JUMP is the Jewish Unity Mentoring Program. NCSY recently held its second annual National JUMP Leadership Seminar at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Connecticut, at which they launched the third annual JUMP Challenge. In the JUMP Challenge, yeshiva and day school students compete to create and implement four community-wide projects: chesed; Torah education; fundraising; and Israel advocacy. Participating schools have until the spring of 2012 to complete their challenges, after which they will be judged on creativity, teamwork, quality and success. New York NCSY Regional Director and JUMP founder Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone said, “(T)he JUMP Challenge teaches (the students) creativity, implementation, and most importantly, follow through.”
Participating schools are not limited to the New York area. Those competing this year include Weinbaum Yeshiva High School in Boca Raton, Florida; Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy of Overland Park, Kansas; the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy of Rockville, Maryland; and the Kohelet Foundation Torah Academy of Greater Philadelphia. You can read the full story here.