Teens Channel

Visit JPhilanthropy.com!

A new initiative of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, and in partnership with Jewish Family & Life!, JPhilanthropy.com is a set of tools and forums that will help the field of Jewish teen philanthropy grow and deepen in its practices, and encourage Jewish teens in North America to get involved in tzedakah and giving.

Call for Community Service Projects: J-Serve Offers Grants for National Day of Jewish Youth Service 2008

J-Serve, the annual day of service for Jewish youth, is a great example of Jewish Social Action Month continuing—nationally and globally—well beyond Cheshvan. J-Serve, in conjunction with Youth Service America's Global Youth Service Day, drew more than 7,000 teens in 2007. Participation in J-Serve 2008 is expected to exceed 10,000. On April 13, 2008, Jewish American teenagers will join their counterparts in other faith communities, cities, and countries in serving the communities in which they live.

A collaboration of PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values and the Jewish Coalition for Service, with additional support by partner agencies and foundations, J-Serve is offering small grants of up to $2,500 to support community service projects for J-Serve 2008, on April 13, 2008. The deadline for applications is November 2, 2007. Apply now!

Thumbs Up! Black and Jewish Teens Get It Together: Operation Understanding

In a year-long program sponsored by Operation Understanding/DC, a community-based cross-cultural group that promotes dialogue, leadership, and friendship between African Americans and Jews, teenagers from both groups in the Washington D.C., area are attending workshops, activities, and having fun together, as they forge better relationships, confront biases, and learn to trust one another.

Teens in Colorado Raise Money for Darfur: “It Just Takes Cents”

Last year, middle school students from the Herzl RMHA Jewish day school in Denver took direct action to ameliorate the genocidal situation in Darfur by collecting loose change in order to help rebuild a school in thrice-destroyed Korma, Darfur. “We learned that we can be role models even at this young age,” recalls one of the eighth graders. “We learned that youth have a powerful voice and that we have the power to influence people and the world to do the right thing.” This year’s Grade 8 students are continuing to take a stand and “speak out against man’s inhumanity to man.” After all, it just takes cents!

A resource guide entitled “Change the World. It Just Takes Cents” ^tm (Middle School Darfur Initiative), available for classroom use, provides a comprehensive educational framework and curriculum for philanthropy and informed social action, with the emphasis on Darfur

Student Conservation Association

Through internships, conservation jobs and crew experiences, SCA members are rising to meet environmental challenges while gaining real, hands-on field experience. They complete projects in every conservation discipline — from archaeology to zoology — and everything in between.

Jewish high-school students and 2007 graduates (ages 15-19) who are looking to make a difference in the world and are interested in a tuition-free outdoor volunteer experience can apply today.

NFTY Mitzvah Corps Summer Programs

Commitment to Tikkun Olam—repairing the world—has always been a major component of the Reform Jewish experience. The NFTY Mitzvah Corps program allows Reform Jewish teens to directly impact communities that need the energy, dedication, and love that youth provide. Choose from four summer programs that combine volunteer work with educational programming based on Jewish social and ethical issues. Prepare yourself to leave this program feeling empowered, impassioned, and ready to translate your experiences to direct social action in your community! Join us this summer in California, New Jersey, New York, or Mississippi. For program application, deadlines, and fees visit: www.nftymitzvahcorps.org, email rvanthyn@urj.org, or call 212.650.4071.

Jewish Coalition for Service

High school volunteers: Travel, change the world, and make new friends all in a week, a summer or a year. If you’re 15 or older, you can help others and make a difference. You can fulfill community service requirements. And you can do something else that is invaluable: You can help show the Jewish community’s spiritual solidarity and concern with people in crisis all over the world. You’ll feel first hand the impact you can have and expand your understanding of what it means to be Jewish. The Jewish Coalition for Service is the right place to look when you’re looking to volunteer full-time. For up-to-date information about programs visit www.jewishservice.org/vol_highschool.html. The mission of the Jewish Coalition is to inspire everyone in the Jewish community to dedicate a part of their lives to full-time, hands-on volunteer work.

TELEM

TELEM is a Jewish service learning program which integrates community service with learning, reflection, and opportunities to effect real change. Teens participate in four tracks for service; Eldercare, Homelessness & Hunger Disabilities/Special Needs and Tutoring. Teens do regular service with their synagogue or Jewish organizations and learn about the Jewish values and social justice issues connected to their service. TELEM is an initiative of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston.

JVibe: the new national magazine for Jewish teens – which means YOU!

If you’re looking for a little motivation when it comes to tikkun olam (repairing the world), we’ve got it right here.

