The world through Jewish eyes

MARK ARNOLD SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Imagine putting on a pair of glasses – no matter that they're made of paper – going out into the night and having every light you see take the form of a Star of David!

That's seeing the world from a Jewish perspective and it's the key to the thinking of Yosef Abramowitz, a 39-year-old journalist, human rights activist and educator who is transforming Jewish education from a cluttered fourth-floor office in a low-rent district of Newton, just outside of Boston.

The glasses, to be distributed to all who receive his children's magazine BabagaNewz, are one of the many ways this whirlwind of energy and ideas – named, for the third straight year, by the Forward newspaper as one of the 50 most influential Jews in America – is seeking to influence Jewish children, Jewish adults and Jewish educators.

Abramowitz is CEO of Jewish Family & Life! (JFL), an organization that, seven years after its founding, has a budget of $4.5 million US, a staff of more than 35 and a mission to "spark and nurture" Jewish identity and build interactive Jewish communities.

With generous funding from leading Jewish foundations and a board of directors composed of movers and shakers in national Jewry, Abramowitz and his staff of creative, committed 20- and 30-somethings are mobilizing the Internet on behalf of North America's Jewish future. Signs of their influence:

• Now in its third year, BabagaNewz – JFL's first success and still its flagship publication – today serves more than 30,000 children in North America in almost 900 day schools and congregational Hebrew schools. One of those schools is Marblehead's Cohen Hillel Academy, where head of school Robert Tornberg says flatly: "We think BabagaNewz is fabulous. In over 30 years as an educator, it's the most appealing and the most valuable publication for kids I've seen."

• The array of Web sites it owns and feeds (see below) makes JFL the leading source of online Jewish content in the world. Among other distinctions, those sites boast the largest collection of Jewish kids' games in the world. Says Abramowitz: "If we can get kids to spend an extra three hours a week in Jewish learning, it's all to the good."

• Its magazine Sh'ma, for Jewish professionals, is among the most important intellectual forums for discussion of Jewish ideas, ethics and values and their application to everyday life.

• JSkyway, a distance learning program in professional development, is offering four courses a term for Jewish educators (two terms a year) with the courses accredited by Hebrew College and eligible for continuing education units. In its first term, it attracted 50 teachers, a total it hopes to double in the next 12 months.

• MyJewishLearning.com, JFL's most popular Web site, attracts 100,000 hits per month. It offers a multi-level exploration of Jewish history, lifecycle events, ideas and beliefs and culture. Like archeologists, visitors can drill down to find layer upon layer of detailed information.

"What we are doing is seeking to reconstitute the best ideas and most important values – the essence of Judaism and Jewish life," said Abramowitz, a kosher vegeterian, as he huddled over a bowl of soup in a neighborhood restaurant. "We have visions inspired by values and we are using those visions to democratize Jewish knowledge and make it accessible and relevant to the lives of individual Jews, no matter how old or affiliated or wherever they are in their Jewry."

Equally important, JFL is creating what Abramowitz calls "the infrastructure for lifelong universal membership in the Jewish people." The array of products for children, adults and teachers, are all part of that infrastructure.

Perhaps the biggest new test of JFL's instructional approach will be the teenage market. Two years ago, JFL created the Web site JVibe.com, targeted at hard-to-reach post-b'nai mitzvah kids. After extensive market testing, the organization is gearing up to launch JVibe, a glossy magazine for youngsters 15 and up, probably in the third quarter of 2004. The prototype has a cover story on rock guitarist Evan Taubenfeld, who doubles as backup vocalist for MTV star Avril Lavigne. Other features of the magazine include a quiz on leadership, discussions on dating, advice on what to do if your girlfriend or boyfriend dumps you and news on movies, CDs, television and life in Israel.

Abramowitz and his colleagues are upbeat about the magazine's prospects, given the fact that the Web site gets 20,000 hits a month. They hope to get funding to subsidize a three-year subscription to JVibe for every bar/bat mitzvah child in North America.

Explains Abramowitz: "There are a total of 250,000 Jewish teenagers, 20 per cent are Orthodox. That leaves 200,000 who are our target audience. Our goal is to reach 50 per cent of them within five years," which he thinks will cost $3 to $5 million US.

