In a twist this year, guests were able to purchase a ticket that included a donation to Jewish Family Service and nearly half the guests chose this – raising over $250 for JFS for safety net needs in Colorado.

A big thank you to local business sponsors:

• Falafel King
• Hapa Sushi
• Rembrandt Yard
• 303 Vodka
• Colorado Native
• TheNextStepVideo
• Lindsay’s Boulder Deli
• Rob’s Mountain Gin
• Zolar Brazilian Superfruits
• Naked Pizza

and to the nonprofit co-sponsors:

• Boulder Jewish News
• Boulder JCC
• Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado
• 18 Pomegranates
• SoulFood
• BirthrightNext Denver
• Hazon
• Keshet
• LimmudColorado
• Congregation Bonai Shalom
• Menorah
• Boulder Jewish Festival

Photos and video to follow for those brave enough to watch the sparks. Beware, adult content included!

In addition to soundbites, many of the tweets today included links to videos, websites, slideshows and other resources online. These links should work in the display below – if it starts with http:// you can click on it and it will go to additional content. This is one of the most-used features of Twitter – the ability to share a link with others (similar to sharing on Facebook). The link in the first tweet is to a video that was played during the session – and we’ve added it at the bottom of this article (after the tweet sections) – enjoy!

The first section is “meta” – the social media from a session on social media. After that are tweets from the session on Jewish Futures, cosponsored by 18 Pomegranates Foundation. We look forward to comments from other attendees!

We’re using the Storify tool again to organize the tweets by session – thought that might be a little easier to read/follow.

For those of you who are also at the GA, we look forward to your commentary as well! Which session did you attend? What were your reactions?

The workshop was facilitated by Rabbi Will Berkovitz from Repair the World. The program was designed with the assistance of Boulder’s Jewish Educational Directors from BET, the Boulder Educators Team, and was co-sponsored by 18 Pomegranates and Repair the World.

Repair the World is a national organization dedicated to making service a defining element of Jewish life, learning and leadership, and aims to assist communities in embedding the values of service and social justice into the DNA of their operations.

The workshop was aimed at exploring the historical, theological and philosophical framework behind service learning, discussing how to incorporate such values into the fabric of Jewish supplemental education, and beginning a larger conversation about scaling-up such efforts. 18 Pomegranates and BET see this workshop as a step toward creating a larger “city of service” strategy in which institutions begin working together, across denominational and organizational lines, toward a common educational vision of service and social justice.

Charna Rosenholtz

Also as part of today’s workshop, Charna Rosenholtz was honored as the 2011 Grinspoon-Steinhardt winner from Boulder. She utilized her stipend to participate in the Aleph Ordination Program Intensive Study week.

The Boulder Educator’s Council (BET) includes Congregations Har HaShem, Bonai Shalom, Nevei Kodesh, Aish Kodesh and Beth Ami; Longmont Hebrew School; Boulder JCC, Boulder Hebrew High; and Boulder Stepping Stones.

For those who may have missed the tweets this morning, we’ve assembled a few of them (these read top down). These include quotes from Rabbi Berkovitz’s opening talk as well as some of the report-out comments from breakout sessions (grouped by age of students). Thanks to Jonathan Lev of the Boulder JCC for livetweeting the event!

@CitizenRabbi (Will Berkovitz) and @JonathanLev

Then

Nancie and Leonard Velick of Boulder were married on October 14, 1961 in Detroit, Michigan.

Leonard is a retired businessman, a former CPA, CEO and CFO of private and publicly-held companies.  Nancie is an artist and former counselor, teacher, and director of a women’s health care clinic.  They retired to Boulder after living in Michigan and California. Leonard is generally found on the tennis courts at Harvest House (year-round).  Nancie is well-known in town for mah jongg and bridge. Together they enjoy biking, snowshoeing, world travel and spending time with family and their special pup, Dusty.

They have three children, Cheryl (and David) Fellows of Boulder, Doug (and Lisa) Velick of Superior, and Lisa (and David) Mittleman of Leawood, Kansas. They also have eight grandchildren: Lauren and Ethan Fellows, Randi, Aidin and Charli Velick and Briana, Ariel and Bradley Mittleman.

Now

They celebrated earlier this year at a surprise party in Boulder attended by family and friends from Michigan, Kansas, Canada, California, Tennessee and Colorado. They continue to feel very blessed to be able to share celebrations with their family, and continued their celebration of this milestone with a trip to the mountains.

Here is a quick compilation of news from the last day or so – including tweets, a link to the Occupy Judaism Facebook page, and links to related articles on the web.

(Not sure how to “read tweets”? if it starts with “http://” then it’s a link to something on the web. It’s safe, we checked it.)

Could it be the birth of a new movement? No one knows – but it’s amazing to watch it sprout.

Wednesday morning, Rose Community Foundation hosted Creativity and Change: The Jewish Innovation Ecosystem in Boulder, Denver and Beyond. The event featured these speakers:

• Caryn Aviv, University of Colorado at Boulder and Storahtelling
• Felicia Herman, Natan
• Shawn Landres, Jumpstart

Innovation, creativity and change have always been critical elements of flourishing Jewish communities. Innovation can happen anywhere, and can come from anyone. Sometimes innovation is embraced rapidly and easily; at other times, it meets resistance.

In recent years, a Jewish renaissance and renewal has been catalyzed by Jewish social entrepreneurs through both start-up organizations and established communal institutions. Denver and Boulder are playing a critical local role in this global phenomenon.”

There was a bit of “backstory” during the meeting, with some participants using Twitter to engage with each other while the event was taking place. To demo some of the innovation on the web today, we’re using Storify to share what’s known as “curated content” gathered from today’s tweets, Facebook postings, and content on the web. Let us know what you think!

Thank you to Rose Community Foundation for hosting this session, it was a terrific opportunity to connect and learn!

The Maccabeats rock the 2011 Boulder Jewish Festival

Thanks to everyone who made today a great success! Volunteers, artists, community organizations, fabulous food vendors, performers, WHEW!

We heard reports of visitors from New Mexico, Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska and Minnesota, as well as in-state guests from Pueblo, Colorado Springs and more. While a headcount isn’t really feasible (or Jewish), our estimates and reports from organizations indicate another terrific year for Festival attendance. The good weather helped of course!

We’ve got video to sort, a LOT of photos, and more to clean up and restock. While we’re recovering, mark your calendar for the 2012 Boulder Jewish Festival – Sunday, June 10, 2012. Pix and video over the next few days.

The Daily Camera did a nice write up both before and after the event – check out these stories (and thanks, Camera, for selecting the Boulder Jewish Festival as the Pick of the Day for Sunday).

• Saturday: Jewish Festival turns up the music
• Sunday night: Boulder’s diverse Jewish community celebrates at Pearl Street Festival
  

Stay tuned for more info!