So long DC!

With my Avodah year of service just about done, I wanted to send a quick note and thank you to those who have supported and encouraged me throughout the year.  Erica and Randy, keep up the excellent work!  You are both incredibly inspiring and a joy to work with.  I have been fortunate to spend my Avodah placement at the DCJCC, where I am able to combine my interests in service, community development, and religion.  This year I wanted to explore social justice issues in the nation’s capital, while repairing and rebuilding low-income family housing, public schools, and other community spaces.  And in working with shelters, at-risk families, or the chronically hungry, this year has empowered and enabled me to do just that as we improve the health and quality of life of individuals suffering from poverty.  Preparing several thousand servings of food at Everything But The Turkey, celebrating December 25^th Day of Service, making MLK Day 2012 a day on and not a day off, or just debating the merits of quinoa with my nine other roommates, I will always carry this work and this year with me.  

Cheers,
Danny

 

Danny Obeler spent the last year in Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps working in the Morris Cafritz Center for Community Service’s Behrend Builders program.

Michael Chabon on Writing

“Writing for me grows out of reading. When I was a child I wanted to become a writer because I loved to read so much. I loved the books I was reading so intensely that I wanted to make my own.” -Michael Chabon

In this intimate video, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author delves further into his origins as a writer, focusing on his first real writing studio, a cramped crawlspace of a work room in his mother’s house.

His latest novel, Telegraph Avenue,  comes out on September 11, and we’re so excited to be hosting him on October 14 as Opening Night of the Hyman S. and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival! Tickets go on sale September 1.