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JCC Association
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JWB Jewish Chaplains Council Works Together with Aleph Institute to Send Hanukkah Packages to Jewish Troops

12/19/08 New York, NY Dec. 19, 2008—Jewish military personnel will receive Hanukkah packages this year containing candles, menorahs, dreidels, and information about the holiday as usual, but for the first time JWB Jewish Chaplains Council is working in partnership with the Aleph Institute on packing and shipping. “We did this as an experiment when Aleph approached us about collaborating on holiday shipments,” said Rabbi Barry Baron, deputy director of JWB. The collaboration led to an expanded group of recipients when the two service organizations pooled their lists. In addition to the Jewish military chaplains JWB always ships to, the packages went to non-Jewish chaplains with the request that they be distributed to Jewish personnel. Altogether, more than two thousand packages were sent at the beginning of December. If this effort is successful, Baron said, the two organizations may work together again for Purim.>> go to complete story

JCC Association Selects Sixth Cohort of Merrin Teen Professional Fellows Program

11/7/08 November 7, 2008 – JCC Association’s Merrin Center for Teen Services has selected 13 professionals working with teens in affiliated JCCs and camps in North America to participate in the acclaimed Merrin Teen Professional Fellows Program. The program will feature five seminars held over 16 months, with the first gathering in New Orleans, Louisiana in January. Participants focus on developing their leadership skills, learning how to serve teens more effectively, planning their career paths in the JCC Movement, and deepening their Jewish knowledge. One of the seminars is held in Israel. >> go to complete story

JCCs Featured in Text on Practices in Jewish Education

10/06/08 Jewish Community Centers consider informal Jewish education an integral part of their mission and have hired professional Jewish educators to work with staff as well as JCC members, say three JCC professionals in an article included in What We Now Know About Jewish Education, just published by Torah Aura Productions. The article, titled “Jewish Education in the JCCs,” was written by Patricia Cipora Harte, Richard Juran , and Alvin Mars . Harte is vice-president of program services at JCC Association, Juran was the director of JCC Association's Israel Office, and Mars was the director of the Mandel Center for Jewish Education at JCC Association, the network for Jewish Community Centers in North America.
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Study Portrays High Levels of Group Belonging Despite Low Levels of Religious Belief among American Jews

9/22/08 September 22 2008, New York , NY --When compared with Christians—be they mainstream Protestants, evangelical Protestants, or Roman Catholics—Jews in the U.S. score markedly lower on every available measure of religious belief. In fact, their belief patterns are hardly different from those of “unaffiliated” Americans, those who profess no attachment to any religious group. However, in terms of group belonging, Jews come close to, or even surpass, levels reported by their Christian counterparts. Jews express their belonging both in ways that are comparable to Christians (congregations and religious schools for their children), as well as in ways that are distinctive to American Jews (Jewish Community Centers, community relations organizations, Israel-related endeavors, and more). The study's authors interpret the results combining low belief with high belonging as “testifying to the distinctive combination of religious with ethnic motivations as core to the identities of American Jews today.” >> go to complete story

New National Coaching Report

8/22/08 WASHINGTON, DC, August 27, 2008 – JCC Association recently reaffirmed its commitment to quality coaching education, and is one of only 15 organizations working with youth sport profiled in the National Coaching Report, the only comprehensive report addressing both youth and interscholastic sport coaching education requirements in the United States. The report was released by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) in partnership with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). With over fifty million children under the age of 18 participating in organized sport programs, the purpose of the report is to educate the American public about the training and qualifications currently required to coach athletes whose quality sport experience is of number one concern. >> go to complete story

2008 JCC Maccabi ArtsFest® Starting at the End of July

7/11/08 NEW YORK, NY, July 14, 2008 - JCC Maccabi ArtsFest® opens its third season this summer in two locations with more JCC delegations bringing more teens to participate in more fine and performing arts than ever before. The JCC of Northern Virginia in Fairfax (July 27-August 1) and the Sabes JCC in Minneapolis (August 17-22) will welcome over four hundred Jewish teens to express themselves through various artistic media including musical theater, rock and jazz bands, interpretive dance, filmmaking, computer animation, creative writing, and for the first time, costume design and culinary arts. >> go to complete story

Two Military Leaders Recognized at JCC Association Biennial

7/7/08 New York , NY , July 7, 2008 – JCC Association presented two distinguished military leaders with prestigious honors at the recent 2008 JCC Association Biennial, a gathering of Jewish Community Center volunteer leadership from across North America, held in Miami in May. Rabbi Philip Silverstein was named the 2008 Frank L. Weil Award winner for distinguished contributions to the welfare of Jewish armed services personnel, and Ronald D. Silverman , Major General, 3 rd Medical Command, U.S. Army, was awarded the JCCs of North America Jewish Military Leadership Award , for exemplifying authentic devotion to Jewish life and identity, combined with an extremely high level of military accomplishment. >> go to complete story

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