MY URBAN KVETCH

Who Do You Know?: #JFNAGA Bingo

No #JFNAGA social media meet up is complete without a Bibibomb...(Denver GA)

For the last several years, I have been to (several, but not all of) the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, an annual gathering of mostly Federation professionals, but with representation from many different Jewish nonprofit organizations. Last year was in Israel, so I didn't go. (Too expensive, and no one invited me to be a paid organizer, speaker or presenter, like I had been in Nashville, New Orleans, Denver and Baltimore.) This year is in National Harbor, MD, and again, I'm part of what is becoming known as the #coalitionoftheleftbehind, an ever-changing group of Jewish professionals who feel left out as people begin tweeting about a Jewish conference experience that we're not at.

Sometimes being left behind leads to mournful tweets about FOMO (fear of missing out on great people and conversations). And everyone on-site always talks about how the conference isn't about the sessions but about the networking, and how they wish they could meet more people. So I decided to do something in the spirit of fun. And once the idea occurred to me, I couldn't imagine why no one had done it before. So here's your GA icebreaker/scavenger hunt/Jewish geography-based game. Presenting: #JFNAGABingo. Print it out or play with your friends and use the hashtags. Enjoy!!

"Yes-Anding" Our Way to Organizational Progress

 

Me (and my purple scarf) leading a group in improv exercises at the ROI Summit

Back in New York, people had been encouraging me to do comedy for years. But as far as I knew "doing comedy" meant either a) moving out to LA, pitching agents and studios on ideas, only to have your heart trampled on, or b) doing standup at an open-mic or "bringer" night at a comedy club after midnight, only to have your heart trampled on. And then someone suggested I try improv classes - where there are no scripts, and - kind of like "the Tree" in Empire Strikes Back - the tools you bring in with you (thought, intelligence, sense of humor, and the rules of improv - more on that below) are the only ones you have (or need). 

While I wouldn't quite say that I "do comedy" (although I did move out to LA, so maybe part of me thrives on the possibility of heart-trampling), improv has changed (or in some cases validated) the way I think about things. I'm often able to detect improv training in performers on and offstage, and even watching TV, I see some sitcoms reflect improvisation training more than others. There was a lot about improv that I enjoyed - the energy of the spontaneous, the ability to find things that were funny because they were true. But chiefly, I enjoyed the teamwork, finding "the game" of the scene and playing it through, helping others on stage who were struggling by giving them something they could work with, and using my quirky (yet-I-hope-delightful) brainworks to play things truthfully while building something together. Standup is solitary and lonely; improv is group energy, a family.

10th Blogiversary Blogabration

Welcome to My Urban Kvetch, a place for me to vent about the issues that clutter my brain as I live my so-called-freelance life in the Big City. I'm all about looking at my experience through the lens of humor, whenever it's possible. […]And though I've resisted long enough, I'm joining the blog generation. My hopes? That this space will provide me with a forum for fleshing out ideas, kicking around premises and developing essays that will ultimately yield publishable fruit. And making it public? Hoping to be discovered, of course...by a fan base or by editors who will make my dreams of a positive checkbook balance a reality.

-First blog post at MyUrbanKvetch.blogspot.com, February 2, 2004

As of today, I’ve been blogging for 10 years. In those early years, I didn’t really expect to have an audience, so I named the blog after a popular NYC home delivery service, and just wrote until the piece felt finished, never mind the length or the sharpness of my arguments. Some posts were shorter bursts of commentary, and others more introspective. But as I became aware that other people were reading, I started to edit more carefully – less of a brain download and more of a curated analysis. To go a little meta, this is a curated analysis of some of those already curated posts;  a retrospective of sorts – not 100% chronological, but representative of journeys in styles, words and ideas over a decade.

At first, since I was a freelancer who was living on a budget in one of the most expensive cities in the world, a lot of posts focused on my apartment and my Upper West Side life. "Today I am a Toilet" (February 2004) recounted a rite of passage in the life of every nice single Jewish girl: that time when you have to lift a commode. (Come on, you know we’ve all been there…) August 2006's "Match Point" told another relatable tale, as our heroine, in search of chocolate, swallows something else entirely. (The original title of that post was “Dare to Be Stupid.”) In July 2007, her bathroom was the site of another unusual scene, transforming into "Upper West Side Rainforest."    

