For the past eight years, Ellen Glassman, director of education and programming at Congregation Beth El-Ner Tamid in Broomall, has been bringing groups of religious school and Hebrew high school students to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s Super Sunday to make calls during the Jewish community’s single largest day of fundraising and community building.
For the past eight years, Ellen Glassman, Director of Education and Programming at Congregation Beth El-Ner Tamid in Broomall, has been bringing groups of religious school and Hebrew high school students to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s Super Sunday to make calls during the Jewish community’s single largest day of fundraising and community-building.
“In addition to helping raise money, the experience also teaches students the depth and breadth of what is supported by the Jewish Federation,” said Glassman, “which is important, because these kids are the future of the Jewish Federation.”
Just as importantly, this volunteer experience strengthens the teens’ Jewish values and life skills. “It’s magical what happens when 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds see older adults making phone calls in the same room,” said Glassman. “They see it’s a full-circle, multigenerational mitzvah and that when you’re a Bubbie or a Zeyde, you can still do this.”
Glassman also noted the importance of giving the teens the opportunity to make “cold calls and ask for something, while they’re surrounded by their peers and teachers.”
The Jewish Federation provides round-trip bus service to this valued group of volunteers, which, in addition to making it more convenient for them to participate in Super Sunday, also “begins building camaraderie and excitement among the group before they even arrive at the event,” said Glassman. “When it’s time for us to leave Super Sunday, a lot of the students don’t want to go home.”
Bus service is available to any and all groups of 20 or more, leaving from the location of their choice at the time most convenient to them. Individual volunteers are also of course welcome and vital to Super Sunday, which will take place in two locations this year: Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Shir Ami in Newtown from 9 a.m. to noon.
For more information or to register, visit jewishphilly.org/supersunday or call 215.832.0630.
