wise person on Facebook once said, independence day should really be called “interdependence day” – a day where we celebrate our relationships with and responsibility to others as well as our freedom. In honor of the holiday, here are some inspiring service-related bits from around the blogosphere.

CHECK IT OUT

• (NJ.com) Volunteerism as the ultimate form of patriotism? Absolutely.
• (Sustainablog) 29 ways to “declare independence from ‘normal’” and help change the world.
• (NY Jewish Week) Read about mizrachi Jews’ struggle for equal rights in Israel.
• (JTA) A combined Israeli-Palestinian soccer team plays on the sidelines of the World Cup in the Football for Hope Festival.
• (NY Jewish Week) Young Jewish leaders push for a seat at the non-profit boardroom table.

GET INVOLVED

• (Jcarrot) Like fresh vegetables, building Jewish community, and small organic farms? Start (or join) a Hazon CSA in your community.
• (ROI) Keep tabs on all of the happenings at this year’s ROI Summit, a conference for young Jewish leaders who are “empowering innovation, and creating a more vibrant Jewish community all over the world.” Check out the participant profiles, the summit schedule, the live blog – and more!

Repair the World in the Washington Post

Yesterday, Repair the World launched its national search engine for Jewish volunteer and community service. If you have ever wanted to plug in to a service trip or volunteer opportunity, but did not know where to start, this search engine is for you. Whether you live in Iowa and are into immigrant rights, or from the South Bronx and passionate about healthcare, this is your one-stop shopping resource for all things Jewish and service.

Clearly, we think this is kind of a big deal – and apparently, the Washington Post does too! Below, check out the great article by Eboo Patel on the Post’s The Faith Divide blog.

On Tap: PanimWorks Southwest

Calling all high school students on the lookout for an amazing summer adventure: join Panim: The Institute for Jewish Leadership & Values for 12 days of Jewish learning, cultural exchange and service in the Southwest.

Participants will live and work on a Native American reservation in Colorado and northern New Mexico, spending one week volunteering with local organizations, painting homes, and helping organize activities with the Navajo, Hopi or Zuni Nation communities. Along the way, they will gain first-hand experience about Native American traditions, spend time hiking, exploring and camping in the Southwest’s gorgeous landscape, interact with a pluralistic community of Jewish participants, explore Jewish texts and celebrate Shabbat together. (The trip is kosher, vegetarian and Shabbat-friendly.)

Panim, which is a division of Bnai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO), is a youth-focused Institute that impacts the next generation of Jewish teens, empowering them towards a lifetime of leadership and service.

Repair the World Helps Build Eden Village Camp

How did you spend your Sunday? If you were among the lucky, you spent it in the sun. If you’re among the really lucky, you spent it with other volunteers planting, weeding and building the new greenhouse at Eden Village Camp.

Eden Village is a brand-spanking new Jewish summer camp located 50 miles north of New York City. The camp melds the best aspects of traditional overnight camps (from bonfires to lake swimming to summer crushes) with a unique environmental vision. Campers aged 3rd-12th grade engage in organic gardening and bee keeping, outdoor and wilderness adventure (i.e. hikes, rock climbing and ropes courses), green-friendly arts and crafts and natural sciences as well as weekly Shabbat celebrations and morning prayer and reflection time on the weekdays. Campers share locally-grown, mostly vegetarian/pescatarian meals – many of which they’ve helped to grow or cook!

According to the camp’s website, each camper is supported in “developing outdoor and leadership skills, exploring new interests and awakening a sense of positive Jewish identity, purpose, and joy.”

Weekly Torah: Parshat Balak 5770

This post is part of a weekly series of Torah commentaries presented by the American Jewish World Service. It was contributed by Rachel Farbiarz.

This week’s parshah opens in a panic. Marking with dread the refugee nation swelling along his border, Balak, king of Moab, seeks counsel from the elders of Midian. The Midianites, Rashi reminds us, have privileged information about Israel’s unlikely success. Moses had fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian; his wife was a Midianiate and he was devoted to her father Yitro, Midian’s high priest. “The leader of [the Israelites] was raised in Midian,” Balak mused. “Let us ask [the Midianites] what his character is.”

