Two important ways to understand what makes our service Jewish are understanding our own identities as Jewish activists and reflecting on the spiritual wisdom and inspiration that exists within our tradition for this work.  During AVODAH’s week long orientation, Corps members engage in two activities that begin to help create the Jewish frame for their year of service.

Jewish and Social Justice Journey-Mapping

This lesson has been a part of AVODAH’s orientation curriculum since the beginning of the program and is always one of the most positively reviewed activities during orientation.  It incorporates a variety of learning modalities including auditory, visual, tactile and relational learning.  Each Corps member is given a large sheet of butcher paper and art supplies and asked to create a visual representation of their Jewish and social justice journeys using the analogy of a river.  They’re given a variety of questions as prompts including:

• Did Judaism play a role for you as a child?  Did a passion for social justice play a role for you as a child?
• What have been your most formative Jewish experiences?
• What have been your most formative social justice experiences?  Do you think of yourself as having been awakened at some point, or in some way aware of larger systemic injustices?  If so, what led you to that realization?
• Who are the people who most influenced your thinking around Judaism?  Around social justice?  Around the intersection between the two?
• Have you had moments of disconnection or doubt?  When were these and did anything in particular lead to them?
• Do you or have you had a connection to a higher power/God? Has this changed over time?  Does this connection or lack thereof in any way impact your justice work?
• Where have your Jewish identity and work/passion for social justice intersected?  Where have they stayed parallel but separate?  Where have they come into conflict with each other?

Once each Corps member has completed the visual representation they break into groups and narrate their journey for their peers.  This activity not only serves as a way for Corps members to reflect on the Jewish and social justice path(s) that have led them to AVODAH, but also as a community building activity.

Morning Coffee For the Soul

Throughout orientation, Corps members engage in a series of activities called “Morning Coffee for the Soul” that were developed several years ago in order to strengthen the Jewish spiritual framework that Corps members work with during the year.  Each of these activities asks Corps members to engage in some kind of spiritual practice or reflection and is meant to serve as a model of ways that participants can engage their spiritual lives throughout the course of their AVODAH year.

One of these sessions, “Amidah-Inspired Journaling,” uses the structure of the traditional Amidah to promote Corps member reflection both about their own role in promoting justice and larger systems of justice and injustice.  The activity focuses on the six Amidah blessings, whose themes relate to justice in some way.  Each of these blessings has reflection questions following it that Corps members can use as discussion prompts in chevrutah/study pairs or journaling.  For example:

Selach Lanu: Forgive us, our Parent, for we have sinned; pardon us, our Ruler, for we have transgressed, for You forgive and pardon.  Praised are You, gracious and forgiving God.

• Considering repentance as also being about self-assessment and change, how do I think about my place in the world and what I “have”?
• How does that sense of place change in relationship to others who may have more or who may not?
• If I consider myself privileged, do I see that privilege as obligating me to action in any way?
• Is my work here an apology for what I have or an attempt to readjust the scales?  Are those two things intertwined?  What is the appropriate approach from one with resources to one who does not have enough?

This discussion and/or journaling engages Corps members in the emotional and intellectual preparation they need to be able to fully and effectively engage in their service work while fostering this reflection within a Jewish framework and context.

Through these two activities – Jewish and Social Justice Journey-Mapping and Morning Coffee for the Soul – Corps members begin to explore how they can engage in service work Jewishly and how they can rely on Jewish thought and tradition to sustain them through this experience.  They find meaning from engaging with their spirituality and Jewish identity individually and create powerful bonds with one another through doing this in community.

Attached Documents:

Jewish  Journeys Session

Amidah Journaling Session

Overview of AVODAH’s Year-Long Educational Curriculum

A century ago, we’d be talking about the Jewish role in the fights for labor rights, the 8-hour working day and workplace safety. But rather unlike today, those fights were not for some other oppressed group, but by and for Jewish workers, as part of the American labor movement.

In recent years, a thriving social justice movement has emerged that includes service-oriented Jewish organizations. These include Avodah and Bend the Arc, who joined previously established groups like the Workmen’s Circle, Jewish Labor Committee, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Recent campaigns that received support from Jewish organizations include the fight for a domestic workers’ bill of rights and for agricultural workers raising tomatoes in Florida.

In 2006, during one of the peaks in public debate over immigration reform, community groups and advocates called for marches on May 1. The relationship between immigrant rights and worker rights made perfect sense to many, and since then May 1 has become an annual day for highlighting the ongoing struggles of immigrant workers. Interestingly, support for immigrant rights is one of the more unifying political issues in the Jewish world.

At the same time, many of the organizations engaged in service are dealing with the poor and marginalized in our communities.  These often include immigrants, day-laborers, the unemployed, and people with jobs that place them near the bottom of the economic ladder. But our Jewish voices championing those people and the rights we wish they enjoyed are not the same as the Jewish voices clamoring for workers’ rights in the slums of the Lower East Side a century ago.

This past September a small group of radicals captured the world’s attention by symbolically occupying a now familiar park near Wall Street. The movement they sparked was in the name of ‘the 99%’, language that highlighted the growing gap between rich and poor over the last few years. In the months since then, they have seemed to fade in and out of the public eye. But this week on May 1 they attempted a comeback.

Working closely with unions, immigrant rights organizations and other constituencies, Occupy Wall Street is linking current struggles for social justice with the history of workers rights in America and around the world. It makes perfect sense; after all, May 1 was born in America, and those who gave birth to it were often immigrants – many of them Jews.

American Jews, by and large, are no longer the socialist, Yiddish-speaking factory workers we may have been a century ago. But we still have a lot in common. In particular, the desire to have a positive impact society and make things better for others. In the end, we are all just trying to repair the world in our own way.

Last month, I helped convene a conscientious crowd to explore the question “What is Jewish Detroit?” The Ann Arbor symposium — hosted at a neutral (read: equitably inconvenient) location by Michigan’s Jewish Communal Leadership Program — was rich in life lessons and lox, cultural context and capers. As we’ve come to expect in any Jewish conversation, the opinions outnumbered the participants. To my knowledge, neither the onions nor opinions led to tears.

