How can you expand your business’ online footprint? Leverage the power and networks of everyone on the team! Here are five easy ways to get started.

Social media:

Ask everyone on the team to follow your company social pages. Then ask them to invite their friends to follow you. It’s an easy way to jump start building followers across your social media platforms.

Newsletter:

Email is still a great way to get your message out. Share an email sign up link with the team, so that everyone can include it in their signature to build your mailing list

Videos:

Get comfortable with quick videos (see how below) that can be replicated by the rest of the team. With a templated script, the videos can be created and shared as is (e.g. no editing). Or, work with a graphic designer to create branded intro and outro images to package the videos.

The big idea is to engage the team in making videos that you can share on company social pages. And that they will be excited to share on their own pages as well.

Blogs:

People often say, “I don’t have time” or “I’m not a writer.” But you can template it (e.g. 3 Questions for…: What’s your job? 2. What do you like best about working here? 3. What character would you be in a Star Wars movie and why? etc.).

Make it easy and inclusive for everyone to participate. If you have a writer on staff, let people send their ideas and expert quotes to them. The big takeaway is that it doesn’t have to be perfect or a difficult process to engage team members in building content over time.

Capture Everyday Fun:

Everything you post doesn’t have to be a press release moment. Photos of people having fun at work; images of office details that convey the feel of your business; staff, events, behind-the-scenes moments. The point is to show the everyday fun stuff that can give a feel of your company culture or preview projects in the works.

Engage Your Team in Marketing

If you didn’t grow-up with social media, you may think “nobody wants to see this.” However, never underestimate what will make people smile, connect, react, and more importantly, like and share.

You have a product or service. There are people actively searching for that product or service as we speak. With a little “process engineering” up front on your end, you can make it easy for everyone on the team to help spread the word, extend your reach and make connections.

And, of course, if you need help getting started, just give us a shout.

The post 5 Ways to Engage Your Team in Marketing your Business appeared first on Diversity & Inclusion Training - Social Media Marketing Chicago.

Greetings, from guest blogger Geno Bonaventura, aka my darling husband.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I did not grow up celebrating Thanksgiving in Brazil, but, nowadays I enjoy it with my American family members and friends.

Here are some of the facts about Thanksgiving facts that I have learned, to get you into the mood:

• The first Thanksgiving feast, held in 1621, was actually spread out over the course of three days.
• Turkey may not even have been eaten then – the colonists ate things like fish, lobster and veal and the Native Americans from the Wampanoag Tribe may have brought deer.
• Prior to this, people celebrated Thanksgiving by fasting.
• The NFL joined the Thanksgiving tradition in 1920.
• While Thanksgiving is usually the fourth Thursday in November, President Franklin Roosevelt bumped it up a week in 1939 to try to help sales. People were not fond of it, especially calendar makers and it soon went back to its usual date in 1942.
• People cook about 46 million turkeys a year on Thanksgiving – about twice what people have during Christmas.
• Male turkeys are the only ones that make the “gobble-gobble” sound.
• George H.W. Bush was the first president to pardon a turkey. He did it in 1989*.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

*Note from editor: George H.W. Bush was the first “formal” pardoning, but the history of pardoning turkeys goes back a litter further.

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You are, hopefully, just about to spend time with a lot of people who presumably love you. And for most of the clients I work with, that includes adult children and grandchildren. That can be a considerable sized group.

Three ways to leverage your Thanksgiving gathering to jump start your online presence.

If everyone in your family who liked you IRL (in real life) liked you online, and if they asked their friends and followers to like you too… that number could grow quickly. Here’s how to make it easy:

Know your social media “handles” before you go.

Don’t worry. You do not need to know your login passwords for your family and friends to follow you. You just need to know your “handle”. What is your name on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social media platforms where your business has a presence?

The reason you want to know is because some of your kind and savvy family members will whip out their phones to find and follow you on the spot. You don’t want to miss this opportunity.

Do you have underscores or capitalization? Any numbers? Make sure to look ahead of time so that you can direct willing subjects to the right space and seal the deal right there.

Tell them why you want to follow them

Let your family know how excited you are about your new business or venture. Or let them know that building your presence on social media is a strategy that you are using to drive people to your website.

Furthermore, tell them it’s something that’s important to you and it’s free and easy for them to do.

Ask them to ask their friends to follow too.

