• Help Plant the Seeds of Our Garden
• JGAN Shabbaton: 1/16 – 1/17
• Workshop Day 1: 1/18, “Jewish Grassroots Lessons Learned from the Obama Campaign and Charting the Road Ahead”
• Sunday Night Events: 1/18
• Workshop Day 2: 1/19, “Wrap-Up and Special Sessions”
• Jewish Grassroots Ball with world-class Klezmer: Monday 1/19
• Swearing-In Ceremony for President Barack Obama: 1/20
• Join the Conversation On-line!

Dear Friends,

We are excited to invite you to join us in Washington, DC January 16 – 20 to celebrate the start of Barack Obama's presidency and the debut of the Jewish Grassroots Action Network (JGAN).

Emerging from committed group of volunteers who made Jews for Obama a resounding success, JGAN will continue the work of organizing and energizing the Jewish grassroots to advance the goals and values which inspired us to support Obama. We look forward to participating in the grassroots organizational structure being created by the incoming Obama team as well as engaging in activities that are independent of the administration.

President-Elect Obama inspired many of us to get involved in politics for the first time, and we are dedicated to his oft-stated principle that we can disagree without being disagreeable. In support of that vision, JGAN will be a place where all Jewish Americans can work together on a wide range of domestic issues using the combined power of our vast community networks. Along the way, Jews from diverse backgrounds will get to know and trust each other and be able to more effectively discuss issues when they do not agree, leading to a greater amount of ahavat Yisrael (love for one's fellow Jews) in the United States and beyond.

In Hebrew, the word gan means “garden.” We hope that JGAN will be a Jewish garden which provides a place for reflection and inspiration, along with the tools needed to nurture our country back to health and grow an America ready for the 21st Century.

Please click the “Forward” link below to forward this invitation to your friends and family and encourage them to get involved in JGAN!

Throughout the campaign, we asked you to support Barack Obama by making donations to his campaign through the Jews for Obama donations page. Thanks to your generosity, we raised over $18,500, every penny of which went directly to the campaign. The all-volunteer Jews for Obama had no paid staff or funds of its own, and the substantial expenses we incurred in support of its efforts were paid out-of-pocket by a core group of dedicated volunteers.

Now that the campaign is over, and Thank God our candidate has emerged victorious, we have big plans for JGAN, plans which can no longer be supported by the donations of only a few volunteers. We are therefore reaching out and, for the first time, asking you to dig deep and support us in our groundbreaking effort to build a truly grassroots Jewish advocacy organization.

Please donate now! With your donation of $180 or more, we will send you, absolutely free, a limited edition JGAN baseball cap or tote bag. (Pictures of the hats and bags will be available on our Web site soon.)

To donate on-line now, visit http://jgan.org/donate.

You can also use this donation form to pay for any of the JGAN inaugural events listed below for which the RSVP address is events@jgan.org. Just sent email to events@jgan.org indicating which events you want to attend, then pay the total amount due for all the events at http://jgan.org/donate. Thanks!

The Shabbaton will be multi-denominational and is being held in the Shepherd Park neighborhood in DC where there are many different synagogues close together allowing us to visit different parts of the community and celebrate Shabbat together. All meals will be glatt kosher or have a glatt kosher option provided when a range of hekscherim are in use (vegetarian options will be available at every meal).

• Friday Night ~ Candle lighting (4:52 PM), Minchah & Kabbalat Shabbat Services (4:55 PM), Dinner (6:15 PM), Dinner Speaker — Historian Jerome Renwick Manship Sr. will read George Washington's letters to the Jewish Community with discussion following (7:30PM). Location: Ohev Sholom National Synagogue at 1600 Jonquil St. NW, Washington DC. Please send reservations to cvaloris@gmail.com. $15 a person before Wednesday 1/14 and kids under 12 eat free; after that it is $25 per person over the age of 12.
  
  
• Saturday Morning ~ Services of your choice in the neighborhood (there is a shul for everyone in Shepherd Park and we will provide a list). No reservation needed for services.
  
  
• Saturday Afternoon ~ Lunch (12:30PM). Panel discussion on “The Roots of Jewish Activism in Judaism” (1:30PM). Location: Tifereth Israel Synagogue at 7701 16th Street, NW Washington, DC. Space is limited, so please send reservations to tiadmin@tifereth-israel.org. A $5 donation is requested.
  
  
• Saturday Early Evening ~ Havdalah — location and time TBA
  
  
• Saturday Night Events ~ Attend any or all:
  
  Inter-Faith Celebration of the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dinner (6:30 PM), Reflections and Music by Reverend Roger Hambrick & The Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir (7:30PM). Location: Ohev Sholom. Space is limited. To reserve your space, please call (202)882-7225 or email cvaloris@gmail.com. Suggested donation for the program: $5 a person.
  