Like any question worth asking, “What is Jewish Detroit?” begat not tidy answers, but more questions.

My task was to reflect on the question, “What language do you use to talk about Detroit and Jewish involvement in Detroit?” I talk about each a lot, a result both of talking too much generally and of the depth and dynamism of our communities.

In my experience, what we say can be amplified or undermined based on how we say it. Words and phrases we think directly denote what we are trying to articulate can have complex connotations for different audiences. Without getting tongue tied by political correctness, we can work toward conversations that will lead to positive actions, unhampered by negative reactions.

With the caveat that this guide is mine and mine alone – and without annotation – here are some do’s and don’ts, humbly submitted for your consideration.

Do Say:
LiverNOISE.
Lasher.
6 Mile.
The Boulevard.
Meijer’s.
Ford’s.
Kresge’s or Kmart’s.
Party Store.
And, of course, pop.

Do say: Opportunity. Don’t say: Blank canvas.
Do say: Dynamic. Don’t say: Renaissance.
Do say: Urban planning. Don’t say: Urban renewal.
Do say: Detroit. Don’t say: Downtown, if you mean the whole city.
Or, if applicable, do say: Downtown, Midtown, Corktown, Greektown, Mexicantown, Poletown.
Or, instead of Midtown, say: Cass Corridor, New Center, Brush Park, Cultural Center, Wayne State, Woodbridge.
Do say: Neighborhood: Don’t say: Inner city.
Don’t say: Ghetto.
Do say: RenCen. Don’t say: CoPa.
Do say: Lafayette. Don’t say: American.
Do say: The city limits. Don’t say: 8 Mile.
Do say: Nonprofit. Don’t say: Charity.
Do say: Underserved. Don’t say: Underprivileged.
Do say: Initiative. Don’t say: Project.
Do say: Partner. Don’t say: Adopt.
Do say: This is the Motor City. Don’t say: This is the Motor City — why would anyone want to take a bus?
Do say: Public transit. Don’t say: Mass transportation.
Do say: City kids. Don’t say: Urban youth.
Do say: Graduation rate. Don’t say: Dropout rate.
Do say: Cycle of poverty. Don’t say: Culture of poverty.
Do say: I’m from Detroit. Or I’m from Metro Detroit. Don’t say: I’m from outside Detroit.
Do say: We can empathize with oppression. Don’t say: Well, we were discriminated against, too, and we worked hard and got ahead.
Do say: Riots or civil unrest or rebellion or revolution or whatever you think characterizes Detroit in the summer of 1967. But if someone has a different name or take, don’t call him out — buy him a beer.
Do say: Black. Or African American. Don’t say — even in unmixed company or facetiously or to yourself – shvartze.
Don’t say: Kwame.
Don’t say: Coleman.
Do say: Invest in and engage with. Don’t say: Revive, reinvent or revitalize.
Do say: With Detroit. Don’t say: For Detroit.
Do say: Love. Don’t say: Save.
Do: Talk about Detroit.
Don’t: Talk at Detroit.

–

Did you like this post? Check out Complicating the Narrative of Detroit’s Revitalization as well.

Repair the World was involved in a collaborative training program for Jewish service-learning group leaders. BBYO, AJWS and Bend the Arc took the lead in developing training modules for use by the trainers. These modules are now available to all. (The only restriction is you can’t pass them off as your own work.)

Each module comes in two parts. The first is the practical manual for running a specific session; everything from the list of materials, length of time, to the list of desired outcomes. At the end there is an extra page with the acronym UbD, or Understanding By Design. This is a kind of cheat sheet that summarizes many of the key points about the training module. The UbD is a framework for educational planning focused on “teaching for understanding.” As you will see in the GLTI UbD’s, each one shows the desired results for the lesson plan, assessment plan, and lesson plan checklist. So instead of notecards, your trainers can hold folded UbD’s the first few times.

We’re all quite excited to be releasing these resources into the world. Please download away, and let us know about your experiences using them!

If you have questions about this content – please ask below in the comments and/or email John Cape, AJWS (jcape@ajws.org) or Natalie Sukienik, BBYO Panim (nsukienik@bbyo.org) directly.

If you are new to Jewish service-learning then Jewish Service-Learning: History and Landscape, by Mordecai Walfish is a great place to start. He assumes no prior experience, and helps to situate the field in a context anyone can understand. For those of us in neck deep already, consider using it as a handout in situations wherein you want people to understand the field, not just perform JSL.

Two articles explore the dynamic tension between service-learning as an activity that involves two beneficiaries – the participant and the recipient community. Both agree that what is needed is balance and authentic partnership, but this requires a lot of work and time to be effective.

From Service-Learning to Service-Activism:  What Teach for America Can Teach the Jewish Service Movement, by Aaron Dorfman looks at the model of a successful organization for tips that we can use. One of them is that our product as JSL leaders isn’t the specific amount of service performed in a week, month, or even year. Rather, it’s the lengthy engagement with the problem our service is addressing that follows a participant for years.

Teach for America produces quite a few teachers who remain in the school system after their term of service is over. But it is even better at producing active leaders throughout society who understand the intertwined issues of education and poverty, and are committed to addressing them from wherever they land professionally.

Dual Benefits, Dual Challenges: The Theory and Practice of Integrating Community Impact and Participant Development in Jewish Service-Learning Experiences, by Max Klau and Dana Talmi is more of a mini-manual for successfully navigating the integration at the heart of all service-learning. Consider using it to examine your own program.

Finally, we have Opening the Black Box:  Lessons from Research on Immersive Jewish Service Learning Programs for Young Adults, by Fern Chertok, Joshua Tobias, Matthew Boxer and Shirah Rosin. In a nutshell, this is about the pedagogy of JSL. Where a lot of the previous content focuses on the service-learning component, this one addresses the integration of Jewish content using actual data.