Especially on Facebook, it’s easy for people to like a page and then invite their Facebook friends to like it as well. Ask family members if they would mind doing that.

Yes, who follows you is important, in terms of your target client (no judgement intended about your family members’ acquaintances!). But when you are just starting out, you want to build numbers with a base of real people to get the momentum going.

Your family may not know you are online.

Many of my clients are non-digital natives. They grew up without technology and are now using websites, social media, email marketing and other online-based strategies to promote their business or project.

If that sounds like you, your kids or grandkids may not know everything you are up to. Asking them to follow you is an easy way for them to peek at your work while helping you out as well.

And if you’re in business or promoting big ideas and you’re not yet diving into the new communications and marketing technologies available, give me a shout.

The post This Thanksgiving, Ask Everyone You Know to Like You appeared first on Diversity & Inclusion Training - Social Media Marketing Chicago.

How Comedy Writers are Changing their Industry

Late Night Talk show host Seth Meyers introduces his regular segment, “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” with a window into the process of comedy writing. “Here at late night and every night I deliver a monologue comprised of jokes written by a diverse team of writers,” he opens. The reference here is to “the writers room.” Teams of writers work together writing and pitching hundreds of jokes to each other every day. They bring the best ones to the morning pitch meeting with the host and his team of executives and producers. That’s where the host decides which jokes will go into that evening’s monologue.

“As a result, a lot of jokes come across my desk,” Meyers continues, “that, due to my being a straight white male, would be difficult for me to deliver. But we don’t think that should stop you from enjoying them so we’d like to share them with you now.” He’s then joined on stage by two of his writers, Amber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel, who proclaim, “I’m black” and “I’m gay,” respectively, adding “and we’re both women.”

“And I’m not,” says Seth. For the rest of the segment he reads the set-up, and depending on the topic, Amber or Jenny delivers the punch line.

Writers Guild of America Issues First Inclusion Report Card

This invitation to share the stage to tell jokes about their identity is a powerful leap forward in an industry that is overwhelmingly not diverse. (Think Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien and James Corden, to start.) The Writers Guild of America West’s first Inclusion Report Card, released in April 2019, affirms that it’s not just the faces that lack diversity, but the writers behind them as well. According to the report, of the writers hired for 2,985 jobs in television (maybe 100 of which might be for late night talk shows), across network, cable and streaming platforms, women held just 24% of TV showrunner roles and people of color held 12% of roles. Writers with disabilities made up less than 1% of employed TV writers. And that was actually higher than the number of writers over age 50, which was just about zero.

(This article originally appeared in the National Diversity Council Newsletter http://ndcnews.org/2019/05/16/when-diversity-in-the-workplace-is-a-laughing-matter/.  Reprinting it here today in honor of the Satire and Humor Festival taking place in Chicago this weekend, November 22-24, 2019.)

Diversity in Humor Explored

Over 100 established, emerging and wishful satire and humor writers gathered in New York City this past spring for the first ever Satire and Humor Festival. A highlight of the two-day event was a panel on Diversity in Humor. Tulio Espinoza, a New York Based event producer, writer and comedian, co-created the Festival and facilitated the panel on Diversity. “It was really important for us to showcase as many faces as we could,” said Espinoza.

Espinoza, who was born in Venezuela, noted that humor writing and comedy in general is still a very straight, white, male environment. “But it is changing,” he acknowledged. Some of that change is being driven from within, as writers themselves are pushing for a diversity of ideas within the writers room. “But there needs to be a top-down commitment as well.”

Top Down Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion is Key

And it’s coming, albeit slowly. NBC hosts an annual Diversity Showcase and a Late Night Writers Workshop. ABC and HBO are adding programs as well. The Second City, while not a TV network but a launching pad for many a future comedy star, prides itself on starting one of the first comedy Diversity & Inclusion Programs (in 1992).

“We value creating an art form that is representative of performers that resemble the world we live in,” says Dionna Griffin-Irons, Director of Diversity & Inclusion and a Second City Detroit alum. What’s particularly notable with The Second City’s outreach program is that 75% of the talent developed in-program are hired to work for Second City. Companies looking to have more diverse candidates in their hiring pipeline can learn from this model.

Still, for comedy writers there is no clear path to success. “It’s more about constantly putting things out there so that someone, somehow notices your work,” says Espinoza.

