As the sun sets on a recent Friday evening in Tel Aviv, strangers — most newly or lifelong secular Israelis — trickle into a loft in the heart of Jaffa. They leave their bags — and phones — at the door, per the hosts’ instructions, and grab a glass of wine and begin to mingle. A meditation begins, bringing the group together in silence as they welcome the start of Shabbat. Tonight, a host explains in Hebrew, the night’s theme is “ritual,” tying the concept to the week’s Torah portion. The conversation continues over dinner, which was inspired by the Kurdish dishes that were Shabbat mainstays in the childhood home of Lipaz Ela, one of the hosts of the dinner and a co-founder of Minyan TLV, reports Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Shabbat in the White City: Israel’s secular Jews account for a sizable amount of the country’s total Jewish population. In a city that feels constantly “on,” it can sometimes be challenging to slow down for Shabbat, especially for young people who lack a strong Jewish community. With that in mind, Lipaz Ela and Oz Fishman invited a group of 10 friends, mostly secular, to a Shabbat dinner in March 2022. And thus Minyan TLV was born. “It consciously dawned on us that the coffee shop in Tel Aviv is people’s shul, more or less,” Fishman told eJP. “It’s not the depth of the spiritual experience that I think a lot of people are feeling. Maybe they get that in yoga, they get that in meditation, they get it in all these New Age-y things that people like, but we were looking for a space that knew how to handle both.”

A good start: The group’s seed funding came from the New York-based Julius Stulman Foundation, which issued a rare open request for proposals ahead of founder Steven Stulman’s 90th birthday. Fishman, who noted that small groups often struggle to find seed funding to get off the ground without deep relationships in the philanthropic space, put together a submission asking for enough for five dinners. Stulman was so impressed he not only gave them the grant but doubled the amount. That money, Fishman said, sustained the group for the entirety of its first year. Now, the group seeks to find additional sources of funding as it works to expand its offerings and reach larger numbers of people.

Read the full story here.

The management of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger “formally and voluntarily recognized” the organization’s newly founded union, Mazon United, on Monday, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.

Getting recognition: Last month, Mazon employees announced their intention to unionize through CWA Local 9003, offering the organization’s leadership 24 hours to recognize the union voluntarily before Mazon United began official legal proceedings through the National Labor Relations Board. At the time, Mazon’s management said it supported the unionization idea in theory but needed more time to consider it. This week, just over a month later, the organization recognized the union, before being required to do so by law.

Presidential support: “I respect and support our team members’ decision to organize, and I am confident that this agreement is in the best interest of the organization and our mission,” Abby J. Leibman, Mazon’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “For nearly 40 years, Mazon’s staff, board, supporters, and partners around the country have worked together to end hunger and seek justice… I welcome Mazon United as a partner in ensuring the effectiveness and integrity of our work.”

Contract negotiations: CWA Local 9003 President Marisa Remski said in a statement that the union was “pleased” to represent Mazon employees and was preparing for the next step: contract negotiations. “We are excited for the next step in the process which is to begin negotiating a successful first contract that demonstrates and rewards the value the employees bring to MAZON and is a positive step forward for all parties! Together, we can find common ground that will benefit all employees and the organization as a whole.”

“No need to go running for the ice buckets, but I’m officially throwing out a challenge to all involved in synagogue/part-time Jewish education to lower the emphasis on, and decrease the amount of time devoted to Hebrew decoding. We are a quarter of the way into the 21st century, but still holding onto a last-century Hebrew-learning goal — the fluent and accurate ‘reading’ of Hebrew prayers. No, I’m not suggesting that we stop teaching the Alef-Bet, nor Hebrew decoding skills. Rather, I am challenging us to expand our Hebrew learning goals,” writes Nachama Skolnik Moskowitz, director of #OnwardHebrew, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Unreasonable expectations: “Not surprisingly, students in synagogue settings do not have the prerequisites to achieve orthographic mapping in Hebrew, especially when the time is short and prayers and blessings offer a high level of linguistic difficulty. The goal of ‘fluent and accurate reading’ is a misnomer; our synagogue learners cannot be expected to read Hebrew.”

Call to arms: “And so, a call for change! Hebrew has the potential to touch our children’s hearts if we expand our learning goals, moving beyond an almost singular focus on prayers. I challenge educators and clergy to invite stakeholders to new conversations about Hebrew-learning goals and to reconsider their assumptions about successful Hebrew learning… The gauntlet has been thrown down! On behalf of our learners, will you accept the challenge?”

Read the full piece here.

“In this week’s Torah reading, Ki Tavo, Moses gave the Israelites an unusual command: He told the people that after they crossed the Jordan River, they were to separate into two distinct groups; each group was charged with a different recitation. On one mountain, Har Gerizim, six tribes were to stand and bless the people: Simon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. On the other mountain, Har Eival, the remaining tribes – Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naftali – were to stand and articulate a set of curses. The Levites were then to respond to all the Israelites in a loud voice (kol ram)’ (Deuteronomy 27:14),” writes Erica Brown, vice provost for values and leadership at Yeshiva University and director of its Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center, in her weekly column for eJewishPhilanthropy, “The Torah of Leadership.”

Taking responsibility: “Each mountain experience represented a new stage of collective identity precipitated by an immersive, transformative experience. The Israelites first crossed a body of water as an act of liberation. They were going to cross yet another body of water to become a nation… Leaders cannot carry the full weight of accountability alone… Accountability requires courageous followers who have learned to stand up for what they believe in and commit to action. It often requires a strenuous climb.”

Mountain not necessary: “With the climb up their respective mountains and their recitation of curses and blessings, the Israelites figuratively and emotionally imitated Moses and became the masters of their own destiny. They had to be the mountain climbers. In his book, Studies in Spirituality, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that to be a committed Jew, you don’t always need a mountain: ‘The beauty of Jewish spirituality is precisely that in Judaism, God is close. You don’t need to climb a mountain or enter an ashram to find the Divine Presence.’ You need the light of Shabbat candles, the warmth of community or the kindness of strangers. For leaders to grow, they have to be willing, not only to climb mountains, but to identify the next mountain to climb.”

Read the full piece here.