The piece concludes with  strong recommendations to innovate, experiment and evaluate JSL programs to hone in on what works for each individual organization. Those answers might come from field-wide best practices, but must be integrated by each team and organization in a never-ending process.

While these four articles don’t represent a series or thematic unit, they do cover many of the basics of the Jewish service-learning field. As you read them (and you should!) consider what questions stick with you going forward. We’d love to pose them here on RepairLabs.

Turn your speakers up and watch:

Get the full flavor of From Service-Learning to Service Activism: What Teach for American Can Teach the Jewish Service Movement by reading it – and join the conversation.

Dorfman’s article is included in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service.

… to succeed, Jewish service-learning service must be authentic, it must support the needs of the community being served, and it must effectively align its learning program to the work itself.

– Jon Rosenberg, Repair the World

Repair the World is thrilled to introduce People of the Book, Community of Action: Exploring Jewish Service-Learning, the first-ever issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service dedicated to the field.

When we embarked on a journey to advance the conversation about Jewish service-learning (JSL) by sponsoring an issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service, we were amazed by the number of diverse and amazing field professionals eager to contribute to the Journal’s creation. Today, we’re delighted to offer a curated publication which features  articles from experts in Jewish service-learning and from organizations like American Jewish World Service, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Agency for Israel and countless others who have been working to advance the field everyday.

In the Journal, you’ll gain insights and answer questions like:

• Understanding the field and the relationship between Jewish identity and Jewish service-learning
• Breaking down the cost and value of Jewish service-learning
• How – and can – we create “service people”?
• Do Jewish learning and service integrate? What is the the state of service in Israel?
• What impact does JSL have on the communities in which its volunteers serve, on participants performing the service, and on the Jewish community at large.

To share as much of the learning from the field as possible, in addition to the print edition of the Journal , for the first time, we have created a digital supplement available exclusively online, here at RepairLabs, Repair the World’s blog devoted exclusively to professionals in the field.
Repair the World, which fosters the JSL field’s growth by providing grants, technical assistance, leadership, support for educators and conducting ongoing research and evaluation to inform the field’s development, is grateful to the Jewish Communal Service Association for their partnership, especially the hard work of Brenda Gevertz, Lyn Light Geller, and Gail Naron Chalew, and to the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation for their generous sponsorship.

And of course, we thank all of the practitioners, researchers, and organizational partners who made this possible, my co-editors at Repair the World, Jon Rosenberg and Ilana Aisen (and our marketing crew at Repair for helping design and get the word out about the journal).

We hope the creation of this journal will help advance the conversation about Jewish service-learning, help you share best practices, and highlight important insights to further your work. Without further ado, we invite you to read the articles and join the conversation on this site, Facebook, and on Twitter with the hashtag #JSLJournal. (And follow us @repairlabs)

Repair the World is thrilled to present the first-ever Journal of Jewish Communal Service dedicated to Jewish service-learning (JSL). With the creation of this landmark issue, we hope to celebrate the great work of those building the valuable JSL field, to introduce it to newcomers, and to expand our collective knowledge about existing opportunities, trends and best practices. The articles herein tackle a variety of prescient topics authored by its experts: those who are helping build the field themselves.

This year, for the first time, the Journal is available both print journal and online, with a digital supplement on RepairLabs, Repair the World’s blog devoted exclusively to providing resources and a community to the field’s practitioners. Abstracts for contributed articles are located throughout the Journal, with the full articles available at RepairLabs.org/JJCS. Please take some time, read, and share what you’ve learned with others, with us, and in the field.

As a platform dedicated broadly to inspiring American Jews and their communities to give their time and effort to serve those in need, Repair the World has been paying close attention to the JSL field since our inception in 2009. Repair the World fosters the field’s growth by providing technical assistance, grants, leadership, support for educators and by performing consistent research and evaluation.  In 2010-2011, we released several reports including, “The worth of what they do: The impact of short-term immersive Jewish service-learning on host communities–an exploratory study,” “Volunteering + values: A Repair the World report on Jewish young adults,” and  “Year 2: Refining the Pedagogy of the Group Leadership Training Institute for Immersive Jewish Service Program Leaders” – all of which are intended to help inform the field’s development.

We define JSL much like secular service-learning: an act which combines direct service that responds to real community needs within and outside of the Jewish community, and one which includes structured learning and time for reflection. In JSL, we take it one step beyond, wrapping the experience within a context of Jewish education and values – like our commitment as individuals and communities toward tikkun olam—repairing the world.

Some JSL programs may come in the form of recurring or occasional local Jewish service-learning opportunities in one’s own community. Others are immersive Jewish service-learning (IJSL) experiences, full-time direct service for at least seven days, often involving travel outside of one’s community. Some programs work inside out, embedding service-learning in academic courses, either in a K-12 setting or in higher education, including through Jewish Studies courses on university campuses, or via Jewish day schools programs which engage students in service-learning as part of their curricula. Indeed, at best, local JSL enables individuals, Hillels, synagogues, JCC’s, and other groups to make long-standing connections with the organizations with which they partner and with their community’s long-term efforts to become more caring and just. Check out the Table of Contents to find articles about each type of JSL, the relationships and partnerships formed, and the impact on the participants, the communities served, and the Jewish community as a whole.

Through our efforts, Repair the World has had the opportunity to work with some of the JSL field’s most innovative and experienced leaders. We hope you’ll take the time to learn from these individuals and gain a better understanding of JSL’s background, major trends, impact on community served, participants and Jewish communities, as well as the pedagogy behind the work. Hopefully you’ll learn, as we have, that, in all instances, JSL service must be authentic, it must support the needs of the community being served, and it must effectively align its learning program to the work itself.

We are extremely grateful to the dozens of people who helped make this Journal possible. Thanks to Jennifer Hoos Rothberg, Rafi Rone, Jennie Rosenn, and John Ruskay for joining us in a roundtable moderated by Repair the World Board member, Liz Jaffe to discuss the motivations behind their organizations’ support of the field.

