Road trip to NOLA! Crew JFSJ heads to the Big Easy for the GA

by: Jeremy Burton

Thu Nov 04, 2010 at 20:15:24 PM EDT

Unless you have your head stuck in the ground, or more likely, don't really follow Jewish institutional life, then you may have caught on that this coming week the Jewish Federations of North America (that's Hebrew for United Way) are having their big annual  'come hither,' the General Assembly, in New Orleans. 

Now normally I'm not the 1st person you'd see at the GA, but 1) it's in my beloved NOLA, a town we at JFSJ have been deeply committed to over the past 5 years since Katrina as regular readers know, and 2) this time, on Monday Nov. 8th, JFNA will be engaging in a "historic" day of community service, which we are proud to aid and abet along with our partners in the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable.

As reported recently by the JTA:

...organizers have structured the conference around a day of community service in New Orleans, marking the first time a GA has included a mass volunteer project.

The project represents something of uncharted territory for the federations in that they are working with several non-federation organizations, including Repair the World, Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, American Jewish World Service and Jewish Funds for Justice, to provide service opportunities for up to 1,500 GA attendees.

“It is part of a broader initiative to focus on Jewish service and to engage younger Jews and more people in 'tikkun olam' [repair of the world] and Jewish philanthropy,”

“It lets them get involved in a form of Jewish philanthropy, a pathway and experience into Jewish life. For some people, Jewish service is their means of Jewish expression.”

Over the past 5 years since Katrina, JFSJ has invested over $9 million in grants and loans and brought hundreds of young people to do service in this region.  We've been proud to have received $1.6 million in total from JFNA and the New York and Los Angeles federations to support community redevelopment and interfaith long term disaster recovery in the Gulf Coast.  Now it's time to show them what they've achieved through their selfless support for a more just and compassionate recovery.