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The Power of The Music Of The Night

on January 12, 2012

Rabbi Marci Bellows talks about the contiunous impact of Jewish music. She discusses her first meeting with Debbie Friedman at URJ’s Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute and how transformative her music has been on the Jewish community.

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Lake Forest High School senior finds ‘true self’ during Israel Experience

on January 9, 2012

The enthusiasm in Robin Leventhal’s blog postings — and her voice during a conversation — reinforce the fact that her semester of study in Israel affected her for a lifetime to come. A Lake Forest High School senior, Leventhal, 18, returned Dec. 29 from four months of academic and field trip experiences outside the norm for virtually all teenagers, such as learning to handle and shoot an M16 rifle.

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Youth Engagement Pushed at URJ Biennial

on December 23, 2011

Youth engagement was a major initiative presented at the 71st biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism, held Dec. 14-18, in Washington. The statistics of youth engagement are alarming – the URJ’s youth movement, National Federation of Temple Youth, has lost thousands of members and participants over the last few years, according to reports. To address the problem, the URJ has decided to act swiftly and with strength and confidence.

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Camp and the URJ Biennial

on

Rabbi Marci N. Bellows discusses the 71st URJ Biennial and how she was surprised that the most anticipated event was Shabbat services. She believes this is because the Shabbat experience at Biennial is the closest most Reform Jewish adults will come to experiencing the beauty of Jewish camping.

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We Can Welcome Every Youth

on December 22, 2011

Stephen Weitzman is currently a member of the URJ North American Board and serves as Chair of the URJ Special Needs Camping Committee. In this blog he discusses some of the sessions at URJ Biennial and the future of special needs camping.

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Impact and Importance of the Israel Experience on Teens

on December 12, 2011

Over the last year I was fortunate enough to be appointed Director of NFTY in Israel working along side Paul Reichenbach and a dedicated team that continues to run arguably some of the most successful programs coming out of the URJ in the last fifty years. Everyone knows NFTY in Israel and if you have ever talked to a Reform Jewish professional and or a lay leader, chances are that one of the formative pillars of their Reform Jewish identity took place while on a NFTY in Israel program.

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Srecna Nova Godina! – Celebrating the New Year in Serbia

on November 9, 2011

Charlotte Sall is a long time Eisner camper and staff member currently spending a gap year in Serbia working with underprivileged youth. In this blog post, she writes about her experience celebrating Rosh Hashanah in a country with fewer than 2,000 Jews.

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The Magic of Jewish Camp

on October 27, 2011

In this article by Allison Rosner Cohen, she discusses how her URJ Camp and Israel experiences have paved the way for her current role as the Director of Marketing and Communcations at the Foundation for Jewish Camp.

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A Shabbat Speech on the NFTY-EIE Semester in Israel

on June 21, 2011

This speech was presented at Friday night services by Temple member Mikah Atkind who spent her fall semester on the EIE Program in Israel. Mikah vividly describes the EIE experience and takes us through a journey of Israel and the great friendships that grew from her semester in Israel.

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