The Subjective Nature of Humor

Getting your work noticed, or having your jokes end up on-air, even after you are in the writers room, has a layer of diversity and bias built right into it. Because humor is subjective.

“People’s implicit beliefs, unconscious beliefs and preferences, matched what they found funny,” says Robert Lynch, postdoctoral fellow in anthropology at the University of Missouri, about his studies of humor. “You laugh when a joke resonates with your inner values and beliefs,” he says. And as most practitioners in the field of Diversity-Equity-Inclusion know, one’s values are directly connected to their culture, race and ethnicity.

“If there is one person in a room with a different experience than everyone else, when they pitch jokes or ideas no one else thinks it’s funny,” says Milly Tamarez. “Meaning not funny to them.”

Diverse as F*** Comedy Festival

Tamarez, who works a full-time “day-job” in marketing and social media, is the founder, creator and editor for flexxmag.com, a “POC (person of color) style satire site.” She is co-founder of the Diverse as F*** (DAF) Comedy Festival. “The “as F***” part was on purpose,” says Tamarez. This was not about the one black writer on the team or the token person in the sketch troupe, Tamarez explained. It was about all of the intersections: people who also had disabilities or who were LGBTQ, half Native American and more.

The goal of the DAF Festival is “to highlight underrepresented voices in society by creating a safe and supportive space for expression.” Tamarez saw many talented writers and comedians who were people of color who didn’t have that avenue. “Somebody should do something about that,” she thought. When no one else did…she did it herself. Tamarez definitely filled a void. For the 2019 Festival they received over 300 entries to fill 40 to 60 slots.

While the comedians may be of diverse backgrounds, the comedy is not all about race or racism. “Just because a comedian is black doesn’t mean it’s black humor,” Tamarez counsels. “Someone’s race shouldn’t be read as a person’s full life. Lots of things are funny,” she adds. “The best comedy is that which teaches you something without hitting you over the head.”

The Power of Humor to Educate

Writer and humorist Felipe Torres Medina didn’t intentionally start out to write political satire when he moved to NYC as an immigrant from Colombia in 2013. Torres Medina is in the US on an O-1B Visa for “extraordinary ability” (the US government’s designation, not mine, he clarifies). He was surprised to find highly educated people, with Master’s Degrees, who had so many wrong ideas about how immigration works in the US particularly for people in the arts. “Now I feel like it is my responsibility to educate people.”

Torres Medina’s work covers politics, immigration, stereotypes and more. An example is a piece published last May on a leading humor website, McSweeneys: Historically Accurate Things to Shout at your Cinco de Mayo Party. It pokes fun at many USAmericans’ ignorance of the actual historical context of the day. “I feel like it’s part of my responsibility as a brown person or Latino to express things in a way that’s not going to alienate people. I can inform people with satire.”

Torres Medina also sees the fact that this article was published as a sign of how more diverse perspectives are being represented in humor. “If I had tried to pitch this piece five years ago, they wouldn’t get that Cinco de Mayo is a thing,” he says. People are more aware of the world now because of access to media.

Humor as Way to Express Cultural Heritage

Perhaps that is becoming more apparent in business as well. Macy’s hosted conversations and performances by comedians of Asian and Pacific heritage at stores across the country for last May’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. “Macy’s wanted to explore Asian representation in today’s media and specifically how Asian Pacific culture and traditions are continued and honored through the various uses of humor in stand-up, writing, film, and television,” said Brittany Sepulveda, Coordinator, Media Relations for Macy’s. The program looked at the importance of comedy in celebrating heritage and addressing issues of representation.

More Diversity is Better for Everyone

For Torres Medina, more is more. “With more voices and more diverse people you can make more jokes. More diversity means more ways to find your way to funny.”

The good news is representation in comedy and late night talk shows continues to grow for women and people of color. Trevor Noah, who identifies as mixed race, hosts The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Samantha Bee hosts Full Frontal on TBS. Hassan Minaj, who is Indian-American Muslim, debuted his show, Patriot Act, on Netflix in May of 2017. Millennial YouTube personality Lilly Singh, who self-identifies as an Indian-Canadian woman, launched her show on NBC this fall.

“The newer shows are more open to hiring diversity,” says Torres Medina. “Hopefully we’re getting to a place where diversity becomes the norm.”

The post When Diversity in the Workplace is a Laughing Matter appeared first on Diversity & Inclusion Training - Social Media Marketing Chicago.

