October 23, 2014 - 29 Tishrei 5775

Amazing Nature for Teachers: A New Engagement Tool
ToTally Online Hebrew School
Official Welcome Video From The Shabbos Project

OUTREACH

Millenial Jews Do An About Face, Start Keeping Kosher

The Latest From Chabad: The Sukkah Bicycle

Dov Ber Cohen: A Journey to the Truth

Introducing the Build a Jewish Library Foundation

PHILANTHROPY/FUNDRAISING

Giving Tuesday is Less Than 50 Days Away: Are You Ready?

NORTH AMERICA

Caroline Glick: When It Comes to Undermining Israel, Obama is a Managerial Genius

Standing Ovation for Met 'Klinghoffer' Despite Protest

Miami's Jewish Community Booming

Swastikas Drawn on Yale Dorm Steps

Are Your State's Legislators Speaking Out Against the Iranian and Palestinian Threats?

Academia's Most Shameless Liars

Open Hillel Holds Conference with BDS Supporting Speakers

ISRAEL

Netanyahu Shelves Bill to Reform Conversion Process
Jewish Worshippers Ambushed by Arabs in Vicious Jerusalem Attack
Sell to Jews, Jail for Life
Vast Majority of Israeli Jews Oppose Palestinian State
Father of IDF Soldier Killed in Gaza Livid at Israeli Hospital for Treating Hamas Leader's Family
Am Yisrael Buy: Pro-Israel App Aims to Counter Flurry of BDS Ones

INTERNATIONAL

Ben Cohen: European Antisemitism Is Now a Full Scale Social Movement

The Beast of Buenos Aires

Germany to Sell Israel Navy Fastboats

UK Student Union Votes Against Commemorating Holocaust

An Alternative Cultural and Community Center Reopens in Budapest

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

The Power of the Hour

Kosher Meets Hipster

Rabbi Loses 100 Pounds After Reality of Weight Hits

Remind: A Free Service for Sending Text Messages to Groups of Parents & Students

New Features to Sefaria.org: A Living Library of Jewish Texts Online

To View Our Archives of Past Newsletters

AJOP Board

RABBINIC AUTHORITIES

HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky

HaRav Yaakov Perlow

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Rabbi Ilan Feldman

Atlanta, GA

Rabbi Yaacov Haber

Jerusalem, Israel

Mr. Richard Horowitz

Los Angeles, CA

Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh

Northbrook, IL

Dr. David Lieberman

Lakewood, NJ

Rabbi Yitzchok Lowenbraun

National Director

Rabbi Shlomo Porter

Baltimore, MD

Mr. Jeff Schachter Esq.

Passaic, NJ

Mr. Frank Storch

Baltimore, MD

HaRav Michel Twerski

Milwaukee, WI

Mr. Jerry Wolasky

Baltimore, MD

ADVISORY BOARD

Mr. Mark Bane

Lawrence, NY

Mr. Jonathan Beren

Denver, CO

Dr. Robert Edelman

Baltimore, MD

Rabbi Avraham Edelstein

Jerusalem, Israel

Dr. Michael J. Elman

Baltimore, MD
Rabbi David Felsenthal
New York, NY

Mr. Howard Tzvi Friedman

Baltimore, MD

Mr. Joseph Friedman

Olney, MD
Mr. Harvey Hecker*

Toronto, ONT

Mr. Stephen Rosedale

Cincinnati, OH

Rabbi Simcha Scholar

Brooklyn, NY

Rabbi Dovid Refson

Jerusalem, Israel

Mr Gary Torgow

Detroit, MI

Rabbi Abraham Twerski, MD

Teaneck, NJ

*Deceased

Amazing Nature for Teachers: A New Engagement Tool

Rambam writes that the most straightforward way to appreciate and get close to Hashem is to look at nature.

The Amazing Nature for Teachers program empowers teachers at all levels with a stunning, surprising, incredible, awesome, amazing daily nature photos to engage their students.

The project's website (http://amazingnature4teachers.com) includes tips for implementation. There are options for individual, team or school-wide subscriptions.

Amazing Nature for Teachers is a project of Jewish Spiritual Literacy, a non-profit education and outreach organization located in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Shabbos Project & Shabbat 2014: Keeping It Together The Shabbos Project is going international! This year it will take place on the 24-25 October, Parshat Noach. To bring The Shabbos Project to your city go to theshabbosproject.com Official Welcome Video from The Shabbos Project Click Here to watch the video

Millenial Jews Do an About-Face, Start Keeping Kosher

An Article from NPR

Many millennials - people born after 1980 - have embraced vintage items: vinyl records, thick-framed glasses ... and now, dietary laws. Continue Reading

The Latest From Chabad: The Sukkah Bicycle
An Article from The Yeshiva World News

Look for Levi Duchman on a bike. Not just any bike, though. The 21-year-old Chabad yeshivah student in Brooklyn, N.Y., is riding around on a modified pedi-cab-an adult-sized, three-wheeled cycle that attaches to various holiday accoutrements.
Continue Reading

Dov Ber Cohen: A Journey to the Truth
An Article from Hamodia

I first encountered him in Stamford, CT while covering the AJOP Convention in January 2013.
Continue Reading

Introducing the Building a Jewish Library Foundation
An Article from Ner Le'Elef

Rabbi Ezriel Munk of TorahLinks.org has started a new venture that will benefit a slew of Jewish organizations as well as rabbis and educators called "The Build a Jewish Library Foundation." Continue Reading

Giving Tuesday is Less Than 50 Days Away: Are You Ready? An Article from eJewish Philanthropy #GivingTuesday - a recent addition to the philanthropic lexicon - represents an enormous, still largely untapped opportunity for Jewish nonprofits to reach new donors, galvanize their supporters, and join in the conversation at the water cooler and on social media to raise money. Continue Reading

Caroline Glick: When It Comes to Undermining Israel, Obama is a Managerial Genius
An Article from The Jerusalem Post

Since he assumed office nearly six years ago, US President Barack Obama has been dogged by allegations of managerial incompetence. Continue Reading

Standing Ovation for Met 'Klinghoffer' Despite Protest
An Article from The Times of Israel

Politicians including former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani joined a crowd of demonstrators outside the Metropolitan Opera on Monday as part of an ongoing protest over an opera focused on the death of a Jewish man that critics say glorifies his Palestinian killers. Continue Reading

Miami's Jewish Community Booming
An Article from The Times of Israel

For the first time in four decades, Miami Jewry is growing.

