Why Sailing is One of My Favorite Pastimes

Murray Rosenbaum, 15-year-old student in New York

This summer, I am doing something I have never done before. I am currently doing a five week long internship at a Hudson River Community Sailing (HRCS for short), which holds a weeklong or longer camp. The camp is for children who have sailed before or have never even been on a boat. I have had a lot of experience on sailboats, so when I sent in an email asking if there was anyway I could help out with the camp, they accepted me as a intern.

I began to learn how to sail when I was about 7, and I haven't stopped yet. I remember when I was in a sunfish, a small, single-mast sailboat, with my brother for the first time. I also remember when he handed me the tiller, and said, "Just try to make sense of how this works, and tell me if I should pull in the sail or let it out." For the next half-hour, I sailed into the wind, directing us away from where we needed to be, and almost crashed the boat. Even though I was sailing terribly, my brother kept trying to teach me how to do it. I started to get the hang of it, and there is no feeling that compares to how I felt when the wind filled my sails and we began to keel. There is something that is so elating about the thought of using nature to my advantage and controlling the wind for my own use.

This is why I love sailing. It makes me powerful, that I use nature to move across water. As time moved on, I began to love sailing for the science of how it works. Once I began to learn how a sailboat uses wind and it's sails to move it, I delved into a deeper part of sailing. Even though I'm an intern at HRCS, they are still teaching me parts of sailing that I didn't know before. I learned about points of sail (what it is called when wind hits the boat in a certain direction and how far out the sails are to compensate), tide, how the boat displaces water to keep itself buoyant and to hold cargo/people, and even how the ebb and flooding of the Hudson affects where we travel and when would be the opportune time to leave and begin to return from a trip.

Sailing involves so much more than just understanding how a boat uses the wind to move through water. Sailing requires a certain appreciation for your surroundings and environment. If you don't respect whatever amount of water you're sailing in, whether it's a pond, river, lake, or ocean, nature will not be nice just for you. The trick to treating your surrounds with respect while sailing is to constantly stay vigilant so that if the wind begins to shift, you can stay on top of it and alter your course accordingly so that you aren't caught off guard later.

When I sail, especially on the Hudson, I feel a certain sense of happiness that I don't get from anywhere else. I feel as though if I can control the wind, a powerful force of nature, then I can easily control parts of my life that seem difficult. Sailing is a pastime that always keeps me on my toes, and I plan to keep sailing as long as I can.

Diller awards recognize teens for leadership, innovation

 (JTA) — Ten U.S. teens were recognized for their volunteerism with Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards.
Each will receive an honorarium of $36,000 “in recognition of their leadership, innovation and commitment to making the world a better place,” the Helen Diller Family Foundation said in its announcement.
 

 It is the seventh year for the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards but the first time they have been offered nationally, recognizing teens outside California.
The winners are:

* Jake Bernstein, 19, of St. Louis, Mo., for VolunTEENnation, a nonprofit that connects youth with available volunteer opportunities across the country;

* Skylar Dorosin, 18, of Palo Alto, Calif., for Project 2020, a program that aims to boost self-confidence and foster friendships through the teaching of swimming and water polo to girls from low-income communities;

* Ellie Dubin, 17, of Beverly Hills, Calif., for Kesem Shel Shir, a musical theater program that fosters self-esteem, collaboration and language skills for underprivileged American and Israeli children;

* Jordan Elist, 18, also of Beverly Hills, for Save a Bottle, Save a Life, a program that collects bottles and cans and uses the proceeds to support the work of food pantries;

* Ben Hirschfeld, 19, of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., for Lit! Solar, a project that supports children’s health and literacy using a revolving fund to replace dangerous kerosene lamps with safe solar lanterns;

* Ido Kedar, 17, of West Hills, Calif., for Ido in AutismLand, an awareness initiative that provides firsthand insight into the hidden realities of those living with nonverbal autism for educators, families and others;

* Talia Leman, 18, of Waukee, Iowa, for RandomKid, a website that provides tools and resources for youth to launch and lead their own community service projects and endeavors;

* Nick Lowinger, 15, of Cranston, R.I., for Gotta Have Sole, a foundation that donates new footwear to children living in homeless shelters across the country;

* Max Wallack, 17, of Natick, Mass., for PuzzlesToRemember, a nonprofit that designs, collects and distributes puzzles to serve as therapeutic tools for those living with Alzheimer’s disease; and

* Talia Young, 18, of Lafayette, Calif., for Looking for Home, a poetry club that works to empower high school students with confidence and eliminate stereotypes.

The recipients were selected by committees of educators and community leaders from across the United States.

Nearly $1.5 million has been given out to 40 Jewish teens since the awards — the vision of Bay Area philanthropist Helen Diller — were first presented.


 

Bar Mitzvah Boy Comes to the Aid of a Southern Synagogue in Disrepair

Elijah Schulman’s family had roots in Selma, Ala. Now his mitzvah project will help maintain its century-old temple.

Like many other synagogues in small Southern towns, Mishkan Israel in Selma, Ala., has seen better days. The slate roof is more than a century old and has been patched but never replaced. Termites have damaged the basement. The frames are rotting around the Tiffany-esque stained-glass windows. And don’t ask about the organ.

