Mishmash engages new Russian-Jewish community leaders

This past Saturday, twenty-three 20- and 30-something San Francisco Bay Area Russian Jews ascended a steep hill in the heart of Mill Valley to start off their collective involvement in the Mishmash Leadership Program, a ground-breaking effort to engage potential new leaders among young Russian Jews.

The Mishmash Leadership Program is truly one of a kind, not just in the Bay Area but in North America. The eight-month long course aims to raise communal consciousness in the younger population of the Russian Jews, most of them products of late ’70s and early ’90s immigration tides. Culturally diverse and multilingual, Mishmash participants have signed up to tackle complex questions about core values and responsibilities of being young Russian-American Jews in our community.

Russian Jewish community leaders engage through the Mishmash program

The visionary behind this educational project, Sasha Belinski, an emissary from The Jewish Agency for Israel, working out of the Federation’s Israel Center, built the Mishmash Leadership curriculum around the mission of strengthening the participants’ Jewish identity, their connection to Israel, and their sense of belonging to the local Jewish community. To reach these goals, the program is structured around three core components: personal exploration, Jewish community exploration, and personal leadership initiative. The last component will take shape as a communal project—ranging from a cultural event, to an outdoor adventure or Jewish holiday celebration—that each participant will conceive, plan and deliver as a mindful contribution to the quality of local Jewish life.

For more information contact Sasha at alexandrab@sfjcf.org or 415.512.6285.

New summer study grant for FSU teens – apply now!

Are your parents from the Former Soviet Union? Want to spend the summer learning cool stuff?  If so, you are eligible for a generous grant to join in the Genesis and BIMA programs at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts! This grant lets you participate for only $1,000 – and additional financial aid is also available.

So what are these programs?

Genesis was designed as a summer program combining Jewish studies, academics, the arts and humanities, as well as what it means to participate in a diverse Jewish community. Every summer, and even every day, Genesis offers a new experience, because so much of the learning emerges from the unique combinations of teens who come together from different parts of the world, with different interests and experiences of Judaism. Open to incoming 11th and 12th graders.

BIMA brings talented teens together for four weeks in the summer to cultivate a vibrant, pluralistic environment brimming with artistic discovery and Jewish experiences. A BIMA summer experience allows one to hone his or her artistic skills, live and discover in a diverse Jewish community, and explore as an artist. Open to incoming 10th, 11th, and 12th graders.

Genesis will be offering the following courses this summer:

• Journalism and Responsibility
• Judaism and Justice
• Torah of Technology
• World Religions

BIMA will be offering the following majors this summer:

• Film (new this summer)
• Vocal Music
• Instrumental Music (piano and guitar is FULL)
• Jazz Music
• Theater
• Visual arts
• Writing

Dates: July 6-August 6, 2009

How to apply:

Students interested in the grant first need to apply to the program of their choice. Once accepted you’ll be considered for the scholarship. The application begins online – there are some short online forms and then you can download the application packet. For Genesis, this consists of two short essays, a teacher and parent recommendation, and a high school transcript. For BIMA it is two short essays, a teacher, parent, and art instructor recommendation, and samples of your work.

The links to the applications are:
Genesis – http://www.brandeis.edu/genesis/apply/index.html
BIMA – http://www.brandeis.edu/bima/apply/apply.htm

Bay Area FSU émigrés take pilot leadership trip to Israel

A group of Former Soviet Union émigré young adults from the Bay Area recently visited a program in Israel aimed at engaging and assimilating immigrants much like themselves.

One of the highlights of their pilot leadership trip was a meeting with community leaders and educators for Bina B’Shchuna (Bina in the Neighborhood), a SF Federation supported project. One Bina program of particular interest to the group was Gvanim Olim, designed to engage immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel with Jewish heritage and to help them integrate into Israeli society.

Participant Leon Kofman was impressed that the organizers of the program “really help new immigrants get acclimated in their new country and provide a nice environment where people with limited background in Hebrew language, culture and religion can gain better understanding without feeing ashamed by their lack of knowledge.”

Alex Rayter voiced what many of the participants felt about the value of the program to Israeli pluralism. “It is important,” he said, “that this organization allows Jews who are secular to learn about and come in touch with age old Jewish traditions and thought. It allows them to extract what they see as useful and beneficial to them and allows them to grow and develop as Jews, learn about their culture and people, without forcing them into a permanent lifestyle that is not a fit for them.”

The trip, organized by the Federation’s Israel Center in collaboration with JAFI and UJA Federation of NY, provided the group of 20 FSU émigrés from San Francisco and New York with an unforgettable nine days in Israel. If you are interested in hearing more about the trip or to learn about additional programs for Russian Jewish young adults, please contact Sasha Belinski, JAFI emissary for the FSU émigré community at the Israel Center, at 415.512.6285 or alexandrab@jafi.org.

80 Russian young adults talk Jewish identity

On the weekend of November 7-9, 2008, 80 Russian Jewish young adults from New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and the Bay Area converged on San Rafael, California to participate in Mitbachon (Hebrew for kitchen cabinet), an educational retreat designed to bring together Russian Jewish young adults from different communities in the US for a weekend of Jewish learning, networking and community building.

Of the 80 participants, 40 were from the greater San Francisco Bay Area, at least 10 of them had not participated in any Jewish events before.

The educational program for the retreat was inspired by Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Everything is Illuminated.  This theme was woven into the schedule, linking all workshops and activities into one sequential, virtual journey between the past and the present. Six educational workshops took place simultaneously, allowing participants to choose their topics of interest, engaging with Jewish and Israeli content that is closest to them. Sealing the retreat, an open space discussion debated our Jewish future and the impact we want to pursue.
- Alexandra (Sasha) Belinski, Emissary for FSU Emigrés Community of the West Coast, The Jewish Agency for Israel

“[...] it was wonderful to participate in a weekend that got ideas running through my head and inspired me to continue engaging in the Russian Jewish community”.
“Dear Sasha and Anya, Thank you very much for an illuminating weekend!  I have truly enjoyed participating in workshops, especially Nata’s session on Memory/Architecture and Holocaust [...].”
- Jane C.

Mitbachon project is supported by the Jewish Agency for Israel, San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, UJA Federation of New York, Israel Center of SFJCF, Combined Jewish Philanthropies (Boston), Russian Hillel (Chicago), The Genesis Foundation and the Los Angeles BJE