Vibrant Jewish Life

Enhance engagement in and access to the full diversity of Jewish life and Jewish education that strengthens Jewish identity. Strive to reflect the diversity of the community and empower Jews to create satisfying Jewish life for themselves and others.

Strategic Goals

Opportunities to engage with other Jews in comfortable Jewish environments
Jewish Education opportunities for all ages
Inclusive Jewish environments, welcoming and comfortable to the full diversity of the Jewish community
Diverse array of Jewish culture, religious expression and practice
Empowered action in Jewish life, and social action

Explore Each Action Area

Engagement In Jewish Life and Community

Outreach to Jewish Populations

Jewish Education

Jewish Experiences and Retreats

Choosing Priorities for Action

Vibrant community depends on groups of people who have a common interest and gathering places/methods to support that common interest.
Jewish Vibrancy relates to the particularism of Jewish culture as the context for common interests, everything from the practice of Jewish religion and traditions to enjoying Jewish humour.

Choose actions and collaborations that improve vibrancy of Jewish life that are doable, have champions, and provide:

Accessible, open, affordable options for Jewish Education for children
Reflect the full diversity of community with a full range of offerings that cover all aspects of Jewish life – religious streams, study, culture and arts, life cycle moments, social connections
“A community where everyone can find their place” requiring diverse offerings that are collectively inclusive, affordable, and accessible.
Welcoming practices and measures built into the program to clearly demonstrate that new initiatives are supporting these connections.

Measures and evidence of successful initiatives come from population consultation and participant feedback. Instilling ongoing feedback practices and collecting results will inform choices for actions going forward.

Highlights – new in 2021/22:

In March organizational representatives gathered for in-servicing on the Heartbeat model of relational engagement, which has now become the subject of regular conversation among community program staff and cross communal meetings.

My Shabbat social media posts started mid-year, gaining lots of attention and sharing of ideas.

In August, the Federation signed up to become part of the Jewish Federation of North America’s JEDI (Jewish Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) 2022/23 cohort, to deepen their understanding, engage Jews with diverse backgrounds, and develop organizational policies.

Engagement In Jewish Life and Community

Inventory

Cross communal inventory – Using holidays and global initiatives, community organizations have developed the habit of creating joint programs, coordinating programs on a holiday to extend total reach into the community, and working together to coordinate and innovate

- Global Day of Jewish Learning

- Limmud Winnipeg

- Tu B’Shevat

- Community wide “posters” for Chanukah and Pesach, Chanukah in the Mall and Pesach in the Grocery to advertise

- Shavuot together

- PJ Library programming across the community

• Shabbat in my Neighbourhood

• Programs with partners across the Jewish year

- NCJW Mitzvah Day

Look at the Community Calendar events for Jewish holidays and community wide events

Program delivery:

- synagogues,

- Rady Jewish Community Centre – temporarily suspended during the pandemic and re-engaging in fall 2021, spring 2022

- Others involved in hosting Shabbat Dinners with Shabbat @ Home and more

Religious Life

- Prayer in traditional streams

- Mohel, Kashrut, Burial, etc.

- Life Cycle Events

- Holiday Celebrations

Culture

- PJ Library & PJ Our Way

- Hillel

- Community wide events, e.g. Global Day of Jewish Learning, Limmud, J-Ed week, Holiday celebrations, Yiddish classes and festivals,

- Arts & Language – music, theatre, film, books, Yiddish, Hebrew, etc.

- Heritage and history

- Holocaust Ed and commemoration (Kristallnacht, Shoah week, March of the Living)

Israel programs (MOL, Maccabia, Birthright, P2G)

2016-2022 Actions

The planning focus is on cross communal collaboration and coordination for holiday and other Jewish content programming. The closures and isolation of 2020-21 required innovation and new approaches to create Jewish family engagement opportunities. The team at the Jewish Federation moved into virtual space and filled gaps created by organizational closures. Online programs and kits became the normal mode of offering service. Many programs moved outdoors while the weather allowed. In 2022 in person programs resumed at the Rady JCC.

Shabbat Engagement was chosen as the context for social networking. Using Shabbat as natural Jewish time creates an opportunity for a Jewish experience as well as socialization. Many of the programs that were built up before the pandemic began were cut short, i.e. buildup of larger shabbat dinner programs; Shabbat @ Home; Shabbat in My Neighbourhood.

COVID Adaptations included: PJ Shabbat Dinner Kits and Seniors Shabbat Dinner kits through Senior Concierge; embracing The Shabbos Project both in person and virtually; Family holiday programs on virtual platforms with kit pick up or delivery (PJ, PJ our Way, Federation hosted); Virtual Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut; Virtual Welcome Baby Showers welcomed 60 babies in one year.

- Buildup of larger shabbat dinner programs;

- Shabbat @ Home;

- Shabbat in My Neighbourhood – ended with the pandemic

- COVID Adaptations

• PJ Shabbat Dinner Kits and

• Seniors Shabbat Dinner kits through Senior Concierge

• embraced The Shabbos Project both in person and virtual

• Family holiday programs on virtual platforms with kit pick up or delivery (PJ/PJ Our Way, Federation hosted)

• Virtual Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut

• Virtual Welcome Baby Showers welcomed 60 babies in one year.

