click here for the broadcast of the Awards.

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Kids in Canada read about JSAM in Baba and are working to get the Canadian Foreign Minister engaged with the issue of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. You never know how the ripple effects will play out…

read all about it here.

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http://picasaweb.google.com/yosefabramowitz/GlobalLaunchOfJSAMIUSCongress/photo#s5002023199260672018

The event that launched it all, a historical moment that may one day be considered the beginning of a new movement within Judaism to define through collective enlightened actions the purpose of the Jewish people in the 21st century. Go Kol Dor and SocialAction.com! Enjoy the slideshow.

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Background: The next President of the State of Israel will preside over an annual conference of the leading thinkers and leaders of the Jewish people, who will consider new proposals to strenthen the Jewish collective. Exclusive to Peoplehood.org, there will be an occasional summary of some of the proposals that are being seriously considered to increase Jewish literacy, increase the numbers of the Jewish people and to increase a sense of Peoplehood.

The first one in the series is meant to increase our numbers while encouraging the mitzvah of adoption.

1. An Adoption Super-Fund. American Jews have an average birthrate of 1.8, short of the 2.2 needed for replacement, so our numbers are naturally going to continue to decline. With Jewish couples marrying later in life than other Americans, fertility issues become prevalent. Furthermore, the high cost of Jewish living is also a form of financial birth control for many committed Jewish families who would like to have more children but fear the costs of additional day school, camp and other Jewish expenses.
It is in the long-term public policy interests of the Jewish people to be a multi-racial people. Read more

Some of you may have missed our visit with David Grossman to tape his acceptance speech for winning the fiction prize of the Koret International Jewish Book Awards. Click here to see the behind the scenes; click here to view the moving video.

Celebrate Kislev each year as International Jewish Book Month. Logo appears below. Please steal it and pass along.

Hanukkah

A Personal Perspective

Taking the Christmas out of Hanukkah

As American Jews, we face the challenge of preserving the Jewish ideals of Hanukkah in the midst of a commercialized Christmas-oriented society.

By Yosef I. Abramowitz

The following article is reprinted with permission from Jewish Family& Life! Media.

Almost every year, Hanukkah falls very near to Christmas, which always leads to feel-good articles and sermons about the similarities in spirit between Judaism and Christianity. Interfaith families, especially those with children, will celebrate both as a way of bringing their families together. And the marketing, sales, and merchandising will further solidify the linking of these two holidays in the American popular consciousness.

While folks gobbled on Thanksgiving in the U.S., we in the desert were celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the establishment of Kibbutz Ketura by a Young Judaea garin. The kibbutz is a living manifestation of Peoplehood, for it was turned over by the IDF nachal group in 1973 to idealistic American olim, who have created a community that draws from around the Jewish world, including sabras and Russians and Ethiopians. For photos of the event, including the inauguration of the new mail boxes, the festival, and treats, click here. (our family appears mostly at the end)

Rebecca Spence of the Forward accurately reports the silly dynamic of the Jewish Agency refusing to send aid for the remaining community to prepare their aliya, even though the money has been raised through Operation Promise, the Ethiopian activists have asked for it, and the people on the ground have requested it. Even though there’s a signed agreement to do so. JAFI better move fast or find its credibility tarnished with UJC leadership just at a time when they are feeling the benefits of the Israel Emergency Campaign. Story here.

http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/30949/format/html/displaystory.html

Friday November 24, 2006

Authors turn up the volumes at Koret Jewish Book Awards

by dan pine
staff writer

Yosef Abramowitz took the stage of Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and declared the city to be the “center of the Jewish literary universe.�?

For at least that one night, the founder of Jewish Family & Life was correct.

We are pleased to announced that the NPR affiliate in the Bay Area will be airing the premier event of International Jewish Book Month, the Koret International Jewish Book Awards. The program will be available KQED.org on Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. on the radio and then will be available for streaming on the Internet.

If you missed all the fun or want to relive it immediately, a slideshow of the ceremony, reception and dinner is live on the right, click on the picture of the Program Book. Enjoy.