Short Film: The Walk to the Car

Scene:  Mom and Dillon take 100 foot walk from front door to garage door, the exact same walk they have taken over 1,700 times in the past 5 years.  Dillon teaches mom lesson about intercultural communications.

FADE IN:

FRONT DOOR OF HOME   OUTSIDE ON PORCH         MORNING

MOM pushes DILLON outside and turns to lock door behind them.  Dillon pauses, runs down stairs to climb snow pile next to sidewalk, opposite direction from garage.

MOM

                        “Come on, Dillon, the school bell’s going to ring in 7 minutes.”

DILLON

                          “Look how tall I am mommy!”

MOM

                          “That’s great, Dillon.  Can we please walk to the car?”

Mom walks down driveway toward garage.  Dillon jumps off snow mound and follows.  He makes it about 15 feet before turning around, stops and stares up at neighbor’s drainpipe.  Mom gets all the way to garage door, unlocks it, looks back to see that Dillon is no longer behind her.  She opens garage, then turns to look at Dillon.

MOM

                          “Hurry up, Dillon, we’re late.  Six minutes to bell.  Come on, let’s go, get in the car.”

DILLON

                          “Look, Mommy.”

Dillon points up, mom follows finger to see bird nest cradled in the crook of the drainpipe.

MOM

                          “That’s wonderful, Dillon.  I can’t wait to look at it with you when we have more time.”

Mom opens car door for Dillon.  Dillon skips toward car, stopping again after only about 20 feet.

DILLON

                         “Ooh, mommy, come here.  What kind of foot prints are these?  I think it’s a bunny.”

MOM exhales loudly, spontaneously combusts.

The Parallel to Intercultural Connection

As mentioned before, Dillon and mom have taken this same 100 foot walk at least 1,700 times in the past five years.  Mom is positive she knows every inch of it.  There is nothing new for her to see and learn.  Dillon, on the other hand is receptive to, even expects to find something new.  He arrives to this walk with no assumptions or pre-conceived ideas as to what he might find.

The parallel to intercultural communications is palpable.  Think of the wonder and amazement we might find if we approached each person we met with an open mind to discovery.   Who do you think you know well, and what can you ask them to learn something new?  What assumptions, overt or unconscious, do you bring with you when you meet new people based on their race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation?  What happens when you open yourself up to the possibility of surprise?

The post Family Friday: A Child’s Insight to Intercultural Appreciation appeared first on Diversity & Inclusion Training - Social Media Marketing Chicago.

Your high schooler just announced two weeks before Thanksgiving that they’re now Vegan. Your college freshman is bringing home a new significant other and they are vegan. Your mom died and was resuscitated and now thinks that all life is precious. That last one is our story, along with a sister who’s been vegetarian since childhood, and another who’s an animal rights activist.

For my family we are majority vegetarian or vegan. In fact it’s only me, my husband and son who are not vegetarian. And I LOVE to host.

(Keep reading, or pop to the bottom to watch on video.)

How to make a Vegan Inclusive Thanksgiving Meal

American Heritage Dictionary defines inclusive as “Including the specified extremes or limits as well as the area between them.” Which probably is a good definition. And using the intercultural inclusive lens—yes—meat eaters, while the majority in USAmerican Culture, could still be considered an extreme by the other. So, inclusive gives validity at all. And, seeing as the food is not supposed to be the focal point anyway (you know, it’s the love, the gratitude and the family) the goal for the menu is to make sure there’s something for everyone—while not making it ridiculously hard for the host.

We’ve been doing this for years. I find there’s just a few easy things you can do with things you find regularly at the grocery story to make your holiday classics vegan. I recommend making your side dishes vegan…and then just hide the turkey in the kitchen.

Vegetarian vs Vegan

A quick note first on the difference between vegetarians and vegans. Vegetarians don’t eat anything with a face. So, and I’m sure this isn’t you, but don’t ask a vegetarian if they eat fish. Fish have faces. So do chickens.

Vegan is nothing with a face nor any of their byproducts. So no milk, eggs, cheese, even honey (the bees!)

Tips for the classics

Grandma’s Sweet Potatoes Casserole

Switch Plant Based/Dairy Free Butter (or Margarine) for butter.

