First up, this is apparently a week to announce mergers and brand overhauls.

from The New York Jewish Week:

Major Youth Groups to Join Forces

As the economy has worsened, there have been calls for Jewish organizations to merge and consolidate, but little to show for it.

Now comes word that two Washington-based national Jewish groups aimed at teen involvement are about to join forces.

By Sept. 1, Panim, which promotes Jewish leadership and values, will become a division of BBYO, the venerable teen social and leadership group.

from The Jerusalem Post:

‘Tablet Magazine’ launches in attempt to set Jewish life to multimedia

Equal parts newspaper, magazine, Web site, radio and video, Tablet Magazine launched on Tuesday as a daily publication promising a “new read on Jewish life.”

Billed as the first integrated “multimedia Jewish journalistic enterprise,” Tablet is a new take on the Jewish arts-and-culture Web site Nextbook.org, published from 2003 until earlier this year.

The new magazine envisions long journalistic pieces coupled with cultural criticism, blog posts, podcasts and slide shows.

from The New York Jewish Week:

UJA-Fed. Launches $300 Million Effort For Day Schools

Responding to what experts are calling a financial crisis in the American day school movement, UJA-Federation of New York is launching a $300 million campaign to provide cash-strapped parents with tuition assistance, and schools with a measure of fiscal stability.

Los Angeles, which has the second largest Jewish federation after New York’s, has just announced a similar $100 million campaign.

from The Jerusalem Post:

Green project brings together US, Israeli pupils

Sviva Israel and the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 of New Jersey-Delaware/Arad-Tamar are finishing a successful first year that paired two Israeli schools with two US schools in their Eco-Connection program.

The Eco-Connection project, which began in January, focused on measuring pupils’ ecological footprints and the three basic tenets of environmental behavior – reduce, reuse, recycle.

Another unique angle to the program was the use of Internet and video tools to connect the schools across the sea and really make it a joint project, [Sviva Israel executive director Carmi] Wisemon said. The schools produced videos and slide shows and used a blog to leave messages for one another.

image courtesy Jewish Agency