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Looking for a Few Good Men or Women – Marketing Internship in Cincinnati
Marketing Intern Position Available for College Students in Cincinnati
Great Growth Opportunity at OurJewishCommunity.org
Application Deadline: May 21, 2010
Are you interested in doing cutting-edge online marketing? Do you want to work with a diverse team to create a truly innovative online experience? Are you looking to learn marketable skills that will help you in your future career?
If yes, then we have the internship for you. We are the world’s only online synagogue (and one of the world’s largest synagogue). We reach tens of thousands of people in over 130 countries. Our work has been featured in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and countless blogs.
Our exciting internship blends marketing, social networking, and basic web skills. You will help us create, refine, manage, and market OurJewishCommunity.org while gaining invaluable experience for your future.
Responsibilities include:
• Posting and marketing materials that have been developed by the rabbis
• Spending time on Facebook and Twitter representing us and engaging with others
• Helping to gather and process survey data and email testimonials to create summaries of the work we are doing and the potential that exists in our market
• Researching similar models and finding out best practices that we can incorporate into our online community
• Finding avenues to publicize our online congregation, e.g. reaching out to websites or blogs
Knowledge of Judaism is helpful, but not required. Our Jewish philosophy is liberal (both rabbis were ordained by the Reform movement).
Hours and Duration: Minimum 10 hours per week throughout the summer. Possibilities for future advancement exist. We offer a flexible schedule.
Location: Our office is located in Loveland, Ohio off of 275 (20ish minutes from downtown). Some work may be done off-site, but you will be asked to come to the office regularly.
Supervision: Students work under the supervision of Rabbi Laura Baum, Director of OurJewishCommunity.org.
Compensation: This is an unpaid internship, but college credits are available per your school guidelines. It promises to provide you with valuable skills and resume-building experience – and there are associated perks and benefits.
Please check us out online to learn more about us:
• www.OurJewishCommunity.org
• www.Facebook.com/OurJewishCommunity
• www.Twitter.com/RabbiBaum
• www.YouTube.com/OurJewishCommunity
For more information or to apply, please contact Rabbi Baum by email.
Interfaith Trip to Israel and Jordan Photos
As some of you know, Rabbi Barr co-led a trip to Jordan and Israel with Rev. David Hawley from Indian Hill Church. Below is a selection of photos taken by some of the trip participants. For those of us who didn’t get to go, we can admire the pictures from afar!
Happy Earth Day!
Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin is credited with founding the first Earth Day – which was an environmental “teach in” at primary and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities. Some have argued Earth Day has become the largest “secular holiday” in the world, with 5 million people celebrating in 175 countries.
Earth Day, of course, presents us with an opportunity to think about how much we value and rely upon our planet. We also think about what we can do to help preserve the planet and its resources for future generations.
There is a story in the Talmud (rabbinic texts codified around 500 CE) about Honi the Circle Maker. Honi goes for a walk one day and sees an old man planting a carob tree. Honi asks the man how long it will take for the tree to bear fruit. He responds by saying “70 years.” Honi asks this man if he expects to be around when the tree bears fruit in 70 years, and the man says “no.” But the man is planting the tree because just as his father and grandfather planted for him, he is planting for future generations.
Earth Day always reminds me of my being just another link in a very long chain that stretches far into the past and future. I am also struck by the famous photo of the Earth, taken by the Apollo astronauts who were on the moon. We realize that the Earth looked to them like a Blue Marble. UN Secretary-General U Thant’s 1971 statement is pretty incredible: “May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.”
We realize that we are not only a link in a chain, but also that we are but a tiny speck in the scheme of things. As astronomer Carl Sagan remarked: “Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” (Quote from Wikipedia)
Today, all these issues are on my mind – but the truth is that protecting our Earth is not something we should think about once a year. Days like Earth Day and Tu B’Shevat (the Jewish New Year of the Trees) should serve as days to celebrate the ways we care for the Earth those days – and the other 363 days of the year.
Yom Ha’Atzmaut: Happy 62nd Birthday, Israel!
Today marked Israel’s 62nd birthday. Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. That corresponded to the 5th of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar (which was actually yesterday, but Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Independence Day) is moved to a Tuesday when it falls on Monday).
I had the privilege of living in Israel for the 2003-2004 school year. I studied at Hebrew Union College and got to experience life in Israel first-hand. It was my home. I loved seeing Jerusalem shut down on Friday afternoons as I rushed to buy flowers and challah for a peaceful Shabbat. I enjoyed seeing different faiths around me. One of my favorite memories from the year was a visit to a building which tradition teaches has the tomb of King David (photo below) on the first floor, the room where the Last Supper took place on the second floor, and a minaret on the roof.
Israel has breath-taking sites. I loved walking through beautiful parks on my way to the Old City, and standing on steps where Jews had stood 2,000 years before. As I crossed the streets, often named for important figures in Israel’s past, I learned Israel’s history – as well as the stories of those who live there today.
When I lived in Israel, I felt safe most of the time. There was a bus bombing very close to my apartment, which certainly frightened me a bit. But, I was mostly astounded by the resilience of people around me – those who said “this too will pass” and focused on a brighter future. One of my favorite quotes is from Barbara Tuchman who wrote (in a different context) that “in the shadow of awesome events, ordinary life goes on, as it must, much as always.” This is Israel. Despite all of the awesome events – good and bad – life goes on.
If you haven’t been to Israel, I encourage you to go if you have the opportunity (and once the airports reopen post-volcano-dust!). I loved living an ordinary life there, surrounded by the extraordinary.
Remembering those who Died in the Holocaust – and the Heroes of the Holocaust
This past Sunday was Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day. Last Friday night at our streaming Shabbat service, Rabbi Barr and I talked about the Holocaust.
Instead of focusing on the terrible events of that period, we talked about the heroes of the period. We talked about Irena Sendler, who saved over 2,500 children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Irena was a remarkable woman whose story went largely untold for decades. Fortunately, a group of students from Kansas learned about this Polish Catholic woman who saved Jewish children and decided to learn about and share her story. They have created a play about Irena’s life, called “Life in a Jar.”
Another remarkable – and even less well-known – person is Jeanne Oussoren-Treffers. Rabbi Barr learned of her story several years ago from a congregant who was saved by Jeanne. During the Holocaust, Jeanne worked in a resistance group helping Jews find hiding places and then make their way into Switzerland. Rabbi Barr spoke in Rotterdam for the presentation in which Jeanne was honored by Yad Vashem and given the title “Righteous Among the Nations.” To see the pdf of the document honoring Jeanne, click here.
On his trip to Israel a few weeks ago, Rabbi Barr photographed Jeanne’s name along with other heroes – those righteous among the nations.
There is no way to explain the Holocaust other than to say it was terrible. And yet, we can focus on some of the actions of heroes – people who were in a horrible situation and risked their own lives to save others. May we go from strength to strength.
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