Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

We are delighted to announce that the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation of Metropolitan New York has selected Hannah Greenstein as Keruv Project Coordinator. Recently, JRF NY/NJ was awarded a two year grant from the UJA Federation of New York and its Synagogue Task Force, to work closely with area Reconstructionist congregations, and support them to do outreach and to grow.

With this initiative, we aim to reaffirm that keruv (to bring closer) means every voice does indeed matter.
The two year systemic initiative will work with teams of outreach leaders from Reconstructionist congregations, to chart a course and best practices in outreach, membership retention and growth. Synagogue teams will include membership chairs, rabbis, executive directors, members of the executive committee, education directors and others whom the congregation identifies.

The following is Hannah's announcement to the friends of JRF NY/NJ:

Dear Partners in JRF NY/NJ Outreach,

My name is Hannah Greenstein and I am thrilled to be the Outreach Coordinator for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, a position which has been made possible through a generous grant by the UJA Federation of New York and its Synagogue Task Force.

First of all, I want to commend you for putting outreach on your agenda. The fastest growing ‘denomination’ in Judaism is the unaffiliated, and I believe that it is a holy task to reach out to people on the margins of Jewish life and welcome them in to our communities. Welcoming people is a multi-layered process, during which we must ask ourselves serious and self-reflective questions. For example, what are we doing to get our institutions’ names and missions out to the broader community? What are our action steps to get non-members through our doors? What does it feel like for an outsider to walk through our doors for the first time? I look forward to examining these questions with all of you and with our Outreach consultants who will lend their expertise to our journey throughout the next two years.

Let me tell you a bit about myself and how I got into the field of Jewish outreach. I first realized the potential of outreach growing up in the youth movement Habonim Dror. Habonim Dror practices an inclusive and meaningful brand of Judaism which, for many of its members, serves as their only exposure to Jewish life. In my case, Habonim Dror inspired me to learn more about Judaism, and I went on to obtain a BA in Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

After graduation, I worked for the Jewish Outreach Institute (JOI), and it was through this work that I formed the rabbinic vision I hold today. JOI advocates for reaching out to intermarried and unaffiliated Jews. As part of JOI’s vision, we studied outreach programs to understand what techniques are most successful. Once these ‘best practices’ were teased out, I, and the rest of the JOI team incorporated them into training sessions aimed at Jewish institutions. Our goal was to help Jewish institutions be more effective at reaching the unaffiliated and intermarried in our midst.

After a few years at JOI, I decided that in order to be most effective at outreach, I needed to become a practitioner myself, and I felt called to do so through rabbinic work. I spent a year in Israel studying at the Conservative Yeshiva, and afterwards, started my rabbinic training at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where I am currently in my fourth year of school. Since reaching out to those not yet involved in Jewish communal life is part of our collective vision, I look forward to formulating this message with all of you through an authentic Reconstructionist lens.

Looking ahead, there are some exciting components of this initiative of which I hope you will all take advantage. First of all, I will serve as a resource to you through phone and email, and in face to face meetings when possible. Second, I will be starting a list serve so that we can be in contact with one another throughout our outreach experiences. Finally, there will be training and networking sessions, throughout the two year project, such as the kick-off program in early 2008, where we will come together to learn and share best practices in our outreach work.

For those of you who are affiliated with one of our pilot synagogues, I will be in contact with you in December when I officially start the Outreach Coordinator position. At that time, we will be able to set up meetings for late December and early January so that I can begin learning about your needs, culture, and outreach experiences to date.

In the meantime, please feel free to be in touch with me. My email is jrfoutreach@gmail.com.