Are you a College student who is planning on making Aliyah in the future? Are you a natural leader?

The Jewish Agency for Israel is seeking the best and brightest for its new Aliyah Campus Fellowship.

Fellows will help build a “Pre-Aliyah Community,” a social and support group for students considering Aliyah, and also take part in training seminars and a subsidized pilot trip to Israel. Fellows will be the designated Aliyah student representatives of the Jewish Agency on campuses throughout North America. Fellows should be student leaders, interested in making Aliyah, and in engaging their peers by implementing Aliyah activities on campus. Students will receive a $500 stipend for their efforts, and grants for programming.

Deadline to Apply: July 15th, 2010.

Interested? Contact: Yoni Mann at (212) 339-6981 or yonim@jafi.org

Our very own Eli Winkleman, founder of Challah for Hunger and long-standing Jewlcious Festivals Almuni , is up for a $20,000 grant for her revolutionary social initiative Challah for Hunger.

Challah for Hunger (CfH) raises awareness of and money for hunger and disaster relief through the production and sale of challah bread. Chapter volunteers gather on a regular basis to make challah–often from scratch–which they in turn sell to their communities. The chapters produce challah in a variety of flavors: plain; chocolate chip; peanut butter and chocolate chip; parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme; cinnamon sugar; and many more. Fifty percent of each chapter’s profits are donated to the national CfH cause–the American Jewish World Service’s Sudan Relief and Advocacy Fund. The remaining fifty percent may be donated to an organization chosen by the chapter.

We only need 2oo more votes—–You can help Eli win $20,000 by voting here!!!

Jewlicious Festival is proud to announce the arrival of the a new version of the in-demand Israeli Keffiyeh—–the I.D.F edition! This keffiyey was designed by Dveykus and is in the classic army-style of I.D.F apparel.

Jews indigenous to the Middle East have worn some variation of the “kefyah” (cap/kippah) and keffiyah (head/neck scarves) for thousands of years. The original purpose of the scarves, was to provide protection from the sun and sand.

You can get yours now at http://www.thekef.com!

Jewish Federations of North America, aka JFNA, aka The Fed (remember the one’s who created the Jewish Community Hero’s Contest?) have a new campaign they launched called “What’s Your #ISH?”

JFNA is the umbrella org for all the Federations of North America and in that capacity feel responsible for every Jew. Everywhere. Really. I mean I have met these people, and they are serious about loving Jews all over this planet. Check out the video and pass it along to a friend. The video is pretty hilarious.

HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. (April 29, 2010) — Undefeated World Boxing Association (WBA) super welterweight champion and future rabbi YURI FOREMAN will make his U.S. network television debut on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tonight! Thursday, April 29 (12:05 a.m. ET/PT)

Foreman will then jet back to Brooklyn to resume training for his first title defense, against three-time world champion and the pride or Puerto Rico Miguel Cotto. Cotto vs. Foreman will headline “Stadium Slugfest” — the inaugural brawl at Yankee Stadium, Saturday, June 5. It will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing, beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET / 7:15 p.m. PT.

“500 Jews in One Room: Between connection and fragmentation at Jewlicious”

Jewish band Kosha Dillz performs for the Jewlicious crowd/Courtesy Jewlicious Festival

Matisyahu’s music blasted from a sound system as Jewlicious attendees filed into the Jewish Community Center in Long Beach, CA on Friday, Feb. 19. Gray-shirted volunteers smiled as they arranged seemingly endless rows of tables for the three-day festival of all things young and Jewish. Shabbat was about to begin and the hall was set for nearly 500 dinner guests.

Older men with payos sat next to young men in t-shirts from Kentucky, who sat next to girls from southern California dressed in formal clothes. Nearly everyone was singing or talking, getting up from their tables to meet each other, passing bottles of wine or platters of food. Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, the founder and director of the festival, led the entire group in a rousing “Shalom Aleichem.” Matisyahu himself shouted hamotzi and began throwing pieces of challah into a sea of waving hands.  Others banged on the table in time to a song.

Josh Morris, a student at the American Jewish University, called the dinner experience “connection,” though having so many Jews in one room may have seemed more like a scene of fragmentation.

“Jews [are] together in the same place with other Jews. We have our own things, our different customs, but being together is a very comforting feeling and that’s the reason why people came,” Morris said. He was attending and volunteering at Jewlicious for the first time. Formerly a Reform Jew active in his youth group, Morris now calls himself an “observant Orthodox Jew.”

Participants came from as far as New York and Louisville, from up and down the California coast, Jerusalem and more. Marc Schutzbank and Caryn Goldenberg, seniors at the University of Pittsburgh, were there for the first time and did not know what to expect. “It seemed like it would just be totally over the top,” Schutzbank said. “Anything called Jewlicious, it’s kind of outrageous to me.”

