Children can become engaged in philanthropy at young ages by donating gently used toys and books. As they mature, kids can be encouraged to set aside a portion of their allowance for charity and volunteer in service projects with siblings and parents. As young adults, they can participate in honest communication with their elders about the family’s money, philanthropy, estate planning and legacy. These approaches help young people learn about compassion, collaboration, community, caring for others, and causes that are important for their future and our present.

For three generations and continuing, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has helped kids give up Halloween candy and raise over $164 million to help needy children around the world. This child-focused philanthropic initiative has taught millions about global poverty and demonstrated that small acts of generosity can make a big difference in the lives of others.

Several Denver-based programs help kids learn how to raise money and invest it in support of worthy causes. By learning the strategies and tactics of philanthropy, kids become more engaged, develop important skills, collaborate with peers, make difficult choices and experience their ability to impact the world.

Young Philanthropists Foundation works in more than 40 schools serving 15,000 students annually. YPF’s signature initiative, the Penny Harvest, helps students harvest “idle pennies” from family and friends, use those funds to make micro-grants to nonprofits, and participate in corresponding service projects. YPF teaches students about civic engagement and teamwork, and helps them develop a greater understanding of their classmates, school and community.

YouthRoots trains high school students in communication skills, leadership styles, and group dynamics, helps them find their strengths, passions and personality styles, guides them in raising money from businesses, and empowers them to invest those funds in local charities. One student said, “YouthRoots has instilled in me the belief that every person has the power to make a difference, and each individual can play a seminal role in sparking change.”

Rose Youth Foundation is an initiative of Rose Community Foundation for Jewish high school students. Each year, RYF teenagers work together to identify needs in the community, learn about grant-making approaches and strategies, and make grants to nonprofits. In RYF’s first decade, nearly $500,000 was granted, teens’ identification with their faith tradition was strengthened, participants saw that they could make a difference in the world, and many continued to lead and volunteer for other nonprofits in later years.

Other excellent resources on youth philanthropy include Do Something, Learning to Give, and YesKidzCan!

Adults who participate with young people in philanthropic activities often learn new ways to view and address social problems, and become better- educated and inspired to do even more with their own charitable initiatives.

Lisa Farber Miller, senior program officer at Rose Community Foundation, advises that

As adults, we need to fight the instinct to do things for teens and their future. Instead, we need to empower them to make a difference now. Engage them in grant-making decisions. Give them adult opportunities to make an impact and improve their community through philanthropy. They won’t disappoint you.”

The lessons kids learn from participating in philanthropy last a lifetime and help inspire them and the adults who know them to care, give and act boldly to make the world a healthier, more just and more sustainable place.

This post originally appeared in the Denver Post on Sunday, February 19, 2012 and is posted here with permission by the author.

Ellie and Friend

For my mitzvah project my mom and I are co-raising a puppy for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Every day, I have to feed the puppy and teach her to wait patiently for her food; walk the puppy and teach her to walk nicely by my side; and groom/handle the puppy and make sure she is okay being touched all over so that she will be comfortable with her blind person and when going to the vet. We have to potty train the puppy, eventually teaching her to relieve on command. We have to socialize her and get her used to a variety of different places. We have to make sure she is comfortable traveling on buses, trains, planes, and in cars. We have to familiarize her with elevators, automatic doors and have her comfortable walking next to crowds of people, bikes, skateboards, construction, etc. We also have to train her to not be food or dog distracted. My favorite part is that we get to love her and play with her and provide a warm stable environment for her. We will have Kaelyn for 12-14 months. After that, we will return her to the school in California where she will train for another three months and then with the blind person she is assigned to for another month before going to live with them. I know training and raising a puppy will be hard work, but I know I am up to the challenge!

Click here for Ellie’s Bat Mitzvah notice in the Boulder Jewish News.

The goal is to provide an opportunity to make a blood donation as well as to educate the Jewish Boulder community about organ donation, the bone marrow registry, BRCA/hereditary cancer and ovarian cancer, and recently expanded testing options for Jewish genetic diseases.

