When I picked up my daughter (age 12) up from Sunday school last week, she got in the car, handed me a plastic cup wrapped in aluminum foil, and stated flatly, "It's supposed to be a kiddish cup." I turned it over, thinking about how it couldn't even serve its purpose, as liquid would get caught under [...]

While the Gendler Grapevine Project is moving into its sunset phase, we have been busy behind the scenes. One thing we've been working on is our Capstone Initiatives. These larger-in-scope and longer-term initiatives focus on two key aspects of the Gendler Grapevine Project’s goals: replicability and longevity. Both capstone initiatives reach beyond their local communities and strive [...]

New Roots continues to do great work through their Gendler Grapevine Project. They assembled two groups of eight high school freshman to help with spring organizing. Each group got to pick what they wanted to do.   The first group wanted to work on an Interfaith event that was linked to fundraising. They all went to one [...]

Ganei Beantown is using their Gendler Grapevine Project grant to develop and implement a new workshop track focused on youth and families at their Boston Jewish Food Conference. The annual Boston Jewish Food Conference (BJFC) brings together community members to learn about Jewish agriculture, labor issues, health, food access, kashrut, and local food history. The fun day of [...]

Canfei Nesharim's Gendler Grapevine Project initiative is to create 8 teaching modules for Orthodox high schools focusing on core Jewish environmental values. The goal of these modules is to easily integrate them into the standard 9th grade science curriculum of most Orthodox day schools. Although many schools do not teach the regents curriculum, they focus [...]

Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center is sponsoring an event called "Beans, Basil, and Bees: A Family Gardening Workshop," which will be held Sunday, June 3 from 2-4 pm. Workshop participants will learn about starting their own container garden, dig in the dirt and learn about composting, and meet some urban beekeepers who are helping the city retain its native [...]

Oshman Family JCC's (OFJCC) Gendler Grapevine Project is to create Youth Service Havurah (YSH), a social action program that gives middle and high school students the opportunity to deepen their connection to Judaism through social action and hands-on opportunities. The program empowers teens by asking them to be proactive and identify gaps they see in [...]

We recently shared the transcript of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last interview, which was conducted by Rabbi Gendler 50 years ago last month. While reading the transcript, one can't help but notice how relevant many of the concerns raised 50 years ago still are today. One of our 2016 grantees, Temple Sinai DC, worked to address [...]

In 2006, I was eating lunch with my mom on a bench outside of Back Alley's on Martha's Vineyard. As what often happens when we visit that store, my mom saw someone she knew. "Emily, I want to introduce you to Joan Nathan." Joan, the journalist and author of numerous Jewish cookbooks, started chatting with us about an article she [...]

My apologies. I shared this blog post yesterday; however, because it was so brief, the email summary didn't contain a "read more" option that would take you to the blog post and the link to the actual interview. Thank you for the emails letting me know that the link wasn't available. Hopefully it will work this time. -Emily   March [...]