For butter, which is key for Grandma’s sweet potato recipe, switch butter for Margarine. Butter is made with milk, so not vegan. Margarine is vegetable oil based. But, and this is a big but…read the ingredients—while it says vegetable oil on the front—sometimes there’s whey or casein, both of which are milk products—or sometimes even milk. This year I found a new product at “the Jewel” (Chicago’s local basic grocery store) from Country Crock, a plant based, dairy-free ‘butter’ with either olive oil or avocado oil.

I bake the sweet potatoes because they keep more of their rich flavor that way, mash them with the vegan butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Grandma always added crushed pineapple, too. If you set aside a portion at this point, they will be delicious and 100% vegan—before smothering them in marshmallows and putting them back under the broiler. Why? Because marshmallows are made with gelatin, which is bone marrow.

Which means your gelatin mold also is NOT vegan. But that’s okay. As the host you are making your dinner inclusive. It doesn’t mean 100% of your dishes have to be vegan, if 100% of your guests are not vegan.

I did find a package of vegan marshmallows this year that look good. But I think these will just be a gift to my sister the vegan—not sure how they taste or melt.

Stuffing

For stuffing, the broth is the biggest issue, since chicken broth is one of the primary ingredients. There are, of course vegetable broths. I find that those don’t taste quite as good. They often even have tomato which is not a great mix with the other flavors.

Better is the “No Chicken” broth from Imagine. It’s available at most grocery stores where you find the other broths. Of course the name “stuffing” comes from the fact that it is stuffed inside the turkey. But baking also works and doing it inside of a bright orange pumpkin makes a wonderful display for your festive table.

Again—you need to read the ingredients on the stuffing bread or mix. For example, Stove Top’s sage dressing sounds vegetarian but has chicken bullion listed as one of the ingredients. The Brownberry and Pepperidge Farm mixes I found were 100% vegan. And, now, with Beyond Meat which tastes so close to the real thing—we may even try a vegan corn bread sausage stuffing.

Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Sauce is already vegan. Why add meat?

Vegetables

Olive oil and sea salt have always been vegan. They are easy go to’s for roasting Brussels sprouts. Or you could sauté green beans and then sprinkle those yummy crispy onions on top. We love the caramelized carrots–made with vegetable oil and sugar. So good you wouldn’t even know they were once a vegetable!

Dessert

For Vegan pumpkin pie you may be better off just getting it at Whole Foods or another market that sells it. The recipes I found for Vegan Pumpkin Pie veered astray, using tapioca starch and ground-up dates and other such things as binders. That said, there are many delicious vegan Pumpkin Cake recipes. Just Google vegan pumpkin cake and scroll till you find one that matches your style.

(Whisper) and Now the Turkey

We do both a turkey and a vegetarian roast. For the Turkey—I know for many the drama of the fully roasted turkey on a platter on your table is a tradition. But some see it as only the dead animal—which, technically it is. We slice the meat keep the platter on the other side of the table from the vegetarians.

As for roasts—Worthington makes a great one—although it’s so good it’s back ordered until after Thanksgiving. Tofurkey is probably the best known, and the brunt of the most jokes—but it’s not the most flavorful. We will likely go with Gardein which makes a roast stuffed with a rice stuffing. That can be sliced and put on a platter at the other end of the table.

And, voila—something for everyone.

A final note on inclusivity

Keep an eye out for people who might be alone. Divorce. Loss. International visitors. There’s a variety of reasons, both happy and sad why someone might be alone on Thanksgiving. Do a “mitzvah” (Jewish name for good deed) and invite them to your home.

Perhaps you can ask them to bring a vegan pie for dessert.

And just contact me if you would like any of the recipes.

The post Vegan Inclusive Thanksgiving appeared first on Diversity & Inclusion Training - Social Media Marketing Chicago.

Play Captures Soviet-Jewish Family’s Exodus to U.S. 

Five Decades Since First Wave of Jewish Emigration From U.S.S.R.

New York, Nov. 18 – The play “How Many Bushels Am I Worth?” will debut in January 2020 in Providence, Rhode Island, and New York City, marking five decades since the first wave of immigration of Soviet Jews to the United States.

Written by Kevin Olson and Soviet émigré Bena Shklyanoy and based on her life story, the performance captures a Kiev family’s agonizing decision in 1976 to flee the Soviet Union for America and the challenging adjustment period that followed.

Through the lens of the Shklyanoys’ emigration, the play highlights a unique time in Jewish history: when establishment organizations and grass-roots advocacy groups coalesced to secure the release of Soviet Jews.