We thank our devoted Editorial Committee who lent their expertise and time to curating this incredible edition of the Journal by participating in a double blind review of each article submitted. In addition, we appreciate the reading, editing, and guidance of Susan Shevitz, Lyn Light Geller, Gail Naron Chalew, and Brenda Gevertz of JCSA.

This project wouldn’t be possible without the support of our Journal co-sponsors, and our partners in building the JSL field: the Jim Joseph Foundation, and our colleagues there, Chip Edelsberg and Adene Sacks; and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, and our colleagues there, Lisa Eisen and Roben Kantor. Please see this, by Lisa Eisen, Adene Sacks, and Jon Rosenberg, which makes the case for Jewish service-learning.

Finally, we offer our sincerest thanks to JSL practitioners and the authors of articles for both the Journal and its digital supplement. Your knowledge, expertise, and stories speak for themselves. Thank you for sharing them, and for sharing of yourselves as we work together to build this field and repair the world.

LIZ:  How does Jewish service-learning fit in with your funding priorities?

RAFI:  The Meyerhoff family has rightly seen it as one of the multiple portals of access to next generation Jews. It’s not just service; it’s service within the context of meaning, leading to deeper involvement and leadership.

JENN:  The foundation I represent looks at this in a universal frame, rather than a particular Jewish frame.  The mission of the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust is helping people get along better, and what that means to us is how to raise the next generation of empathic citizens to create a more civil society.  Research tells us that people further develop empathy and prosocial behavior—such as teamwork, kindness, and cooperation—when they experience the joy of helping others.  Empathy, the root of many prosocial behaviors, is like a “muscle”—we all have it, but it’s strengthened with use.  We therefore seek to fulfill our mission by providing such opportunities to flex that muscle. As you might imagine, service is a great one.  By engaging in authentic service, we are able to raise a generation of citizens whose values are based on our shared humanity, who seek opportunities to care for others, and choose to “give back” throughout the rest of their lives.  Because the Jewish community has a strong tradition of “repairing the world,” we have an unprecedented opportunity to embrace our tradition and inspire American Jews to give their time and effort to serve those in need.

JENNIE:  The Nathan Cummings Foundation has been involved in supporting service since the early to mid-90s, giving seed funding to PANIM,¹ AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps,² and Tzedek Hillel.³  Our funding priorities have service as an integral strategy to engage Jews, Jewish communities, and Jewish resources more effectively in issues of social and economic justice. Social justice as part of our strategy is at the core of Jewish values; it is integral to Jewish life and to the creation of a more just, vibrant, and sustainable society. We also see it as a way of cultivating the next generation of Jews who are engaged as full citizens.

JOHN:  In the past five years, thinking purely financially, in a flat world where funding is pretty static, UJA-Federation of New York has put $2 million into this area. Some would say that was significant, but obviously, in the total picture, it is only a part of what is needed. I think this area is pregnant with possibility.

For us, Jewish service-learning is not a discrete program; it comes from a broad perspective of understanding where we are in Jewish history. We believe the overarching challenge is to create Jewish communities that can lead Jews to self identify because of the meaning, community, and purpose that Jewish life infuses in our lives.  It is in this context that we  believe  that service-learning can play an integral part in strengthening the community—the way a visit to a home of shiva (week of mourning), bikur cholim (visiting the sick), and caring for one another itself creates the web of community, which for us is critical. It’s about caring about our own community and beyond. Service-learning does not stand in and of itself; it is part of a much broader vision of the place of the Jewish community at this time.

I always say, “We’re in the first inning of this experiment.” The questions are, What are we learning from it?  Who is participating in service-learning experiences?  Do these experiences engage new people? Can we use service-learning to strengthen community? What will the impact be long term and short term?

LIZ:  How should funders and practitioners approach Jewish service-learning to maximize the value for the server and the served?

RAFI:  This question goes to the nature of partnership in general.  Always with partnerships, you have to be very clear at the outset about what each side’s expectations are going in because if there is no clarity, it will eventually lead to disappointment or to one side feeling like it’s not achieving its objectives or its goals. Partnership needs to be seen purely as a live relationship with clarity—clarity is the most important piece.

JOHN: You know we at UJA-Federation are one step removed from the server and the served; in fact, I’m probably a lot of steps removed from the server and the served. Volunteerism—service-learning—is a strategy to actualize a longer term vision. You must have a view of where you want to move community and society. What is needed Jewishly or in terms of society?

Service-learning is not only about doing good things.  Anyone who designs a volunteer effort is in theory doing good things.  We need to focus on doing service more effectively for the server and the served. What are we doing to move the needle on broader isolation, of connecting more strongly to those in need? Or, to use Jenn’s term, on broader empathy for the other? For example, there’s a great opportunity in going into the home of the elderly—connecting with that person, seeing how she lives—as we’ve all done, and one experiences that in a way that changes your frame of the world.

JENN: For me, maximizing the value of Jewish service learning is all about authenticity. We need to look at what Jews are already doing to repair the world.  What we will find is that many are already engaged in ways where they’re making meaningful differences in the world. As a Jewish community, we need to celebrate that as being part of what a Jewish journey looks like.

RAFI:  The Meyerhoff Foundation takes the novel approach that the practitioners actually know what they’re doing and they are pretty good at it, which is why they are doing it. We offer to be thought partners, but we trust good solid leadership and organizational savvy. As someone who was a practitioner and a participant in Jewish service-learning experiences, I have tremendous respect for that approach.

LIZ:  I promise you, all our practitioners would say “thank you” to that approach.  Repair the World is very serious about being sure that, as Jenn said, the service is authentic: we are supporting programs in our grant-making that are needed or requested from a community, not what we think, from on high, needs to happen for the community.

JENNIE:  A key element we’ve found in any authentic Jewish service program is that there’s a community partnership, and those partnerships take a fair amount of time and energy to build.  But without them, we’re not really engaging the server or the served in an authentic or deep way.

