• What’s This All About?

    This web page contains reflections, updates, and insights gleaned from BJ’s ongoing Community Building Initiative. This effort aims to learn how BJ members build community and relationships in such a large congregation -- or how we don't -- and how we can improve the strength and quality of our community. The initiative is led by Guy Austrian, who writes the posts on this page. (The posts appear with the most recent ones at the top of the page.) For more information, click on the "About" tab above.
  • How to Contact Guy

    If you have comments or questions on these posts, or on the initiative as a whole, please feel free to let Guy know. You can e-mail him at gaustrian@bj.org
  • What’s This?

    Here you'll find various updates, thoughts, and reflections on B'nai Jeshurun's Community Building Initiative, an effort begun in September 2008 to explore how BJ members get connected and how BJ can do a better job of building community within our community. Most of these posts are written by Guy Izhak Austrian, BJ's senior consultant for community and social justice. Guy was previously on staff at BJ as director of social action/social justice from 2005-2008, and he is now a full-time rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
  • Share Your Comments with Guy

    If you have comments or questions on these posts, or on BJ's Community Building Initiative, please feel free to let Guy know. You can e-mail him at gaustrian@bj.org

Kids, Cookies, and Coffee

It’s easy to forget, for those of us who don’t have kids at BJ, that there is a whole section of our community with its own needs and challenges, its own exciting bonding experiences, and its own spiritual life – what we call the “Youth and Families” community at BJ. On a recent Thursday, I [...]

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