As I began to travel more, I began to realize that I really didn't like flying. Superstition emerged, and I committed to saying "The Traveler's Prayer" (April 2005) whenever I traveled - however, I seemed unable to memorize it and always seemed to forget to bring it with me. So I came up with an interim solution, to which I return every time I forget to bring my handy "Tefilat Haderech card" with me.  Among my more memorable travel adventures was the time that the Snowpocalypse stranded me at JFK overnight awaiting a flight to London for Limmud. , but people also remember fondly my fight with Delta, or most recently and as-yet unblogged, my losing my passport at Heathrow and somehow managing to travel back to LA without it.

#PewJew How-To: Responding to a Jewish Demography Survey

If you work in or adjacent to the Jewish nonprofit world, you know that the release of a study on Jewish identity can launch a thousand op-ed pieces, even if the findings themselves are not entirely surprising. The arrival of such a study can elicit excitement or flat-out panic, and reactions swirl together violently into an intellectual and emotional froth. As passionate consumers - educators, academics, rabbis, Jewish communal workers, pundits and theorists - assess this information, each draws out the information that serves - or threatens - them most, taking to their computers to provide analysis about how the findings indicate Jews must alter our priorities in order to thrive, or - more frequently - to merely survive. 

Graphic from The Forward: http://forward.com/articles/184795/jews-bound-by-shared-beliefs-even-as-markers-of-fa/?p=all

The deluge began again this week, as the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new study about Jewish identity. (Not only is this study not on their homepage, a search for "Jewish identity" brought up "Faith Online," and for "Jewish" yielded "Wired Churches, Wired Temples.") According to a summary on eJewishPhilanthropy, "The survey suggests that Jewish identity is changing in America, where one-in-five Jews (22%) now describe themselves as having no religion. This shift in Jewish self-identification reflects broader changes in the U.S. public, whose share of religious 'nones' is similar (20%)." It also included the statistic that 34 percent of those surveyed said you could still be Jewish if you believe that Jesus was the Messiah. (That was a surprising one, actually.)

 

If statistics like these fill your brain with a froth of new ideas about how this survey is good or bad for the Jews, here are some guidelines designed to help you in writing your response, whether it's an academic article, a sermon or a Facebook post. These are tried and true methods that will enable your treatise to resonate - but don't use them all in one place. Pick and choose wisely, for greatest impact.

(What's Not) Working at a Nonprofit, Part 2: Tumblr as Blueprint for Change

This is a continuation of last Sunday’s post, “(What's Not) Working at a Nonprofit: Tumbling Ideas for Nonprofit Improvement.”

The nonprofit worker's life is full of frustration - while many of us suspected this was the case in our particular nonprofit professional experiences, at the end of July, we learned it wasn't just us. The Working in a Nonprofit Tumblr made it clear - these things are far more wide-reaching than our individual work lives, and weren't localized to Jewish nonprofit, either. Higher-ups taking three weeks to return an email....being expected to take a paycut because it’s a cause you believe in.... the frustration of having to get approval on literally every event detail...someone saying, “we should start a committee for this”...when someone responds to your email with questions that were clearly answered in your first email, etc. These situations resonated with people, and the site was shared widely. 

"It’s clear that the current system is broken," co-founder Leanne Pittsford said in her blog post titled "Why We Created the 'When You Work at a Nonprofit' Tumblr Blog." She and her partner Leah Neaderthal (who also co-founded the Tumblr) run Start Somewhere, which helps nonprofits with design, database and programming support, so they've been on the observing and improving end for a number of nonprofit programs and startup organizations, including Equality CA and TechSoup Global. "We’re talking about how we can take the energy around the blog and turn it into something that leads to action to improve working conditions for every nonprofit employee."

Some of these challenges may be deeply-rooted into the infrastructure of most nonprofits, and embedded in the organizational culture in a way that may be unchangeable. But I agree with the blog's cofounders in seeing the success of this Tumblr not just as a funny-because-it’s-true-but-also-sad-because-it’s-true pop culture moment, but as an opportunity for nonprofits everywhere. These challenges present a blueprint for change.