LIZ:  I think most of you have addressed the community issues and civic engagement, but what potential does Jewish service-learning have for engaging young people and nurturing Jewish identity?

JOHN:   As I understand it, the early research says there’s a surprisingly high percentage of participants in Jewish service-learning programs who are already quite Jewishly identified.  Steven M. Cohen said we’re going to be “leaner and meaner,” so this is certainly a way to strengthen our community, to deepen it.

JENNIE:  Three thoughts: First, just because someone has a religious school or Jewish camp background, we cannot assume they are feeling connected to the community. “Affiliated” and “unaffiliated” are the wrong frame for where we are now, which has to do with the way people have multiple identities and complex identities, and being Jewish is only a part of them.

The second point relates to what Robert Putnam talks a lot about in Bowling Alone:  the use of social capital. What’s so striking about Jewish service-learning is that it’s both bridging and bonding capital—bridging across differences and bonding within the community.

Third, what makes Jewish service-learning transformative in terms of people’s own Jewish identity is the way in which there is intensive Jewish learning and reflection and in the way in which a Jewish community is being formed as participants are processing their experience. So, it’s not enough to do service—that in itself is not transformative. A lot of the research shows that the process of doing Jewish service-learning and reflection, and doing it in the context of community, is what results in that transformational part and the strengthening of Jewish identity.

RAFI:  The piece that’s important is that now everything educationally is done in groups.  I was visiting Towson University [outside of Baltimore] the other day, and they were knocking down the old cubicles with doors on them.  Instead, everything is now one computer with five or six chairs around it.  Everything is collaborative.  Yet as Putnam says, we’re still struggling with this sense of isolation.

That’s some of the core of the Jewish identity piece of it:  Jewish identity is so “high art” and nuanced. To create a safe space within any Jewish service-learning—or Jewish text study—setting is also high art and high-touch, though if done with a few specific set of guidelines and the tenets of effective experiential education, you can create real impact.

Using Jewish service-learning and immersive Jewish service-learning to get to the effective exploration of identity is high art, and it’s really important because this is what will separate universalistic from particularistic service-learning experiences—between those that serve non-Jews and Jews and those that only serve Jews in need. You have people who started Teach for America (TFA)⁴ and AmeriCorps⁵ and City Year⁶, so many Jews in this industry, and there’s no connecting the dots of what’s Jewish about what they’re doing.

JENN:  I’d like to echo some of Rafi’s points. Some of this is about rewriting our communal narrative of what it means to be engaged in Jewish life and Jewish identity. As a Jewish community, we used to say, “Come to us and we will provide meaning and belonging.” At the time, that was appropriate. But as Jews today, we have multifaceted identities—we no longer need to lead with our “Jewish selves” to find community.

This is where there’s an opportunity for Jewish service-learning and our practitioners in the field—to not just meet the ones who are knocking on our doors, but to go out and engage with Jews where they are.  We have the opportunity to validate them by saying, “Yes, who you are— and that service piece of you—is also important to us.  Engaging in service is very much part of what it means to be engaged in Jewish life.” We need to recognize that what they are doing is absolutely part of who we are as a people, and we need them to help us rewrite this narrative of what it means to be engaged in Jewish life.  That’s the opportunity: to have the universal aspect of service-learning be recognized as a defining element of American Jewish life.

And that opportunity will provide the bonding we need within our own community; we can say, “You see, we do have something in common because service and being engaged in the community are inherently Jewish acts.” That’s the bonding we desperately need in our Jewish community. And the bridging piece occurs when the Jewish community recognizes our obligation to serve those in need in our midst as central to what it means to engage in Jewish life.

JENNIE:  I’m not sure that the universalistic/particularistic paradigm is still the right one. We’ve exploded that dichotomy.  Part of what’s compelling about Jewish service-learning is that it’s inherently both.

RAFI:  There’s a difference between doing the Peace Corps⁷ in Kazakhstan and doing the JDC Jewish Service Corps⁸ in Morocco, not that there’s anything wrong with either, but the challenge is: Why and how are these programs American and why and how are they Jewish?  I still think that answering that question is a good challenge.

JENN: I think Jewish service-learning’s role is to create the translation of why that service is both Jewish and American.  I don’t think doing a year of service in AVODAH is any better than doing a year of service in Teach for America, but we have the opportunity to translate why the latter is Jewish.  People make choices, so we need to help them see why the choice they made to do TFA or City Year is as Jewish as doing AVODAH. This generation is committed to repairing the world, and hearing from multiple places that service is part of the Jewish identity experience will strike an incredibly meaningful chord with them.

JOHN:  Hearing that service is valued?

JENN:  Valued, yes. Hearing that however they choose to repair the world—it’s the fact that they’re doing it—is meaningful. And the communal aspect to that is hearing that other people find it meaningful too. The reason why is that it validates something already inherent in who they are as important and valued, providing a link and ultimately a sense of belonging to a Jewish community.

LIZ:  I’m going to take us in a slightly different direction to talk about the value there is in Jewish service-learning achieving more prominence in the Jewish community. Do you think it should have more prominence on the Jewish communal agenda?

JOHN:  I find this conversation really interesting; it reflects the learning stage we are at in the present moment in Jewish life.  There’s a search for a silver bullet, for the one most important and most critical program or service; I think this search is unnecessary and unproductive.  The great news is that this community, which has many external challenges that could have consumed our interest, focus, and money, has the ability to say we’re going to see what can strengthen Israel trips, summer camps, synagogues, Hillels, Jewish service-learning, and invest in a whole set of start-ups—some of which will succeed and some will not.  We’re 15 years into this.  The truth is, I think the research and experience matter here.

When you ask if Jewish service-learning should be more important, the question you’re really asking is if it should deserve more communal funding in a time of really flat money.  The increasingly important question facing everyone—funders and federations—is, Where can philanthropy have substantial impact?  Getting the metrics on that is easier said than done, particularly on the identity front.  The great news is that we’re all in this trying to figure this out.

