Pursue is winding down, and we’re going to celebrate! We’re throwing a shindig to acknowledge the networks, communities, programs and individuals that have made up Pursue for the last 6 years in New York. 

Join us for delicious food, libations, music, art and more!
When: Thursday, November 29th

The leaves are changing, and there’s a chill in the air – so come warm up at the next (and last) City Team event!

It’s a new year! How do we care for ourselves as Jews and activists? Join us on Sunday, October 28^th for an afternoon of meditation, challah baking, and a discussion of how self care and Judaism can inform each other. We’ll also talk about how we as individuals can create a Pursue-like community in a post Pursue world.

Dinner will be provided, and bring your favorite  ingredient to contribute to a communal vegetarian soup!

Date: Sunday, October 28

Time: 4-7 pm

Place: Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, 57 Bethune Street, New York, NY 10014

Cost: Free!

Registration: See below! (Pre-registration is highly encouraged and much appreciated.)

This event is brought to you by the Pursue City Team.

Please join us for the next and last People of the Book Club!

When: Wednesday, October 17th, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Where: AJWS 8th floor conference room, 45 West 36th St.

RSVP: cdubofsky@ajws.org

About the book: Journalist LeBlanc spent more than 10 years following two Latina women from the Bronx, and in this ambitious work, she tells their stories, beginning in the late 1980s with their young teen years. Older Jessica becomes a mistress to an enormously successful heroin dealer, and Coco falls for Jessica’s brother, an aspiring gangster. The two women find love, weather abuse, have babies, endure their own and their partners’ prison terms, and struggle with health problems, social systems, motherhood, their own mothers, the violence of their communities, and the uncertain future. LeBlanc’s prose is sprawling and dense with cinematic detail–what people wore, ate, drove, listened to; where they lived; what they said–and she studiously removes herself from the story, letting her characters’ day-to-day lives unfold in scenes that are both gripping and mundane and, like life, defy easy organization. What emerges is an important, unvarnished portrait of people living in deep urban poverty, beyond the statistics, hip-hop glamour, and stereotypes.

On Wednesday, August 1st, Pursue held the final installment of its quarterly networking series, Meet the Change, and featured an opportunity to get to know the most skilled, innovative and thoughtful change makers yet: the Pursue community!  (Photos by Naomi Ellenson.)

(The Last Ever)  Meet the Change: What Happens Next is Up to You!

When: Wednesday, August 1st at 7.00 pm.

Where: Green Spaces NYC at 394 Broadway, 5th floor (@ Walker & White, just south of Canal Street – see map here).

* The entrance to the elevator is at 394 Cortlandt Alley. 

Why: In its final installment, Meet the Change, Pursue’s quarterly networking series, will feature an opportunity to get to know the most skilled, innovative and thoughtful change makers yet: the Pursue community!

Join us when we turn Meet the Change on its head and focus on all of you in all of your various and inspirational incarnations: rabble rouser, artist, educator, non-profit professional, lawyer, social worker, philanthropist, entrepreneur, etc.

Spend an evening getting networked and accessing the energy, imagination and power that’s unique to Pursuers and that will support you in your work of changing the world.

Why else: We will be joined by trainer and activist Rebecca Wisotsky who will share networking tips and best practices, help us hone our skills, and facilitate opportunities for all y’all to meet each other!

Cost: Free (light, Kosher, Tav-certified vegetarian meal provided)

RSVP: Below (and invite your friends via Facebook, here)

About Rebecca Wisotsky:
Rebecca Wisotsky is a Jewish, queer, Puerto Rican who has over 10 years of experience in counseling, community organizing, program development, training and facilitation. Rebecca currently works with the Audre Lorde Project where she develops and manages 3rd Space Support, a program that creates sustainable methods of community based support for LGBTSTGNC people of color in New York City.  Previously, Rebecca worked with Social Justice Leadership to design and facilitate political education and leadership development curriculum for the national COIN program.  Before moving to the east coast in 2010, Rebecca spent 3.5 years providing counseling for LGBT survivors of domestic violence and oversaw a youth violence prevention program in Seattle, WA.  Rebecca has a MSW with a concentration in Multi-ethnic Practice from the University of Washington and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY with her partner, Katya and cat, Sebio.

