by Morlie Levin Although I read Martin Levine’s meaty piece last week while on vacation, many of his insights stayed in my mind. One phrase in particular kept reverberating: “Leadership is about facing ... choices head on ... [and] the first step ... must be a willingness to look at our reality clearly.” At NEXT: a Division of Birthright Israel Foundation we have emerged from a period of deep reflection, looking at our reality clearly. And we came to focus on that which the community at large is already experiencing: it’s the numbers. Think about this for a minute. Almost 200,000 20-somethings who live in the U.S. have ALREADY been on a Birthright trip. Tens of thousands more will go this year, and every year going forward. Each has a story to tell. Each is touched, challenged, … Continue Reading
Network-Weaving with Becky Voorwinde
Deborah Fishman sits with Becky Voorwinde. This interview is part of the Network-Weaver Series. [Becky Voorwinde is the Co-Director, Director of Strategy & Community Engagement for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel (BYFI). She is currently on maternity leave following the recent birth of her daughter, Miriam Zahavah.] What is a network? A network is a group of people who are connected based on some level of shared experience, interest, or demographic - sometimes more than one characteristic. What’s interesting about networks is the way they can be multi-layered. BYFI is multi-generational - we’ve been around for 25 years - and we have people from various religious backgrounds, geographic locations, professional backgrounds, and life experiences. There are some shared … Continue Reading
Birthright Israel NEXT Helps Young Adults Celebrate Chagim
Many young adults face very real challenges in participating in meaningful, affordable services around the the High Holidays, especially if they just moved to a new city or aren’t a member of a synagogue. Some worry that young Jews are walking away from synagogues, but Birthright Israel NEXT sees a very different world. Based on a recent survey of New York-based Birthright Israel alumni, more than 80% of respondents said they were interested in some form of High Holiday programming. In response to this need, Birthright Israel NEXT has launched a unique online resource guide featuring an interactive map of free and discounted High Holiday services and events around the country. More than 200 opportunities from 20 U.S. cities are represented. NEXT is the only organization collecting and … Continue Reading
Birthright NEXT Restructures Philly Office
from Jewish Exponent.com: Birthright NEXT: Group's Next Step Will Be More Collaborative in Philly Birthright Israel NEXT, the nonprofit agency designed to continue engaging the young adults who took advantage of the agency's free trips to Israel after they return home, is downsizing and reshaping its operations in Philadelphia. Though details are still being finalized, officials say NEXT will be revived this winter in partnership with the volunteer-run Moishe House and Tribe 12, a nonprofit umbrella organization for independent programs serving the Jewish community. The collaboration comes nearly three months after the Philly NEXT office quietly shut down without public explanation in late October, the phone lines disconnected and, for a time, all mention of the office completely erased … Continue Reading
Michael Steinhardt on Birthright NEXT Partnership
by Michael Steinhardt As a longtime supporter of programming for Birthright Israel alumni and a current member of the Birthright Israel NEXT board of directors, I feel compelled, as I work with board chair Al Levitt and my friend Lynn Schusterman, to advance NEXT and its vision, to set the record straight about our largest and most long-running alumni program here in New York. Our New York alumni office has been growing substantially since we created it seven years ago. At the time, funding for this important element of the Birthright Israel experiment was scarce. I had few real partners in this work even as Birthright Israel was being criticized for its failure to conduct follow-up. It was businessman and philanthropist Aaron Wolfson who called my office and extended an offer to work with me … Continue Reading
Birthright Israel NEXT and the Invisible Doubling Effect
by Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner Reading The Jerusalem Post yesterday, it occurred to me that Birthright Israel NEXT's work has a visibility problem. Haviv Rettig Gur writes regarding Taglit-Birthright Israel “these connections are wasted if they are not directed at new Jewish experiences back home.” He ends the piece with a short question:“Where’s the follow-up?” The work of "follow-up" is not as apparent to the public eye as the sight of hundreds of Taglit- banner buses on Israel's roads. But since I have the pleasure of working with a young staff who have succeeded in providing new Jewish experiences to over fifty thousand Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni in North America during the past year, I have the opportunity to see the follow-up every day. Here is one example: In 2009, the … Continue Reading
Birthright Israel Experience Significantly Lowers Rate of Intermarriage
New research released this morning by researchers from The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University backs up what many of us have known for years - Birthright participants return home with positive perceptions of their experience, increased connection to Israel, greater sense of connectedness to the Jewish people and increased interest in creating Jewish families. The study, which has had the science behind it heavily vetted, is both the first to identify the Birthright experience as playing a part in marriage choices and the first to look at long-term impacts of participation. Selecting both alumni and applicants who did not participate, the study focused on individuals from Birthright's earliest years, 2001-2004. Key highlights include: Among married respondents … Continue Reading
IDC Herzliya Alumni Raise over 1,000,000 NIS for Scholarships
Following the example of leading academic institutions around the world, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and others, the Alumni Association at IDC Herzliya, has concluded a unique campaign, the first of its kind in Israel, under the title “A place in the heart", with the goal of raising 1,000,000 NIS from 8,000 IDC Herzliya Alumni to be donated as scholarships for IDC students in need. The campaign's goal was reached after eight months, four months ahead of plan. … Continue Reading
Young Alumni Give Online
from The Involver Blog (Involver is a video marketing platform designed for social networks): The View from Stanford: Why Video Marketing and Email Marketing Make a Perfect Match It seems obvious that email is a more effective way to communicate with “Generation Y” for a much lower cost than paying to print letters and sending them via snail mail. Sending emails alone, however, isn’t enough. Development officers should not expect to simply take the text of a traditional fundraising letter, put it into an email, and have more effective results. Although it will certainly cost less than sending snail mail, I argue that this is not the best way to build a case for support and engage alumni... How then, can we most effectively tell our story to thousands of people and inspire them to … Continue Reading
The Next Wave of Philanthropy
by Sean Stannard-Stockton; originally published in The Financial Times: Social circles with a square deal for charity Giving circles are a hot trend in philanthropy. Similar to the investment clubs of the 1990s that brought people together to talk about stock picking, giving circles are social groups where people pool resources and decide which non-profits to fund. If giving circles prove to be a hit, a few years from now cocktail party chatter might include: “I just got a hot tip on a non-profit you should consider!” ...But it is not only baby boomers who are becoming interested in philanthropy and giving circles; there is also increased interest from Generation Y.... The Young Philanthropist Committee of Birthright Israel NEXT NY is a group funded by Michael Steinhardt, the hedge … Continue Reading
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