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Living Judaism Together: Partnerships

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Millenial Outreach

Millenial Outreach

Living Judaism

We are stronger as a synagogue when we create relationship and partnerships with the vibrant Jewish community that surrounds us. It enables us to learn from one another. Learning is an attitude of discovery about how we experience what we do and how we do it. Through strategic alliances, we are forming relational programmatic structures that attract more people to connect to Temple Israel in creative and innovative ways.

Here are some of the organizations with whom we have fostered partnerships with in the last year:

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Beacon Academy Bina Farm Center Boston Police Camera Action Team (BPCAT) Boston-Haifa Connection Buckle Farm Center for Teen Empowerment Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) CJP’s Boston-Haifa Connection Congregation Dorshei Tzedek Congregation Kehillath Israel Ganei Beantown Greater Boston Food Bank Greater Boston Interfaith Organization Heading Home Hebrew College Hebrew SeniorLife Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Honeymoon Israel Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) Israeli Stage Jeremiah Program Boston Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action (JALSA) Jewish Arts Collaborative Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Jewish Family Services of MetroWest (JFSMW) Keshet Kiryat Haim High School Louis D. Brown Peace Institute Massachusetts Community Action Network (MCAN) Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization (MASCO) MIT Hillel Museum of Fine Arts NAACP Nature Explore Positive Tracks Reform Jewish Outreach Boston (RJOB) Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC) Temple Beth Zion Temple Hillel B’nai Temple Ohabei Shalom Temple Sinai Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Wheelock College

PARTNERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS

CENTER FOR ADULT JEWISH LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS

The introduction of the Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Israel this year represents our commitment to remain a central location for Jewish education in the Boston area. Through strategic partnerships with Jewish organizations such as Hebrew College, Keshet, The Jewish Arts Collaborative, and Israeli Stage, we have been highlighting the best of Jewish Boston and offering all courses, presentations, and programs to the entire Boston community. Temple Israel’s Lifelong Learning Initiative (TILLI) has also opened its doors, welcoming members of other congregations in the greater Boston area to join all events within the TILLI program.

Together

SOCIAL JUSTICE PARTNERSHIPS

In our approach to justice and compassion work, we recognize that our power to improve society is a function of our willingness to hold hands with our friends and partners in other communities, find areas of shared concern, and repair injustice, step by step. This year we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people in our community showing up to the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization events, particularly as we fight for criminal justice reform and other important issues. Our relationship with HIAS and Jewish Family Services of MetroWest has enabled more than 600 people in our community to have a hand in the resettlement of refugees.

We are working with organizations including AntiDefamation League and the Massachusetts Community Action Network (MCAN) to protect hardworking immigrants from inhumane roundups and deportations. We have engaged hundreds in our community’s racial justice work, fostering important connections with our friends at the NAACP and the Boston Police Camera Action Team (BPCAT). We are working to preserve and protect our precious resources with others connected to Greenfaith Energy Shield.

Meanwhile, the partnerships within the Jewish community— with Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) — are stronger than ever, as we stand together to ensure the Jewish community is standing on the side of human dignity amid this era of unfettered bigotry. Judaism without the mandate to “love your neighbor as yourself” is like the Torah without the Book of Exodus. We are blessed be living Judaism together, with so many others, as we shine light on darkness wherever it lurks.

THE TENT PARTNERSHIPS

This year was the soft launch of The Tent, a Jewish learning community for Greater Boston teens, based out of Temple Israel. In partnership with our Jewish neighbors, we connected teens with a diversity of voices to strengthen them as learners, as thinkers, and as young American Jews. This year, the Tent community included students and faculty from Temple Israel of Boston,

Temple Beth Zion, Congregation Kehillath Israel,

Temple Hillel B’nai Torah, and Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, and we are anticipating an even wider reach next Fall. The Tent is proud to be a pluralistic school, welcoming students and faculty from Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Unaffiliated congregations.

Our Tent partnerships also go beyond other local congregations. For the first time ever, five students from Beacon Academy, our unique neighbor and close friend, are participating in a Tent class on computer coding. The Tent also became a partner site of CJP’s Boston-Haifa Connection. Through support from CJP, we were matched with our Israeli partner school, Kiryat Haim High School, and were able to bring nine students to Israel this past December. Finally, the Tent became a partner site for the Jewish Community Relations Council’s (JCRC) TELEM program, which pairs Jewish youth with sites for long-term direct service or volunteer work. Through the program, Tent students volunteered with Center Communities of Brookline, the Hebrew SeniorLife Residence.

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