JAM-packed times!

Greetings from the Summer JAM community!

Yesterday was a day that I have been dreaming about all year: JAMer arrival day! Pamela, the PANIM staff, and I have spent countless hours planning for this, and we were joined by whole JAM staff this past week for Staff Orientation. When the cars started pulling up, it all became a reality. Baruch Habah! (Welcome!)

Smiling with excitement, the participants arrived eager to get started. We hit the ground running. I had prepared for weeks for my opening keynote address. I shared inspiration from Torah, US politicians, and poets. I shared my narrative and elicited stories of dreams and passions from the participants. Sternly, I set down the rules of the program and the guidelines for the summer. I even managed to get the students to sing two songs: Hinei mah tovu and Shomrim Hafkaid. The energy was buzzing!

Following the keynote, Gavi and Samuel, two of the JAM Mentors, led the students in icebreakers to relieve tension and to assist the students in getting to know each other. They particularly enjoyed the humming game.

Unpacking, making motzi, yummy dinner #1, birkat hamazon (blessings after the meal), everything started moving fast. Then JAMers met for the first time in their service-learning course groups. They received an introduction to the topics of education, healthcare, and poverty-both policy and history, and an orientation to get them ready for their first day of community service.

After classes, we had the chance to learn from Yoni Brook, a director of The Calling: http://hartleyfoundation.org/calling (a PBS production on religious leadership). Yoni taught about activism through filmmaking, shared his photography experiences at the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and showed a few clips from his recent film that he has been viewing worldwide.

Ari Hart, a JAM teacher, taught about a current tension in ethical kashrut regarding injustices at a slaughterhouse and introduced the topic of community organizing.

By this point, after a long day of travel, greetings, and programming, the students were quite tired. So we had some cake and called it a night. Sweet dreams and an early rise!

This morning, after our first session of kavannot (prayer and learning opportunities to promote intention in our communal days) and breakfast, the JAMers went out to their service sites. I was fortunate to ride with PANIM's founder and president, Rabbi Sid Schwarz, to visit the students learning and doing important avodah (work) at Bright Beginnings and the Lombardi Cancer Center.

The day is short but our work is infinite. Using our time and energy wisely is a value that our students are continuing to cultivate in our JAM-packed schedule. And of course, we're having a blast as well!

I can't believe it's only been 24 hours! Hope you enjoy the pictures we posted earlier.

Kol tuv,
Shmuly
Director