The Global Jewish Pen Pal Program matches Jewish individuals with Jewish pen pals around the world.
03/07/2023
Did you know that the original, very first hamantaschen were made in Europe from a rich yeast dough?
Yeast dough hamantaschen remained standard until the 20th Century, when cookie doughs became popular for being easier to prepare and longer lasting.
Many Eastern European Jews made their way to South Africa, and it is still common to find yeast dough hamentashen in South Africa, or where South African Jews live, today. 🇿🇦
I unintentionally made yeast dough hamentashen this year, and the dough rose a lot. I like to call them hamanknishes, for they look like knishes with sweet fillings, or rolls stuffed with a sweet filling.
Although it wasn't my goal to make this type of hamentashen, it was fun to reconnect with a part of Jewish history in this way! ✡️
Happy Purim to all! 🎭
Comment below your favorite hamentashen flavor ⬇️
02/15/2023
Dear Global Jewish Pen Pal Program community,
It is with a bittersweet heart, that I write to share the news that the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program, as an organization, is going on hiatus. This means that while we are keeping the door open for a possible revitalization of the organization at any point in the future, for now, we are indefinitely ending our services.
We did not make this decision lightly. Over the last 2.5 years we have matched over 1,200 individuals, from 63 countries with Jewish pen pals around the world. We have helped to build what we think will be life-long connections—and some of you have told us you have started to meet each other in person.
When we began this organization in April, 2020, we set out to connect Jews around the world, to help people learn a little bit more about Jewish life in other countries, and, especially during a global pandemic, to help people feel a little less socially isolated. And we accomplished just that. We are proud of the work we did to help bring global Jews together, and we are thankful to all of you for being here with us on the journey.
I would like to thank everyone involved, from our followers to those we matched as pen pals, to our volunteers and our leaders. Without each of you, none of this would ever have been possible. For those who have built connections through the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program, I hope you will continue to grow those connections. To everyone, I hope you will continue to search out every opportunity possible to learn more about Jewish life all around the world.
To learn more about global Jewish life please keep following and sharing this account, as I will continue to post on this account periodically, about Jewish life around the world.
Our slogan has always been: “We make the match. You make the conversation.” Until next time, keep those conversations going.
With gratitude,
Madison Jackson
Founder and Executive Director
01/01/2023
Did you know that the person who started the tradition of dropping a giant Times Square Ball on New Year's Eve was Jewish? 🎉
His name was Adolph S. Ochs and he was the son of German-Jewish immigrants.
Happy New Year! Cheers to a 2023 filled with lots of global Jewish learning, connections and adventures! 🌎✡️
12/26/2022
A few weeks ago in Pittsburgh, PA, we visited the where each room was decorated for the holiday season based on the country's local holiday traditions.
This is the Ukrainian Room. Look familiar?🕯️🕯️
Centered on the table are two large candlesticks and Kolach, Ukrainian Christmas Bread, a slightly sweet yeast bread that is braided and shaped into either an oblong loaf or a round braided loaf. This bread is eaten on, and is an essential part of, the Christmas celebration in Ukraine. 🇺🇦
This Ukrainian Christmas table, which looks very similar to a Shabbat table set with Shabbat candles and Challah, shows how integral Jewish culture has been to Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian culture to Jewish culture.
In many eastern European communities Jewish traditions influenced local culture in the past, and the impact has lasting effects to this day. ✡️
12/23/2022
We're creating our own library of Jewish books from around the world! 📕📗📘
This week we are featuring a special 48 page book about the different ways Hanukkah is celebrated in Israel, USA, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Italy, Australia, Poland, and Tunisia. We highly recommend this book, for all ages, children and adults! 🕎
Be sure to check out our website to view the full collection of books. 📌
Did you write or publish a book which has global Jewish themes? Send us a private message to learn how YOUR book can be featured and shared with our international audience! ✏️
12/21/2022
Couscous Sucre "Seffa", Sweet Couscous, is a festive Jewish dish in North Africa. In Morocco, Seffa was traditionally served as a Hanukkah dish, eaten in wooden bowls with wooden spoons. This dish features a blend of cinnamon, sugar, butter or vegan butter, and raisins. 🇲🇦
We are eager to know the reason why this dish was made specifically for Hanukkah. If you know the answer, please comment below or send us a message!
12/19/2022
Happy Hanukkah from Charleston, South Carolina! 🕎
Each year the city of Charleston and all the Charleston Jewish organizations host a celebration called Chanukah in the Square. Over 1,000 people come together, outdoors in a central public park, to enjoy live music, eat plenty of free food, and light the Hanukkiah together. Firemen even threw little parachutes with gelt down from the sky! It was a really impressive and beautiful event.
Comment below where you are celebrating Hanukkah this year ⬇️
10/20/2022
How did a Jewish museum get built in rural Belarus? 🇧🇾
Come and hear Roger Lippman speak at the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program free Zoom event this weekend, to find out!
Roger Lippman has traveled in Eastern Europe over the last seven years, to the places that his great grandparents came from, in present-day Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus.
In Belarus, Roger and his wife Rae were introduced to a couple who preserve the memory of the former Jewish population of a once-upon-a-time shtetl on the old highway between Minsk and Vilna. Inspired, Roger and Rae returned to the USA and raised the funds needed to create a museum of rural Belarusian Jewish life. 🕍
Roger is an energy-conservation engineer, writer, and long-time advocate for the environment, peace, and justice.