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Challenge #1: Bureaucracy and Process Problems

A number of the above examples – and a recurring theme in the Tumblr’s posts – is the unfortunate and widespread fact that nonprofit process and bureaucracy frequently impede progress. In one example, higher-ups take three weeks to return an email. Understandably, sometimes responses take time - CEOs are busy people, and even non-CEOs suffer from a deluge of email – but part of the challenge here is that the message goes into a void. Did it arrive, the sender wonders? Was it seen? Do people know that it's important? Will anyone respond? And if so, when? No one knows, and the sender certainly doesn’t want to be a noodge.  So everyone waits, and the process is delayed, and progress can’t be made. Or the sender does prod the recipient for a response, which makes the recipient annoyed and less likely to send an appropriate and helpful response, not just to that particular email but in the future. It's a vicious cycle. (Much like impassive kittens playing ping-pong.)

Suggested Solution: Establish Response Expectations

To respect the heavy responsibilities of all nonprofit workers, perhaps what's needed is some kind of acknowledgement that the request has been received and is being processed, for instance, instituting a timeline for responses from upper management. Having a timeframe for an expected response allows others to continue in their work, knowing and trusting that there's a process for managing requests as well as for followup. Perhaps leadership could acknowledge the high volume of requests with an autoresponse that clearly identifies a timeframe or a chain of command -  “if you don’t hear from us by next Wednesday, feel free to email a reminder” or “we will get to your question soon, but if your request is time-sensitive, please reach out to [designated employee] for assistance.” 

Challenge #2: Having to Get Approvals on Every Event Detail

When it comes to events, obviously there’s little to be done about the need for detailed contracts that fill nonprofit workers’ lives with the misery that is the approvals process. But the question of when “attention to detail” and “legally necessary” becomes “too many cooks, too many approvals, and way too much micromanaging,” it's time to reassess the process.

Suggested Solution: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Yes, it’s a cliché. But just as in personal budgeting, there’s always something small you can live without, perhaps it’s time to relinquish control over having every detail in your personal spreadsheet. If you’re a boss who believes he or she has hired good people, step back and let people do their jobs. Absolutely have a process for events. Give constructive feedback, and clearly communicate expectations for future events. But know when to intervene and when to let go. If you feel strongly about approving the venue, types and quantity of rented tables, color of tablecloths, etc, that's fine - but leave the schedule, the food, the naming of event-themed cocktails, etc to the capable employees you work with. All of the event details must be handled, but do they have to be handled 100 percent your way? Sometimes imposing your structure of supervision on a process that’s already working can serve as an impediment to progress. Trust the people you hired  - you won't have to oversee everything and they will be able to implement their own process that will arrive at an equivalent destination, even if they get there by taking a different road. 

Challenge # 3: Someone’s About to Form Another Committee, Board, Working Group or Task Force

Committees can also serve as an important engagement tool, but if there’s no clear reason for convening and no respect for the time and talent around the table, it can serve the opposite purpose, alienating your stakeholders.

Suggested Solution: Be Clear About Your Content/Convene the Right People

If there’s something specific you’d like to achieve, if you have a clear goal, timeline and strategy plan, if you have the right people around the table, if you’re being respectful of people’s time and talents – go right ahead and form that body to consider actions or create vision. But bear in mind that the only thing more frustrating than sitting in one meeting where the purpose of the convening is unclear is sitting in a series of meetings where the purpose of the convening is unclear. This is not to say that there’s no role for open space and community brainstorming to identify directions for an assembled body; but even such freer-form techniques should help clarify the issue being addressed or the methods that you will use to address that challenge. So clearly communicate the purpose behind the convening. Have an agenda, establish a series of next steps, and make sure that everyone feels invested in and responsible for the success of the clearly articulated mandate – if any of these links is weak, it decreases the likelihood that anything substantial will be accomplished.

Challenge #4: Lower Status, Lower Salaries, Higher Callings and Higher Expectations

It’s true that nonprofit professionals are expected to do their jobs for less money than their peers in the for-profit sector. There is also, unfortunately, a lower social prestige involved in this field – the typical response to saying you’re in nonprofit is often a head tilt, and a “good for you,” accompanied by an automatic dip in that person’s perception of your professionalism. And this lowering of public perception, combined with the low pay and slow and frustrating process of progress, diminishes professional drive and expectations, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy: by being seen as less professional many of them become less professional. I have seen many promising Jewish nonprofit professionals who entered the field with idealism and boundless energy - now, they are working their designated hours, meeting their job requirements, but do so with dwindling energy and waning enthusiasm as they realize that in many respects they’re fighting a losing battle. Most discouragingly, in many cases the losing battle isn't the cause itself, but the obstinacy of the organization that is supposed to be tackling that cause.