But Goldenberg came away from the festival with a new sense of how diverse and surprising Jews can be, especially Orthodox ones. “They’re more laid back,” she said.

Jewlicious’s schedule reflected that “outrageous” diversity. Every hour, there were between two and four programs running. Between nine and 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, attendees could choose between a Shabbat sequence called Yoga for the Body & Soul with Marcus Freed, a program called Punk Parsha, a Jewish meditation session and a discussion on organ donation. The next hour, Freed offered another Shabbat yoga sequence at the same time as Reform, services, Carlebach services and another discussion on the torah portion.

While Carlebach music sounded outside and reggae resonated from the Reform services indoors, Freed’s session combined meditation, discussion and movement. When he said to the group, “Just let your body play!” jumping legs, stamping feet and twisting bodies ensued.

Panels addressing traditional text and contemporary Jewish issues, such as “Jewish Community and the Interweb,” filled the afternoon. Esther Kustanowitz, an active Conservative Jew and six-time Jewlicious participant who works as a writer and blogger, led the panel on the Jewish cybersphere.

“These are the people who are more involved in Jewish life, either on campus or personally, and they’re on a Jewish identity quest. It’s the eclectic nature of people who show up at Jewlicious that is the draw,” Kustanowitz said. She noted that some come for “cool music and people my own age,” and value the opportunity to hang out with Matisyahu on Shabbat.

Others, like Schutzbank, were a bit more skeptical. “I really felt like it was a huge JDate event,” he said. “It was a way to meet Jews. People were on the prowl.”

No matter what a participant’s motive for attending, Jewlicious had a program for them. After another massive Shabbat meal there was a board game session called Lazy Games, a Gaga tournament outside, an interactive workshop called Live Theater Project, a discussion on Jewish particularism versus universalism and more.

The particularism versus universalism panel provided another example of Jewlicious’s challenge. Nearly twenty-five people were trying to discuss the difference between donating a kidney to a Jew and to a non-Jew, taking the “two Jews, three opinions” concept to the next level. Other discussions, such as one about Jews by Choice, were so broad and crowded that many audience members did not get a chance to tell stories about their conversions. After the panel concluded, people broke into smaller groups and continued the conversation.

The Jews by Choice discussion also gave an impression of how diverse, or fragmented, the participants were. There were Jews from every denomination, people who converted into Judaism and people who became more observant.

Kustanowitz said that Jewlicious’s goal was “Creating this space for everybody to do Judaism, Jewish life and identity and culture in a space that’s comfortable for them,” but manifesting that comfort zone for such a diverse range of Jews was proving difficult.

But Morris, the American Jewish University student, felt that whatever the participants’ reasons for attending—and whether or not everyone bonded—getting so many Jews in one place was a success in itself.  “What more truth is there than 500 people coming to Long Beach, CA,” he said, “when they could have been doing so many other things?”

April 19, 2010

Written by Caroline Kessler

Original article appears here: http://www.newvoices.org/community?id=0025

PRESS RELEASE
2/21/2010

The Jewish Film Competition is thrilled to announce the winners of this years program.

The winner of First Prize is “Barely Bar Mitzvah’d” by Oren Peleg, a hilarious teen romantic comedy about a back yard Bar Mitzvah party.

This year, the Second place prize is being split between two films. “Shema” by Michael Pycher, is a powerful and somber period piece taking place in a field in Poland, 1943. The other film, “The Last Survivor” by Michael Pertnoy is a moving documentary sharing the stories of 4 different survivors of 4 different genocides in different parts of the world.

We were thrilled to have such a strong program of films this year, and can’t wait for next year’s batch. Send ‘em in!

Ezra Bookstein

Director, Jewish Film Competition

Part of the Jewlicous Festivals

JFC Mission Statement

The Jewish Film Competition is intended to promote and encourage the use of film and animation to explore and articulate the scope, humor and complexities of Judaism, Jewish Identity and the Jewish Experience.

Simcha Levenberg, of Jewlicious Festival comedy acclaim, appears in this mysterious CBS promo video…….hilarious nonetheless!

Simcha has always brought light and laughter into our lives, and we are sure this video will do the same for yours—Simcha Levenberg performs stand up throughout the Los Angeles area, so be on the lookout for him on an improv stage near you.

Buy a box – Give a box. This  philanthropic project DEBUTED at Jewlicious Fest – they only had protoypes of the boxes, which are now in production and will be available soon. Thanks to Patrick Aleph and our friends at Punk Torah for this interview.
Patrick checks out Sarah’s Matzah @Jewlicious Festival. Check us out at www.punktorah.com and our sister site www.indieyeshiva.org. Reach us at patrick@punktorah.com, michael@punktorah.com
Twitter @punktorah or Facebook: http://www.tinyurl.com/punktorahfb