As a sector-within-a-sector, the Jewish innovation space must work together if we are to achieve maximal impact. Important conversations about growth, sustainability, and impact cannot take place exclusively behind the closed-doors of boardrooms or within the four walls of any one organization.

Like the secular world, the organized Jewish community today has a bit of a crush on entrepreneurs. In a recent New […]

Today, Israels 65th Independence Day, it is appropriate that we stop and take pride in the many strengths of this young nation, and what its existence and growth has meant for Jewish people not only in Israel but around the world. 2013 offers much for LGBT people to take pride in compared with 1948.

Today marks the end of a three week period on the Jewish calendar that begins with Passover, in which we tell the Biblical story of our peoples exodus from bondage in Egypt, and ends with Yom Ha'atzmaut, on which this year we mark the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Israel. We mark these two connected episodes of liberation, an ancient miracle and a modern one. The creation of the free and independent state of Israel is perhaps the most profound miracle of the 20th century, the reconnection of the Jewish people with our historical roots.

In a recent article in the Sunday Styles Section of The New York Times entitled The Family Stories that Bind Us, Bruce Feiler notes a surprising correlation between the resilience and health of children and their fluency in their familys stories: the single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative. He quotes research that has identified that the more children knew about their familys history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem.

An article from The Washington Jewish Week

The cow rose gently into the air, looking robust and healthy until, with a brief spray of blood, its head separated from its body and both parts fell. Moments later a second cow flew up. This cow, sickly green and with a bandage on one leg, fell unmolested, not worthy for sacrifice to God.

Learning the rules of sacrificing digital cows popping up and down on the iPhone screen along with doves and bags of oil and flour may not be quite the same as how the ancient Israelites did things but there's a lot of Torah in this brand new game, the first from G-dcast Entertainment, aptly named "Leviticus!"

In order to genuinely learn about the needs and experiences of others, we must put aside our own assumptions, agendas, […]

This article first appeared on Jewish Futures.

My father grew up in the real Bronx a world very different from the pseudo-Bronx of Riverdale where he raised his children. He played stickball on the streets with the Italian kids, who called him Luigi The Jew, and came home regularly with torn pants, skinned knees, and the fear of facing his mother, who would inevitably say to him: If youd been the first child, you wouldve been the last! Then hed have to suffer shopping for new pants at Barneys, where he was an irregular husky, a size that weighed on his identity. His family was a member at the Young Israel of Parkchester, an Orthodox community composed of the lower-middle class workers of the East Bronx, many of whom were immigrants and did not have any Jewish education or background. (Professor Jeffrey Gurock, who also grew up in that community, writes about this synagogue, and my grandfather, in the introduction to his book Orthodox Jews in America). The youth were the hope and the pulse of the congregation. And when children became Bar or Bat Mitzvah age, they became responsible for ensuring the continuity, relevance, and vibrancy of the community.

An article from eJewish Philanthropy
October  26, 2012
By Maya Bernstein 

Will Schneider, in his recent eJejewish Philanthropy piece Innovation to What End?, states that Innovation is a strategy toward a larger goal, such as creating Jewish community, increasing Jewish literacy, or improving the North American Jewish communitys relationship to Israel. It should not be perceived of, or utilized as, an end in and of itself. It is simply a mindset, and set of tools, that allow us to achieve our overall shared purpose more effectively. It can be utilized within and beyond the walls of established institutions, and it should also be handled responsibly; if something aint broke, theres no need to push innovation at it and try to fix it. And therefore, we dont encourage funders to support the new over the necessary provided they dont fund the existing over the effective. Funders and practitioners alike should focus on purpose: what is it that were trying to accomplish? And what are the most effective and creative approaches and methods we can employ?

Will Schneider, in his recent eJejewish Philanthropy piece Innovation to What End?, states that Innovation is a strategy toward a larger goal, such as creating Jewish community, increasing Jewish literacy, or improving the North American Jewish communitys relationship to Israel. It should not be perceived of, or utilized as, an end in and of itself. It is simply a mindset, and set of tools, that allow us to achieve our overall shared purpose more effectively. It can be utilized within and beyond the walls of established institutions, and it should also be handled responsibly; if something aint broke, theres no need to push innovation at it and try to fix it. And therefore, we dont encourage funders to support the new over the necessary provided they dont fund the existing over the effective. Funders and practitioners alike should focus on purpose: what is it that were trying to accomplish? And what are the most effective and creative approaches and methods we can employ?

