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Thursday, August 13, 2009Dear Fabulous Community, We Want to Hear From You!
PLP has created a Virtual ThinkTank to tap your innovative
thoughts and ideas about what happens next for our network. And, about understanding what has successfully impacted you for replication by others. 1. Tell us every crazy idea that you have for how PLP can live on. From schmoozing to studying together; from connecting up with other next–gen organizations to starting a new mentoring network; we’re open to hearing everything you have to say. 2. Then tell us, how has PLP’s mission impacted/changed you? Add anything you want to say about Jewish leadership and ideas for replication. This forum will be open until August 31, 2009. Afterward, all info will be compiled and together great things will happen… Our best, PLP Tuesday, July 21, 2009PROGRESSIVE JEWISH ALLIANCE: Jeremiah Fellowship!
Jeremiah Fellowship engages young Jews of diverse religious, ethnic, and professional backgrounds in a series of trainings, learning sessions, and networking opportunities all geared towards helping people become effective social change leaders. Sessions are twice/month with retreats and activities peppered in between. Go to: http://www.pjalliance.org/article.aspx?CID=5&ID=541. Contact Josh Feldman with questions JFeldman@pjalliance.org 323.761.8350 x104.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009Apply Now: ThinkTank 4 & LiveNetworks 2009 Be a part of PLP's nationwide young Jewish leadership network!If you've never been to ThinkTank, or participated in LiveNetworks, now's your chance to apply for PLP's signature national initiatives. If you are already part of PLP, it's time to re-register for ThinkTank4, and tell your friends to apply, as well! (DEADLINE: JUNE 1)
Outstanding nextgen professionals and/or volunteer leaders in the Jewish community who want to join a national network with other entrepreneurs and change agents, apply now! LIVENETWORKS 2009 Check it all out at http://jewishleaders.net. Tuesday, April 21, 2009Young Professionals Night of The Los Angeles Jewish Film FestivalThis year's Young Professional's Night of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival promises to be an amazing evening. Join us as at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood as we celebrate Jewish film and enjoy live musical performances from the Moshav Band, and upcoming Israeli musician Haran Yaffe. Wednesday, February 18, 2009Let all who are not hungry come and act!Please join us at the Los Angeles Jewish Hunger Summit! Tuesday, March 24, 2009 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. The Jewish Federation 6505 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90048 Featured Speakers
LEONARD FEIN, MAZON Founder DAN GLICKMAN, Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sponsors of the event are: MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, The Board of Rabbis of Southern California, The Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Service, Jewish Vocational Service, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Orthodox Union and the Union for Reform Judaism. Tuesday, February 17, 20092nd Annual Bay Area Tu Bishvat Eco-Seder2nd Annual Bay Area Tu Bishvat Eco-Seder Had you told me that 260 Jewish Gen X-ers and Millenials, from Santa Cruz, the Peninsula, the East Bay, Marin, and San Francisco, many of whom are part of CSAs, and some of whom had never heard of a CSA, whose favorite trees include eucalyptus, olive, cherry, and redwood, would crowd together in the assembly hall of the Women’s Building (http://womensbuilding.org/content/) in the Mission District, swaying like palm trees to the Israeli folk-dance “Tzadik Katamar Yifrach” (the righteous will grow like palm trees), I would have raised a cynical eyebrow in your direction. Since, though, I was swaying like a palm tree along with the crowd, I can assure you that this year’s Second Annual Bay Area Eco Tu B’Shevat Seder (http://www.bayareaecoseder.blogspot.com/) was a sight to behold. Tu B’Shvat(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_Bishvat) marks the fifteenth day in the month of Shvat, a day which the Mishnah, a codification of oral Jewish law redacted in the 200 CE, marks as the New Year of the Trees. The holiday largely fell into oblivion when the Jewish people were not living in the Land of Israel and not connected to its agricultural cycles, or obligated in the biblical tithes of its fruit, but, in the 17th century, was re-invigorated by the Kabbalists in Tzefat, who infused the holiday with mystical meaning and developed a ritual, analogous to the Passover Seder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder), to