Purim Party Bus Might Have Become the First Annual

After an epic night of shenanigans, tomfoolery, Megillah mashups, Hamantashen, Temples, costumes, and drinks (oh my!) the results are in, the Purim Party Crawl was a success.

The bus, which made stops at Central Reform, Shaare Emeth, B'nai Amoonah, Bais Abe, Sub Zero and the Next Dor house, ferried more than 25 young adults in elementary school style... that is if your elementary school allowed beer on the bus.

The Party Crawl didn't just get everyone shikkured, in addition to seeing a few of the area's Synagogues and meeting members at each, the event also gathered some much needed toiletries for Jewish Family & Children's Services.

You can check out the pictures here and read the press release here
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So What Did Barry Rosenberg Have To Say?

Last Wednesday, Barry Rosenberg, the Executive Vice President of the St. Louis Jewish Federation, made some time to speak to a group of young adults at the Next Dor House. He spoke about his experiences in the Jewish communal world and answered some tough questions. So just what did he have to say?

Answering a question about duplications of effort, and over-saturation of the young adult world, Barry said that, while the city certainly has way too many synagogues, it probably still doesn't have enough options for young adults.

He spoke about St. Louis provincialism, and how there is greater awareness now that this isn't the easiest city to move to, or move back to. Barry attributes the 'closed' nature of St. Louis to the fact that you simply don't have as many people in St. Louis who aren't from here, which he looks at as a source of strength for many existing organizations, but a problem if you want to break in or create change.

Part of it, Barry admits, is just numbers. You just don't have the same numbers of young adults here in St. Louis and so, he says, more is better until we reach that critical mass.

The conversation took some interesting twists and turns, particularly when asked why competition is seen as a good thing in the for profit world, and a bad thing in the not for profit world.

Stay tuned for the full (edited) podcast of the discussion soon and to find out what is coming up at Next Dor, be sure to check out nextdorstl.org and facebook.com/nextdorstl
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Next Dor Press

Just in time for the Potluck tonight, Next Dor is getting some great press from Jewishinstlouis.org.

The story, written by fellow Young Yid PJ is pretty solid and gives a pretty nice description of the house.

You can read it here and view some of the, as of yet, unreleased pictures here Read More......

Community Update

Now that the turkey is finally out of our system, we want you to know about the latest and greatest going on in St. Louis.

Starting with this very evening, both AIPAC and Elie Wiesel are in town.

AIPAC, aka the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, will be hosting its annual event at the Ritz Carlton at 7 PM tonight, and Dan Senor, co-author of the recently published "Start up Nation, The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle"* will be the featured speaker.

Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, most famous for his book, "Night", about the Holocaust, will be speaking at Saint Louis University at the same time. For more information, click here.

Thursday night, come check out Yid Drum and DJ Duo Autiomadic at the Gramophone for free at 10 PM.

Friday, Moishe House kicks of December with Shabbat dinner, followed by a trip to St. Louis' Holiday Magic on Saturday.

Sunday. Sunday. Sunday. Not only is the HUGE LightFest going down at the JCC, but afterwords, Next Dor is bringing some of the top students from Logan University's Chiropractic program to give deep tissue (non) massages. You can RSVP for that here, or just drop in.

For more Next Dor updates, you can visit www.facebook.com/nextdorstl Read More......

Leora From Synagogue 3000 Visits Next Dor, St. Louis

She may have picked a pretty dreary time to experience St. Louis, weather-wise, but didn't slow down the activity at the Next Dor House.

Synagogue 3000 gave the initial grant to Next Dor which started the whole renovation/organization process in motion and Leora came in town to meet the Next Dor STL board, advisors, and peers.

It just so happened that Monday night, Rabbi Zvi Schwartz hosted an open dinner at the Next Dor house, which turned out to be the perfect opportunity for Leora to meet everyone.

There was a great turnout, as you can see below, and the Rabbi spoke briefly about the connection between this generation (dor) and the freedom (dror) to choose our destiny and our identity.



Leora sat down with most of the board individually and asked about each individual's background and interests, how they got involved in the project, and what they want to see come out of it.

While she had the opportunity to learn about us, we also had the opportunity to learn about Synagogue 3000.

There are a couple things that separate Next Dor STL from the other projects that S3K is involved with. First, all of the other projects stem from a single congregation. While Next Dor STL was initiated with a lot of help from Central Reform, the project isn't controlled by, a subsidiary of, or affiliated with the synagogue. Second, while every other site has a full time paid staff person, Next Dor STL does not, and is relying heavily on a board of young adults to make the decisions and reach out to the develop the project.

Next Dor STL is happy to be able to use the great resources S3K has made available to us to navigate the strange world of non-profits.

If you still haven't had the checked out the website , there is a bunch of new info up and we just got our facebook vanity URL hooked up (facebook.com/nextdorstl).
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Update on Next Dor Furniture, Idn Raichel and More

Furniture has arrived at Next Dor! We are now proud owners of gorgeous and huge dining room table with matching chairs, a big sectional sofa, which is still wrapped until we can clean up a bit, and some other 'goodies'.

Hit up yoni at nextdorstl dot org to see the place!

Also, tonight, St. Louis hosts both Israeli music sensation Idan Raichel, and the Washington University Graduate School Battle of the Bands.

So much music in one night? The St. Lou Jew will be covering both (and performing at one), so stay tuned for pictures! Read More......