The holiday of Shavuot has come and gone, and the summer is upon us. For many, that means sunshine, vacations and visits to the beach. For professionals in the Jewish community, it is a wake-up call that the High Holidays are just around the corner, and there is much to be done!

As you begin to plan your High Holiday programs and work out events for the fall season, consider how you can incorporate programming that is low-barrier and able to welcome unaffiliated and intermarried families into the mix. We at JOI asked ourselves the always-relevant question of “where are the people” during the fall season, and in formulating an answer, came up with a simple and innovative new program to take advantage of the secular calendar and maximize community collaboration: a back-to-school Public Space Judaism event called “Color Me Calendar for the Jewish New Year.” On June 30th we will host a conference call to detail this program to Jewish professionals and explain how it can be used to reach out to unaffiliated and intermarried families with young children this fall. If you are a professional or lay leader interested in finding out more about the program and how to bring it to your community, please email me (Eva) at EStern@JOI.org.