Activists in Save Soviet Jewry Movement Drive Change

The title “How Many Bushels Am I Worth?” alludes to the U.S.-U.S.S.R. trade deal of the 1970s that tied the exchange of American goods such as wheat to the release of Soviet Jews. Between 1970 and 1988, some 291,000 Soviet Jews were granted exit visas; about 165,000 migrated to Israel and another 126,000 migrated to the United States.

“We didn’t know a soul, and just followed blindly,” Shklyanoy said of her immigration to Chicago with her husband and two young daughters. “The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society [HIAS] was the primary force behind our journey to Vienna, then to Rome and finally, to the United States.”

Her parents came to Chicago several months later, and her mother was the 1,000th Soviet immigrant to land at O’Hare International Airport. As a result, images of the family appeared prominently in The Chicago Tribune and the now-defunct Chicago Daily News.

Play Highlights Universal Themes for Refugees Today

While the play focuses specifically on Shklyanoy’s family, it illuminates such universal themes as identity, values and solidarity, still relevant for refugees fleeing oppressive regimes around the globe today.

The play opened in August 2018 to sold-out audiences and critical acclaim in Chicago and is produced by AppleDoesNotFall.com and FirstHand Theatrical, a Rhode Island-based theater company headed by Olson that adapts primary source material.

“There are not many first-hand representations of this generation who grew up in the Soviet Union,” Olson said, adding, “Against the backdrop of today’s politics, it seemed serendipitous to present a work that offers us a glimpse of individual lives under Soviet rule, while perhaps providing some insights into Russia’s current leadership.”

Family Ancestry Research Spans 150+ Years

During an 11-year period, Shklyanoy documented more than 150 years of her family’s history, connecting with newly discovered relatives in the process.

This chronicle of her family’s life through two World Wars, the Bolshevik revolution, annihilated shtetls (villages), the Holocaust, the Soviet empire and finally, the large-scale immigration of Soviet Jews to the United States, can be found on her website AppleDoesNotFall.com. Shklyanoy and Olson also authored an earlier companion piece, based on these historical findings and titled “And Then What? The Children of Velvel and Sheina-Gitel Averbukh.”

Olson directs the upcoming productions.

The cast features Hannah Antman (Bena) and Jake Malavsky (Alex). The creative team also includes Dave Feldman (lighting design), Surrey Houlker (stage manager) and Clara Tomaz (animations).

For more information about the January 2020 performances and to purchase tickets, go to: AppleDoesNotFall.com/plays/.

About AppleDoesNotFall.com

The website AppleDoesNotFall.com showcases the life story and family history of Soviet émigré Bena Shklyanoy, whose family left Kiev in 1976 during the first wave of Soviet immigration to the United States. The site also houses her compelling blog, featuring stories of adjusting to America as well as Soviet cultural insights.

About FirstHand Theatrical 

FirstHand Theatrical, based in Providence, creates original theater pieces that draw from diverse cultural and social histories. Working from primary source material, these original theater productions include personal histories and reflections around a common theme. To learn more, go to: https://www.FirstHandTheatrical.org.

Dates + Times 

Providence 

Thursday, Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 10, 10:30 a.m.

Saturday, Jan. 11, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 12, 2 p.m.

AS220 Black Box Theatre, 95 Empire St., Providence, R.I.

Tickets are $20, general admission.

New York 

Thursday, Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 17, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 18, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 19, 3 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 23, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 24, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Jan. 26, 3 p.m.

The Mark O’Donnell Theater at The Actors Fund Arts Center, 160 Schermerhorn St., Brooklyn, New York

Tickets are $30, general admission.

To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, go to: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/first-hand-theatrical/general_support.

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The Intercultural Communications Approach

Good morning! On today’s episode of “The Pretend Jew,” our heroine waivers on hosting the Hanukkah open house in her home because her Christmas tree is still up. And who doesn’t love her confused expression every time she’s in synagogue (she doesn’t speak Hebrew!) and has no idea when to sit down! And here’s your hostess … Deanna Shoss!

Yes, that would be me. “The Pretend Jew,” I like to call myself in conversation. Raised Reform, don’t speak Hebrew, dropped out during my early adult life, oblivious to many intricate traditions that others seem to know innately. Yet I’m also responsible for raising our son Jewishly.

Dillon, now 9, clearly identifies as a Jew. How did that happen?