JVibe: Planting Seeds and Harvesting Smiles

From planting trees to making cotton candy, Jeremy Gelman and his friends at BBYO did a whole lot of tikkun olam on a recent trip to Israel.

JVibe: Saving the World, One Bead at a Time

While working with adults with cerebral palsy, Aimee Rubensteen learned that she could help out, one bead at a time.

JVibe: 30 Days in the Wilderness

After a month of dirt, insects and all the joys of wilderness living, Ricki Draper's prepared to take a stand for our environment.

JVibe: From Start to Finish

Adam Simkin and Sophie Herscu give away tons of cash to good causes. It may sound selfless and easy, but they found philanthropy takes a lot of teamwork to get the job done right.

JVibe: Milwaukee Makes a Difference

Jewish teens in Milwaukee did a whole lot of good in one day. Find out about their Teen Day of Social Action.

JVibe: A Universal Language

This spring break, Ben Tepfer and eight of his classmates traveled to El Salvador. Read about their eye-opening tikkum olam experience.

JVibe: Ruth Messinger's Message to Teens

Ruth Messinger got arrested for civil disobedience, but she's a role model for teens around the country.

JVibe: Do You Know the Story Behind what You're Wearing?

The blue jeans you're wearing, ever wonder where they come from? In China Blue, Israeli Film Director Micha X. Peled documents the story of an exploited, overworked, underpaid teenager who toils in a Chinese blue jeans factory. The director manages to put a human face on the horrific working conditions for children in China." To me, part of being Jewish is being interested in the world at large," Peled says in the JVibe interview," and being particularly sensitive to issues of injustice, wherever they come up."

JVibe: Face to Face

While recovering from brain cancer surgery, teenager Bill Toth found little to laugh about. But then a clown came into his hospital room and he couldn't help but smile. Toth, a social activist also known as Jojo the Magnifico, realized that a little clowning around can be the best medicine. In an inspiring article in JVibe, Toth describes how he turned this into action when he received a grant and created "Healing with Laughter": He hired a mitzvah clown to teach a group of students the fun art of clowning, so they could entertain patients in hospitals. And Bill's been laughing ever since.

JVibe: Got Goals?

When Meredith Bilski found out that Ethiopian-Israeli girls her age did not have the opportunity to play soccer, her sense of philanthropy kicked into high gear. Read on to see how she's raised thousands of dollars for a new soccer program.

JVibe: How My Class Raised Over $42,000

Students in the 7th grade of a Jewish school pool their bar and bat mitzvah money and become philanthropists.

JVibe: Tired of Spykids? Give it to Charity!

Remember all those movies you used to love when you were a kid? So, what can you do with all those old flicks you don't want anymore? Three Jewish teens from L.A. may have the perfect solution for you!

Becoming Part of the Solution Instead Part of the Problem:
Hillel Students focus on safeguarding the environment

Hundreds of Hillel students from across the country met in March 2007 at the Spitzer Hillel Forum on Social Justice to learn how to advocate effectively, once back at their college campuses, on life-threatening environmental issues and Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. Hillel's president emphasized the power of one person to instigate change, while another speaker asserted: "The country and the world needs you now!"

Jewish Teens Get Down & Dirty in Central America

Sixty-three Jewish teenagers from New York didn't mind laying down the tile floors or mixing cement for the walls. In fact, they seemed to enjoy the physical labor. They were on a mission, as part of an "interfaith brigade": to build eight houses for impoverished families in a rural Nicaraguan village. Seventeen-year-old Evan Lobell explains why he volunteered for the project: "These people need help and we have the ability to do it, so why not?"

Sweating it Out in New Orleans: One Teenager's Story

Learn how 17-year-old Alyson Gorun spent 12 days rebuilding homes and dreams in the horrific after-wake of Hurricane Katrina. "Taking New Orleans by Storm" is an inspiring "Kid Power" feature in Babaganewz. "It was 100 degrees, and I was wearing this full body suit, shoveling dirt into a barrel," recalls Alyson. "My body was telling me to stop working. But then I would think about the owner. It was a struggle, but I kept working because it would help someone."

What motivated this group of Jewish teens in Connecticut to aid refugees in Darfur?

All of them cite the Holocaust as one reason for their efforts and the feeling that Jews can never be bystanders, according to writer and editor, Doug Chandler.

Kids Shooed Away

Police escorted a group of fifth-graders from the Workmen’s Circle Jewish Sunday school in Brookline from a Wal-Mart in Framingham, Massachusetts this week after the youngsters decried what they say is the retail giant’s use of sweatshop labor.