Suggested Solution: Support and Appreciate Employees

Nonprofit professionals are idealists, but they also understand how it is on the ground. They know that lawyers, doctors, internet impresarios and hedge fund managers make more than they do, so we all know that there’s only so much to be done on the salary front. But appreciation? Validation? Incentives? Schedule flexiblity? This is the area where effort and care can have a real impact on quality of life for nonprofit employees. A new coffee machine or an employee appreciation day or even a crafted gathering for employees to try to troubleshoot challenges together indicate that employees are valued and that their opinions matter. Not every organization can afford a fancy espresso machine or a day at Disneyland to build morale and renew enthusiasm, but using an honest and sincere approach to making employees feel like their opinions and creativity are valued and important doesn’t have to be an expensive investment. Ask your employees what would help them, listen to their responses, and implement as many suggestions as you can; be as transparent as you can be about why you're implementing certain suggestions and not others, so people know their ideas have been considered and are seen as valuable, even if not every idea can be birthed into workplace reality.

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A new approach toward effective communication, supervisor trust and support, and employee validation and appreciation could provide the necessary uptick in motivation and productivity and emotional reconnection to the work that drew us all here in the first place. If we’re lucky, the outcomes of our nonprofit work make us feel good. But wouldn’t it also be something special if working at a nonprofit actually felt good while we were doing it?

For more about the When You Work at a Nonprofit Tumblr, visit the Start Somewhere blog.

(What's Not) Working at a Nonprofit: Tumbling Ideas for Improvement

If you’re working for a Jewish nonprofit, it’s entirely probable that you’ve seen the “Working at a Nonprofit” site, featuring images from TV and film – which themselves don’t really have anything to do with actually working at a nonprofit –juxtaposed with text headings to illustrate the challenges and frustrations of nonprofit professional life.

For instance, “When you are in a meeting, scheduling a meeting, about the next meeting,” features a clip of Mad Men’s Peggy Oleson slamming her head into a desk. (We’ve all been there.)

This piece of social commentary appears courtesy of a blogging platform called Tumblr, which you should probably know about. (If you’re already fluent in Tumblr, feel free to continue at the start of the next paragraph, or continue to see how I manage to explain something that’s so clearly lacking an “e.”) For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Tumblr is a site designed as a simple style of blog; while it can focus on text as content (like the recent, brilliant and self-explanatory “Life of a Stranger Who Stole My Phone”), most “Tumblrs” focus on images, video or a series of gifs, moving image combos that recall the flip book or early film technology (named - like a .doc - after the file’s extension, .gif). If you have Photoshop, you can strip video down to a few frames and make a gif.

While some people create .gifs just because they can, others are turning them into an art form, entertainment or political commentary like the “Binders Full of Women” meme that popped up during the Presidential Debates, or social commentary like the above Nonprofit Tumblr. And while it’s all in good fun and often displays an immediate brilliance, seizing some phrase or pop culture figure particularly ripe for humor or spoofery, the “Working in a Nonprofit” one struck me deeply.

Pairs & Partners: Framing "Ensuring the Jewish Future"

It is often the custom at large meetings at Jewish organizations to have someone present a Jewish framing for the work at hand, usually rooted in either a recent calendar happening or in the weekly Torah portion.  A few weeks ago, I was asked to prepare a few words for a committee at the Jewish Federation named "Ensuring the Jewish Future" - since the week containing Tish'ah b'Av (a fast day mourning destruction) and Tu b'Av (a day of celebration and love) had just ended, here were my thoughts. - EDK

Last week was Tish’ah b’Av, with its tales of horror and destruction, wreaked upon the Jewish people because of what is referred to as “baseless hatred.” This week, was Tu b’Av (which, just as a reminder is not about trees), commonly referred to as the Jewish Valentine ’s Day or holiday of love. 

The pairing of Tish’ah b'Av and Tu b’Av sends an important message – that hopelessness and hope are part of a cycle. This message is one that has echoes in other “sets” of holidays. Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day actually transitions into Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day. 

