{"id":14104,"date":"2011-10-30T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-10-30T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/"},"modified":"2016-12-01T09:52:50","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T14:52:50","slug":"allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/","title":{"rendered":"Allison Josephs is Jew in the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Allison<\/a><\/p>\n

New Jersey NCSY alumna Allison Josephs is using her talents and passion for Jewish outreach and education in a cutting-edge way. Harnessing the power of new media, Josephs is the creator of a YouTube series called \u201cJew in the City.\u201d The episodes feature a Q&A video blog between non-Orthodox characters and the eponymous \u201cJew in the City,\u201d all portrayed by Josephs. The questions address common misconceptions about religious Jews and Judaism. In a warm, friendly, and clear manner, Josephs breaks down stereotypes and misconceptions.<\/p>\n

Josephs says that her journey from non-observant Jew to outreach professional was caused by an existential crisis she suffered from as a child. At the age of 8, Josephs started asking questions about the meaning of life and her purpose in this world. She quickly realized that no one she knew had any answers. She spent years suffering from insomnia, lying awake, thinking about eternity and how the life she was living wouldn\u2019t matter once it was over. A well-rounded honors student, Josephs loved performing. It was a class at her after-school Hebrew high school on \u201cTaoism and Pirkei Avot\u201d (Ethics of the Fathers) that opened the door to the answers she was seeking.<\/p>\n

In this class, Josephs saw that there was depth and meaning within her heritage that she never knew existed. A subsequent family trip to Hawaii connected her to God in a way that would change her life. The never-ending waves crashing on the beach reminded her that there is a constant force in the world. When she saw a tree so beautiful that it looked as if it must have been painted by an artist, and yet the color was there naturally, Josephs was filled with an intense love and appreciation for Hashem.<\/p>\n

After that trip, Josephs wanted to hold on to the spirituality she had felt in Hawaii and mitzvos seemed to be the appropriate vehicle to achieve this. She spent the summer in Israel where she started increasing her observance in kashrus, daily prayer, and Shabbos. When she got back from Israel she struggled to keep Shabbos each week as she had no community to spend it with. At the end of the school year, Josephs realize she\u2019d have to spend the Shabbos of her senior prom alone too; enter NCSY<\/p>\n

Prom occurred the same weekend as New Jersey NCSY\u2019s Spring Regional. When Josephs found out that there was a place for someone like her to go to instead of prom, she was ecstatic. She didn\u2019t know what went on at an NCSY Shabbaton. \u201cI had only met a handful of Orthodox Jews my entire life and suddenly, I was surrounded by 300 skirts and yarmulkes. I was pretty overwhelmed,\u201d admits Josephs.<\/p>\n

Josephs spent the first part of the Shabbaton convinced that these people were not for her, but in every speech, there was talk of \u201cHashem,\u201d whom she longed to connect to. By the time shalosh seudos came, Josephs was so overwhelmed with emotion that she ran out of the room hysterically crying. \u201cI knew that these were my people, but I didn\u2019t yet know how I\u2019d fit in. I knew the people back home would never understand why I would choose to become like this, but I was afraid that the people at NCSY would never understand who I was and where I came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weekend was especially moving for Josephs as the theme of the weekend was kedusha, translated as \u201choliness\u201d but literally \u201cseparate.\u201d As her classmates were busy with prom, Josephs chose to separate herself. When she got back to school, she realized that she could never go back to seeing things the way she had before.<\/p>\n

After high school, Josephs enrolled in Columbia University and served as an advisor for both the New York and New Jersey Regions of NCSY. She learned at Midreshet Rachel v\u2019Chaya College of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem to further her Jewish education. The idea for \u201cJew in the City\u201d was born when Josephs interviewed close to 3,000 Birthright Israel alumni, who consistently repeated the same stereotypes about Orthodox Jews. Given the opportunity to educate on a large scale using the internet, Josephs realized Torah would sell itself. Shared Josephs, \u201cI was educated, funky, and fun. I wanted to grow up and be an actress, so I chose to use that side of myself to serve Hashem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Jew in the City can be watched at\u00a0www.jewinthecity.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey NCSY alumna Allison Josephs is using her talents and passion for Jewish outreach and education in a cutting-edge way. Harnessing the power of new media, Josephs is the creator of a YouTube series called \u201cJew in the City.\u201d The episodes feature a Q&A video blog between non-Orthodox characters and the eponymous \u201cJew in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":51832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-media","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAllison Josephs is Jew in the City - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The idea for Jew in the City was born when Allison Josephs interviewed 3000 Birthright alumni, who repeated the same stereotypes about Orthodox Jews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Allison Josephs is Jew in the City - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The idea for Jew in the City was born when Allison Josephs interviewed 3000 Birthright alumni, who repeated the same stereotypes about Orthodox Jews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-30T13:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-01T14:52:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alumni Highlights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alumni Highlights\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/\",\"name\":\"Allison Josephs is Jew in the City - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-30T13:00:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-01T14:52:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/93f629164cd739b3daa1a194830c6483\"},\"description\":\"The idea for Jew in the City was born when Allison Josephs interviewed 3000 Birthright alumni, who repeated the same stereotypes about Orthodox Jews\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Allison Josephs\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/93f629164cd739b3daa1a194830c6483\",\"name\":\"Alumni Highlights\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae522de4aaaf928a0e012a8dcb5d33ed5ea29758014cec11bbad102e558067b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae522de4aaaf928a0e012a8dcb5d33ed5ea29758014cec11bbad102e558067b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alumni Highlights\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/alumni_highlightsou-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Allison Josephs is Jew in the City - OU Life","description":"The idea for Jew in the City was born when Allison Josephs interviewed 3000 Birthright alumni, who repeated the same stereotypes about Orthodox Jews","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Allison Josephs is Jew in the City - OU Life","og_description":"The idea for Jew in the City was born when Allison Josephs interviewed 3000 Birthright alumni, who repeated the same stereotypes about Orthodox Jews","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/","og_site_name":"OU Life","article_published_time":"2011-10-30T13:00:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-12-01T14:52:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Alumni Highlights","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alumni Highlights","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/","name":"Allison Josephs is Jew in the City - OU Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg","datePublished":"2011-10-30T13:00:34+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-01T14:52:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/93f629164cd739b3daa1a194830c6483"},"description":"The idea for Jew in the City was born when Allison Josephs interviewed 3000 Birthright alumni, who repeated the same stereotypes about Orthodox Jews","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/allison_joseph_is_jew_in_the_city\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Allison-Josephs.jpg","width":400,"height":600,"caption":"Allison Josephs"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/","name":"OU Life","description":"Everyday Jewish Living","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/93f629164cd739b3daa1a194830c6483","name":"Alumni Highlights","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae522de4aaaf928a0e012a8dcb5d33ed5ea29758014cec11bbad102e558067b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae522de4aaaf928a0e012a8dcb5d33ed5ea29758014cec11bbad102e558067b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alumni Highlights"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/alumni_highlightsou-org\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14104"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54476,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14104\/revisions\/54476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}