Midian has its answer at the ready, divulging that Moses’s “strength is solely in his mouth.” Thus does Balak decide to retain the prophet-for-hire Balaam to curse Israel and arrest its advance, reasoning: “We too will come against them with a man whose strength is in his mouth.”

DIY: Avoid Service Burnout

Burnout has a way of sneaking up on someone. One minute you’re moving full-steam ahead with a volunteer project or social action campaign, and then whap! Your energy completely deflates, and you’re left wondering why you ever got involved in the first place. Burnout can also be slow and steady – a gradual buildup of late nights, meetings and endless details that eventually collect into a messy pile of disenchantment.

Burnout can strike at anytime and impact anyone who is involved in service – but it can also be avoided! Read below to find out how you can get the better of burnout.

Young Judeans Reach Out to Israel’s Sudanese Refugees

Young Judea’s Year Course – a nine-month program for recent high school graduates who want to immerse themselves in learning, cultural exchange and service in Israel – is an increasingly popular way for students to spend their “gap year” between graduating high school and starting college. There are numerous program options that allow students to tailor their trip to their interests. And then there are students like Noah Berman and Sean Macdonald who start their own.

A year prior to starting Year Course, Berman and Macdonald participated in a Young Judea summer program Machon, where they were exposed to many facets of life in Israel, including the community of Sudanese and Darfurian refugees living in Israel. Inspired by the plight of this community, many of whom have faced discrimination and poverty throughout their lives, they and a group of other students decided to create an extra volunteer track for Year Course participants.

The result was Garin Tzedek, a program that engaged more than 50 Year Course volunteers in working with the refugee community. According to Berman, there are approximately 20,000-25,000 African refugees currently living in Israel, of which 35-45% are Sudanese or Darfuri. They primarily live in Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood, Eilat, Be’er Sheva and Arad (where the Year Course participants primarily worked.) During their year, the volunteers taught English to members of the community, helped to set up a health clinic, fundraised and raised awareness across Israel about the community’s needs.

Monday Morning Link Roundup

Yesterday was Fathers’ Day, and in honor of the special occasion, here are some inspiring reads and service opportunities, both dad-related and not, from around the blogosphere.

CHECK IT OUT

• (Robyn Stegman) A blogger gushes about the influence her dad has had on her service work, and embarks on a unique fundraising project to say thanks. (You can help out with the fundraising efforts here.)
• (Take Part) The state of Florida gets one step closer to shedding its title as the only state in the nation with an explicit ban on gay adoption.
• (JTA) In related news, next week (June 27-29) three Jewishly-focused LGBT advocacy groups will join together in the Bay Area with more than 100 leaders of the Jewish LGBT movement for a first-of-its-kind visioning meeting.
• (Good) Writer and business-management theoriest Tony Schwartz is fighting back on behalf of the long-lost lunch break. Starting June 23, every Wednesday is Take Back Your Lunch day – join the fight by enjoying your lunch.
• (How to Change the World) An oldie-but-goodie essay discusses how to change the world by being a mensch.
• (JTA) Philanthropists Eli and Edyth Broad recently pledged to donate 75% of their personal fortune (which stands at about 5.7 billion) during their lifetime. Read more about the incredible couple here.

GET INVOLVED

• (JustCoz) A new online platform JustCoz enables non-profits to expand their social media reach by “donating” a tweet a day to the site. Register here to begin spreading the word about the causes your NGO or charity is passionate about on JustCoz. (FYI – Judging by names alone, at least two of the three founders, Yotam Troim and Ronen Raz are members of the tribe.)

NY Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36″ Full of Service Heros

It’s that time of year again: 36 Under 36 time! Each year the New York Jewish Week profiles 36 Jewish visionaries and innovators under the age of 36.” In the words of the Jewish Week:

“We shine a spotlight on a new crop of three dozen forward-thinking young people who are helping reshape the Jewish community. They’re revitalizing established Jewish organizations by launching new models of young leadership programs, empowering micro-entrepreneurs here and in Israel, fostering new forms of spirituality, and raising our eco-consciousness. Welcome to the future.”

This year, more than half of the impressive bunch were people working on the front lines of service – a clear indication that service work is an integral part of the Jewish community today, and will be into the future. Check out the list’s service super stars below the jump, and find the whole list here.