Yom Kippur is known as the one day a year when all the big decisions are made – who shall live and who shall die, and when and how. It’s all very heavy. But in rabbinic literature (don’t ask me exactly where, although there are people in this room who do know) Yom Kippur is paired with Purim. The real name of Yom Kippur is “Yom Hakippurim,” or as some render it, “Yom K’Purim,” a day like Purim. Which if you think about it, it kind of is. Even though the Yom Kippur liturgy is full of God and in the Purim megillah there’s no overt God mention, there is the shared idea that anything can change on one day, whether it’s Yom Kippur’s forgiveness and absolution, or the Purim story's “nahafochu,” the concept that - in a moment - fortunes can be turned upside down. The message that tragedy has a context and a duration, and that so does happiness, is something that we humans could all stand to learn.

To invoke a theme from Hollywood, the two masks of comedy and tragedy hang over us all, always. But they give us a sense of cycle and of scope. Our revelry is strong because we know that it is ephemeral. But we can also take comfort in the fact that where there is destruction, there will be reconstruction. One week’s baseless hatred and desperation can transition to a week filled with endless love and, if we’re talking about dating, perhaps we'll still encounter some of that desperation. But hopefully, mainly love.

To transition somewhat awkwardly to the concept of Ensuring the Jewish Future, a noble and lofty pursuit which we attempt to define through our various programs, we can only project what the future contains. Sometimes it will look bleak, and sometimes it will seem vibrant. But most times, we don’t know what we’re looking at.

So here’s the thing about the future. It’s always ahead of us, and we’re never quite there. So on that path without end, there are times when things seem to be looking up, and other times in which we will look up to the heavens, hoping that help will find us. If “the future” is a moving target, and “Jewish” itself is vastly changed from what it used to be, who are we to engage in the hubris of trying to ensure something which is always in motion, always dynamic, which includes people who are looking to connect at whatever stage of life? How do we make sure that there are multiple platforms for connection to Jewish life and engagement in leadership, regardless of age, marital or parental status? How do we fill everyone’s various needs in chasing a future that’s always beyond our reach?

We return to the concept of pairs. We all need partners, in work and in life. Sometimes that partner is a loved one, or a friend, or a teacher, or a colleague. Our actions and programs also have partners. We spend a penny now, and put one (or more than one) in the bank for later. We elevate our heart rates with daily sprints in training for a longer marathon. We create the sense memory of reciting words from liturgy now, even if we don’t understand them – on the premise that, as we form the words and repeat them, they will become familiar; become a resource we can draw on at some point in the future. We create a program that capitalizes on the immediacy of a need, and trust that it will be a cornerstone in building our collective Jewish future. Even though we don’t 100 percent know for sure.

Thematically, we support our community in times of tragedy and dance in times of joy. So in all we do, if the goal of ensuring the Jewish future is too nuanced, or complicated, or lofty to achieve, we need to ensure that our programming serves a dual purpose: we address the concerns of today and address the Jewish present, but we also invest in strengthening the Jewish future.

 

 

 

Approaching “Innovation”: Verbicidal Tendencies

 

Infographic on Innovation Burnout from Wall Street Journal (via creativityland.ca)

If you know me, you know that I am not a violent person. But then, the other day, a murderous thought came to mind. Not quite voices in my head, more like a clarion call, a seasonally appropriate shofar from within the realm of my professional work.  “Kill. Kill the word. Innovation. It needs to die.”

Troubling, to me personally, a heavy user of words, to advocate for the death of a word; not to mention the fact that I work part-time adjacent to the Partnerships & Innovation department at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and as a consultant for the ROI Community of Jewish Innovators. Most of my professional work involves being in and around what I once explained to someone was “the emerging Jewish innovation sector.” (The person’s response: “Huh?”) My attempt to name projects in this sphere as explanation – G-dcast, Birthright Israel, PresenTense, ROI, Jewcology, Hazon, Sharsheret – didn’t seem to help. I must have sounded like Hagrid, describing mystical creatures at Hogwarts.

A few years back at LimmudLA, I presented on the state of Jewish innovation, citing
G-dcast, the Mission Minyan, Kehilat Hadar, Moishe House and Challah for Hunger as examples. A voice of dissent in the room claimed that these projects were not innovations. G-dcast is “just” the weekly Torah portion; independent prayer communities are “just” the reinvention of havurot; Moishe House is “just” group living, like a kibbutz and a fraternity combined; Challah for Hunger is “just” a bake sale. My argument back was that the sum of the product itself might not be innovative, but the lens, venue or methodology used to produce it is creative, in some way “alternative” to the mainstream culture of Jewish life, or directly reflective of contemporary needs and concerns, and that it was that kind of work that was emerging under the term “innovation.”

