This is a company microsite I worked on. I was responsible for designing the layout and building pages using a CMS, and tweaking CSS to create a better user experience.
http://www.JewishLA.org/koreh-la
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Published on JewishLA.org on August 3, 2011
This was a promotional video I created for my company’s Masterclass in Film & Television program.
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Published on JewishLA.org on July 19, 2011
Devorah Brous (center) discusses gardening techniques with Fed staffer Jenna Fields.
Believe it or not, it is possible for living things to sprout and thrive in a “concrete jungle.” Just ask Devorah Brous, Certified Master Gardener and Coordinator of Netiya, a network of Jewish institutions and community members who strive to tackle hunger in Los Angeles. On July 14th, Devorah visited Brindell’s Garden, which resides in the parking lot of The Jewish Federation, in order to chat with Federation staffers about the relationship between Jewish values, sustainable food production and the growing hunger crisis in Los Angeles and the U.S.
Brindell’s Garden, named for Federation supporter Brindell Gottlieb, is an example of what Netiya terms a “Just Garden,” the use of an institutional landscape (like a parking lot) to grow food that will go to help those in our community who are hungry. Devorah explained how the Federation’s garden is fortunate to have three levels: a base level comprised of small plants like strawberry plants and herbs; a higher level of taller plants, like tomatoes, which provide shade and nutrients to the ones below, and a third level of trees adjacent to the garden, which provide even more shade and nutrients. We have a living, food-producing eco-system on Federation property that will not only allow us to share our harvest with those in need, but even help offset the CO2 from our car exhaust!
Federation’s hunger work, in addition to growing food in our own garden, includes reducing the barriers to food stamp enrollment, working with our community partners to change food assistance policy, and educating communities about the burden of hunger on our neighbors and how we can all do our part to help. Netiya provides a platform for LA’s nonprofit organizations, foodies, gardeners, farmers, students, educators, and rabbis to grow food, engage in collaborative food justice action, and build alliances in the new Jewish food movement. Last year, the Federation and Netiya formed a partnership in which we strive to help the 1.7 million L.A. County residents facing hunger or lack of proper nutrition and access to fresh and healthy food every day.
Want to help address hunger? Find out how you can get involved »
More photos on Netiya’s Facebook page.
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Published on JewishLA.org on February , 7 2011
This was part of an interview series I created (and edited) to give potential volunteers a better idea of who they would be helping during our Community Service Day.
It’s one day after Super Bowl XLV and if you’re anything like us at The Wire, you put down a few too many kosher dogs. Join us this coming weekend for Federation’s Centennial Super Sunday and burn off those extra calories volunteering! Renée Cohen Goodwin, Executive Director of Hillel at California State University, Northridge, explains how cleaning, painting and building will help inspire Jewish students to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life.
The Wire: Who does your organization help?
Renée Cohen Goodwin: Hillel at CSUN reaches out to Jewish students from all backgrounds and invites them into a pluralistic, welcoming environment in which they are encouraged to explore, question, experiment, and challenge themselves and others. Hillel offers a wide variety of opportunities for students to find meaning in Jewish campus life on their own terms in hopes that those meaningful experiences will inspire each of them to live a rich Jewish life in college and beyond.
The Wire: Describe one specific instance when you felt like your organization’s work made a big impact on someone’s life.
Renée: There are so many wonderful examples it’s hard to pick just one. The most recent one that comes to mind is a young woman who participated in a Hillel Alternative Break in Miami in January. She returned to campus having had incredible new and powerful experiences: a Shabbat celebration in a community of Jewish students, learning about the Jewish values of Tzedek and tikkun olam, and having the opportunity to apply those values every day for a week as she and 80 of her peers beautified an inner-city elementary school and tutored and mentored its young students. She was so inspired by her Alternative Break experience, she is now back on campus working to establish a team of students who will be doing regular volunteer work at elementary schools here in our own community!
The Wire: How does your organizations work connect with The Federation’s priorities of: Caring for Jews in Need, Ensuring the Jewish Future, and Engaging the Community (Jewish or non-Jewish)?
Renée: Hillel’s vision and mission are all about Ensuring the Jewish Future: Our vision is to inspire every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life. Hillel’s mission is to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.
The Wire: Will volunteers be able to chat with you at the Super Sunday event?
Renée: Yes!
The Wire: What can volunteers expect? Do they need any special clothing/equipment?
Renée: We’ll be cleaning, painting, building furniture, doing yard work, and other messy projects, so wear something you don’t mind getting messy in. For safety, please also wear close-toed shoes.
The Wire: What aspect of Centennial Super Sunday are you most looking forward to, and why?
Renée: We are very much looking forward to having students and community members work together to make our Hillel building more warm and welcoming for students at CSUN. It will be very beneficial for our students to see that the community cares about them and is investing in their home-away-from-home, and it will be wonderful for community members to get to talk to our students and get first-hand accounts of their Jewish campus experiences.
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First pubished in 2009
YouTube, bad gifts, and the plague all have something in common: they spread radially within interconnected groups of people. Now you can add happiness to that list.
A new study shows that happiness is more than an individual experience, it’s a collective phenomenon. Happiness disperses within three degrees of social separation. In other words, you affect the emotional state of your friends, their friends, and even friends’ friends’ friends. And the ripple of emotion that you launch into your social sphere can last for nearly a year.
“Everyday interactions we have with other people are definitely contagious,” Professor Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School told NPR. But sex plays a surprising role in the transmission of emotion. Happiness spreads more readily through same sex relationships than through opposite sex relationships. Which means you may have more of an impact on your best friend’s mental state than her boyfriend does.
Christakis and co-author of the study, James Fowler of the University of California-San Diego also discovered that women are less happy than men. Happiness is directly linked to physical health. Happy people tend to avoid illness and live longer lives than unhappy people.
The implications of these findings are enormous. Women have the unique opportunity to influence the wellbeing of other women simply by concentrating on their own happiness. Instead of worrying about pleasing others, we should spend more time learning what pleases us, and then doing it.
During the season when everything seems to be contagious do everyone a favor and skip the re-gifting and sneezing. Instead, contribute to societal health by infecting everyone you know with happiness.
Watch the video about happiness in social networks on NPR.
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Published on JewishLA.org on October 8, 2010
Jason & Joelle Boxer, from Manhattan Beach, went to Israel in recent summers as part of NFTY and Ramah Seminar respectively. Here they share what their experiences meant to them.
Federation’s Israel Connection/Experience program provides $500 incentive grants to teens and college students who are going on a first-time, educational, peer-based trip to Israel. We work in partnership with synagogues and other community organizations, which also provide such grants to their individual congregant or member.
Contact Beth Singer at bsinger@jewishla.org for more information about our incentive grants. Further financial aid is available through our partnership with the Jewish Community Foundation.
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Published on JewishLA.org on September 7, 2010
This was an animated video I created to help community members understand what a campaign phone session is and why they should get involved.
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