100 Seattle Jewish Teens Aim to Improve the World During Day of Service April 25

Over 100 Jewish teens are coming together this Sunday, April 25 at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island from 1:30-5pm to participate in the Seattle rendition of J-Serve, the international day of Jewish teen service. Our local theme is “Children Are Our Future: Kids Helping Kids.” This year marks the sixth year in which Jewish youth from coast to coast will turn out in force for J-Serve in an effort to encourage community building and connections across religious and societal lines.

Coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, teens from across Seattle and the Eastside will be volunteering at different sites around the greater Seattle area, including: Jewish Family Service, First Place Schools, the Mercer Island Boys and Girls Club, Multifaith Works, Hope Heart Institute, Eastside Baby Corner, the Stroum JCC and Treehouse.

The Seattle teens will join 10,000 Jewish teens from across North America, Europe, and Israel to participate in a day of community service and projects as they take part in J-Serve. At the more than 40 projects internationally, teens will be participating in a variety of projects as they explore the Jewish values of acts of loving kindness (gemilut Chasidim), charitable giving (tzedakah), and repairing the world (tikkun olam).

“We are thrilled to be participating in J-Serve once again,” said Seattle J-Serve coordinator at the Jewish Federation Blair Feehan. “Having a day where teens from across the Jewish community can come together in service is important to both the local and the global Jewish communities.”

Puget Sound teens Sasha Pollock of Wallingford, Ben Poor of Mercer Island, Adina Katz of Seattle, Sean Lawson of Marysville, and Jeremy Pintus of Lynnwood have helped plan and implement the project from start to finish. This group of dedicated teens has been meeting once or twice a month since December to work out the details of J-Serve in Seattle, the list of sites and a viral marketing plan that has catapulted Seattle’s registration numbers to the head of the pack nationally.

Seattle J-Serve is made by possible by generous funding from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and BBYO. J Serve 2010 is the Jewish service component of the annual Global Youth Service Day of Youth Service America and is a collaboration of PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values of BBYO and Repair the World. It is supported nationally by partner agencies BBYO, Bureau of Jewish Education of New York, Foundation for Jewish Camp, JCCA, Jewish Federations, Jewish Student Unions, Jewish Teen Funders Network, NCSY, NFTY, Rock the Vote, USY, and Young Judea, and generous support from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman.

Those interested in participating in a J-Serve project can register at www.JewishInSeattle.org/JServeSeattle.

CONTACT: Blair Feehan
650 576-7376 cell, BlairF [at] JewishInSeattle [dot] org