Teens for Tzedek

From TJCC

Teens for Tzedek, the youth social justice program of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston, connects high schoolers through community service opportunities, discussion forums, political advocacy, and a very special Boston-Haifa summer-in-Israel exchange program

The Tiyul

The Tiyul is a six week summer travel, community service, and outdoor adventure program for teens entering 10th-12th grades. Tiyul participants have come from many different states and geographic regions across the country, Canada and Israel. To receive an application and to ask further questions, contact Sharon Goldman at 212.415.5601. Tiyul participants are selected based on interviews and recommendations.

Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School

Produced by Keshet; Sponsored by Jewish Women’s Archives

Hineini chronicles Shulamit Izen's efforts to raise awareness about gay and lesbian issues at the New Jewish High School (now called Gann Academy). Hineini tells the story of a whole community inspired and changed by one girl's courage.

Suburban Meets Urban

By TIFERET HABERMAN-BROWNS

A high school senior takes the subway from the suburbs to an inner-city school, learns by teaching, and gains by giving.

Shaken by Poverty in Africa

By SHELI C.

"While walking through a wealthy vacation town in South Africa one day, my mother and I were approached by a young black boy carrying a bag of corn in each hand, a weight he struggled to lift. I thought of my 11-year-old brother who must have been around the same age."

Digging Trenches in El Salvador

By ZEKE D.

A high school junior works in the trenches for community service – the world community – and has the best time of his life.

Scott Schonfeld: Saving Lives, Cheek to Cheek

BABAGANEWZ.COM

When someone needs a bone-marrow transplant, large campaigns gear up to find a matching donor. Why not register future donors every time they visit their doctors?

Welcome to American Idle No More!

BABAGANEWZ.COM

After teens and their social action projects were profiled in the print magazine BabagaNewz (April 2005 / Adar Two 5765), readers voted for their favorite projects. And the winners are...

Just Tryin' to Save the World

By DANA ROMMERDAHL

Other people's money: A high school sophomore helps dole out $45,000 to tzedakah.

Is Giving a Choice?

By JENN ABELSON

Feeling benevolent, even noble, about giving tzedakah? Sorry, it's an obligation, a commandment!

Involving Your Teenager in the Civic Ritual of Voting

By KEN BRESLER

If you ask your teens to research candidates and recommend for whom you should vote, they'll be invested in elections before they can vote.

Socially Inclined

By DENA L.

A high schooler connects the words "social action" and "human rights" with real acts, such as talking to homeless people and lobbying legislators. Oh, and a small point: social action can be a social activity.

Looking A Little Deeper

By REBECCA S.

"I used to judge homeless people, and assume that they weren't very intelligent. I no longer see things so black and white; everyone has a story."

Repairing the World, One Neighborhood at a Time

By ILANA COHN

Grassroots community organizing is slow but rewarding work – and in this case, award-winning.

Five Days on a Bike, 350 Miles Through Israel, and $3,600

BABAGANEWZ.COM

A teen raises thousands of dollars to help protect Israel’s environment – by bicycling through the land he’s helping.

Fred TV

BABAGANEWZ.COM

Fred, the creator, producer, and star of Fred TV, helps hospitalized children have some fun.

A Summer Camp for Peace

BABAGANEWZ.COM

At the Seeds of Peace International Camp, Israeli and Palestinian teens learn tolerance for each another.

The Dark Side of Chocolate

BABAGANEWZ.COM

Are the workers on cocoa plantations child laborers – or even slaves?

Passing the Mitzvah On

BABAGANEWZ.COM

A teenager donates $600 of her bat mitzvah gift money so that young Jews in Cuba can celebrate their b’nai mitzvah, too.

Mara Herling: Locks of Love

BABAGANEWZ.COM

An 11-year-old Goldilocks donates 14 inches of hair to make wigs and other hairpieces for children who have lost hair because of illness. See before-and-after photos.

Melissa Paris: LKS Foundation

BABAGANEWZ.COM

When a 16-year-old finds out that her younger sister has LKS, a rare form of epilepsy, she raises $73,000 for research.

Michal Belzburg: OneFamily Foundation

BABAGANEWZ.COM

Instead of a bat mitzvah party, Michal and her family started OneFamily to help Israeli survivors of terrorism, financially and emotionally.

Mitzvah Mission to Argentina

BABAGANEWZ.COM

A 15-year-old raises $1,500 to buy school supplies for Jewish students in an Argentine school – and finds she has enough to buy supplies for students in 10 schools.

Shifra Mincer: The Soup Kitchen Seamstress

BABAGANEWZ.COM

Holey work: Mending clothes for the homeless.

Teens and Tikkun Olam

By RABBI SID SCHWARZ

“The alien species that we call ‘teenager’ has a thick crust of self-centeredness covering a deep well of idealism. The trick is to pierce through that tough outer crust.”