  A traditional fabrengen (joyous Jewish gathering) in honor of the inauguration Singing, Stories, and Words of Torah with Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz to recharge our spiritual batteries and prepare us to start off the new administration with blessings and unity. Starting Time Aprox. 8:30PM (final time TBA). Location: Woodside Synagogue, 9001 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD. For reservations or information contact events@jgan.org. A donation to cover refreshment costs will be appreciated.
  
  Flory Jagoda & the Altaras Ensemble A beautiful mix of music from Flory's rich background growing up in a Sephardic Jewish family living in the Balkans. Starting Time 8:00PM. Location: Tifereth Israel Synagogue. For further information, go to www.fsgw.org, or call Marty at 703-354-6460. Street parking is available. Admission is free for Folklore Society members (donations encouraged). Discount for Tifereth Israel members. General admission $20, half for students to age 22.

• Sun. 9:30 AM ~ Sign in and Breakfast ($7), Location: Tifereth Israel Synagogue, 7701 16th Street, NW Washington, DC. RSVP for Sunday to events@jgan.org.
  
  
• Sun. 10AM – 11:30AM ~ Small group discussions of lessons learned from the doing grassroots outreach during the campaign.
  
  
• Sun. 11:30AM – 12:30PM ~ Small group leaders present lessons learned to the large group — discussion with large group. The material generated in this large group session will be summarized Sunday evening by a designated small team.
  
  
• Sun. 12:30PM – 1:00 PM ~ Lunch ($15), Please RSVP to events@jgan.org.
  
  
• Sun. 1:00PM – 2:30PM ~ Topical Sessions Set I (Choose from two sessions — summaries will be at presented at 4:30PM for all) — Sessions will be interactive with a team of 2-3 co-leaders with experience working in the area being discussed. These sessions are not policy debates but will be focused on how to effectively engage in grassroots organizing on these topics in different sectors of the Jewish-American community. If you are interested in co-leading any of these sessions please contact events@jgan.org.
  
  Topic #1: Investing and Business Ethics (roots of the crisis — grassroots efforts to reform ethics from the bottom up)
  
  Topic #2: Environment and Alternative Energy (community actions to push towards alternative energy solutions even in the face of cheap gasoline — raising awareness past the immediate time horizon).
  
  
• Sun. 2:30PM – 4:00PM ~ Topical Sessions Set II (Choose from three sessions — summaries will be at presented at 4:30PM for all)
  
  Topic #3: Health Care (consider the problem as it affects our communities, maintaining momentum for action on health care even as we face the economic crisis, grassroots participation in the development of regionally appropriate solutions to increase health care access — the same solutions may not work everywhere and for every demographic)
  
  Topic #4: Retirement/Social Security Security (Outline grassroots volunteer options for improving support to the elderly, potential for developing links between public service activities in schools etc. with our network, provide substantive ideas for the faith based initiatives program to plug into in our communities).
  
  Topic #5: Immigration/Labor (Discuss issues related the development of good sustainable jobs in the U.S. and how to protect foreign workers' rights while at the same time creating a positive environment for businesses. How can grassroots action increase awareness in the Jewish community).
  
  
• Sun. 4:30PM – 5:30PM ~ Presentation of Summaries from the Topical Sessions

• Two Inauguration Options ~ Choose the one that is right for you:
  
  Remote Inauguration Viewing Option: Swearing-In Ceremony on Large Screen TV at Tifereth Israel Congregation, 7701 16th Street, NW. 11AM – 3PM. Bagel Brunch ($25 covers brunch, click here to pay). RSVP to events@jgan.org. Everyone is welcome! Please RSVP if you plan to eat; otherwise, feel free to just show up!
  
  On-site Inauguration Experience! Due to the very large crowds expected and the differences in individual arrangements (some people have tickets and some do not), we will not hold an on-site group meet-up event before the inauguration. We will have JGAN 2009 Inaugural baseball caps (made in the U.S. by union labor) that will be fun to wear to the National Mall. After the event — an option for a kosher lunch is to walk to Eli's Deli at 1253 20th St. NW, Washington, DC. Given the extreme crowds expected we unfortunately will not be able to hold an organized event at Eli's. However, if you need information about having lunch at Eli's, please contact events@jgan.org.

We welcome your participation in JGAN even if you can't join us for the inauguration! We are continuing to use the Jews for Obama group on My.BarackObama.com as our “virtual town hall.” Come join us there if you're not already a member.

As we ramp up our activities, we will be creating additional forums to support the work of the organization, as well as creating a Web site at www.jgan.org (which, for the time being, sends people over to jews4obama.com).

After the inauguration, we'll keep you in the loop with the JGAN newsletter. Watch for it!