The following post is an article from the Jweekly, written by Emma Silvers (j. staff)

On the sixth floor of an office building in San Franciscos Financial District, in a boardroom at the back of a bright, spacious office, Rabbi Noa Kushner is doing something most people dont generally think of rabbis doing: asking for guidance.

You talk, Ill type, a consultant from UpStart Bay Area says to her. Looking ahead six months, what are your main goals?

Kushner is the founding rabbi of The Kitchen, a 16-month-old group that describes itself as one part indie Shabbat community, one part San Francisco experiment, and one part tool kit for DIY Jewish practice. The rabbi has regular meetings at UpStart to talk about where her young organization is headed.

UpStart Bay Area bills itself as a social venture, consulting firm, and incubator for innovative Jewish organizations and entrepreneurs and Kushner is far from the only one who uses its services.
 

Since 2006, she and a select group of other local entrepreneurial Jews many of them young, all of them with innovative and often great ideas have been chosen to link with UpStart and learn how to translate those ideas into action.

The following post was a coverstory in the Jweekly, written by Emma Silvers (j. staff)

On the sixth floor of an office building in San Franciscos Financial District, in a boardroom at the back of a bright, spacious office, Rabbi Noa Kushner is doing something most people dont generally think of rabbis doing: asking for guidance.

You talk, Ill type, a consultant from UpStart Bay Area says to her. Looking ahead six months, what are your main goals?

Kushner is the founding rabbi of The Kitchen, a 16-month-old group that describes itself as one part indie Shabbat community, one part San Francisco experiment, and one part tool kit for DIY Jewish practice. The rabbi has regular meetings at UpStart to talk about where her young organization is headed.

UpStart Bay Area bills itself as a social venture, consulting firm, and incubator for innovative Jewish organizations and entrepreneurs and Kushner is far from the only one who uses its services.

Since 2006, she and a select group of other local entrepreneurial Jews many of them young, all of them with innovative and often great ideas have been chosen to link with UpStart and learn how to translate those ideas into action. 

An article from eJewish Philanthropy.

Quick, what instrument do you associate with Passover? Matzah? Sorry, not an instrument. With Shavuot? What? Blintzes? Wrong again. You seem obsessed with food. With Sukkot? No, a lulav is not technically an instrument.

We dont normally associate our holidays with instruments, or sounds. And yet, if we were to free-associate about Rosh Hashanah, perhaps one of the most important times in the Jewish calendar, we would immediately think of the blasts of the shofar. In fact, the Torah refers to this holiday not as the Jewish New Year, but as a day of trumpeting (Numbers 29:1). Why does this little rams horn, play such a significant role on this major holiday? And what does it have to do with the overarching theme of the holiday, renewal and growth?

The shofar can be perceived as an auditory metaphor for the elements involved in any change, renewal, or innovation process. Its various sounds, legato and staccato, a constant presence in the month leading up to the holiday, and during the services on the holiday itself, are reminders of the steps involved when we seek to make meaningful change in our personal, communal, and professional lives.

An article from eJewish Philanthropy 

Christiane Montouri, writing on the Cambridge Leadership Associate’s Blog, makes an analogy between species adaptation and organizational change. She writes: “When a species adapts, it gives up a small portion of its DNA, usually only about 5%. However, giving up the DNA that is hindering adaptation and survival not only gets rid of what is getting in the way, but also makes room for new DNA than can survive in the changing reality… Which finger would you sacrifice to make progress?” When we engage in a change process, we often must let go of certain perspectives to make room for the new. This can be a traumatic process. That is why it is so critical, in the face of change, to acknowledge what it is we are afraid to lose, and what it is we hope to gain. This clarity is so important because it may help alleviate the pain of the inevitable sacrifices in the process.

An article from eJewish Philanthropy.

My 4-year-old daughter has been suffering terribly from seasonal allergies. Her normally bright, eager eyes have been all but shut closed by red itchiness, tears, and crust. For the past three months, we have taken her back and forth to the allergist, who has tried a variety of anti-histamine eye-drops. Nothing has helped. We accepted her new normal more cranky, less playful, and constantly rubbing her eyes. We finally saw an ophthalmologist, who declared that our daughters was one of the worst allergic reactions she had ever seen, and put her on an intense course of eye drop steroids. In just a couple of days, our clear-eyed daughter was back to her joyous, mischievous self.

