J.Team Blog Archive 2009-2010

J.Team has now been going for about six months. In my opinion, we have accomplished quite a lot in these six months and we have come a really long way since we first met at the JCC in October. Our entire group has visited four charities in our area that we are considered donating to. Also, smaller groups have split up and visited six other charities. So at this point, we have seen all of our ten charities and the next step, in May, is to decide where to give our money.

The March 21st Session at the Stroum JCC was very important and we accomplished a lot of different things. In fact, it was such an important session that we had video cameras filming us to document what we are doing. I thought the cameras were kind of strange at first, but it will probably be good to make a video about J.Team later. The meeting started off with Amy HP giving us an inspiring speech about the importance of giving. This was her last chance to talk to us before we will decide where to give our money so she tied all the Jewish learning together for us. Next, we talked about the “homework” we had been given, which was to ask our parents about their experiences with charity and giving. A lot of people got a similar response from their parents, which was that their parents did a lot of volunteer work in their community but did not talk much about donating money. Although most people’s parents did give money to charity, they did not talk about it very much with their kids. The next part of the session was, in my opinion, the most important. All six of the small groups that had met with the charities we had voted on gave presentations on their organization. Some groups used videos to supplement their presentations and some just talked about their charity. The presentations all went great and I learned a lot about all of these new charities.

After we had heard from every group, Marla talked to us about the next step, deciding where to allocate all of the money. We prepared for our next meeting on May 23, where we will make our final decisions on donating money. With time running out, we talked about fundraising ideas. We came up with a few ideas but did not get very far with it. We set up a group of people to work on it in between this session and next, so we will see what they come up with.

I feel like I am ready to decide where to give our money. I will have to spend some time looking over all the charities and their grant requests, but I think I already have some good ideas on where I want to donate.

I have now been participating in J.Team for 6 months and I think it has been an amazing experience to learn about how we can help the Jewish community. Recently, we have been analyzing the meaning of responsibility. Personally, I feel it is my responsibility to do as much as I can to help people or groups that are in need. J.Team has taught me how important this really is. As a group, we have visited organizations in need of financial help and learned about what their organization does for the community. Together we decide what we like and dislike about the charity and whether or not it is our responsibility to help them and if so how much we will give them. Lately, I have been discussing my responsibility to help others with my parents to get their opinion on my decisions. I learned that they feel it is their responsibility to donate to Jewish organizations because they feel a connection to the Jewish community. I completely support my parents' beliefs but I think that my responsibility is not only to donate to Jewish nonprofits but to donate to all charities that I think could make a huge difference in the world.

Trying to decide which nonprofits to donate to is an extremely hard and long process because we want to make sure we choose the charities where our donations will directly help their cause. Our whole group has put a ton of effort into selecting our nonprofits but I think I've made the right decisions and I can't wait to see how my choices will impact the community!

Now that I am 5 months into J.Team, I am really starting to get comfortable with how the system works. This allows me to bond with the other members in the group and become relaxed with sharing my thoughts with others. I think that the longer that J.Team goes on, the more the members will be able to share their thoughts and emotions.

I believe that J.Team as a group came up with the word responsibility because it best defines what not just J.Team should follow, but the world. If everyone saw their community and planet as a group and their responsibility, there would be significantly less problems.

Maimonides Ladder was interesting because it made me think of how and why people give charity. Also, it helped compare two different types of charity-givers. However I think that someone who donates a dollar is in the same boat as someone who donates a million dollars, for it’s the thought and action of the giver that counts.

The J.Team session allowed me to think of the different deeds I did, and why or why not they were considered to be on Maimonides Ladder.

I visited Northwest Harvest and I thought it was a great organization. I believe this because they produce a lot of food for many homeless people. Also, their ethics and way of going about handing out the food is important. For example, they do not ask for the clients to fill out their names or any other information.

I really enjoy J.Team. I enjoy going around and hearing all about these agencies that I have not heard of prior to doing a sight visit. As well I like knowing that in the spring we as a group will be able to make an impact on an agency of our choice. I joined J.Team because it sounded interesting to me and a good experience to have. I am very glad I joined, I have met new people who I really enjoy talking to and I feel it is a great way to give back on a larger scale rather than on my own.

Responsibility to me means making the right decision for a right reason that will benefit others as well as making you feel good in the end. As well I believe that responsibility means taking accountability for your actions. For me working with J.Team gives me and the group a large amount of responsibility for making the decision on whom we will give the money too. It is fun to have this responsibility but also we must remember that we have an important decision to make and that with that decision we gain responsibility.

When we discussed Maimonides’ Ladder, I felt that the order of giving was a little confusing. While it is all giving in some way or another I felt that some of the ways listed should not fully be classified as giving. Giving begrudgingly should not be classified as giving since you are not happy that you are doing it, in the end you are have envy of the person you gave to. People are giving to help others; they should do it cheerfully and with a smile since they know that they are doing a good thing!

Maimonides’ ladder comes up a lot when I think of going through what I have and what I don’t want anymore. It has made me think of Maimonides’ ladder and the different types of giving. It is very interesting and a way to view the way of giving.

I feel that I learned a lot from our visit to Shalom Bayit. I learned what they are there for and what they do. They are a very helpful group to the people they serve and I feel that what I learned about was mostly about domestic violence; which was really sad to learn about but important to know.

I met with Peace for the Streets by Kids From The Streets a few weeks ago. It was really interesting to hear and learn about especially from the teens that go there. I enjoyed going there as well because the organization is well managed and even thought they are in a small location they are well managed and the program seemed to be fully running with little to no kinks.

Emilie S.