I first met Matt Barr last summer at the opening night event for the inaugural season of the cutting edge Creative Zionism incubator. I admit it; I just could not get my head around his concept of using rap to teach Bible stories. Was I wrong! Almost a year later, Matt has a CD in production, studies at Pardes, works with visiting Birthright Israel groups, is preparing for a tour this summer of Jewish summer camps and produced the Haman's Song video. And now, just in time for Pesach, Matt, together with 12Tribe Films Foundation, introduces a new video titled "Moses Rap". [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzg9yoaW2XY[/youtube] You can find the words here. Creative Zionism II, premiers in about nine weeks. ...

A selection of recent articles and postings around the nonprofit world you may find of interest; first in our Jewish world followed by some links to recent non-profit blog posts. Study: Consultants May Hold the Key to Future of Synagogues A new study examining efforts at long-range planning in synagogues found that -- under the right conditions -- outside consultants, if armed with an understanding of both the business and the nonprofit worlds, can help congregations formulate strategic blueprints for the future. But the encouraging findings contained in "Strategic Planning in Congregations: Capitalizing on Opportunities for Organizational Change" came with a few caveats. Annual Survey of State Laws Regulating Charitable Solicitations Did you know that over 40 states ...

MyJewishLearning.com is proud to announce the creation of its Editorial Fellowship program. The inaugural two-year fellowship will begin in September 2008, concluding in August 2010. The fellowship is open to recent college graduates interested in writing, editing, Jewish life, and new media. MyJewishLearning.com, a transdenominational source of Jewish information, is currently undergoing a major site redesign, ramping up technological capacities and integrating new features, including video and an Ask-the-Expert function. Qualified candidates should have strong writing and editing skills and an in-depth knowledge of Jewish history, culture, and tradition, as well as familiarity with the web and web publications. for more information click here

Compass is a new guide that will highlight the most inspiring, innovative and sustainable Jewish projects in Europe today. Inspired by Slingshot, Compass is a project of the Westbury Group, a network of 25 international Foundations with a shared interest in enhancing Jewish life in Europe. Compass will feature the 50 most inspiring organizations in Europe today in a Zagat-style guide. With Compass, the sponsors hope to create a map of European Jewish activity that will inspire and encourage donors, supporters and innovators across the Jewish world. They are now seeking nominations. This is a great opportunity to gain recognition from a project or organization that you are involved with or know about. The guide aims to identify organizations which ...

Several weeks ago we wrote about a special Purim Solidarity Rally for Israel. What was unique about this event was your ability to participate from wherever you were; in other words it was going to occur on-line. Now that the rally has passed, we asked Eli Feldblum (one of the event architects to tell us about the specific results and provide us with some background into using social media for philanthropy. “Word of mouth” has long been recognized at the most effective way of marketing a product. One person telling a friend about a product or service is as organic as advertising gets. Absent the usual skepticism that comes along with traditional advertising, word of mouth marketing imparts its message to ...

Well, after many emails and endless phone calls and the crunching of many, many pixels, 60Bloggers.com is up. What’s that site all about? Well, May 8th is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel. You’ll notice lots of events happening in Israel and in communities around the world meant to commemorate this historic occasion. 60Bloggers.com is meant to do the same, but on the blogosphere. Consequently, we’ve put together a nice broad group of bloggers, some well-established, some relatively new, representing (I hope) ideological, religious and geographic diversity. Over the course of the next 60 days each will write one blog post on 60Bloggers.com where they will ...

Most of our readers — and possibly you reading this — don’t have children, let alone grandchildren…and that means we have time, and obligation, to build the world we’d like them to live in. As such, PresenTense ran an amazing event last night in Jerusalem, focused on the future of education in the Jewish State. And you didn’t have to be in Jerusalem to participate (I’m in New York at the moment): all you had to have is a connection to the internet. Here’s one example of a remote-participant, Gabby Schoenfeld: (Gaby is an an informal Jewish educator who is trying to enable young Jews to have life-changing experiences through service and social justice programs ...

Herzl famously wrote, "If you will it, it is no fable." This quote, made into a cliche over the long century since it was uttered, succinctly expresses the fundamental credo of a pioneer:

pioneers will the future into reality.

The first course: Last night, the PresenTense organization sponsored an evening in Jerusalem with three special pioneers, visionaries, as they hosted a conversation around the future of Israeli Education. All three (Sarah Kass, Beverly Gribetz and David Moatty) have already led the way in willing dreams to become tangible facts on the ground. The visionaries have been asked:

• What is your vision; why is it transformative?
• Why this path rather than others?
• What will change if your vision becomes reality?
• What will it take ...
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  Tags: connect, creativezionism, educate, innovate, Jewish Incubators, web 2.0

10 Questions Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves Before Posting

To help you in these crucial editing stages, we thought we would lay down some important questions bloggers can ask themselves so they can make an honest, constructive and critical appraisal of their work before posting it up for the world to see. Asking these simple questions could mean the difference between a hastily written blog article that remains obscure and a well-written, influential and accessible blog that courts a loyal audience with ease.

1. How quickly can my readers understand what my post is about?
2. Does my blog offer something novel or unexpected?
3. How helpful is my content?
4. Why should my readers trust me?
5. Does my content speak ...
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   Tags: educate, innovate, web 2.0

ShaBot 6000, the continuing cartoon saga of a pious Jew who purchases a robot to work as the Shabbos Goy for his household. The inquisitive robot, ShaBot, decides that he is Jewish, and is therefore unable to fulfill his duties as servant. ShaBot spends his days asking questions about Judaism, trying to find logic in a religion that sometimes just DOES NOT COMPUTE. ShaBot 6000 a comic strip for the 21st century. for more ShaBot 6000, check out Day of Rest.

for an explanation of this week's comic strip and more cartoon archives visit www.shabot6000.com