RAFI:  I think what John is alluding to is R&D (Research & Development), which is usually 10–15% of any company’s budget. I sit on the Israel & Overseas Commission at the ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, and recently we had the choice whether to send six kids from Baltimore to do follow-up Birthright programs in Israel or to support the Ethiopian National project. Are you going to use communal funds to feed people, or to educate people about feeding people, or to strengthen this incredible, so savvy, so smart generation coming up, or can you figure out a way to do all three?

JENNIE: I want to take up John’s challenge of what the community is that we’re seeking to create.  We’re talking about this as if Jewish service is new.  We are a people who serves. Jewish service is part of the DNA of who we are as a Jewish community. There are two things we know as Jews:  we know that we have an obligation to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable populations; we know that from our tradition. And we know that there will always be hungry in our midst.⁹  And therein lies the tension. We’re not going to solve in our generation all the social issues that create these needs, so part of what we need to be nurturing is a Jewish community for whom this service is central to how we live out our values in the world.  To create a community that is sensitive and responsive to the needs in our midst is part of what it means to live our lives as Jews.

LIZ:  Do you think that Jewish service-learning advances Jewish learning, creates communities of meaning, meets pressing community needs, and cultivates the next generation of engaged Jewish citizens?

JOHN:  Service-learning takes service to the next level in multiple ways by bringing groups together to study and reflect on service, making it a collective experience, and embedding it in learning. Now we’re trying to figure out the investment we as a community need to make in Jewish service-learning. In national bodies—whether the Jewish Funders Network or the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly—service is on the agenda. At one point we had the audacious notion of making it a norm that every person at some stage of life would undertake a service-learning experience.

JENN:  There’s an opportunity on the agency side too…

JOHN:  What agencies?

JENN:  Oh, meaning YOUR agencies <laughter>

JOHN: Ah!

LIZ: The 100 agencies supported by UJA-Federation of New York.

JENN: Across the board, we have an opportunity to recognize the human capital that can be used to meet pressing community needs. Instead of asking how we mobilize hundreds of thousands of Jews to go do service, we have an opportunity to look at our agencies, our nonprofit organizations, the ones on the ground serving the people who are in need of service, and ask them, “How could you use an additional set of hands? What can we do to help you as an organization utilize people who want to come to volunteer?

JOHN:  Would it be helpful for me convene three, five, seven of our largest human services agencies that do our highest quality work, to think together with you about this question? We have all learned that managing this process is hugely more complicated than we knew when we started.

JENN: When the Jewish community has flat financial resources to do this, we need to change the way we look at service.  We cannot only see Jewish service-learning as a high-touch intervention to engage Jews—which means it’s a high-cost intervention too.  If we do this, then we’ll never be able to make service a communal norm.  We must flip this paradigm from focusing on the person doing the service to instead focusing on the problems we seek to address and the people in our communities who are in need of our help.

Volunteers who engage in real service, authentic service, where they can see the difference they are personally making in the world, are those who choose to serve again and again.  So of course, we need to make sure the opportunities we’re providing do just that.

However, if we do this right, ultimately the cost should not be on providing that great service experience—that should be a given—instead, our emphasis should be on how our community engages in local problem-solving as volunteers, which can lead to a collective cost savings due to the in-kind value we would add to a nonprofit’s balance sheet. That means that part of our job to make service a norm is to work directly with some of our key organizations on the ground who are already helping solve community problems and to provide them the assistance they need to use volunteers more effectively to meet their organizational goals.

RAFI:  One of the things that is really important is the need for funds just to make service-learning happen. I would hope that something service-learning experiences show is that someone has to pay to turn the lights on and pay for the ceramic you need to build the toilet you’re building. In an effective service-learning program that sense of community responsibility is translated to the experience; this translation is really an undervalued goal for a Jewish service-learning experience. People don’t parse out what is the difference between tzedek (justice) and tzedakah (charity); to me, you should not consider Jewish service or Jewish service-learning as your charity, as your philanthropic obligation. We want service-learning participants to have those experiences and say, “Great, I will do this AND I will write the check to the agencies I care about”—not “I did this and so I don’t have to donate money.”

<Liz invited Jon Rosenberg, CEO of Repair the World, into the conversation>

JON:  And they should also say, “I will get involved in other forms of social action.”  One research point about service-learning and about civic engagement measures broadly—service-learning programs like City Year and the Jewish service-learning field—is that these measures and behaviors are very interconnected. Developing those civic muscles has a positive interaction with philanthropic giving, with advocacy, with issue education, with voting, with all the other things that we value as a collective.

JENNIE:  I know this isn’t a conversation about tzedakah, but I can’t help but take the bait, Rafi.  One of the Jewish communal norms that the Jewish community has not yet actualized is the giving of 10–20% of our resources to tzedakah. You’re raising the issue that chesed (loving-kindness), tzedek, and tzedakah are branches of the same tree, and Jon, it’s interesting to hear that the research is showing that they really are branches of the same tree.  Rather than seeing it as an either/or, how can we be cultivating a community that understands its responsibility to act in all three of these arenas?

LIZ:  Now we seem to be back to the beginning about your concerns about Jewish service-learning.

JENNIE:  The challenge is how we build capacity in the field of Jewish service-learning so it still reflects our core values.  How do we ensure that it’s authentic Jewish service that goes to scale not only operationally but also insofar as it maintains the transformational nature that makes it valuable in the first place—both in the communities that we serve and for the participants? What makes this work transformational are the very elements that make it cumbersome to bring to scale, and yet if we go to scale without figuring out how to ensure that these elements stay in place, there’s no reason for us to continue. These elements include meaningful Jewish learning and reflection, serious community partnerships, the meeting of authentic, real needs, and connecting to the underlying social issues that create the needs in the first place.  This also means well-trained, top-notch Jewish service-learning educators. These things are what make it expensive, but they are also what make it ultimately transformational for the world and for the people who are serving.

RAFI: Jewish service-learning is not the be-all and end-all.  I think a sense of community is important.

LIZ:  Could you relate that to your own personal experience volunteering?

