Jewish Heroes Rise to the Top

What happens when mothers, comedians, rabbis, authors, and organizers go head-to-head for $25,000 in funding for their charitable endeavors? BSD found out recently when the first-ever Jewish Community Heroes campaign came to a close.

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), formerly known as the United Jewish Communities, asked Blue State Digital to help design, manage, and promote the contest, with the overall goal of highlighting and inspiring community service efforts throughout the Jewish community.

In addition to building a powerful website with community voting tools, BSD integrated email, video, and social networking tactics into the campaign, which quickly galvanized fresh constituencies. In less than three months, site visitors cast more than 570,000 votes for more than 400 user-submitted nominees, empowering JFNA to identify a large community of new supporters. The nominated heroes represented a diverse group of volunteers, businesspeople, philanthropists, and religious leaders from every corner of North America.

The public vote narrowed the hundreds of nominees down to 20 semifinalists. A panel of judges whittled that list down to 5 honorees, each of whom received an investment for their community service organization. The Hero of the Year received $25,000 and was honored at the JFNA's General Assembly in Washington, where BSD ran trainings in online organizing for Jewish Federation professionals from across the continent.

Taking the top prize was 27-year-old Ari Teman, the founder of JCorps, an organization that connects Jewish young adults through community service projects in nine cities over three continents. When he's not managing JCorps, Ari has a side career as a stand-up comedian. Talk about a Jewish hero!

Check out this video to meet Ari and the four other finalists:

Congratulations to Ari and all the other heroes. Watch out, Justice League, you have some competition.