IX Cohort of COJECO BluePrint Fellows has Commenced a New Journey
The IX Cohort BluePrint Fellows have begun their journey. The Fellows spent a weekend exploring their Jewish identity and the collective memory of our people, experiencing the joy of Shabbat away from the city hustle and bustle and working on their community engagement projects. To learn more about the individual projects please visit our BluePrint Fellowship page.
The Fellowship is created with the generous support of COJECO and Genesis Philanthropy Group.
COJECO Programs
Germany Close Up
A group of Russian-speaking Jewish young professionals spent a week in Germany exploring the Jewish Heritage and history, the complexities of current German reality, meeting with the members of the Jewish community in Berlin, learning about grassroots social and cultural initiatives in Hamburg and strengthening their own bond to the Jewish community in the process. Visiting Germany is a complicated and complex emotional experience, especially for Russian-speaking Jews. The program raised many controversial topics and questions, and has not left anyone unfazed.
COJECO New Jersey
"БЕЗ Дураков"- командная интеллектуальная игра
Thursday, October 25, 2018
7:30-9:30PM
Kaplen JCC on the Palisades
411 E Clinton Ave, Tenafly, NJ
An intellectual game, that will test your knowledge, intuition and your ability to develop a winning strategy, while using your sense of humor and team spirit. We are glad to share this great opportunity brought to you by our friends at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades.
Fee: $20 Members/$25 Public / Couples Fee $40 (for two people) Register Here
COJECO BluePrint Fellowship
COJECO BluePrint Fellowship Project:
Exclusive preview of Russian and The Jew, + wine & live music!
Thursday, Oct 25, 2018 7-9PM
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10023
Wine, songs, and readings await you at Generation R at the JCC's exclusive preview of The Russian and The Jew, described by The New York Times as "wonderfully real and raw." Co-written by COJECO BluePrint Fellow, Liba Vaynberg and Emily Louise Perkins, the play is a political fairy tale that explores anti-Semitism and misogyny through a female friendship in the Soviet Union in 1968, underlining the eternal question of fidelity to one's self, one's partner, and one's country.
Learn about the Jewish community that had lived along the Silk Road, for over 2000 years. Look at the period of Jewish emigration from Central Asia, and visit one and only Bukharian Jewish Museum to understand the essence of the Bukharian Jewish culture.
The tour will conclude with a traditional lunch and a mini-concert at the local Bukharian restaurant!
Tour will include:
Visit the one and only Bukharian Jewish Museum in the world
Walking tour of the neighborhood
Visiting the synagogue(s)
Lunch at the Bukharian Restaurant (Glatt Kosher -VHQ)
This project brought to you by Yiddish NY2018, Bukharian Jewish Congress of USA and Canada in partnership with CTMD and with generous support of COJECO.
Community Events and Opportunities
Gai Ben Dor - Wanted: A Runner With Soul
Sunday, Oct 21, 2018 5-7PM
Kings Bay Y
3495 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Meet Gai Ben Dor, an Israeli, a lawyer, a CPA, an entrepreneur, an international speaker, a former combat soldier with #IDF, and the founder and CEO of 180Sport - a social organization aimed at empowering people with disabilities through sports (www.180sport.org). The program will feature two parts:
1) Inspirational talk on how Gai Ben Dor established 180, a social organization with a vision of empowerment and social integration of people with disabilities by answering an online ad stating: "Wanted: A Runner with Soul" which led Gai Ben Dor and his father to guide a blind person through facing a huge challenge: the #Olympic#Marathon, and later a climb to Mount #Everest.
2) Hand-on workshop for #RSJteen on how to establish a Social Enterprise With High Impact (interactive workshop designed & led by Gai Ben Dor to ignite teen's entrepreneurship spark & gain the confidence to lead the change
Global Day of Jewish Learning: Brooklyn Edition 2018
Sun, November 11, 2018
4-7:30PM
Kings Bay Y
3495 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
The
Global Day of Jewish Learning unites Jewish communities across the world through study of our shared texts. We invite you to join the Russian-speaking Jewish community for a unique Jewish learning experience for the whole family and learn together at the same time as hundreds of diverse communities across the continents.
