February 12, 2015 - 23 Shevat 5775

$1 Million in 1 Day for Outreach: Tuesday February 17
Audio from Convention 2015 Now Available
R' Dovid Winiarz z'l
RabbiKosman.com Annual Sitewide Sale!

OUTREACH

Op-Ed: Are Voluntary Dues Enough to Get People to Join Synagogues?

Intermarriage, I Do!

PHILANTHROPY/FUNDRAISING

Give Better. Give Together. A 7 Part Series on Launching and Sustaining a Successful Jewish Giving Circle

Questions Loom in Wake of FEGS' Fall

Tackling the Affordability Crisis

Sheldon Adelson Gives $40M More to Birthright

NORTH AMERICA

To Fund Expansion, JTS Selling Dorm Buildings

With Biden Opting Out, Partisan Row Over Netanyahu Speech Intensifies

Reform Head Joins Growing American Jewish Chorus Against PM's Speech

Study: Seattle's Jewish Population Soared 70 Percent Since 2001

U. of California Student Group Votes to Divest From Israel

ISRAEL

Riskin Chooses Successor For His Educational Network
Big Data Comes To Israeli Politics

INTERNATIONAL

Sky News Sorry for Gaza Images During Chief Rabbi Interview on Holocaust

Morocco's Jewish Cemetery Project Lauded at Paris Event

Warsaw's Jewish Cemetery Defender

British Right Wing Party Backs Ban on Religious Slaughter

Will Argentina's Jews Be Scapegoated?

Lost in Venice: How a Chabadnik Saved My Jewish Life

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

When Gawker Trolled Coca-Cola With 'Mein Kampf' Messages

New Yorker With Israeli Citizenship Barred From Kuwait Airways Flight

Op-Ed: Time to Reconsider the Jewish Love Affair With Buildings

Where Have All the Good Jewish Men Gone?

Why Anti Vaxxer Hysteria Isn't an Orthodox Problem

To View Our Archives of Past Newsletters

R' Dovid Winiarz z'l

AJOP and the Jewish people lost a beloved member of our close knit kiruv community, R' Dovid Winiarz. Traveling to the AJOP Convention early Sunday morning, the car he was in struck a patch of black ice and R' Dovid was tragically killed. Rabbi Raphael Butler delivered a moving memorial to R' Dovid on Monday at the AJOP Convention which can be accessed by clicking the link below. Yehi Zichro Baruch.

Click Here for the AJOP Memorial for R' Dovid

Sign Up for Shabbos Table Talk L'Iluy Nishmas R' Dovid

How to Process Sudden Death by Rav Moshe Meir Weiss

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

$1 Million in 1 Day for Outreach?

Starting at 12 Noon, Tuesday, February 17th, a group of outreach organizations from across the world are teaming up to raise $1M collectively, in just 24 hours, all or nothing. All donations made online that day will be quadrupled. Donations of $180 = $720.

But if each of the organizations does not reach its goal online - all the donations go back to the donors. Learn more at www.millionforoutreach.com and watch the trailer. Join the Thunderclap to update your facebook status to join the launch on social media or submit your email to get a reminder on the day of the campaign.

RabbiKosman.com Annual Sale

RabbiKosman.com is having their annual sitewide sale from Jan. 29 to Feb. 23

All downloads are 50% off.

This unique website specializes in shiurim where the text is taught inside, as every word is read, translated and explained clearly in English.Take advantage of the splendid variety of shiurim, ranging from Chumash and Rashi, to Tosfos and the Ktzos, with over 25 Mussar sefarim selections available.

Op-Ed: Are Voluntary Dues Enough to Get People to Join Synagogues?

An Article from JTA

Michael Paulson reported in The New York Times
on the "Pay What You Want" model that some
synagogues are implementing to reduce the
financial barrier to membership.
Continue Reading

Intermarriage, I Do!
An Article from Tablet

It was an intimate wedding at our local park where we take the dogs to run and where we throw our crusted sins into the stream each year on Rosh Hashanah. Continue Reading

Give Better. Give Together. A 7 Part Series on Launching and Sustaining a Successful Jewish Giving Circle
An Article from eJewish Philanthropy

Giving circles, groups who pool donations and decide together which causes to support, are a powerful tool for providing anyone - at any age, in any place, at any giving level - with access to an exciting, intentional giving experience. Continue Reading

Tackling the Affordability Crisis
An Article from The Jewish Week

A Jewish day school education was not an option for me when I was growing up in Bogota, Colombia.
Continue Reading