 About Meet the Change:
Meet the Change is Pursue’s quarterly networking series. It is an open invitation to change-makers from across the spectrum: teachers and students, social workers and social entrepreneurs, artists and lawyers, investors and innovators, organizers, educators, and agitators – anyone and everyone seeking co-conspirators for activating their Jewish and social justice values. Each event presents the efforts of a featured change-maker while encouraging attendees to connect with one another around their own ideas, desires, and plans for making change. To view pictures of previous Meet the Change events, with the Yes Men, Sara Horowitz, Ami Dar, Rachel Tiven, Billy Wimsatt , Jenni Wolfson and Occupy Wall Street respectively, click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Please note: the People of the Book Club will not be meeting tonight. Stay tuned for details about our next book! 

Join us for the next People of the Book Club!  

What: Do It Anyway by Courtney Martin

When: Wednesday, August 8^th , 6.00-8.00 pm

Where: AJWS 8th floor conference room, 45 West 36th St.

RSVP: Email Chanel at cdubofsky@ajws.org

About the book: That age-old quest for meaning—Who am I? What is my calling? How can I make the world better?—gets a 21st-century makeover. Courtney E. Martin abandons the empty “save the world” rhetoric and ’60s nostalgia that her generation was raised on and doggedly pursues the gritty truth about social change in contemporary America. It’s complicated. It’s challenging. And, yet, it’s still possible. In Do It Anyway, Martin deeply explores the lives of eight activists—not superhuman heroes, but ordinary young people searching for their own way to make a difference. Among others, we meet Raul Diaz, a prison re-entry social worker at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles; Nia Robinson, an African American climate change activist out of Detroit; Maricela Guzman, a former soldier fighting to end violence against women in the military through the Service Women’s Action Network; and Rosario Dawson, an actor struggling to use her celebrity for social change while staying authentic in her activism. In direct opposition to an older generation’s cry that young people are apathetic and disengaged, Do It Anyway reveals a new generation of activism and calls on young people to transcend school-required community service and paper-pushing nonprofit jobs in favor of the kind of work that keeps you up at night because you believe in it so deeply.

Pursue is overjoyed to bring you Justice and Jewish Thought: Summer School!

What is Justice and Jewish Thought?
Justice and Jewish Thought is a city-wide study program comprised of multiple small groups meeting simultaneously across the city over the course of eight weeks. The groups engage with a challenging curriculum that explores how various oppressions – such as race, class, gender, sexual identity, and anti-Semitism – intersect with and affect our identities as Jews, our Jewish practices, and our social justice work. The course presents a unique opportunity to build community with a small group of committed people while sharpening your analysis related to social change.

This program is participant-led. There are no external experts or teachers. Participants take turns hosting in their homes and facilitating the group discussions. For most participants, this structure combined with the curriculum itself, are what make the program both unique and meaningful.

When and Where?
The program runs from the beginning of July until the end of August (for a total of eight weeks). The program is bookended by an opening and closing event for all participants (week of July 9th and August 27th, respectively). Groups will meet weekly, in the evenings, for their small group discussions. Everyone who registers will have an opportunity to identify the day of the week and the neighborhood that most suits their schedule. The opening and closing events will be at a centrally located venue (TBA). The small group discussions will take place in peoples’ homes, on a rotating basis.

Why Should You Participate?
Justice and Jewish Thought is one of Pursue’s most sought-after programs. Communities across the country have contacted us to find out how they can bring Justice and Jewish Thought to their own backyards. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to delve deeply with like-minded folks on some of the most challenging but deeply personal issues that anyone engaged in justice work inevitably faces. 

How to Register?
Complete the form below. Registration will remain open until June 22nd. A limited number of spaces are available for volunteers to take on official leadership roles. Please contact Chanel Dubofsky at chanel@pursueaction.org for more information.

 

Join this year’s Pursue City Team for a community scavenger hunt where Jews from a diversity of backgrounds will investigate questions of how we define our Jewish identities, how they fit within our 21st consumerist culture, how we understand our impact on the world, both at home and abroad, and how we can remain true to ourselves as righteous people of the book. Are we reaching our full potential?

We’ll explore the zany maze of artifacts and memorabilia at the Brooklyn Flea, hunt for objects that resonate and remind us of our roots and our values, and after our search, we’ll come together at a local bar for an exciting discussion of how we remain true to our tradition while navigating the ever-changing world around us.