10/09/2022
Eastern Europe has been on all of our minds these days. So why not learn something more about it? 🗺️
On October 22/23, join the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program for our next Zoom event: a fascinating presentation about the Rubezhevichi Museum of Rural Jewish Life, in Belarus. 🇧🇾
If you are from the United States, South America, Mexico, Asia, or Australia, the timing of this event is especially PERFECT for you! We are looking forward to meeting some people who can't usually make the timing of our other events, and of course, also connecting with all of our attendees ⏰
We had a great time coming together with our community all around the world last Sunday, to learn about Jewish farmers and Jewish farms, at our first Zoom event of the new year! 👩🌾👨🌾
A special thanks to Janna from , Liel from , and Yisroel from , for teaching us about the different ways farming can relate to Rosh Hashanah. 🍎🍏
As you can see in the picture here, one of our panelists spoke about the double way that Jewish farmers can sometimes experience isolation.
The Global Jewish Pen Pal Program is here to help make those feelings of isolation a little bit smaller-- we provide a global community where you can meet new people and find others you have things in common with! Through our diverse event topics, the goal is to reach people with all sorts of interests. 🌎
What was your favorite part of this panel? Comment below ⬇️
09/22/2022
We're creating our own library of Jewish books from around the world! 📕📗📘
Each week we will feature one book on our social media, which has content about Jewish life around the world, or Jewish life in one specific country.
Be sure to check out our website to view the full collection of books. 📌
Did you write or publish a book which has global Jewish themes? Send us a private message to learn how YOUR book can be featured and shared with our international audience! ✏️
09/18/2022
Did you know there is a Yiddish-speaking farming program in New Hampton, New York?!
Come and hear Yisroel Bass speak at the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program free Zoom event TODAY, September 18, to learn more about it!
While our RSVP form is now closed, send us an email if you want to attend the event.
Yisroel Bass is the founder and director of . The farm provides outdoor learning opportunities for chassidic youth and families. The farm produces shmura wheat for Passover matzos. 🌾
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In 2014 I (Madison Jackson, the founder of the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program) participated in the Szarvas Fellowships, a program which brings North American teens to the Szarvas International Jewish Youth Camp in Hungary in order to engage in camp activities and interact with youth from around the world. Little did I know that this trip, my first time ever in Europe and my first time flying on an airplane without anyone that I knew, would change the course of my life.
It was during my time at that summer camp that I first really thought about the existence of Jews in other countries. It was during my time at that summer camp that I first met Jews my own age from 25 countries around the world. Upon returning to the United States I became devoted to learning about European Jewry. I was so inspired by my time at Szarvas that I decided to major in college in Judaic Studies with a focus on Jewish life in Europe, become a virtual intern for Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden and spend a summer living and interning for the American Jewish Committee in Warsaw, Poland.
Jews around the world, often from a young age, have the chance to connect with Israeli Jews through pen pal programs set up at Jewish day schools and Hebrew schools, or through organized trips to Israel. While this connection between North American and Israeli Jews is very important it is equally important that Jews from other countries have the chance to build connections both with North American and Israeli Jews and Jews from other countries in the diaspora. Our religion is so small as is we must unite together as one global Jewish peoplehood. Unfortunately, there are very few opportunities for this to happen. Schools rarely set up pen pal programs with Jews from other countries and trips to Europe or Asia are expensive. As a result, many people don’t understand what it means to be Jewish in other parts of the world and worse, negative, false impressions are created.
To remedy this lack of connection between Jews from all over the world I began the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program. Using four main criteria I match people from all over the world together:
1) Pen Pals must be from two different countries
2) Pen Pals must be around similar ages
3) Pen Pals must have signed up for the same form of communication (i.e. to have a virtual Pen Pal, or to have a Pen-Pal to write handwritten letters with)
4) Similar interests/places in life (i.e. students, lawyers, etc.) are taken into consideration
All ages are welcome to participate in the Global Jewish Pen Pal Program. So far, there are over 210 people ranging from 7 years old to 77 years old, signed up from 27 countries. Some people get matched instantly, and others, it takes weeks to match. It’s a process that looks different for every person but upon receiving a match, that waiting process will be so worth it.
The outbreak of the Coronavirus served as a catalyst for starting this program. I have seen a need for this type of program for a while and with everyone stuck at home in social isolation, this was the perfect time to begin it. Everyone could use some human connection right now and it is a great chance to learn about Jewish life in other countries. Yet, the Coronavirus will not be the end of this program. Long after the Coronavirus is gone my hope is that pen pals will continue to be in touch and that this program will continue to create matches – and do more than that. Further developments are on the way to prompt and motivate pen pals to stay connected to one another.
For those interested in being matched with a Jewish Pen Pal in another country, please fill out the following form.
If you know someone who might be interested, please share this with them.
If you lead an organization, school, synagogue, camp, foundation, federation, or are an individual with whom this project resonates, please be in touch as well.
It is through these one on one interactions with Jews all over the world that we can work together to better appreciate the rich Jewish life that exists not just in our own countries, but everywhere.
