http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12664

What do you think? Those who would like to see the outside evaluations of BabagaNewz, which is in 3,500 classrooms across the country, or of Jskyway courses, training educators or other evaluations, please let us know. (The Jewish Week never asked us for them) We don’t have 11 million hits, but 11 million page views, which is more significant. The Jewish values based approach is developed by a world class team of educators and a great staff. And the teen keynote for 20 minutes was exactly what it was supposed to be; the rest of the session was supposed to be deeply informal.

Ahh. The paradox of being on the other side of the news print…  I should be grateful for the good parts and the nod to legitimizing my desire to spend more time with my family.  And Michael’s quotes:-)

Who is going to take Steinhardt up on the invitation to host a debate about the Jewish future?

Off to Israel; will be back July 4th.

The Paradox Of Yossi Abramowitz
As he steps back from his mini-empire, questions linger about what he’s selling to Jewish youth.
Debra Nussbaum Cohen - Staff Writer

Yosef Abramowitz had the floor at the closing session of the first national Jewish Youth Philanthropy Conference in Denver last April. Striding around the hotel conference room among about 100 teenagers, microphone in hand like a latter-day Phil Donohue, he exhorted them to see themselves as powerful agents of change, as prophets and leaders. He talked about great visions of a Jewish future, quoting philosophers from Zionist thinker Achad Ha’Am to “Star Wars� wise man Yoda.

He held their attention for about 20 minutes. Read more

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=16760&intcategoryid=5

This is an important story for those who follow Jewish philanthropy.

Alan decided to put in alphabetical order the essays of “80 Prominent Writers, Performers, Scholars, Politicians, and Journalists.” Click here to see the other contributors. Mine begins here.

Chapter 1:

EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALAN DERSHOWITZ

WHAT ISRAEL MEANS TO ME

Chapter by:

YOSEF I. ABRAMOWITZ

Yosef I. Abramowitz is the CEO and executive editor of Jewish Family & Life! an online publisher of Jewish content. He was the recipient of the 2004 Covenant Award, which is given to outstanding Jewish educators.

With the eyes, judgment, and weight of the world disproportionately focused on a sliver of a country along the eastern Mediterranean, history itself hangs in the balance. Not only the history of the Third Jewish Commonwealth, but of the nations and peoples who point their accusing fingers at Israel without realizing they are peering into a powerful mirror.

Israel is a reminder and symbol of the uncomfortable indispensability of the Jew to history and to the march of human progress. The group-think of intolerant nations, tyrants, cultures, and religions stagnates human progress, for it attempts to homogenize thought itself in the image of the prevailing power. Empires may be built on enforced fictions, but they are never sustained by them.

For four millennia, a dozen great empires across different continents have had one common denominator: hatred of the Jew. The Jew, that is, who would not conform, would not affirm the fiction of ultimate power and authority or divinity to a mere human, even one with many swords and vassals. Israel, in her unwillingness to conform to the desires and undemocratic norms of a billion Muslims in the neighborhood, is yet another Jew in the thorn of a civilization that has not realized the human progress it could have with a trillion petro-dollars over fifty-seven years.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then the Jew is the master of innovation. Innovation gushes forward from the uncomfortable margins, from the dissonance of straddling a boundary, from the bridging of worlds and disciplines, from the sheer necessity to stay alive amid challenges and hostilities. All those Nobel Prizes didn’t come about necessarily by inherited smarts but by legacies of innovative thinking Read more

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/25/ their_dvd_calms_families_shaken_by_alzheimers/?page=3

(scroll down half a page; kudos to Joyce Lempel for developing this. 1,700 entries!)

Embargoed until Thursday of this week, when I land in Israel for the rededication of Beit Hatfustot. Editors please contact me at YosefA@aol.com if you are using the piece.

Reclaiming The Rebbe For All Jews 

By Yosef I. Abramowitz 
Twelve years have passed since Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, died at age 92.   He stepped onto the stage of history as the seventh and final Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1951, a year after the passing of the previous Rebbe and father-in-law, and six years following the end of World War II.  

To understand the Rebbe as simply the leader who transformed a small sect of Hassidim into perhaps the most vigorous element within the Jewry is to miss his contribution to the entire Jewish people.  The Rebbe was the greatest proponent of Jewish unity and peoplehood in the second half of the 20th century.  While he called for more Torah and Mitzvot, the Rebbe’s ability to non-judgmentally affirm every Jew no matter their religiosity serves as testimony to his love of all Jews as part of the larger whole of the Jewish people.  Read more

Devoted Peoplehooders would note that we had the story first, on the blog entry of June 6th.

Elise Bernhardt Named Executive Director of the NFJC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Norman Noll
212-629-0500 ex: 200
nnoll@jewishculture.org
June 26, 2006, New York, NY—Elise Bernhardt, a nationally acclaimed arts leader, has been appointed Executive Director of The National Foundation for Jewish Culture (NFJC), it was announced today by Carol Spinner, President and Charlotte Newberger, Chairperson, of The National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Read more

As the last journalist to spend time with the Rebbe prior to his stroke, I have a unique take on his 12th Yarhzeit, which is this Thursday.

“Reclaiming the Rebbe for All Jews” is a 950 word peice highlighting the Peoplehood aspects of the Rebbe and making a surprise proposal at the end.  Includes some new insights about the Rebbe as well.

If you are interested, please email me directly at YosefA@aol.com or call my cell at 617 899 3282 by end of day Monday. It will go out one way or the other to the Jewish newspapers end of day Monday.

Thanks to our friends at www.therebbe.org.

One of the last photos of the Rebbe prior to his stroke the next day. My question to him was:  Why does our generation merit geula (redemption)?

An Acorn That Acted Like a Tree: The Green Zionist Alliance at the World Zionist Congress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JERUSALEM, June 23, 2006 — Delegates from The Green Zionist Alliance made a large impact at the 35th World Zionist Congress, held recently in Jerusalem. With just two delegates out of 350 worldwide delegates, the GZA was able to generate important and historic results for Israel’s environment.

GZA delegates Rabbi Michael Cohen and Noam Dolgin were joined by three alternates—Becca Weaver, Jonah Schein, and Lee Wallach—at the Congress, which meets every four years to chart the directions of Zionism and allocate funding.

All three of the GZA resolutions submitted to the Congress were adopted, with support across the political spectrum. Read more