In the social hall, a recent photo of the congregation’s scant membership is captioned “The last of the Mohicans.” And its numbers have diminished even more in the few years since that photo was taken—down to nine today, plus two active non-Jewish spouses of members, and a few out-of-towners. The city has lost population, too, to fewer than 21,000, according to the 2010 census, down from a high of 28,000, and it can’t seem to shake its reputation as Ground Zero for racism: Many young folks haven’t heard of Selma, but others can’t forget the images of Bloody Sunday 1965, when Sheriff Jim Clark, his posse, and state troopers attacked 600 nonviolent civil rights marchers with tear gas and billy clubs as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Enter Elijah Schulman of Bethesda, Md. Not yet 13—his birthday is July 10—he already has a website, a Pay Pal account, and a plan to save the shul.

Last year, he and his family were mulling over their venue options for his bar mitzvah because their roving havurah in Bethesda has no building. They could have chosen to hold the ceremony at the former Girl Scout camp where his cousin had her bat mitzvah, or at Washington, D.C.’s Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, or in Israel. Then his mother came up with an idea where the family had a long history: Selma.

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How Can You Keep Your Teen Jewishly Engaged?

To counter the trend of Jewish teens dropping out of organized Jewish life, The Jewish Education Project works with individuals, institutions, and communities to find innovative and meaningful ways to engage Jewish teens in today’s ever changing world.

Learn more about our work in teen engagement:

• Operation Game Changer
• The Westchester Jewish Teen Learning Initiative
• JewFoodie
• Webinars
• New Research Study: Engaging Jewish Teens
• Long Island Jewish Teen Directors Network
• Professional Development
• Community Events
• Project InCiTE
• Press

Operation Game Changer

The Jewish Education Project launched Operation Game Changer to address the challenge of increasing post Bnei Mitzvah youth participation in Jewish education and communal life. Our expert coaches guide teams of youth professionals, educators, clergy and lay leaders to develop and implement new approaches to Jewish education and engagement for teens.

To join the 2013 cohort of Operation Game Changer, contact Jill Minkoff at jminkoff@jewishedproject.org. 

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The Path of Names

A New Novel Brings Ghosts, Geeks, and Golems to Sleepover Camp

First-time novelist Ari Goelman faces tough questions from an 11-year-old fantasy fiction aficionado and summer-camp devotee
In his debut novel, The Path of Names, Vancouver-based writer Ari Goelman conjures Dahlia, an intrepid 13-year-old who we meet as she begrudgingly attends her first summer at Camp Arava, the Jewish overnight camp where her brother is a beloved counselor. Ever interested in figuring out sleights of hand, she’d rather spend her time learning magic. Then strange things start to happen. Dahlia spots two apparitions—little girls dressed for the 1940s who beckon to her in her bunk. Suddenly she has memories and dreams of yeshiva life and understands Hebrew words she has never before known. Unruffled by the increasingly intense fantastical phenomena around her, Dahlia forges on, keen to figure out what’s happening to her and to the sweet ghosts who keep reappearing.

Ari Goelman talks with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the fantasy novels that accompanied his childhood, how he came up with the idea for Dahlia and her story, and why he set the action at a Jewish overnight camp. Joining the conversation is Josie Ingall, herself a lover of fantasy fiction, who, at 11 years old, fits right in to Goelman’s target demographic and has some questions of her own to put to the author. (Josie is also the daughter of Tablet Magazine columnist Marjorie Ingall.)

Though the school year is ending, there’s no reason for you or your child to stop reading! Enter our sweepstakes to be one of 10 lucky people selected at random to win a copy of The Path of Names.

Vox Tablet is Tablet Magazine's Weekly Podcast  

Shiva: The Video Game

If we had a shekel for every time we've paid a shiva call and wanted to make a game of it…we'd be broke. But that hasn't been Dave Gilbert's experience.

Gilbert's brainchild, "The Shivah," is a murder mystery game in which the user follows a rabbi as he uncovers the truth behind a recent and generous donation to his ailing synagogue. What starts as a shiva call to the widow of a murdered man turns into a full-blown investigation.

Reviews of this award-winning game have been mixed but generally positive. The Onion's A.V. Club, for example, noted that the game is short, but "sticks with its players—not for its touchy puzzles, nor for its 'retro' graphics, which hearken back to the earliest adventure games, but for its content."

If nothing else, traveling through Manhattan as a rabbi and uncovering multiple murders—at one point with the opportunity to engage in a sword fight—is a solid break from work. Not to mention from sitting shiva.

American teens' materialism makes sense

By Dale McFeatters


We are as willing as anybody to step on the fingers of younger generations trying to climb the ladder of success behind us and to believe that -- with their different tastes in dress, music and jargon -- they represent a pause in evolutionary progress.

But sometimes one feels called on to defend the unfairly maligned.

Two psychology professors -- Jean Twenge of San Diego State University and Tim Kasser of Knox College in Illinois -- reviewed results from a national survey and write this month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin that today's young adults want nice things but are less willing than their predecessors to work hard for them.

And how does this make them different from most other Americans?

"Compared to previous generations," Twenge writes, "recent high school graduates are more likely to want lots of money and nice things, but less likely to say they're willing to work hard to earn them."

Twenge, author of the book "Generation Me," went on, "That type of 'fantasy gap' is consistent with other studies showing a generational increase in narcissism and entitlement."

This would seem more of an economic than a social problem. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, largely driven by materialism. If our young people think a new car, bigger TV and the latest in handheld devices are not worth the extra effort, we're in economic trouble.
The sense of narcissism and entitlement sounds like standard adolescence. Real life will grinds it out of youths in a process called maturity.

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