בב - Welcoming Israelis to Dallas

[Jason Schwartz]

Hey Everyone,

It was great seeing so many of you at the J(ay)CC celebration last week - mazel tov again, Mr. Chairman!  As I mentioned to several of you there, I've agreed to help with a project called "Bnai Bayit" (or "Bet Bet" for short) that arose out of the Wexner Summit I participated in over the past year. It's the brainchild of another group led by Anita Greenwald (WHP-Westchester) and is basically a program that matches Israeli grad students studying in the US with local host families. More details are available at betbetprogram.org and at this blog post, but - fundamentally - the concept is that we can strengthen the relationship between American Jews and Israelis one family at a time, welcoming Israelis who are in our community for a short period and giving them a taste of American Jewish life.

So... my ask: if you'd consider serving as a host family for a visiting Israeli grad student and his or her family, please go to the website, click on the "Get Involved" tab and submit a host application. There's no financial ask, and the website has all of the othe information about what's expected of a host family ... essentially, just serving a warm welcome to a young Israeli family whioe they're in Dallas, including them in Shabbat dinners or holidays from time to time, inviting them to community events, etc.  There are not any grad students currently identified, but we need committed hosts before we start telling the schools about the program.

Please call me with any questions or if you need any other info. Hope this sounds like a fun opportunity to some of you - I know any visitor would be so lucky to be paired with any of our Wexner crowd!

Thanks,

Jason