Most people have heard of Tay-Sachs disease, but many don’t know that there are actually 19 different Jewish genetic diseases that are life threatening. As interfaith couples now account for more than half of all Jewish marriages, the non-Jewish population is also at risk for these devastating genetic diseases.

The good news is that these diseases can be prevented through a pre-conception screening using a simple blood test to see if the prospective parents are carriers. Not all screenings for these diseases are standardized and many couples are being screened for less than the panel of 19.

Dr. Ellen Elias, a geneticist at Children’s Hospital in Denver will be at the Save a Life Health Fair to answer questions and distribute materials from the Victor Centers for the Prevention of Jewish Genetic Diseases.

A carrier of any of these 19 diseases is a healthy individual with no prior family history. These genes are recessive and can be passed down undetected for many generations. It takes two carriers to have an affected child. If both partners are carriers, there is a 25 percent chance of having a child with that disease. Parents are often unaware that they are carriers until they are faced with the devastating news of a child with an incurable disease. Those of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish ancestry are at high risk for all of these diseases, while those of Sephardic Jewish heritage are at risk for specific diseases. There is also a rise in Tay-Sachs disease among the Irish, French Canadian and Cajun populations. Other diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis affect all ethnicities.

A free interactive Gene Screen App for iphones/ipads/ipod touch is available on iTunes for couples to explore their family history and see which diseases are more common in the regions where their ancestors came from.

The Save a Life Health Fair is free. Representatives from a variety of organizations will provide materials and answer questions in the North Building Social Hall. All ages are encourage to attend to learn more about Bonfils Colorado Marrow Donor Program, Donor Alliance, American Transplant Foundation, Rachel Greig, a local kidney and pancreas recipient, Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance, and Dr. Ellen Elias, a Denver based geneticist at Children’s Hospital with support from the Victor Centers for Jewish Genetic Diseases.

No registration is required to speak with representatives and pick up materials. For information or to volunteer, contact Susan Labowitz at (303) 543-0516 or labovitzs@gmail.com.

Bennett calls the strike imminent. I do not believe a person in his position would say so unless it was a real possibility. He says the Iranians will be beyond attack within 12 months and that they are “an octopus of terror” around the world. He says Israel is not sure America will back them and that they are being told “do not attack.” But he pleads for Americans to allow Israel to carry out this mission if the Americans won’t do it themselves.

Interview with Naftali Bennett on Glenn Beck.com

Boulder Jewish News encourages Bar and Bat Mitzvah students to submit their d’var torah and information about their Mitzvah/Tikkun Olam projects.  For more information, please email editor@boulderjewishnews.org.

Norman Finkelstein

This video has to be seen to be believed. Longtime pro-Palestinian apologist Norman Finkelstein seems to have had it with the “cult” of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This is great news in itself, but it gets even better. Although clearly still no friend of Israel, Finkelstein does make the crux of the case for Israel, conceding that the BDS Movement and similar organizations really just want to wipe out Israel.

He cautions that some of the BDS activists are merely deluded about the true nature of the movement’s aims, but states that the vast majority of the activists just want to do away with Israel, period. And while this majority thinks they are right to make the case for the Palestinians and not a case for Israel as well, they are instead just building a cult among themselves because they will get no traction in the public with this strategy. If they are serious, and want to win in the court of public opinion, he says, then they have to be serious about the rights of Israel and the Jews as well.

Finkelstein emphatically points out that they are not serious about Israel’s existential rights, and he, having already followed the ineffectual cult of Maoism as a youth, is not about to follow a cult again. He says that as it stands the BDS Movement and all the seemingly high-minded organizations like it are a cult that has few successes and mostly talks to itself. The Movement thinks success will come through time and hard work, but the public will never accept a political formulation that does not accept the State of Israel as legitimate. He thinks there is an historic opportunity to actually resolve the question of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians, with both sides making undesired concessions, but this goal can never be achieved through the Movement’s current line of argument.

