The Jewish community has been a-buzz in recent years about its “Innovation Ecosystem,” a term coined by Shawn Landres and Joshua Avedon in their report published in 2008. The report revealed that a substantial number of new Jewish organizations, which think and behave differently from existing, often flailing, Jewish institutions, are cropping up at a rapid pace. These organizations are radically changing the landscape of the Jewish community, meeting its most pressing needs, and providing creative, relevant, and substantive Jewish programming to Jews not participating in pre-existing structures. My question is: Why aren’t more of our creative social entrepreneurs dedicating their energies to re-envisioning, re-imagining, and re-shaping those institutions that, arguably, have the potential … Continue Reading
Back to School
Embracing The Maybe: The Case For Risk-Taking
A recent article in the Business section of the Sunday New York Times, entitled “6 Months, $90,000, and (Maybe) a Great Idea,” described the phenomenon of the “Entrepreneur in Residence”(EIR). In Silicon Valley, there is a growing trend amongst venture capital firms to give business entrepreneurs, many of whom have successfully started and sold companies in the past, the opportunity to use their office space, benefit from a generous stipend, and put on their thinking hats. The hope is that they will come up with the next Google or Facebook. Michael Bauer is one such entrepreneur the article highlights: “While the expectations are high for his ideas, Mr. Bauer maintains that the E.I.R. programs work precisely because failure is allowed in Silicon Valley. ... In other parts of the world, … Continue Reading
Ideas Worth Investing In
After a four-year hiatus, Joshua Venture Group (JVGroup) has emerged to rejoin the now burgeoning field of Jewish social entrepreneurship as a leading national support source for cultivating strong leaders and transformative ventures that seek to profoundly impact the American Jewish community. The organization officially re-launched in Fall 2009, announcing its call for applications for the 2010-2012 Dual Investment Program - a two-year intensive program for emerging entrepreneurs to work both individually as venture leaders and collectively as a cohort to develop and refine the professional and organizational skills needed to either start up or scale their ventures. The response to this opportunity was strong, with over 300 individuals inquiring via email and phone, by directly accessing the … Continue Reading
Apply To Become an UpStarter
Are you ready to start up your Jewish idea? Or know someone who is? UpStart is ready to invest in a fresh group of innovative Jewish social entrepreneurs, who will benefit from UpStart's dynamic and supportive community. In addition to the benefits UpStart offers, successful applicants whose project articulates a significant service/social action strategy for its work will receive these additional benefits from Repair The World: A technical assistance grant; Inclusion into Repair the World's community of practice and technical assistance in the area of Jewish service/social action; Invitation to gatherings of Jewish service learning providers; Mentors for each UpStarter (fully managed by Repair the World); Connections with leading practitioners in your field; Publicity and … Continue Reading
Spinning
It’s that time of year again - the days are shorter and colder, and across cultures people huddle together with family members, and brighten the dark evenings with orbs of light. Chanukah is upon us. We eat latkes and jelly donuts to remember the oil that miraculously lasted in the ancient temple. We light candles each night, increasing light and holiness in the world. We remember the miraculous victory of the few against the many, and celebrate our religious and cultural freedom. And, of course, we play dreidel - and teach our young and tender to gamble. I have a vivid childhood memory of gathering with aunts, uncles, and cousins at my grandfather’s house for Chanukah. He had a jar full of coins, and each family member would line up in size order to take a turn dipping a hand into the jar … Continue Reading
Are Today’s Innovators “Leaders?”
Bob Goldfarb, in his recent piece Innovation, Management, and Leadership, raises an interesting question about the relationship between “innovation” and “leadership.” He writes: “From a structural perspective… [innovators] have simply added independent, entrepreneurial elements to Jewish communal life that complement the established, centralized bureaucracies.” But is that really all they have done? Goldfarb points out that leadership and management are two separate activities. He claims that “leaders [should] resist institutional inertia, challenge fashionable ideas, question the trends of the moment, articulate new visions, and rally a broad following so that true transformation is possible.” Leadership, then, is as an activity that draws attention to a community’s … Continue Reading
A Moment in Time: Sunday Night at the GA
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” - Henry David Thoreau Anyone who has been to a GA knows that there are two schedules - the one that is published in the program book and the one you make for yourself. Between the plenaries and the salons, there are meetings squeezed into bar booths and between sofas, old stories being recalled and new opportunities being explored. Whenever so many people from so many places come together, there is often too much to discuss in too little time; the GA is a microcosm of the Jewish world - passionate, exhilarating and exhausting. Yet somewhere among the hectic schedules there are moments both superb and sublime that comprise the GA, moments that sometimes reflect upon the past and other that … Continue Reading
The Jewish Innovation Pipeline: A Google Chrome OS for New Jewish Organizations?
by Joshua Avedon Seth Cohen recently challenged us to think about 5 key questions facing Jewish innovation. While we hope his excellent analysis continues to spark a broader conversation in the Jewish world, Jumpstart sees a big picture answer emerging to the "How?" issue he raises. And we'd like to frame it by taking a page from one of our favorite innovators from the technology world, Google. Google recently announced the launch of the Chrome Operating System, an efficient, distributed platform that is Google's latest run at Microsoft, purveyor of the market-dominant, yet much maligned Windows operating system. In their press release about the Chrome OS, Google said "It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be." Jumpstart was created in an attempt to re-think how best … Continue Reading
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