How do you happy new year?

For these Days of Awe we’ve been particularly awestruck by the creative, thoughtful and fun videos produced to celebrate the holidays. Two of our favorites, not coincidentally, are JCC-made. Celebrate with this production from our friends at the 92Y for their #NewYearPrayer campaign. Feel free to share it, or your own thoughts for the year 5777 with the hashtag.

Get ready to celebrate when you hear the talented crew from the Siegel JCC parody Anna Kendrick’s “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone,” (Cups) which they dubbed “Honey Cups.” We dare you not to smile and start “cupping” along!

For some more fun, take in Aish HaTorah’s take on the Justin Timberlake hit, “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” And the Israeli shlichim who serve the Jewish community of Madison Wisconsin got intensely creative with Fountainhead’s Rosh Hashanah song, “Dip Your Apple in the Honey.”

And if you want a lesson in how to “Let it Go,” just check out this pre-Yom Kippur tutorial from the youngest kids in the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando’s J University after school program.

Wishing you a year filled with sweetness and song—and forgiveness! 

Let it rise 

More than 250 women attended the first ever Mega Challah Bake at the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center in Bridgewater in September. The women from the Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren County area learned both how to bake the braided egg bread that marks traditional Shabbat and holiday meals. In addition to baking, the evening included dancing and pure joy and was organized by the Chabad of Greater Somerset County, Chabad of Southern Somerset County, Chabad of Hunterdon County and the Birnbaum JCC.  (Photos by the JCC.)

Welcome to our newest JCC Association board members

Bruchim habaim, or welcome, to those who joined JCC Association’s board of directors in 2016. They met in September as a full board and are ready to roll of their sleeves and get to work on the challenges that face the ever-changing Jewish world, and how JCCs can evolve meet them.

Joel Dinkin
Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center; Houston, Texas
Executive Vice President

Michael Feinstein
Bender JCC of Greater Washington; Rockville, Maryland
Executive Director

Ivy Harlev
Siegel JCC; Wilmington, Delaware
Executive Director

Rabbi Bonnie Koppell
JWB Jewish Chaplains Council
Executive Committee Delegate, Central Conference of American Rabbis

Mark Ramer
JCC Global
President

Brian Schreiber
JCC of Greater Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania
President and CEO

Edward Schreiber
Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center; Houston, Texas
JCC Board of Directors, Past JCC President

Craig Weiss
Memphis JCC; Tennessee
JCC Board of Directors, Past JCC President

Lynn Wittels
St. Louis Jewish Community Center; Missouri
Executive Director

Going for the gold

Steve Becker, JCC Association vice president for health and wellness services, recently attended the United State Olympic and Paralympic Committee Assembly in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Becker managed to snag this shot with three-time U.S. Olympian and former world record holder—in the hop, skip and jump—Willie Banks.

More than 250 attended representing, representing Olympic, Paralympic and Pan American National Governing Bodies; U.S. Olympians and Paralympians; Multi-Sport Organizations; the Athletes’ Advisory Council; the Paralympic Advisory Committee; USOC board members and staff involved in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic movements.