Young professionals throughout the United States will be invited by their rabbis during Rosh Hashanah for a sanctioned 10-minute break from services in order to meet their peers.
The inaugural Rosh Hashanah “YP Meet-Up at the Israel Shoe Box” will take place on Sept. 10 after the sermon and include a short kiddush, complete with apples and honey.
To date, 12 organizations are partnering to bring these young adults together.
Synagogue Connect, which provides High Holiday tickets to young adults in cooperation with 954 synagogues throughout America, has teamed up with primary organizers Young Jewish Leadership Concepts (YJLC), a young professionals network providing creative programs for young adults since 1986, and American Friends of the Kaplan Medical Center (AFKMC), which supplies content on support for Israel and includes raising funds for the largest high-tech cardiac center in the Middle East to be built at Rehovot’s Kaplan Hospital.
A special “Heart & Sole” project by AFKMC is placing shoe collection boxes and Israel high-tech medical-miracle information stations on 1,000 synagogues, churches and college campuses throughout America.
The shoe box in the lobby will be the meeting place for young adults.
Rabbi Ronald Brown, co-founder of Synagogue Connect, said “the fact that so many rabbis and synagogue leaders from every denomination [Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Chabad, Renewal, Humanistic, Independent, Traditional, etc.] have eagerly embraced this program reflects the strong desire in the Jewish community to keep synagogue doors open to Jewish young adults.”
From Aug. 24 to Aug. 31, online registration will be open for U.S. synagogues to participate in the “YP Rosh Hashanah Meet-Up.” Along with Synagogue Connect, other organizations lending their support include The Times of Israel, AEPi, Masa Israel Journey, the New York Board of Rabbis, America-Israel Friendship League, the Israeli American Council, Livnot U’Lehibanot and Artists4Israel.
For more information, contact national director of AFKMC Lou Balcher at: LBalcher@AFKMC.org, 215-932-2974 (voice or text) or e-mail: YP.RoshH2018@gmail.com.