A somewhat dishevelled man who wears a perpetual mischievous grin, Abramowitz appears for an interview dressed in jeans, a shirt with one collar in and one out of an icelandic-type sweater. His sandy hair is topped by a small yarmulke. At his desk, his laptop is open while he works on a desktop computer plastered with Post-it note reminders. On one wall of his cinder block office – the site is a former factory – is a poster of Spiderman and from the ceiling hangs a large balloon in the shape of Spiderman. Why Spiderman? "We both weave webs," he said, giggling.

Abramowitz grew up in Brighton, Brookline and Newton. He graduated from Boston University with an emphasis on Jewish public policy and was awarded a fellowship to study journalism at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He has authored numerous articles for national publications and won a host of awards.

A rebel at BU and in the years that followed, he found a natural niche in social activism, organizing human rights demonstrations in more than 20 countries and, in one case, being banned from a third-world country, pre-democratic South Africa. He served in the Israel Defence Forces during the first intifada. Long a leader in the movement to free Soviet Jews, he remains volunteer president of the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. He was co-nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work with that organization. And he is probably the only Jewish educator who has appeared in a skit on Saturday Night Live; his sister-in-law, a cast member, arranged it.

The current revolution Abramowitz is sparking still operates, in his words, for the most part "under the radar screen of organized Jewish religion." But if so, it is working with the tacit support of many elements of that establishment. A $4.3 million US grant from the Avi Chai Foundation launched BabagaNewz; and the Samuel Bronfman Foundation provided seed funding for JBooks.com. Edgar M. Bronfman, one of Abramowitz's earliest supporters, brought JFL together with Hebrew College and awarded the two organizations $2.4 million to create MyJewishLearning.com. Bronfman has brought other parties to the JFL table, including the Lynn and Charles Schusterman Family Foundation and the Abramson Family Foundation.

Abramowitz is married to Susan Silverman, a Reconstructionist-ordained rabbi. The couple has four children, ages six months to 10 years. He is quick to credit his staff with many of the ideas and successful implementations. With input from his business backers, he is now seeking to professionalize the JFL organization.

"We identify best practices in the secular world and bring them to Jewish learning and education," he says. These include strategic planning, organizational development, benchmarking, market research and product portfolio management.

Through it all, Abramowitz maintains a fresh perspective on the challenges of Jewish education. "Think of how we pressure Jewish kids to learn now," he said. "We cram their heads with content for their bar/bat mitzvah when we need to be instilling Jewish values in them. Values are much more important and they stay with you all your life.

"Give children a Jewish outlook, a Jewish way of looking at the world," he continued. "That's the key to the Jewish future."

The list of JFL Web sites includes:

BabagaNewz.com: A Web version of the highly successful magazine for Jewish day school and congregational school students.

JewishFamily.com: a nondenominational Webzine offering articles about issues facing Jewish families. The oldest of the growing number of Jewish online magazines, it has won numerous awards for coverage.

JewishHistory.com: An exploration of the heritage of the Jewish people from ancient to modern times.

Shma.com: A think tank for exploring issues in Jewish life and community, such as aliyah, Jewish political influence, creativity and assimilation.

GenerationJ.com: A Webzine aimed at Jewish 20- and 30-somethings, GenJ explores Jewish identity by publishing irreverent and provocative features on Jewish culture, relationships, spirituality and social action.

SocialAction.com: Articles, job postings, learning opportunities and community-building activities highlight this resource for Jews working to produce social change.

JVibe.com: An attempt to woo the most difficult of all Jews to reach: those between 16 and 21 years of age. The site focuses on music, books, film reviews, trips to Israel and other overseas destinations, celebrity profiles, contests, sports, sexuality, holidays, advice and connecting with other Jewish teens.

MzVibe.com: An online site for teens with feminist values, MzVibe seeks to help Jewish girls grow in independence, spirituality, inner beauty and confidence.

JewishSports.com: Described as the leading Web location for news and profiles on Jewish athletes and Israeli sports, the site is updated daily with sports news from around the world. Interviews, profiles and athletes' personal reflections help to cover the Jewish sports experience.

JewZ.com: Provides arts and entertainment news and reviews, recipes and celebrity updates.

JBooks.com: Intended for every level of reader, from the serious book enthusiast to the summer beach fan, this is JFL's offering to the literary community.

Mark Arnold is the publisher and editor of the Jewish Journal North of Boston. This article is reprinted with permission.

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