Voices of Big Tent Judaism - Vol 1 - February 2009

Volume 3, June-July 2009
Welcome! Each month we will focus on putting our principles into practice and recognizing Coalition members for the steps they've taken towards a more diverse and dynamic community. Read on to learn from your peers and strengthen our communities.
This month:  
Big Tent Judaism Principle #9: Enlist Active Members for Outreach 
Energize the "inside" for the mission of outreach by training and sensitizing our most active members to create a warmer and friendlier community for those on the "outside"; bridge the growing divide between engaged and unengaged Jewish individuals and households.
Principles into Practice
Enlist Active Members for Outreach 

Bring on the "Welcome Wagon!" Engaging active members in the work of outreach can benefit everybody involved.  Members will feel more invested in their community. Newcomers will be welcomed warmly and more consistently. And communal professionals will no longer bear sole responsibility for outreach. Relationship building and welcoming are most effective when seen as a community-wide effort.
 
Lay partners in outreach show newcomers that the entire community welcomes them, not just a membership chair.   

People connect to people, not institutions. Create programs and interactive activities that highlight the warmth and charisma of your community:

  • Get buy-in from your core and make sure your members understand the value of welcoming newcomers. Include the moral imperative in newsletters, sermons, and other value statements, and illustrate the theory/theology with concrete examples.
  • Provide training for volunteer greeters and lay leadership. Contact the Jewish Outreach Institute for resources. 
  • As you learn about newcomers' interests, match them appropriately to existing members who share similar interests and life experiences. Encourage these active members to take newcomers out for coffee or meet-up at community gatherings.
  • Create a matching program around a specific holiday. See our Professional Spotlight below for additional ideas.

Empowering your members to help in the potentially challenging work of outreach requires a level of sensitivity and skill that does not come automatically for most people. It requires training and time, even though their labor comes "free."  The steps above can help you get started but serve only as an overview to a much deeper process. The effort is worthwhile, because sensitive volunteers who fully understand outreach methodology increase the welcoming of your community exponentially.

 
Successfully Train and Deploy Outreach Volunteers
Professional Spotlight on Lisa Apfelberg, Outreach Coordinator for Austin, Texas 
 

Lisa Apfelberg serves as a "community concierge" for the Jewish community of Austin, TX, coordinating outreach efforts across denominational and organizational lines. Part of her success lies in drawing upon the southern hospitality of active members of the Jewish community, empowering them to serve as partners in outreach.
 
For the past two years, Lisa has coordinated a Passover Pairing program matching newcomers with hosts across Austin. Unaffiliated individuals, newcomers and other visitors were paired with generous hosts for the first seder of Passover. The majority of participants were entirely unengaged with the Jewish community. Most participants were locals, but this year's program also served one couple who was stopping in Austin on a bicycle journey across the country! One participant said, "Going to [my hosts] family was like being with old friends, we were strangers for mere minutes." Lisa recommends a number of steps to implement similar programs year-round that match newcomers with warm and welcoming members of the Jewish community. 
 
While the Jewish High Holidays are seen as the main points of engagement for many newcomers to the community, Lisa recognized that little was offered to newcomers around Passover. She created the "Passover Pairing" program to fill that void by increasing access points at this critical season. You can do the same!

Like Lisa, you can arrange a matching program for intimate interaction in members' homes on occasions such as Passover, the High Holidays or even Shabbat. Create opportunities for newcomers to interact informally with warm and welcoming members of your Jewish community.  But beforehand help those members identify some of the barriers to participation that newcomers might face, in order to insure that the experience is accessible.
 
Perhaps you already know some friendly faces that are eager to open their doors to serve as hosts for newcomers and those on the periphery.  Don't be afraid to make the ask! Make phone calls and send personalized emails asking volunteers to participate. Members will be flattered and excited to know they have the opportunity to welcome others.  And as Lisa experienced, they will discuss their fulfilling experiences as hosts with friends, encouraging others to volunteer in the future.
 