mark it. In recent times, Tu B’Shvat has become the “little holiday that could,” pulling behind it those passionate about the environment and social action, those interested in celebrating a Jewish holiday connected to nature and community, and one which involves drinking four cups of wine. Last year, Jeff Levy, inspired by a session at the Professional Leaders’ Project (http://www.jewishleaders.net/) Think Tank in 2007, imagined what it would be like to bring together a community of people to celebrate Tu B’Shvat. He began to spread the idea around, and then began to act on it; six Jewish organizations in the Bay Area, including Congregation Emanu-El (http://www.emanuelsf.org/), The Hub at the JCCSF (http://www.jccsf.org/hub_web/hub.htm), New Israel Fund New Generations (http://www.nif.org/get-involved/new-generations/), San Francisco Hillel (http://www.sfhillel.org/), and EcoJews of the Bay co-sponsored the event, under-writing its cost, and 150 people, their own plates and cups in hand, showed up to celebrate Tu B’Shvat together. The event was such a success that this year the number of sponsoring organizations and attendees nearly doubled; the event was sold-out two weeks before it happened, and people showed up at the door hoping to be let in off of a waiting list. All of the advertising for the event was conducted paper-free, using viral marketing, email and Facebook. The event was the largest of its type in the country. The structure of the Tu B’Shvat Haggadah (http://www.hazon.org/go.php?q=/food/tuBishvat/resources.html) (printed for the Eco-Seder on 100% post-consumer watste, chlorine free recycled paper), corresponds to the four Kabbalistic “worlds” – spheres through which the life-giving flow of the Divine is channeled and filtered. These realms correspond to the seasons – beginning, with a cup of white wine, with winter, and ending, with a cup of red wine, in the fall – and to the internal states of being – beginning with “Assiya,” the world of action, the lowest world, the realm of the concrete and physical, represented by fruits and nuts with an inedible outer shell and an edible inner core, and ending in “Atzilut,” the world of emanation, the highest world, which cannot be conceived by the senses, and so cannot be represented by any physical food at all. All of the food and drink at the Eco-Seder was certified kosher, most of it was seasonal and purchased from local and/or organic sources; in fact, many of the food purchases were made directly from the farmers themselves. The fruits were incredible – jackfruit, guava, hazelnuts, organic papaya, organic kiwis, organic dried persimmons, organic pomelos and organic mangos. Many I had never even heard of, let alone seen or tasted before – like Buddha's hand, with its white, dry, lemon-like core, or the tamarind, which looks like a giant brown edamame pod, and which, in order to eat, you need to crack open, de-vein, and then chew, making sure to spit out the pit; its flesh is thick and sweet, not unlike a date’s. Participants at the Seder sat at long tables, adorned with platters of bountiful fruits and nuts. A group of musicians, playing guitar, mandolin, tambourine, and dumbek, sat in the center, accompanying each blessing over the wine, fruit, and bread, and jamming to songs like “Adama VeShamayim” – “Love the earth, love the sky,” the people all around them swaying, smiling, and drumming on the tables. During the course of the evening, participants studied Jewish environmental texts, grappling with notions of environmental preservation and change, and with human responsibility towards the natural world, meditated on their food, envisioning all of the natural and human resources that allowed for that piece of fruit to get from the trees outside to their mouths, danced, sang, and celebrated, and made personal and communal commitments to living a life more in balance with the natural world. Many will come together again on February, 18th, to join UpStart Bay Area’s first “How Do You Jew” (http://www.upstartbayarea.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=7&Itemid=58) conversation about concrete ideas for change the Jewish community can make on the environment in the Bay Area, featuring guest speaker Mike Zuckerman, Director of Sustainability at Temple Nightclub (http://cms.templesf.com/green/who_is_green_temple/director_of_sustainability.html). At the end of the evening, this diverse group of young Jews who rarely cross paths, and who had gathered together for this joyous spiritual event, helped clean up, washed their own plates and cups and tucked them in their bags, and headed out into the cold night air, the full, Tu B’Shvat moon shining above them.
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