Saturday Night, March 13, 2010 -- South Florida.  Reconnect with your Young Judaea friends at the first South Florida reunion!  Judaeans from around the area will be in attendance to honor and celebrate YJ's 100 years!  Contact Danielle for details.  YJ Alumni Committee Members include: Alysha Goldstein Erez, Brooke Lobel, Eric Ross, David Weiss and many others.  REGISTER TODAY!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 -- Boston.  Come and join fellow Young Judaea alumni in the first Boston event!  Help continue to the 100th anniversary celebrations and reconnect with your friends in Boston.  Email alumni if you'd like to help organize this exciting event!

Thursday, April 29, 2010 -- New York City.  Join Young Judaea alumni for the second annual YJ Scholarship Fundraiser in New York City!  Last year over 350 YJ alumni friends joined in this event and helped send 50 kids to camp and Israel  Additional details to be announced shortly, but mark your calendar as you won't want to miss this event!  To sponsor or help plan the event, please email yjevent@gmail.com.

Annette Powers, Senior Writer, Jewish Federations of North America 

 

 

Only the faces change from year to year.  Our mission stays the same.

 

For 100 years, Young Judaea has connected Jewish young people with their heritage, the land of Israel, and each other.  Your gift can help nurture the leaders of tomorrow's Jewish community.  Your gift can help them change the world.

Kate Nachman - Assistant Director of  Year Course
Kate grew up in the New England region of Young Judaea.   After programming for, and running, her club in Nashua, NH, she was regional Ofie/Tsofie programmer for the New England region.  She worked at Camp Sprout Lake and attended Camp Tel Yehudah before going on Year Course in 1990-91.  Kate spent her junior year abroad from Cornell University studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and interning for Young Judaea.  After graduation she worked as Year Course madricha (counselor) in 1995-96 before making Aliyah and founding Center Stage Theatre at Merkaz Hamagshimim Hadassah in Jerusalem, which she ran for 9 years.  Kate was in the USA working as the director of admissions for Hebrew College until returning to Israel to work as the interim assistant director of the Year Course Israel Experience department, now the Negev department.  Kate served as interim assistant director of Year Course during Debbie Goldsmith's maternity leave.  Kate has 3 daughters who are 4th generation Hadassah life members.  Kate and her family live in Jerusalem.

Rafi Weisz - Director of Short Term Programs
Rafi is Jerusalem born and raised and served as a commander in the Golani infantry brigade. Rafi majored in Middle East studies and history at Hebrew University.  He is a licensed tour guide and has worked with organizations such as the Jewish Agency, Canada Israel Experience, Hillel, the City of David, and Ayanot.  Rafi has been with Young Judaea/FZY Israel since 1998.  He worked his way up from Machon group madrich (counselor) to guide to coordinator in the short term programs department.  In 2003, he joined the Year Course staff and served in a variety of positions: in the field department and as tiyulim coordinator, director of the field department, and director of the Israeli experience department.  In his last position Rafi served as director of the Year Course Negev department.  Rafi lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two children.

 

 We are pleased to welcome Rachel back to the Friends of Israel Scouts, Inc. -Tzofim.  Many of you may remember Rachel as she has a long history with the Tzofim.  She grew up in Young Judaea at both Camp Young Judaea Midwest and Camp Tel Yehudah.  Rachel has spent significant time traveling and living in Israel and began her time with the Tzofim in 2002 as a Caravan leader.   She then became the Director of the Friendship Caravan and Summer Delegation and worked with us until 2005.  Since then Rachel has been the Assistant and then Associate Director of Camp Maas with Tamarack Camps in Michigan.  We are extremely happy to have Rachel back with us and we wish her continued success in her job with the Caravans and Summer Delegation.

Last weekend I had the privilege of planning and attending Young Judaea's National Midwinter Convention 2010 in Wimberley, Texas. We spent the weekend addressing the question: "What does it mean to love Israel and is it enough?" The program included everything from electives about different challenges facing Israel, to a YJ alumni panel who shared their stories about what kind of action they took when they were our age. The panel included Sean Macdonald, current YC participant and member of Garin Tzedek, Bar Twito, member of Garin Atid 2002-2003 and the tsofim 1996-2002, David Weinstein, Director of TY, Avi Mendelowitz, YC 1961-62 and who also marched with MLK on behalf of YJ, and Shelley Sherman, Coordinator for YJ.  The last day of convention was spent allowing everyone to start acting on the causes of our generation, everything from relief efforts in Haiti, to nuclear proliferation in Iran, to the issue of gay rights in Israel. All in all, Convention was a great chance to examine the new generation of challenges that face Zionism, while still celebrating the Young Judaea traditions of the last one hundred years.

Seth Finkelstein, student at the University of Maryland

Judith Tankel, student at Florida State University

Alli Hochberg, student at SUNY New Paltz

Alex Zaremba, student at Temple University

Steven Karp, student at University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee

 

Recruitment for the next cohort will begin soon.  To follow the work on the MODEL website, please go to YJ Impact/College and Beyond on the Young Judaea site.

 

 

Young Judaea is looking for charismatic, personable individuals to promote and market Year Course in Israel, a 9 month freshman-level, gap-year program for recent high school graduates.  This is a part-time position for those with a flexible schedule and living in one of the following cities:  Cleveland, Columbus, Phoenix, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, or Portland.  If you have spent a significant amount of time in Israel, have sales experience, the ability to engage teens, feel comfortable public speaking, and enjoy being on the go, please contact us immediately at 310-497-2758 or dcohen@youngjudaea.org.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Come work at camp this summer!  Tel Yehudah is looking for office staff, nurses and drivers for Summer 2010.  If you're interested or know someone who is, please contact David Weinstein, Director of TY by email, dweinstein@youngjudaea.org or by phone, 212-303-7444.