One of the more famous quotations from Pirkei Avot (Wisdom of our Ancestors) says אם אין קמח, אין תורה (if there is no flour, there is no Torah). Commentaries on this text usually talk about the balance between secular and sacred professions, but I understand this text more broadly to mean that Torah study becomes more meaningful when we apply its lessons in the real world and truly live our values instead of just professing them.
For this reason, I have always wanted to have a community service element to our NowGen group for Jews in their 20s and 30s. I have seen time and time again that there is a cohort in this demographic who feel most connected to their Judaism when they are acting on their Jewish values and being of service to others, but for the last two and half years that I have been operating NowGen, the service element has sometimes been overshadowed by social, Jewish life, and Israel activities.
This is why I was excited to be selected for the second cohort of The Catalyst, a partnership between the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and Repair the World offering grant funding and training for engagement professionals working with the 20s and 30s demographic towards developing a more robust and meaningful community service element into their communities. My hope was that this program would be a good accountability mechanism for NowGen to bring this community service element of its work to the forefront.
Through this program, the NowGen Days of Service series was born. NowGen Community Service Co-Chair Saba Getaneh and I organized three service days volunteering with Hope on the Row and Room in the Inn, two nonprofit organizations focusing on serving Nashville's homeless population. We successfully engaged 22 Jewish participants in serving hundreds of people in these three events. Through these programs, we have made great connections with nonprofits across Nashville and are identifying lay leaders who can take the lead on organizing future service events for this demographic. These participants also received more information about the many volunteer opportunities available with Jewish Family Service to serve Jews in need here in Nashville.
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