Madonna in Tsfat: Material Girl in the Land of the Immaterial

For the life of me, I can’t picture Madonna in Tsfat. The Material Girl in the land of the immaterial?

Madonna’s celebrity trip is being organized by the Los Angeles Kabbalah Center, starting on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur.

In a parallel move, the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach is in the process of establishing its own Kaballah Center in Tsfat– one of Judaism’s four holy cities. Supported by a seed grant of $100,000 (perhaps from one of those ladies we read about before?), the federation is seeking an additional $8 million for its full establishment, including a building and programming.

But how does Madonna fit in?

“We are a public organization dedicated to developing a pluralistic center for anyone, regardless of background or religious affiliation, whereas the Kabbalah Centre is a private enterprise with a very clear profit motive,” federation representative Sharon Levin asserts.

Must we expect a celebrity contribution from Madonna that is anything but spiritual? Does every famous person that comes have to give something to Israel?

Feel Good Activism: Shahar Peer’s Tennis Clinic, Fun Day for Sick Children, Kind Citizens of Jenin

You don’t have to be a moneymaker to make a difference. You just have to want to improve the lives of others and take steps to make it happen. Here are two feel good examples– and one fortunate honorary mention.

1. Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer took some time out of her US Open schedule to lead a tennis clinic for underprivileged kids in New York.

An initiative of the Consulate General of Israel in New York and the New York Sports Commission, Peer’s presence had the additional goal of “enhancing our relations with different communities in the United States such as the African Americans and Hispanics… that will help us build strong and solid bridges with them,” said Assaf Shariv, the consul general.

Look how appealing a video can be to convey your message and give a personal side to a story. (Thanks, Isrealli.)

Lion of Judah: Women’s Philanthropy in the Federation System

If you are not an insider in the formal world of Jewish philanthropy, you may not be familiar with the Lion of Judah pin. Boy, are you ever missing out. And you thought there was no such thing as philanthropy pop culture. Well, I am here to prove otherwise.

I haven’t found a good representation of the pin online, so I’ll describe it to you in hopes you can picture it. In truth, I’ve only seen the pins on a number of occasions when top level federation donors are congregated for seminars or tours in Israel.

I first noticed the pin at such an event recently and was taken aback at its size and statement. Then I noticed that everyone in the room was wearing one and made it my mission to find out what it was. Allow me to fill you in so you too can be in the know on this little pop culture tidbit.

History

The Lion of Judah pin was created in 1972 during a fundraising drive by the Miami Women’s Campaign as a “symbol of commitment to the worldwide Jewish community.”

The pin was nationalized in 1980 with a campaign logo created in 1983. Gemstones are added to denote levels of giving, with more variations added over time as the pin’s popularity and women’s generosity grew.

3 Highlights of Jewish Giving: Adelson, Brandeis & Women’s Philanthropy

It’s late August and change is upon us. In Israel, a familiar chant is beginning: “After the holidays, after the holidays, after the holidays” (acharei hahagim). If you are working with Israeli foundations, expect a slowdown in what can get done and be patient with the national culture. The time of year between Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot is the equivalent of our Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years season– and just as significant.

August falls during the Jewish month of Elul when Jews are taking an accounting of their lives and thinking about what changes need to be made. It is also a time when we ask forgiveness from those we may have wronged. I’m not sure what this will mean for the upcoming giving cycle, but it is something to be aware of as a trend in the Jewish– and therefore the Jewish giving– world.

Your philanthropy news– top giving highlights of late August:

1. Dorothy Seaman: $1 million to women’s philanthropy division of South Palm Beach Jewish Federation
2. Brandeis tops previous fundraising records: $89.4 million earned this fiscal year
3. Sheldon Adelson’s dream of an Israeli casino dissipates: Jewish state won’t allow it

1. Dorothy Seaman gives $1 million to the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach, Florida to name its women’s philanthropy division the “Dorothy Seaman Department of Women’s Philanthropy.”

The women of the South Palm Beach Federation are known for their top dollar giving, garnering 207 gifts of $100,000 this year. Ms. Seaman is the second woman to donate $1 million, following Toby Weinman Palchick’s March contribution to create the Federation’s Center for Jewish Philanthropy.

Israeli Innovation: Bedouin Town Develops Unique Form of Sign Language

The Bedouins of Al-Sayyid have something to say. And it doesn’t involve talking.

Al-Sayyid is one of the only towns in the world to have developed its own language, independent of neighboring tongues. With a rate of deafness 50 times the norm, community members have a recessive gene for profound deafness traceable to one of the town’s founding couples.

Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language

Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) is a new form of communication that has developed in the last 70 years. Created by members of the Al-Sayyid community– 3,500 people based in the southern Negev– to cope with its inherent deafness, ABSL is noted for its complex grammatical structure and sophisticated linguistic patterns.

Margalit Fox, author of Talking Hands, notes the necessary conditions for the creation of a “signing village:” an inherited gene for deafness that can be passed through a large population quickly (via polygamy and the marriage of cousins or other close relatives). These conditions are present in force in Al-Sayyid.

Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language has been highlighted by linguists for the following reasons:

• It is one of the few languages to arise without an outside influence. ABSL is not based on the Arab or Hebrew patterns of the surrounding languages, but has a unique grammatical and linguistic structure (Science Daily)
• Linguists look to ABSL to give them clues about how languages originated. Prof. Carol Padden of UC-San Diego remarks: “Because ABSL developed independently, it may reflect fundamental properties of language in general and provide insight into basic questions about the way in which human language develops from the very beginning.” (ibid)
• In its third generation, ABSL presents a strong model for linguistic study in helping to understand how languages are formed and developed

Gaza Giving: Surfing for Peace with Dr. Dorian Paskowitz

This is post is one of The New Jew’s all-time highest rated posts. Keep reading to find out why.

Let me tell you something I bet you don’t know about Gaza: it is rumored to have some of the best beaches in the world.

While I wish we lived in a world where the only rivalry between the Palestinians and the Jews was who caught the biggest wave or had the best surfboard, that is far from the reality.

But let’s imagine.

What would the world be like if peace was based on making real improvements in the lives of regular people? Dorian and David Paskowitz provide a glimpse.

Founders of Surfers for Peace and both world class surfers in their own right, the father and son team read an article in the LA Times entitled “Gaza Surfers Find Freedom in the Sea” about how Palestinian surfers were facing shortages.

The solution? The Paskowitzes masterminded a plan to get 12 surfboards to Gaza through the famously secure Erez Crossing. They put together a team of supporters that included surfing legend Kelly Slater, pro-peace organization OneVoice, and Tel Aviv surfing activist Arthur Rashkovan, who convinced Israeli surfing companies to donate the boards. They then managed to garner the approval of the Israeli military to secure safe passage.

What motivated the Paskowitzes beyond their love of the wave? It is easy to believe that their own history played a role. Dr. Dorian Paskowitz learned to surf during the Depression, convincing his parents to move from Texas to California to be closer to the waves.

3 Common Mistakes in Using Listservs: Maximizing Time, Value, and Energy Among Users

In following up on yesterday’s post about viral marketing and social networks, today I’d like to talk about e-mail communication and listservs.

This is a tricky area because while listservs are composed of users associated with an organization, the behavior of users represent the organization as a whole. Many organizations avoid monitoring or sanctioning users on listservs as the goal of listservs is to get the highest number of users to be as interactive as possible.

I think this is a mistake. A listserv is like a party: it’s only as good as its participants and rowdy or miscreant guests detract from everyone.

But it’s not usually as bad as all that. Barring trolls, most listserv users have good intentions, but sloppy e-mailing can waste everyone’s time.

A well managed listserv that states its user guidelines upon registration will make everyone happy and maximize use of the service.

3 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
1. The e-mail headline does not provide enough information. Users have to click to the body of the e-mail to figure out its point. This is a waste of time.

2. The listserv is national and is dominated by regional posts by users who do not state their exact locations. For instance, the e-mails I get from Israeli organizations usually assume that everyone is in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and often fail to state the city (perhaps only mentioning a restaurant or street name). There are too many Ben-Gurion, Mesada, and Trumpledor streets for me to parse these details quickly. This is a waste of energy.

3. Posts are off-topic. Just because people on a listserv share common values, this doesn’t justify off-topic posting. I am a member of a number of listservs for community service organizations, but I limit my interest in their posts to their relevancy in my daily life. I understand that someone who is searching for an apartment or selling furniture might want to make a transaction with someone with allied values– it’s nice to share with friends– but on a listserv about Jewish volunteering, I really don’t care to receive notices about San Francisco sublets or pets for sale in Ra’anana. This is a waste of value.

The key purpose of listservs is for those with common interests to have access to broad swaths of information from like-minded users. Access should be quick and painless.

Cause-Based Viral Marketing: How Your Nonprofit Can Maximize Social Networking Tools

Mastering Viral Marketing to Promote Your Cause

You work for a small to mid-sized nonprofit organization. Your demand is steady, your employees happy, and your finances good. But you know you can do better. What can you do to further promote your cause?

The answer is viral marketing.

Wikipedia describes viral marketing as follows:

“Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological or computer viruses.”

Nonprofit (and profit) organizations can use viral fundraising to promote the reach of their organization, the power of their brand, and the impact of their cause by using existing social network technologies.

For a simple analogy, think of viral marketing along the lines of gossip. Tell one family member about a new boyfriend or girlfriend and you can guarantee a distant cousin you haven’t heard from in months will be calling within days. Your mother tells your aunt, who tells your uncle and cousins, who tell your grandparents, and on. Soon everyone knows.

Viral marketing follows the same exponential principle: direct contact with 10 people will lead eventually lead to a thousand. The key is to use an established networking platform so that your organization can do the basic promotion and the proficiency of the application will do the rest.

Best Practices in Viral Fundraising

Today’s Wall Street Journal article entitled “A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy” lists five best practice models for viral fundraising:

1. Kiva.org allows internet lenders to offer interest-free microfinance loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Impact: almost 90,000 lenders have loaned $10 million since the fall of 2005
2. Project Agape enables Facebook users to create online communities for their favorite causes. Impact: 2.5 million users raised $300,000 since May 2007
3. MySpace Impact Awards allow users to vote on charities that used MySpace to their greatest advantage. The winning charity is awarded $10,000. Note the beauty of this endeavor in that it promotes nonprofit philanthropy while forwarding its own branding