RAFI: I was volunteering as the Ralph I. Goldman International Fellow at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan—it’s the only capital in the world named for a wooden plunger used to milk a goat. The most incredible part of being there was when I would talk to people in the neighborhood who weren’t Jewish, and they would say, “Oh the Jewish community, they help each other.” So, delivering a food package to the only Jew, who lived two hours north of Bishkek in a small village whose population used to be half Jewish, with children from the community was great not just because it gave us a sense of “we take care of our own” but knowing that she actually shared it with her floor mates, who may not have had electricity in minus-45 degree weather.  It was the melding of the particularistic with the universalistic. This is my favorite question to people when I visited every country:  “How many Jews do you think there are in the world?”  I’d hear these responses: “Ohhh, a billion, 500 million, 700 million.” What these answers symbolized is that we care, and we don’t just care about our own community.

LIZ:  That’s a great way to end the discussion. Thank you all for being part of this conversation.

¹ PANIM, now the PANIM Institute of BBYO, trains and inspires a new generation of teens committed to service, advocacy and philanthropy focused on issues that make a difference in the world and the Jewish values that support civic engagement (http://panim.bbyo.org/).

² AVODAH: the Jewish Service Corps strengthens the Jewish community’s fight against the causes and effects of poverty in the United States by engaging participants in service and community building that inspire them to become lifelong agents for social change whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values (http://avodah.net/).

³ Weinberg Tzedek Hillel  is a public service and social justice initiative devoted to transforming the culture of Hillel campuses (http://www.hillel.org/tzedek).

⁴ Teach For America is growing the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education (www.teachforamerica.org).

⁵ AmeriCorps supports a broad range of local service programs that engage thousands of Americans in intensive service to meet critical community needs (www.americorps.gov/).

⁶ City Year is an education-focused nonprofit organization that unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to graduation (http://www.cityyear.org/).

⁷ The Peace Corps helps the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women; promotes a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; and promotes a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans (http://www.peacecorps.gov/).

⁸ The JDC Jewish Service Corps (JSC) offers young Jews the opportunity to directly engage with JDC’s global mission and actively fulfill the value of Jewish responsibility through a yearlong or 8-10 week service opportunity connected to JDC’s overseas programs (http://www.jdc.org/).

⁹ Deuteronomy 15:11 “For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land.” (JPS translation)

The American Jewish community has an illustrious history of service and social action. A commitment to serving others and building strong communities is embedded in our texts and in the millennia-old values that provide much of the moral and ethical foundation of Jewish life: chesed (acts of loving-kindness), tzedek (justice) and tikkun olam (repairing the world). We have brought these texts and values to life in significant ways, from our involvement in the civil rights movement and the establishment of the State of Israel to the fight for the freedom of Soviet Jewry, the protests against the genocide in Darfur and our visible leadership in the national service movement.

Young Jews are eager to uphold this proud tradition and to contribute their voices and action to the groundswell of service sweeping our nation. Last year, “Volunteering + Values: A Repair the World Report on Young Adults”[1] revealed that the majority of Jewish young adults engage in volunteer work in order to help others and to create positive impact on our communities, our country and our world. Now, we have the opportunity to show these young Jews that their commitment to service is a fundamental part of what it means to be Jewish. We believe Jewish service-learning[2] programs play a vital role in ensuring that the hands-on pursuit of justice maintains its rightful place in Jewish life.

Changing Ourselves, Changing the World

The Jewish people have a long tradition of wrestling with God and with one another through discussion of our sacred texts. The essence of this grappling is found in the Talmud, which tells the story of a debate between Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva (Kiddushin 40b):

Rabbi Tarfon and some elders were reclining in an upper chamber in the house of Nitza in Lod when this question came up: Which is greater, study or action? Rabbi Tarfon spoke up and said: Action is greater. Rabbi Akiva spoke up and said: Study is greater. The others then spoke up and said: Study is greater because it leads to action. (Soncino translation)[3]

Rooting our actions in text and values is at the heart of Jewish service-learning, which goes deeper than most forms of service by engaging participants in structured study of – and reflection on – the same values that have undergirded the history of Jewish social action.

Jewish service-learning emphasizes the importance of study, discussion and debate to ensuring service is substantive and the commitment to it enduring. From the BBYO Panim Institute’s Summer of IMPACT programs for teens to 10 months in Israel with OTZMA to a year-long fellowship on a Hillel campus engaging in ongoing service locally, many young Jews credit Jewish service-learning experiences with strengthening their Jewish identities and deepening their commitment to social action and sense of responsibility for building a better world.

Take Julie Ann Kalt, for example. A student at Tufts, Julie brought her passion for women’s rights to bear on her campus Hillel’s Moral Voices initiative. She tied Jewish teachings into a campaign advocating for women globally and to her weekly commitment to working with low-income elementary school girls through the Strong Women, Strong Girls program. As a Repair the World intern, she also took a lead role in organizing a “Tufts Service Day” with her co-leader, Hillary Sieber, which sent 300 students out in the local community to volunteer.

Julie came into Hillel with no formal Jewish education. Last semester, she and Hillary co-taught a course on Judaism and social justice with its participants volunteering weekly. “If you’re just doing service without service-learning, you’re missing something,” Julie said. “It drives home that the service-learning is as integral as the direct service. I didn’t grasp how big of a part these values of social action and repairing the world played in Judaism. Now I really get it, and I’m really passionate about it.”

A participant in one of Hillel’s City Year Alternative Breaks shared similar sentiments about his Jewish service-learning experience:

I felt like I significantly gained from exploring the basis of social justice in Jewish texts. Laying out the differences and importance of tzedakah (justice) and chesed (loving-kindness) really hit home and gave me a foundation from which to view the trip. I came out of the trip renewed with inspiration, and confirmed in my passion for contributing to education.