Intercultural communications can help

These three tenets from the field of intercultural communications can help you figure out how to give your child(ren) an unambiguously Jewish identity without occluding the other partner’s cultural identity:

1. Know and respect who you are. (Embrace your own cultural identity.)
2. Know and respect who others are. (the new Golden Rule: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.)
3. Find the right person/community to teach the details. (E.g. build your cultural competence–even if it’s about your own culture!)

So let’s get started…

Read the full article on Interfaith Family, here https://www.interfaithfamily.com/relationships/parenting/how_to_act_jewish_to_raise_a_jewish_child/

Why Jewish is White

That may seem like a jump of topics–but let me show you the connection. I originally wrote “Identity is Fluid.” Because at the time the article above was published, in 2010, I noted that my son fully identified as Jewish. In fact, he was Bar Mitzvah’ed at age 13. And that was the critical identity shift. It was so hard to learn the Hebrew and memorize everything for this Jewish coming of age ceremony–literally the ceremony to cement his Jewish identity, that I promised him if he just did it he didn’t have to be Jewish anymore. He took me up on my offer, and now, in college, does not consider himself a Jew.

That thought connects to a conversation with someone the other day about the current, growing anti-semitism in this country, not to mention throughout history.

“When did Jews become white?” he wondered.

Jews are White Because We Can Shift

And now the two come together for the answer. One of the privileges of being white is that you don’t have to wear your race or cultural background on your sleeve. As the majority culture, yes, your skin is white–but often in literature, news stories, descriptions–people only reference skin color when it’s not white.

Even if you perceive yourself to be Jewish first, people viewing you will often see you–the unconscious knee-jerk see you–as white first.

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So excited to share this new video series for client The Juniper Center. The theme is “Mom to Mom” when one of the moms is a licensed clinical psychologist. That would be Dr. Margo Jacquot, Chief Care Officer (and founder and director of The Juniper Center.

The series is an example of how easy it can be to create your own video for marketing. For this series, Margo and I film in her office, using my cell phone. I then use Movie Studio 16–affordable and easy to use–to edit into the final product.

Our focus has been times of transition–turning 12, graduating from high school, or even the high school years. But we are not limited. Please send your questions. We’d love to cover them in a future series.

Here’s a sample of episodes so far:

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Look at this sweet little cherub angel in a perfectly framed passport photo. Easy, right?

But if you panned out, you would see a different picture.

Mom is still recovering from back surgery and can’t hold him, so the baby is sitting in the front carriage of a grocery cart. But that’s not tall enough for the passport photo. So he’s sitting on top of a popcorn tin that’s on top of a holiday case of tequila. Mom is crouched in front, out of the picture frame, securing his waist. Which clearly seems like a fun game, so he is giggling and playing with her hair. They’re on at least the 10^th try. “This is the last,” the clerk finally announces.

“It has to work!” mom panics. “His family in Brazil has never met him. We leave in 2 months. I need this photo!”

The Big Picture

We usually talk about the big picture with the idea of getting out of the weeds—seeing how individual actions fit into the whole. How one part of a business fits into the overall organization.

Another way, like the image above, is to see the full picture: people in their context. It seems so obvious, but people don’t come to each moment in life in isolation.

The Sanctuary Model

When I worked at Jewish Child & Family Services, we integrated “community meetings,” a tenet of the Sanctuary Model, into our team. The Sanctuary Model was one proven to be effective when working with children who have been victims of trauma.

In our adaptation, we added a “community meeting” to the beginning of our bi-weekly staff meetings. Each person would answer three questions: How are you feeling? What are your goals for the day (or class, or meeting, etc.)? Is there anyone here who can help you with that?

There was no processing or solving–just a moment to help people be fully present and to get a sense of everyone’s state of being coming into the meeting.

Be Kind: Everyone Carries a Heavy Load

So many times during our days we have a knee-jerk reaction accompanied by assumptions as to why someone does something. The guy who cut you off in traffic is a jerk. Your potential client who didn’t call you back is not interested.

People like to do business with people they like. And being likeable starts with empathy and compassion.

With text and video calls and immediate contact we can reach people anytime, anywhere. Stop to ask, “Am I catching you in the middle of something?” If someone shares something difficult they are facing in their personal lives, ask “how can I best support you? By moving forward on the project? Pausing?”

What’s the big picture? How can you be a help?

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