So Long, 5772, and Thanks for All the Pomegranate Images

When I was young, I couldn't wait for the mail to arrive. If I was home, around 11am, I'd start to wonder, and to listen for the thud that I knew would come sometime in the next hour or so. Would I get a letter? A magazine? And from whom? An invitation to a birthday party? A letter from my Camp Ramah buddies? What would it be?

Now that we are in the era of electronic mail, I never have to worry about whether or not I will get mail. I will ALWAYS get mail. Perhaps less on Saturdays because of Shabbat, and certainly reduced volume for the Jewish holidays, but the email always comes. There's no thud to look forward to, no thick envelopes, or thin ones, or magazines - they all arrive in the same package. And the postman doesn't even have to ring, not even once.

Never is the constant flow of electronic mail more assured then preceding Jewish holidays. Chanukah is its own problem and may get its own post toward the end of the calendar year. But from about mid-August and for the next month, I get almost-hourly reminders that the holidays are coming and that there are no end to the number of holiday-related products I could buy or opportunities I could become involved with or organizations which are taking this opportunity to remind me that they're there and relying on my support for 5773. And I do support them. Some with dollars or shekels, others with social media support, and others by not unsubscribing from their constant email solicitations because - even though they're annoying - I know they do good work, and if they ever become not annoying with their solicitations, I would want to know about it. So I stay subscribed, only in the most extreme of cases putting my foot down, because I believe that some day, they'll change.

But that doesn't stop the frustration every holiday season as the emails start. And don't seem to stop. And I can't spend my time responding to each one, although I'd like to. So, I thought I'd write them an open letter.

New Client Profile: J-LaB

I know, I know. I said I wasn't going to take on any more jobs: between my work at Federation in LA and my ongoing consultancy with the ROI Community, I'm already working about 8 days a week (except Shabbat - don't try to do the math or you'll hurt yourself). But every once in a while an organization comes along that speaks so perfectly to my interests and experiences that it's impossible to say no.

Jewpros Lacking Boundaries (J-LaB) is inspired by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), an international relief effort staffed by volunteer doctors who travel to sites of tragedy or natural disaster to provide much needed aid - in moments when their skills are most in demand, they relinquish ego in favor of humanitarian aid. Similarly, J-LaB staff is a volunteer workforce, made up entirely of people who currently work for Jewish nonprofit organizations - they too, relinquish their egoes and their professional titles, and become a voice for equality, justice and peace within the Jewish communal world, specifically among the notoriously fickle "NextGen" (20s, 30s and sometimes 40s, depending on where you live).

This group, collectively presenting decades of experience in every sub-area of the Jewish professional field - from fundraising to programmatics, from recruitment to young adult engagement - is uniquely qualified for this work, and achieves its impact through active listening, a virtual version of open space technology, and one-on-one Skype mentoring - all conducted anonymously, to maximize honesty and transparency without fear of repercussions from employers, many of whom are included in the first cohort of organizations counseled by J-LaB.

There's a vital textual component to the curriculum that ensures organizations learn the sources about respect in the workplace, Jewish values and business ethics, and roleplaying workshops designed to identify unwanted behaviors. The organization uses cutting-edge tools, such as social media, virtual reality and Second Life avatars (see some J-LaB staff members in the above photo) to ensure maximum access and anonymity - they have asked me to counsel them on virtual strategy, PR and marketing. (So bloggers can expect pitch letters and press releases from me soon.)

"The organizations in J-LaB's first cohort are innovators, conquering uncharted territory," executive director Minya Zavute says. "When it comes to treating their employees with professional respect, like responsible adults, these are the organizations that require our attention. They're the places where young women are told their new haircuts makes their faces look thinner, where young men are told they're too skinny and should eat something, where people are judged by how young they appear to be instead of for the experience that they clearly have. There's no excuse for this anymore - we believe in the biblical injunction to reprove our fellow Jews, to point out when they're doing something wrong, and our anonymous, no-holds-barred system enables us to do just that."

Furthermore, Zavute maintains, "27.5% of all Jewish communal professionals actively contemplate leaving Jewish nonprofit life every day; we can help reduce that number through a policy of honesty."

Thanks to J-LaB for putting their trust in me. This could be the beginning of something big. And it's an honor to be one of the few public members of their team. For a recent article about J-LaB, click here. For a related article from this blog, read this post.

Photo by Julian Voloj (Zeek Magazine)