For Julie and her peers, it is empowering to learn that their Jewish identities are fully integrated with their images of themselves as citizens of the world. The weaving together of one’s Jewish and universal values reflects the opportunity Jewish service-learning provides to spark young adults’ idealism and desire to make a difference. Indeed, Jewish service-learning demonstrates to them and to the communities they serve that service and social justice are integral to Judaism and to Jewish identity.

Connecting to the Jewish Community and the Global Community

Community, or kehillah, is key to Jewish service-learning. Participants serve as a group and often in coordination with the individuals and communities they seek to improve, thus forming deep bonds, volunteer with volunteer, those serving with those served. Jewish service-learning connects young Jews to each other, to Jews around the world and to communities they might otherwise never have come to know.

A parent whose son participated in the camp run by the Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future Counterpoint Israel program articulated how her son’s relationship with his fellow student volunteers enhanced his sense of connection to the broader Jewish community:

My son connected to the American students as fellow Jews. We are all part of the Jewish People and it is important to see that … [and] to teach our children that the Jewish people is made up of different people from all over the world and only coming together will make us stronger.

A student from Penn State Hillel experienced the connection to people in a different community when he participated in an immersive Jewish service-learning experience with American Jewish World Service (AJWS):

Our trip was about more than building ovens; it was about building relationships and understandings the struggles and life of those who had been complete strangers before we got there.

Whether formed under the auspices of an immersive service-learning experience or a short-term act of volunteerism, these relationships can be transformative both within the cohort of participants doing the service, reflection and Jewish learning, and across the communities served. The combination of internal bonding among the group and external bridging across communities can create a long-term impact on the participants in these programs. It anchors for them an awakened (or re-awakened) desire to make a difference locally, nationally or internationally,[4] under a Jewish banner and with Jewish framing in secular contexts.

In many ways, this experience of kehillah, rooted in acceptance, mutual respect and a commitment to care for one another, is a microcosm of the global Jewish community we envision: one in which we engage with everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike, through our heads, our hearts and our hands.

Impact on Communities in Need

But what about the impact of the service? Any comprehensive examination of Jewish service-learning must look at whether those served benefit as much as those serving.

Indeed, any service effort must begin with the service recipient in mind. Repair the World’s Standards of Practice for immersive Jewish service-learning speak to the importance of engaging in service projects that address genuine and unmet community needs. The best Jewish service-learning programs demonstrate a positive impact on the individuals or the communities being served.[5]

The breadth and depth of the service performed by Jewish service-learning program participants in the U.S., Israel and worldwide demonstrate the impact on communities in need. In 2010-2011, immersive Jewish service-learning participants in programs supported by Repair the World took action on many issues, including poverty alleviation, Israel-Diaspora relations, disaster relief and education (Aisen, pg. 9). The 2,500 young Jewish volunteers performed 50,000 days of service – each connected to community-based issues and needs. They built small ovens in Nicaragua and constructed and painted houses in New Orleans. They taught in Jewish-Arab public schools in Israel and worked to advocate for the poor and homeless in New York City (Ibid, pg. 17-18).

Moreover, host communities value the benefit they receive – most notably, the completion of concrete discrete tasks, the engagement of the residents in community service, the development of community leaders, the cultural exchange between community members and volunteers, and the expansion of the community’s capacity to address ongoing needs.

Members of these communities are empowered by teaching the volunteers about their own experiences. When interviewed for “The Worth of What They Do: The Impact of Short-term Immersive Jewish Service-Learning on Host Communities–an Exploratory Study,”[6] one representative said: “Community members are always willing to teach what they know and to share what they have, their struggles, their accomplishments and the life situations that are so different.”

Our Opportunity

Jewish service-learning programs help our teens and young adults to develop as “Jewish service people”— Jews who lead lives of service as a conscious, deliberate manifestation of their Jewish identities.

They see their responsibilities – their call to action – as emanating from a Jewish place, grounded in Jewish history, culture, tradition and text. They emerge from Jewish service-learning programs with a greater connection to their Jewish identities and to the Jewish community, and with an increased commitment to service and communal and civic engagement. They ACT to make the world a better place and do so consciously and proudly as Jews.

As the Jewish community and the world face changes and challenges in the 21^st century, we have a significant opportunity before us to engage and inspire a cadre of American Jews who see their ability, and own their responsibility, to make a difference in the world through the prism of our rich heritage and traditions. We invite you to join us in supporting and creating spaces in our community to translate the Jewish value of repairing the world into action.

Together, we can build the capacity of Jewish service-learning programs. We can create a network of partnerships that encompasses campuses and communities in the U.S., Israel and abroad. We can offer young people the impetus and chance to serve in Jewish programs that incorporate learning and reflection. We can provide Jews serving in nonsectarian programs with Jewish framing, connections and experiences.

Jewish service-learning has the potential to lead to a tipping point in our community, making service to others a defining element of Jewish life, learning and leadership. We will always be a people who debate. But we are also a people committed to our obligation to act. Indeed, Jewish service-learning allows us to be both the People of the Book and a people of action, bringing our values to bear on our motivations to serve within and beyond our communities. As Rabbi Yitz Greenberg wrote in 2001:

The most powerful statement of human value is not made by giving money or transferring goods from one person to the other. However valuable, such gifts are of finite value. The deepest confirmation of the preciousness of a human life comes when a person gives his/her own infinitely valuable life to the other. … The fundamental, ongoing communication of human value takes place when one person spends a piece of his/her life — some unique and irreplaceable amount of time — in relationship and service to the other.

Jewish service-learning gives us the opportunity to fulfill the tradition passed down to us from generation to generation to study, to act and to do our part to serve our community and our world.

Chertok, F., Gerstein, J., & Tobias, J. Rosin, S., & Boxer, M. (2011). Volunteering + values: A Repair the World report on Jewish young adults. New York: Repair the World.

Greenberg, Y. “Personal Service: A Central Jewish Norm for Our Time.” Contact. Autumn 2001.

Irie, E. (2010). The worth of what they do: The impact of short-term immersive Jewish service-learning on host communities–an exploratory study. Berkeley, CA: BTW Consultants. Retrieved from http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=8005