There are additional steps you can take to help hosts and newcomers to prepare for the program itself. Prior to the event or program, introduce matches to one another via email and point out intersecting interests. Provide kits for hosts and newcomers of relevant holiday information or other helpful literature such as Big Tent Judaism's "Cracking the Code" and Fifth Cup of Wine for Inclusion (if Passover). And provide hosts and guests with a list of appropriate upcoming events in your community.

After the event, be sure to follow-up with hosts and participants! Relationship building after the event is essential and can further deepen the engagement of both current members and newcomers. Lisa offers participants (and all newcomers) a tour of Jewish Austin. The tour is an opportunity to get to know a newcomer, let them in on the different opportunities of the Jewish community and explain the interesting Jewish history of the area.

In a personalized follow-up email, remember to, "Welcome, Thank, Learn and Invite." Welcome them (again) to your community; thank them (again) for having come to the event; learn how their experience was and what else they might be interested in; and invite them to an upcoming event. Conduct the same personalized follow-up with your volunteers and offer them further opportunities for welcoming newcomers.

Lisa Apfelberg successfully increased the reach of her outreach in Austin by identifying and training volunteers to help her in this essential endeavor. You can do the same!  I encourage you do to so, and am happy to discuss the above methodologies with you personally by phone, so that more communities can provide the welcoming that Lisa offers to newcomers to Austin.
 
Organization of the Month: JCC On-the-Hudson
 
This initiative, called Gateways, is one result of over a decade of open communication amongst lay leadership. Lay leaders from each community organization meet on a regular basis to discuss communal issues and problem-solve together. Everyone is aware of the challenges at each organization and realize that addressing those challenges will ensure the health and sustainability of the entire community.
 
One challenge they've taken up is the economic barrier that can prevent families with young children in the area from engaging with Jewish life. They realized that the JCC could serve as a "gateway" for families with young children to other Jewish community institutions (like synagogues). For the Gateways initiative, each agency is an entry point and develops specific outreach programs that publicize the discounts. Each agency professional is charged with spreading awareness about the opportunities to eligible newcomers with whom they come in contact.
 
Executive Director Frank Hassid states that this initiative is only the beginning; community leaders hope to build more collaborative engagement programs that serve the interests of all area organizations, as well as the needs of the unaffiliated. When forging this kind of long-term collaboration Hassid recommends moving slowly and making sure that all organizations will see a long term benefit. He remarks that the community's long range goal is to build an alternative economic model that spreads income across revenue sources, placing less emphasis on dues and tearing down additional barriers to Jewish life.
 
JCC On the Hudson and the Tarrytown Jewish community leaders are putting into practice the following Big Tent Judaism Principles:
 
#1 Welcome all Newcomers
#4 Deepen Jewish Engagement
#5 Lower Barriers to Participation
#7 Increase Points of Access
#8 Create Partnerships
Thank you!

Rachel Gross The Big Tent Judaism Coalition is coordinated by the Jewish Outreach Institute
Also in This Issue
Principles into Practice
Successfully Train and Deploy Outreach Volunteers
Organization of the Month: JCC On-the-Hudson
Share your FREE High Holiday activities and resources!
Do you offer anything for FREE during the High Holiday season? Whether its services, meals or childcare, we want to hear about it!
 
Send us your FREE High Holiday programs and resources and we will share them with the Coalition! Email Rachel, RGross@joi.org
New Organizations Under the Tent
Congregation Beth El: Beth El is a spiritually committed community, wrestling with God in public discourse and in private searches.
 
Temple Beth El of North Valley: We are inclusive and committed to welcoming the unaffiliated and reaching all kinds of Jews. 
 

Kahal B'raira:  Our community is enriched by the contributions of our diverse membership. 
 
Jewish Community Federation of Louisville: The Jewish Federation of Louisville is interested in finding and celebrating the diversity of today's Jewish individuals and families. 
 
Reform Temple of Forest Hills: We pride ourselves in being a welcoming, committed and outreaching congregation dedicated to Jewish spirituality, learning and service to the Community.  
 
Jewish Community Center on the Hudson: The JCC prides itself as a gateway institution that assists our families seeking Jewish engagement to find it in a way that is comfortable and meaningful for that family.
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