Who: You! And the Pursue network
What: Community Scavenger Hunt
When: Sunday, June 17 at 3:00 p.m.
Where: Brooklyn Flea Market at the East Williamsburg waterfront, followed by drinks at Brooklyn Winery
Cost: Free, plus the first drink is on Pursue!
BYOC: Bring Your Own Camera (or iPhone, etc.)
RSVP: Register below

Giving doesn’t look like it used to. Our sense of community is evolving and expanding. We give globally as much as locally and the technology of giving has certainly gone beyond doling out coins.

Earlier this year, American Jewish World Service brought together talented designers nationwide to translate the concept of tzedakah - Judaism’s imperative to give to those in need – into compelling, relevant design. The Where Do You Give? National Design Competition challenged designers, artists and conceptual thinkers to create a 21st century icon inspired by the values and imagery of the traditional tzedakah box that reflects our increasingly interconnected, global and technologically accelerated world.

Join us on June 20 as we kick off a national exhibit of winning designs from the competition and celebrate a new movement toward thoughtful, imaginative and inspired giving.

Wednesday, June 20
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
92YTribeca
200 Hudson Street
New York, NY

Speakers include Rebecca Stone, Karen Pittelman, Ryan Clifford. Facilitated by Sasha Feldstein.

RSVP here.

This event is co-hosted by Pursue and AJWS Global Circle.

Speakers:

Rebecca Stone: Rebecca currently serves as the Director of Community Engagement for Encounter, overseeing fundraising, communications, and VIP recruitment. Before joining Encounter, Rebecca spent three and a half years in major gifts fundraising at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), growing a portfolio from $300,000 to over $2 million. A grad­uate of Yeshiva University (YU), Rebecca received the Presidential Fellowship and spearheaded student-led social justice initiatives for both YU students and the modern Orthodox community at large. Rebecca served as co-chair of Limmud NY’s marketing committee and has served as the fundraising chair of AJWS’s Global Circle. Rebecca is currently enrolled in a three-year training to practice an integrated psychology and neuroscience-based approach to trauma healing and is passionate about philanthropy, social justice and peace building.

Karen Pittelman: Karen Pittelman is the author of Resource Generation’s Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It For Social Change and co-author of Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy. In 1999, at the age of 25, she dissolved her $3 million trust fund to co-found the Chahara Foundation, a fund run by and for low-income women activists in Boston. She’s been organizing people with class privilege ever since. She lives in Brooklyn where she works as a writer and a writing coach, and sings with her country band Karen & The Sorrows.

Ryan Clifford: Ryan Clifford served as a judge for the Where Do You Give? National Design Competition. Ryan Clifford teaches in MICA’s undergraduate Graphic Design program, is Faculty Director of the MICA Design Coalition and is graduate faculty in the Master of Arts in Social Design program. He serves as the Associate Director of MICA’s Center for Design Practice, a multi-disciplinary studio dedicated to preparing the next generation of design leaders through socially conscious projects using design to translate ideas into tangible outcomes with the goal of changing behaviors and making a positive impact on society. He is an advisor for Project M, an international social design initiative which is committed to helping young designers use their skills to create positive change in the world. His work has been recognized by the National Paperbox Association and the Rochester Advertising Foundation and in the following publications: How International Design Annual, Print Regional Design Annual and the book Indie Publishing.

Facilitator, Sasha Feldstein: Sasha Feldstein works in the department of education and community engagement at American Jewish World Service, and is the project manager for Where Do You Give? Prior to working at AJWS, she participated in AJWS’s Volunteer Corps by living and volunteering with Heshima Kenya in Nairobi.

Please join us for the next People of the Book Club! The discussion will be facilitated by Amarilys Estrella, AJWS program officer for the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Light refreshments will be provided.

When: Wednesday, June 6th, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. 

Where: AJWS 8th floor conference room, 45 West 36th St. 

Who: The discussion will be facilitated by Amarilys Estrella, AJWS program officer for the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Special discount! RSVP for details about a 15% discount on the book at a local bookstore.

RSVP: slipkin@ajws.org

About the book: It is November 25, 1960, and the bodies of three beautiful, convent-educated sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. El Caribe, the official newspaper, reports their deaths as an accident. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Raphael Leonidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everyone knows of Las Mariposas – “The Butterflies.” Now, three decades later, Julia Alvarez, also a daughter of the Dominican Republic and long haunted by these sisters, immerses us in a tangled and dangerous moment in Hispanic Caribbean history to tell their story in the only way it can truly be understood – through fiction. In this novel, the voices of all four sisters – Minerva, Patria, Maria Teresa, and Dede – speak across the decades, to tell their own stories – and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule.