For Passover, the JCPA along with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, is once again offering a phenomenal mobilizing event through which JRF communities, congregations from every Jewish stream and local JCRCs can engage community members in meaningful anti-poverty advocacy: The Child Nutrition Seder
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As well, in preparation for the reauthorization of the child nutrition and WIC programs in 2010, thousands of national, state and local organizations representing anti-hunger, religious, education, medical, nutrition, direct service, school food, pre-school and child care, unions, children, after school, industry, agriculture and a host of others will join in support of a "Statement of Principles" to guide our reauthorization efforts.

If you have any questions on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization and mobilizing your community around the legislation, or questions on implementing the Seder in your community and/or how to best partner with your local Jewish Community Relations Council, please contact Becky Eisen

The Seder will be an opportunity to:

• Educate the Jewish community and its partners about the prevalence of hunger and malnutrition in the US, its life-long impacts on children, and the solutions to address this growing problem;
• Enable the Jewish community to play a leading role in advocating for a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization;
• Create a cadre of informed activists to supply a continuous stream of strong Jewish voices on the issue of domestic hunger;
• Strengthen relations between JCRCs, JRF communities and other Jewish organizations, as well as other local partners; and
• Mobilize towards the national goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015.

Background:

Psalm 82 calls on us to "Defend the poor and the orphan; deal justly with the poor and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy" (Psalm 82:3-4). In September of 2007, the American Jewish community responded to that call by participating in and promoting the Food Stamp Challenge in the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in order to raise the profile of hunger and poverty issues in the United States. Individuals took a pledge to subsist on the budget of the average food stamp recipient: $1 per meal per day ($21 for the week).

In September, 2008 the JCPA co-chaired and promoted Fighting Poverty with Faith - a week long interfaith initiative with 21 national partner organizations and nearly 100 participating communities, designed to elevate the issue of poverty in the 2008 elections. Through participation in these large national actions, communities that had not previously been involved in hunger and poverty issues began to advocate for effective poverty relief measures. Jewish communities and their partners became involved in the debate over national legislation concerning domestic hunger and poverty in a meaningful and united way.

In 2009- a year in which legislative decisions were be made that affect the provision of social services and poverty reduction programs for the initiative focused on the Child Nutrition Bill that was re-authorized.

Logistics and Resources:

We are urging JRF Communities to hold the Child Nutrition Seders around the nation during the week before and during Passover, March and April 2010. This week will culminate in a JCPA National Seder held in the Nation's capital and led by Rabbi Steve Gutow. The JCPA has secured the commitment of a number of Jewish denominational movements and youth groups to promote participation in these Seders to their local affiliates.

We recognize that putting together a Child Nutrition Seder is a big commitment. The JCPA has tried to anticipate the resources that you and your community will need to participate. In addition to the resources provided in this memo, we will be sending out sample op-eds and letters to the editor, legislative updates, and will arrange best practice sharing calls in the months to come in order to help facilitate your community's engagement.

The JCPA will also provide a Seder template in the coming weeks that can be adapted to the needs of the local groups with whom you are working. The template content will include Jewish texts on hunger, educational resources on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization, and action steps that can mobilize Seder participants.

The Seder will focus on educating younger participants on the general state of hunger in America and older participants on legislation that helps to combat childhood hunger. It will follow a typical Seder format (though we do not expect local partners to provide a full meal), but the emphasis will be on how it is our responsibility as Jews to let all who are hungry come and eat. The Seder will end with children and parents making calls and writing letters to legislators in support of a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill to put us on a path towards the reachable goal of ending child hunger by 2015. Specifically, the Jewish community will be joining with our other partners in the anti-hunger community to ask for $1 billion in new funding for Child Nutrition over the next 5 years. Participants will then discuss how they can remain informed and active on this issue and become a strong voice in their communities to end childhood hunger.

This program presents a unique opportunity to engage the parents of young and pre-teen children, who are often hard to reach because of scheduling conflicts and time constraints. By reaching out to parents through their children, the Child Nutrition Seder can be a particularly effective means by which to get these members of the Jewish community involved in a significant and ongoing way.

Though the Seder is a one-time event, it is meant to serve as a gateway to engage participants in more sustained anti-poverty advocacy. Part of the planning process will also be to develop structures and relationships through which future advocacy and activism can be more easily planned and more quickly implemented.

Child Nutrition Seder Resources.

What JRF Congregations can do now:

Though the Seder is not until the end of March/beginning of April, there are a number of things that you can do now to ensure a successful program.