2021 Community Consultation to develop long range strategies and some 5 year goals:

- Develop experiential programs that include follow-up across community organizations.

- Use all kinds of special life interests to gather: food, wine, hiking, Jewish values, social justice, political action, ethical gardening with Jewish values

- Spread out into the community in different geographic and institutional locations

- More cross communal demographics: e.g. seniors and kids (who don’t have grandparents/ grandchildren of their own around); new to Winnipeg with Winnipeg born

- Social spaces – hangouts by demographic, e.g coffee houses, community tables

Best Practices for Creating a Welcoming Jewish Environment workshop engaged 70 staff and volunteers from across 17 community groups to kick off thinking about and understand the approach to creating welcoming community through individual contact as well as community

2022-23 Plans

- Work with program staff across the community to develop practice that will model the approaches to planning and tracking engagement learned from the Gather Inc seminar welcoming, counting “small beats”, the contacts that strengthen Jewish connections and engagement.

- Consider extending the welcome with cross communal volunteer “ambassador” training in support of the relational Judaism model of counting small beats and strengthening connections

- In September 2022, a team of lay leaders and professionals joins the second Cohort of the Jewish Federation of North America’s JEDI initiative, taking on a commitment to think deeply and develop model policies for the Winnipeg Jewish community around the various aspects of Jewish Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

- Shabbat Engagement: Re-planning with the emergence from pandemic, planning:

Cross communal Havdallah, simultaneous in outdoor spaces
B’nei Mitzvah Party planned for fall 2022

Outreach to Jewish Populations

Inventory

Outreach strategies focus on specific populations that are underrepresented in Jewish community. Every organization works to reach new participants with free and low barrier programs, staff who focus on building relationships, and marketing. Some examples include: RJCC has run holiday programming in different neighbourhoods, and children’s programs at Brock Corydon school. Cooperative marketing like the Camp Fair, Chanukah at the Mall, holiday posters reach new participants in unusual places with many organizations’ activities.

2022-23 Plans:

- Continue ramping up teen outreach across organizations

- As part of the JFNA JEDI Cohort and undertake a project to reach out to Jews with Indigenous heritage.

- Consider “active aging” population engagement and multi-generational engagement.

- Plan to update the 2018 Program Survey in 2023-24 adding online, hybrid programs and updating in person programs and services in a “post pandemic” environment. Identify gaps created during the pandemic as well as successes.

Teen Outreach: 2021 Community Consultation to develop long range strategies and
2022 Plans once again highlighted the need for more teen outreach and staff gathered
to consider how best to advance this matter as in person programming resumes.

Jewish Education

Inventory

- Day school

- Supplementary school

- Adult ed

• Limmud Winnipeg

• Global Day of Jewish Learning

• Cross communal Shavuot, and other learning offered by the rabbis and synagogues

• Melton – offered as possible by Congregation Shaarey Zedek

• “J*Ed week” coordinated annual promotion of educational opportunities.

2016-2022 Actions

- COVID Adaptations

• Virtual offerings for adult education accelerated world wide during the pandemic including offerings by Winnipeg synagogues and rabbis. They now routinely plan for cross communal offerings like the pilot class of Makhloket Matters and a Tisha B’av rabbis’ panel online.

- 2021 Community Consultation to develop long range strategies highlighted:

• Grow Jewish Studies at U of M and endow.

• Coordinated Adult Jewish Ed with online and in person options –

• With cross communal broad based curriculum that all orgs support, contribute teaching, and promote

• Collaborative events for holidays like rabbis’ panels, Limmud style with options

• Educational opportunities for children coordinated across the community

2023 Plans

As the community moves back into real spaces and hybrid approaches, there are several items that have remained on the priority list that require further planning:

- Strategize on Jewish education for more kids, promoting more part time education options such as supplementary programs to attract the 2/3 of children not in dayschool.

- Coordinated adult education – Expanding J-Ed to promote various kinds of Jewish education at different times of year. Examine the feasibility of and develop community wide curriculum – a recommendation from the engagement planning session;

- Cross communal collaborative events - continue to encourage cross communal collaborations with rabbis and synagogues like classes and panels

- Consider ways to stabilize Jewish Studies at university in the future as opportunities arise.

Jewish Experiences and Retreats

Inventory

The pre-pandemic landscape included retreats for Gray Academy high school students, a post high school young adult retreat hosted by Hillel and others leaders, and some intensive conference experiences through BBYO and other affiliations.

2016-2022 Actions

2021 Community Consultation to develop long range strategies highlighted the need to create new experience options such as: low cost Israel missions, social action trips; Jewish retreats for all ages given the effectiveness of Gray Academy’s retreat and the ones held for students and young adults.

2022-23 Plans

Key initiatives that were actively in planning before the pandemic need to be re- engaged: the innovation incubator concept; and Jewish experience retreat planning for all demographics.