ISJL partners with Jewish Outreach group to serve Southern communities

The Jewish Outreach Institute and the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life announced a new partnership yesterday, to enhance the ISJL’s work with small Southern Jewish communities.

Thanks to a grant from the Goldring/Woldenberg Foundation, ISJL Education Fellows will be provided with new tools to engage intermarried families, Jews by choice, LGBT Jews, and Jews of color.

Programs include JOI’s The Mother’s Circle, which is for women of other religious backgrounds who are raising Jewish children, and The Grandparents Circle, for Jewish grandparents of grandchildren being raised in interfaith homes. According to ISJL, this will help reach those who may wish to enter the tent of the Jewish community, but have not yet had access.

Traditional forms of those programs will be available to smaller communities in several different models to accommodate the often spread-out Southern Jewish community. These models include a “salon model” in which participants gather in peer-led groups for guided discussion; a self-guide to assist with individual learning; and JOI-led webinars for those who are interested in participating as individuals or as a small group on-line.

The Jackson-based ISJL has numerous Education Fellows who visit small communities across its 12-state region on a regular basis.

The Jewish Outreach Institute is an independent, national, trans-denominational organization reaching out to unengaged and intermarried Jewish families, and helping the organized Jewish community better welcome them.