… to succeed, Jewish service-learning service must be authentic, it must support the needs of the community being served, and it must effectively align its learning program to the work itself.
– Jon Rosenberg, Repair the World
Repair the World is thrilled to introduce People of the Book, Community of Action: Exploring Jewish Service-Learning, the first-ever issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service dedicated to the field.
When we embarked on a journey to advance the conversation about Jewish service-learning (JSL) by sponsoring an issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service, we were amazed by the number of diverse and amazing field professionals eager to contribute to the Journal’s creation. Today, we’re delighted to offer a curated publication which features articles from experts in Jewish service-learning and from organizations like American Jewish World Service, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Agency for Israel and countless others who have been working to advance the field everyday.
In the Journal, you’ll gain insights and answer questions like:
- Understanding the field and the relationship between Jewish identity and Jewish service-learning
- Breaking down the cost and value of Jewish service-learning
- How – and can – we create “service people”?
- Do Jewish learning and service integrate? What is the the state of service in Israel?
- What impact does JSL have on the communities in which its volunteers serve, on participants performing the service, and on the Jewish community at large.
To share as much of the learning from the field as possible, in addition to the print edition of the Journal , for the first time, we have created a digital supplement available exclusively online, here at RepairLabs, Repair the World’s blog devoted exclusively to professionals in the field.
Repair the World, which fosters the JSL field’s growth by providing grants, technical assistance, leadership, support for educators and conducting ongoing research and evaluation to inform the field’s development, is grateful to the Jewish Communal Service Association for their partnership, especially the hard work of Brenda Gevertz, Lyn Light Geller, and Gail Naron Chalew, and to the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation for their generous sponsorship.
And of course, we thank all of the practitioners, researchers, and organizational partners who made this possible, my co-editors at Repair the World, Jon Rosenberg and Ilana Aisen (and our marketing crew at Repair for helping design and get the word out about the journal).
We hope the creation of this journal will help advance the conversation about Jewish service-learning, help you share best practices, and highlight important insights to further your work. Without further ado, we invite you to read the articles and join the conversation on this site, Facebook, and on Twitter with the hashtag #JSLJournal. (And follow us @repairlabs)