Questions Loom in Wake of FEGS Fall
An Article from The Jewish Week

In the teeth of the Great Recession, UJA-Federation of New York launched a program that offered a life raft of sorts for those who had lost their jobs and whose debts were mounting. Continue Reading

Sheldon Adelson Gives $40M More to Birthright
An Article from The Forward

Sheldon Adelson is donating another $40 million to Birthright Israel and the Azrieli Foundation will give $5 million. Continue Reading

To Fund Expansion, JTS Selling Dorm Buildings
An Article from The Jewish Week

In a period of cutbacks by many Jewish institutions, the Jewish Theological Seminary last week announced plans to expand its Morningside Heights campus - it must sell some assets in order to grow, though. Continue Reading

With Biden Opting Out, Partisan Row Over Netanyahu's Speech Intensifies
An Article from JTA

In a blow to Israel's efforts to contain the controversy over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress, Vice President Joe Biden announced that he would not attend the address. Continue Reading

Reform Head Joins Growing Jewish American Chorus Against PM's Speech
An Article from The Times of Israel

The highest official in Reform Judaism urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to cancel his upcoming speech to Congress, adding his voice to a growing list of American Jewish leaders calling for him to reconsider the controversial appearance. Continue Reading

Study: Seattle's Jewish Population Soared 70% Since 2001
An Article from The Jewish Week

A study found that Seattle's Jewish population has increased by 70 percent since 2001. Continue Reading

U. of California Student Group Votes to Divest From Israel
An Article from JTA

The University of California Student Association passed two resolutions urging the university to divest from several countries, including Israel, the United States and Mexico. Continue Reading

Riskin Choose Successor for His Educational Network
An Article from The Jewish Week

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who has built an educational empire within Modern Orthodoxy over the last three decades in Israel, has designated a potential successor, The Jewish Week has learned. Continue Reading

Big Data Comes to Israeli Politics
An Article from The Jewish Week

The twenty-something volunteer soliciting caf� goers on a Tel Aviv street introduces herself as Ilanit and wears a T-shirt that says "Just Switch" in Hebrew. Continue Reading

Sky News Sorry for Gaza Images During Chief Rabbi Interview on Holocaust
An Article from JTA

The British broadcaster Sky News apologized for showing images of the Gaza conflict during an interview about the Holocaust with British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. Continue Reading

Morocco's Jewish Cemetery Project Lauded at Paris Event
An Article from Elder of JTA

Moroccan Jews touted their country's efforts to preserve Jewish cemeteries at the opening of an exhibition on Morocco in Paris. Continue Reading

Warsaw's Jewish Cemetery Defender
An Article from JTA

When a Warsaw Jewish cemetery was vandalized earlier this week, Anna Chipczynska, president of the Jewish Community of Warsaw, spoke out. Continue Reading

British Right Wing Party Backs Ban on Religious Slaughter

An Article from The Jewish Week

Britain's right-wing UKIP party has come out in support of legislation that would ban the production of ritually slaughtered meat. Continue Reading

Will Argentina's Jews be Scapegoated?

An Article from The Algemeiner

Lost in Venice: How a Chabadnik Saved My Jewish Life

An Article from The Jewish Journal

When I was still in college and traveling around Europe, I felt like my soul was radically open to new opportunities and possible life transitions. Continue Reading

When Gawker Trolled Coca-Cola with 'Mein Kampf 'Messages
An Article from JTA

How did Gawker, the sarcastic gossip blog, turn a well-intentioned corporate social media campaign into a promotion of sorts for Adolf Hitler? Continue Reading

Where Have All the Good Jewish Men Gone?
An Article from MiriamKosman.com

Every year an equal number of Jewish boys and girls are born - but twenty-something years later, there are far more chuppah-minded women than men.
Continue Reading

New Yorker With Israeli Citizenship Barred From Kuwait Airlines Flight
An Article from JTA

An Israeli woman who has lived in the United States for 15 years was barred from boarding a Kuwait Airways flight in New York because of her Israeli citizenship.

Op-Ed: Time to Reconsider The Jewish Love Affair With Buildings

An Article from JTA

The halls of the Omaha Jewish Community Center are often empty, but not because there is no Jewish life here. Continue Reading

Why 'Anti-Vaxxer' Hysteria Isn't an 'Orthodox' Problem
An Article from The Forward

As a rule, I abide by a strong belief in personal liberty and freedom of expression. Continue Reading

Does Your Organization Have an Ethics Protocol?
An Article from Ner Le'Elef

People may violate ethical boundaries within an organization in ways that they would never do in their private lives. 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.

Notice: One or more of the images contained in this newsletter may be protected by the GNU Free Documentation License or the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. Select links for further information.