1. Send out the call--start reaching out to potential local partners now, especially your local JCRC, to ensure robust participation in the Seder, and as JRF is now a member religious organization of the JCPA, deepen ties to the local CRCs.
2. Save the date--get the event on your community 's calendar and get it on the calendars of your local partner organizations.
3. Spread the word--start getting your community excited about the Seder. Make sure it is on their calendar and their organization's calendars so that they do not plan overlapping programming. Put a notice in yours newsletter or e-mail blasts highlighting the Seder.

On a National Level:

The JCPA, with JRF as a member organization, hosts a national Child Nutrition Seder in the nation's capitol during the same time that local JCRCs will be hosting their own Child Nutrition Seders and JRF congregations are encouraged to do so as well. The JCPA invites legislators to attend the Seder and ask for their cooperation and support in pursuing a Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act that provides adequate tools and funding to end childhood hunger by 2015. JCRCs and JRF congregations can invite local and state legislators, school principals, school board members, and other political figures to attend local Seders, urging them to weigh in with national legislators to make the same ask. This will show that the individual activism in each community is linked to a larger Jewish movement in support of Child Nutrition Reauthorization, and will allow for maximum publicity opportunities for the Child Nutrition Seder.

We are so excited to work with you to create a strong and united Jewish voice on the issue of child hunger in America. If you have any questions on implementing the Seder in your community or conducting outreach, please contact Becky Eisen at beisen@thejcpa.org.

Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

http://www.jrf.org/hunger
http://www.jrf.org/omer2008-hunger
http://jrf.org/omer/2006/intro

With tremendous excitement, we are launching the Keruv/Outreach page on the JRF website; a center for collective wisdom and experience in models, programs and resources for best practices in creating welcoming Jewish congregational communities. We welcome you to visit  www.jrf.org/keruv-library, review the wealth of resources and models, and contribute your own.

The site is a product of two years of intensive, creative work connected to the JRF NY/NJ region's Kehillah Kedoshah: Every Voice Matters Keruv/Outreach project.

We are enormously grateful to UJA Federation of New York for funding this Keruv Project, to Dru Greenwood for her guidance and to Susan Leon of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue for her help in the development of the grant proposal; and to each of our Keruv pilot synagogue membership and outreach groups from: Bet Am Shalom Synagogue; Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore; Kehillath Shalom Synagogue; Congregation Mishkan Ha'am; The SAJ; and West End Synagogue. These groups and their members embarked on focused work to look carefully and strategically at their congregations, and change to welcome more Jews and their families. The excellent outreach work of these and so many more congregations is reflected on the site, and we sincerely thank them for their contributions.

Most of all, we acknowledge Rabbi Hannah Greenstein, the professional leader of the Keruv project, for bringing her engaging presence and outreach expertise to each step in this important initiative.   

We look forward to the Keruv site growing to include your congregation's experiences and resources, as it becomes an increasingly rich source of inspiration and ideas for welcoming all Jews into our communities.

JRF WEST Mini Camp

Modeled on the successful program of Camp JRF, founded in the Midwest and now in its fourth summer on The Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman Campus in Pennsylvania's Pocono mountains, JRF WEST Mini Camp at Camp JCA Shalom will bring a taste of Camp JRF to Reconstructionist youth in the Western Region.

JRF WEST Mini Camp provides campers in grades 3-7 with strong connections to Reconstructionist Judaism and positive human values in a beautiful, fun, safe environment.

Campers will also live and learn the Values of Spiritual Peoplehood, a cornerstone of our Reconstructionist community.

Below please find the 2010 Registration form for JRF WEST Mini Camp.

Now’s your chance to snag some great bargains and support a worthy cause. The first ever online auction of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation is now open! Up on the auction block are jewelry, books, vacation packages, professional services, and much more! Check it out.

Looking for other ways to help make our online auction a huge success?
Donate items to our auction.
Refer friends to our auction so they can place bids too.

Aid for Chile in the aftermath of Saturday, February 27th's tremendous earthquake.

NEW YORK, NY, February 28, 2010—In the wake of today’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the world’s largest Jewish humanitarian assistance organization, announced that it will collect funds for relief efforts, said JDC CEO Steven Schwager. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, http://www.jdc.org/templates/media-center-template.aspx?id=4116

JRF is also a member of the executive council of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, which has opened a Jewish national coaltion donation fund at https://www.jdc.org/donation/donate.aspx?type=JCDR

Report on Jewish community in Chile: http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/1147275/jewish/Shabbat-Earthquake-Devastates-Chile.htm

Americares is sending medical supplies: http://www.americares.org/newsroom/news/help-chile-earthquake-quake-relief-aid.html

Operation USA, http://www.opusa.org or 800-678-7255, is collecting money online, as well as corporate shipments of medical supplies. Checks may be sent to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave., Culver City, CA 90232. Or text REBUILD to 50555 to donate $10.

Masorti Olami Chile Earthquake Relief Fund for destroyed synagogue http://www.masortiworld.org/molami/update23