What an admission! Someone important within their own movement has made it clear that the BDS Movement and its like-minded sister organizations are not about helping the Palestinians so much as they are bent on destroying Israel. In this recent interview, Finkelstein makes the arguments noted above, but there are also interesting counter-arguments made by a BDS leader against Finkelstein’s points. His critics are clearly not qualified to answer Finkelstein and their arguments are contorted. Finkelstein has plainly just had enough of their sophisms and cult operations.

Stepping back a bit, this is also a good look at J-Street and organizations such as B’tselem and even Peace Now. Include here intellectuals such as Peter Beinart and Tony Judt and author Tony Kushner. The issue is not their opposition to the Israeli government, the issue is their tacit support for such organizations as the International Solidarity Movement. By not criticizing these entities, openly and publicly, by only directing their “fire” at Israel, they too bring themselves under suspicion of being part of the cult Finkelstein criticizes.

Here is the New Israel Fund’s (NIF) contorted explanation of its approach to the BDS Movement in 2010:

NIF supports an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories as a central tenet of the strategic framework in which we operate. The tactics known as ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions’ (BDS) are designed to pressure Israel to end the occupation, but NIF believes these tactics to be unproductive, inflammatory and ineffective because of the difficulties in defining an approach that is not overly broad, does not delegitimize Israel and will achieve the long-term goal.

Although we will continue to communicate publicly and privately to our allies and grantees that NIF does not support BDS as a strategy or tactic, we will not reduce or eliminate our funding for grantees that differ with us on a tactical matter. NIF will not fund BDS activities nor support organizations for which BDS is a substantial element (JSJ emphasis) of their activities, but will support organizations that conform to our grant requirements if their support for BDS is incidental or subsidiary to their significant programs.”

Here is its 2012 position now on its website regarding any boycott of Settlement goods and services:

NIF opposes the occupation and subsequent settlement activities. NIF will not exclude support for organizations that discourage the purchase of goods or use of services from settlements.”

Finkelstein knows that the BDS Movement is a “wink-wink” for the destruction of Israel, and even though the New Israel Fund over the years has changed and moderated its position and become less formally supportive of BDS, it refuses to break with it.

OK folks, I think we have our smoking gun.

Click here to view the interview.

Save the date, this year’s Shabbat 500 is going to be on Friday, March 16th!

Monday

Chabad’s Talmud Study, The Laboratory of Jewish Law at 1:00 pm in the at the CU Center For Community.

Tuesday

Chabad’s Learn to pray and your chance to put on Tefillin, at 8:00 am with bagels and lox at the NEW Chabad House. New Chabad house is located at 909 14th St.

Chabad’s “Ethics of Our Fathers”  at 12:30 pm. The cornerstone of Jewish thought and a powerful guidepost for every Jew attempting to perfect his or her character and behavior at the CU Center For Community.

Hillel’s weekly Tuesday night dinner along with a discussion with Rabbi Mechachem at 6:00 pm. Hillel is located at 2795 Colorado Ave.

Chabad’s NY Deli Night with Pastrami & Corned Beef sandwiches, knishes and sports. 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the NEW Chabad House.

Wednesday

Chabad’s Advanced Study of the Weekly Torah Portion at 11:00 am in the at the CU Center For Community.

Hillel’s “Free Jewish Advice” from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm at the CU Center For Community – Colorado Room.

Thursday

Help bake challah for Challah For Hunger at Hillel from 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm.

Chabad’s 13 Principals of Faith, What Do Jews Believe? Featuring guest speaker Rabbi Chaim Miller at 7:30pm at the NEW Chabad House. Dinner will be served.

Chabad’s Weekly Torah Study at Starbucks at University at 8:00 pm.

Friday

Hillel’s Conservative Shabbat services are at 5:30 pm, followed by Torah reading at 6:10 pm. Reform services at 6:15. Dinner is at 7:00 pm.

Chabad’s Shabbat services are at 7:00 pm. Dinner is at 7:30 pm. Chabad is located at 775 17th Street.

Boulder Jewish News encourages Bar and Bat Mitzvah students to submit their d’var torah and information about their Mitzvah/Tikkun Olam projects.  For more information, please email editor@boulderjewishnews.org