Swastikas Drawn on Yale Dorm Steps
An Article from JTA

Swastikas were drawn in chalk on the steps of a Yale University dormitory. Continue Reading

Are Your State's Legislators Speaking Out Against the Iranian and Palestinian Threats?
An Article from The Algemeiner

When circulated in both houses of the U.S. Congress, letters articulating the pro-Israel narrative on issues such as the Iranian nuclear threat and Hamas terrorism garner broad bipartisan support. Continue Reading

Academia's Most Shameless Liars
An Article from The Times of Israel

An American academic group under fire for reportedly barring Israelis from its conference says its boycott of Israel is not discriminatory and does not include sanctions against individual Israeli academics.

Open Hillel Holds Conference With BDS Supporting Speakers
An Article from The Algemeiner

Open Hillel, a student movement calling on Hillel International to allow the expression of more diverse points of view on Israel, held a conference from Oct. 11-13 in Cambridge, Mass. Continue Reading

Netanyahu Shelves Bill to Reform Conversion Process
An Article from The Times of Israel

Only weeks after solving the budget crisis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be facing another standoff with a coalition partner after he withdrew his support Monday from the controversial Conversion Bill. Continue Reading

Jewish Worshippers Ambushed by Arabs in Vicious Jerusalem Attack
An Article from Arutz 7

A group of Jews were subjected to a vicious assault in broad daylight after being ambushed by an Arab gang on Rosh Hashanah, in the latest of a spate of violent anti-Semitic incidents in Jerusalem. Continue Reading

Sell to Jews, Jail for Life
An Article from i24 News

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday published an order hardening the punishment for Palestinians who sell land to "hostile countries" and their citizens, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Continue Reading

Israel4

Vast Majority of Israeli Jews Oppose Palestinian State
An Article from Israel Hayom

A vast majority of Jewish Israelis oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, the division of Jerusalem or giving up the Jordan Valley, according to a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs poll taken last week.
Continue Reading

Father of IDF Soldier Killed in Gaza Livid at Israeli Hospital for Treating Hamas Leader's Family
An Article from The Algemeiner

In a furious telephone call on Monday, the bereaved Israeli father of an IDF soldier who died in Gaza fighting castigated the director of a Tel Aviv hospital after hearing that the center had treated the daughter of a senior Hamas leader, Israel's Channel 2 News reported. Continue Reading

Am Yisrael Buy: Pro-Israel App Aims to Counter Flurry of BDS Ones
An Article from JTA

The latest Israel technology wasn't developed at the Technion, nor was it hatched by a startup in Tel Aviv. In fact, it didn't come from Israel at all.
Continue Reading

Ben Cohen: European Antisemitism is Now a Full Scale Social Movement
An Article from Mosaic

"Antisemitism was born in modern societies because the Jew did not assimilate himself," wrote the French-Jewish thinker Bernard Lazare in 1894, a few months after the arrest of Captain Alfred Dreyfus on charges of treason. Continue Reading

The Beast of Buenos Aires
An Article from The Jerusalem Post

The leader of the Argentine far-left group Quebracho was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for threatening a Jewish community demonstration. Continue Reading

Germany to Sell Israel Navy Fastboats
An Article from Haaretz

A crisis between Israel and Germany over missile boats required to protect Israel's offshore gas fields has ended after Berlin agreed to slash €300 million (about $382 million) off the cost, officials on both sides said. Continue Reading

UK Student Union Votes Against Commemorating Holocaust
An Article from The Tower

The student union at Goldsmiths College in London voted against commemorating the Holocaust this week by a margin of 60 to 1.
Continue Reading

An Alternative Cultural and Community Center Reopens in Budapest

An Article from eJewish Philanthropy

On Simchat Torah, Budapest's answer to a new alternative Jewish community center will open its doors with a new name and a new location.

The Power of the Hour
An Article from Yated

A young, local rov entered the home of Rav Moshe Feinstein just as an individual prepared to exit.

Kosher Meets Hipster
An Article from The Atlantic

On July 11, 1883, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise held a historic gathering in Cincinnati: the ordination of the very first class of rabbis of Reform Judaism, a modernized version of the faith. Continue Reading

Rabbi Loses 100 Pounds After Reality of Weight Hits
An Article from CNN

Pesach Sommer, 42, is an eight-time marathon runner. He's completed at least 10 half-marathons and lost count of the number of 5Ks and 10Ks he has run. Continue Reading

Remind: A Free Service for Sending Text Messages to Groups of Parents & Students

An Article from Ner Le'Elef

With the Northern Hemisphere's school year just underway, we wanted to take this opportunity to inform our readership of rabbis and educators about a handy service called Remind.

New Features to Sefaria.org: A Living Library of Jewish Texts Online
An Article from Ner Le'Elef

In early 2013, we highlighted a new site called: Sefaria. You can read that original blogpost here. Continue Reading

Please note: The views expressed in the articles featured in this newsletter reflect the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the thinking of the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals. AJOP serves to disseminate pertinent news to its subscribers.

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