But theres a catch.The medication shes on is so strong that she cannot stay on it for more than two weeks. We have been given a short respite from a chronic state. We do not know what will happen after this two-week period. Perhaps the pollen will disappear from the air. Perhaps the alleviation of the symptoms will allow less strong medications to work. And perhaps shell be itchy and teary and crusty all over again, and well be back at square one. If that is the case, as it likely is, we will need to do the work we have been unable to do in all these months: identify the cause of the problem, and discover a sustainable solution for it.

I share this story because it illustrates a core concept related to the challenge of orchestrating meaningful change a distinction, introduced by Ronald Heifetz, between technical and adaptive work.

An article from eJewish Philanthropy

Though the term innovation has become an overused buzzword in both the Jewish and general worlds, it nonetheless has become apparent that, like people, organizations need to continually progress in order to survive and thrive. What remains elusive, though, is how to focus resources and energy on growth and change initiatives in order to render them successful.

In a recent article entitled Managing your Innovation Portfolio in the Harvard Business Review, authors Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff present a formula for allocating resources towards innovation, which they argue is necessary for those companies that wish to flourish in the long term. They explain that, for most companies, innovation is most successful when 70% of resources are allocated to innovations related to the companys core business; 20% to adjacent, related areas; and 10% to transformational initiatives. In the first two realms, it is critical to have talent with good analytical skills, so as to interpret and translate customer data into specific offering enhancements. In the third realm, it is necessary to have talent that can creatively uncover and analyze changing social needs, market trends, and technological changes. They then reveal a startling statistic; the ratio of distribution of return on investment is the exact inverse of the resource allocation ratio: there is a 70% return on investment in transformational innovations; 20% return on investment in adjacent innovations; and 10% return on investment in innovations to the core.

An article from eJewish Philanthropy
April 27, 2012 
by Helen Chernikoff

G-dcast.com is a poster child of the Jewish startup sector, the grass-roots movement that aims to reach the disinterested and unaffiliated by offering new ways – such as record labels, bike rides and online Shabbat services – to connect with Judaism. Over 3,000 educators around the world use G-dcast’s funky parsha-of-the-week videos, which have been viewed over a million times on the web, the group says.

Why, then, is G-dcast about to find itself out on the street?

Article from eJewish Philanthropy
March 26, 2012 

Kevah, a Bay Area-based organization that engages Jewish identity and builds Jewish community through study of classical Jewish texts, has received a $250,000 grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation for the Kevah Teaching Fellowship. The Fellowship will provide participating educators with a fully funded professional development opportunity in facilitating Jewish small group learning for young adults.

The Fellowship includes three in-person workshops over the course of the year, a supervising mentor, personalized guidance in curriculum development, participation in ongoing Jewish learning with other Kevah Fellows, and access to carefully selected curricular resources. Ideal candidates for the program will have at least a BA, basic to advanced Hebrew literacy, experience learning Jewish texts, and a strong desire to become a great educator.

Love Birds ketubah
by artist Lisa Perrin An article from eJewish Philanthropy

UpStart, which cultivates the most promising ideas of Jewish social entrepreneurs, recently accepted two new UpStarters to its cohort of Jewish innovators- Ketuv, which provides couples with a fine art option in ketubahs, and creates an opportunity for artists, with dynamic careers outside of the commercial and Judaica spheres, to create fresh, quality ketubah art, and Edah, an after-school program with spring and summer-camp options that offers experiential, cutting-edge Jewish learning opportunities for children. They join current UpStarters Amir, A Wider Bridge, Fair Trade Judaica, G-dCast, Kevah, Moishe House, The Kitchen, Urban Adamah, and Wilderness Torah. UpStart helps these new organizations develop and implement their vision, business focus, content, and capacity to innovate so that they can make a lasting and profound impact on Jewish life.

Click here to read the entire article on eJewish Philanthropy.

3/20/12
Doing Well & Doing Good: Hybrid Models for Social Impact
Co-Sponsored by UpStart Bay Area, The Foundation Center, The Hub Bay Area, Social Enterprise Alliance San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and Stanford Social Innovation Review

 
Doing Well & Doing Good: Hybrid Models for Social Impact from UpStart Bay Area and Foundation Center - San Francisco on FORA.tv