A collaborative initiative of iMishpacha, COJECO, KingsBay Y, and JCC Brooklyn.
Two groups of Drama Lab program: one for ages 8-10 and one for ages 11-13!
Teens and Kids Drama Labs, which are taught by internationally acclaimed professional actors of the Lost & Found Project, is a place where aspiring young actors can develop their dramatic skills through etudes, improv, theater games, voice and movement exercises. Using the verbatim theatre technique the participants will explore their identity through family history and personal stories.
OCTOBER 13, 2018 - APRIL 7, 2019. SATURDAYS.
Two classes: AGES 8-10 (12:15PM-1:15PM) & AGES 11-14 (1:30PM-3:30PM)
The theme this semester is JOY, and the programs will culminate with a live performance on a Manhattan stage next Spring!
Price: $700 for ages 11-14 yo (2 hrs program), $450 for ages 8-10yo (1hr program)
**Special Offers for 2 kids from one family available upon request
RUTots will be back at the Museum of Jewish Heritage! New year of our RUTots program! Each session of this Mommy&me (or Daddy&me of Babushka&me!) program includes music and songs from famous Russian cartoons, art projects, light Kabbalat Shabbat activity, and storytelling.
Sessions will be led in Russian by experienced and talented teacher Zhenya Lopatnik.
Time: Fridays (starting November 9) at 10:30AM.
Location: the Museum of Jewish Heritage,
36 Battery Pl, New York, NY.
Price: $500 for 20 classes, early bird $450 is available by October 15.
Original children's play DELI BOOKS is back! And this time at the Knitting Factory in Williamsburg! As part of Kompot series, join DELI BOOKS, an original musical children's play followed by an interactive and delicious workshop for the entire family. The story follows a Jewish boy who acquired too many books and for some reason has no time to read them. So what does he do? He decides to EAT them. What Happens from there? You'll see when you get there. You might get hungry watching the boy eat all his books and, don't worry, there will be bagels and snacks! The show is followed by an arts and crafts activity.
"I Must Tell", directed by Sergei Kudryashov In Russian and Lithuanian with English subtitles
Saturday, October 20, 2018, 4PM Downtown Community Television Center
87 Lafayette St, New York, NY
This documentary is a film-monologue of Holocaust survivor Masha Rolnikayte (1927-2016). As a young girl during World War II she survived the horrors of the Vilnius ghetto and Nazi death camps. Her diary from those years was later adapted into a book, "I Must Tell". The film is being screened as part of the 11th annual Russian Documentary Film Festival in New York.
The full program and schedule of screenings can be found
HERE
Hebrew Free Loan Society
Are You in Need of Financial Assistance?
The Hebrew Free Loan Society (HFLS) may be able to help.
For 125 years, HFLS has been providing 0% interest loans to low- and moderate-income New Yorkers in need. Loans are available for emergency and personal needs, higher education, vocational school, small business start-up or expansion, fertility treatments, adoption, and more. All HFLS loans have no interest, no fees, and reasonable repayment terms.
Visit the HFLS website at
www.HFLS.org to learn about loan programs and eligibility, or contact HFLS at (212) 687-0188 or [email protected].
HFLS a non-profit, UJA-Federation network agency.
Russian-speaking Facilitators Needed for
Virtual Senior Center Program
Using simple video-chat technology, homebound seniors participate in online programs facilitated by volunteers in a wide-ranging array of topics. Volunteers lead recurring classes from their home or office computer with a range of flexible scheduling options during the day, evening or weekend. Facilitating one hour, interactive classes on diverse topics enables you and the homebound seniors to have meaningful interactions.
Selfhelp is looking for Russian-speaking facilitators for the Virtual Senior Center, to participate in one hour class (on any topic that facilitator chooses: music and art appreciation, history, current events, seated exercise, games, health/wellness, sports, the sciences, cultures, travel, and literature. Any new ideas are welcome!)
Established in 2001, COJECO is the hub of the Russian-speaking Jewish community of NY that facilitates successful integration of Russian-speaking Jews into the greater Jewish community, while preserving our unique cultural heritage. Learn more at
www.cojeco.org.
