By Barbara Bayer/
Contributing Writer
Like other Jewish organizations, Jewish Student Union (JSU) needed to find a way to connect with its members when COVID-19 made it impossible to program in conventional ways. So its director, Rabbi Nati Stern, created a subscription box service for Jewish students in the Kansas City area.
“I was thinking how to package the JSU experience in a box that I would be able to deliver to them,” he said in a recent interview with The Chronicle. “In the same way that it was about me, JSU, coming to their schools, now we’re taking JSU to the kids’ homes.”
Traditionally JSU runs Jewish culture clubs in area schools. Last year Rabbi Stern said JSU touched 152 Jewish students in eight schools: Shawnee Mission East and South; Blue Valley High as well as North, West and Northwest; and The Barstow School. Blue Valley’s Leawood Middle became the first middle school to have a club.
So Rabbi Stern created unBoxed, a themed box JSUers receive each month to “unBox” their curiosity, creativity and competitive spirit. The rabbi said activities focus on upcoming Jewish holidays as well as hot topics about Jewish culture and Israel. The first two boxes were themed for Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot. The November box, which is being delivered now, is about Jewish identity and gratitude while the theme for December will be Hanukkah.
“Every month there is one activity, we call it a challenge of the month, where teens create something,” Rabbi Stern explained. “It’s a way for them to express their Judaism artistically. For example for Rosh Hashanah the challenge of the month was hands on your past and future.”
For that challenge, the teens traced each of their hands. On one hand the teens wrote or drew all the things they wanted to let go of in the coming year. The same was done on the other hand for all the things they wanted to continue. Rabbi Stern said it was a meaningful activity.
“Everyone did the activity when they got their boxes,” he explained. “Then we got together on Zoom and everyone had the chance to present their drawing and whoever had the most creative drawing based on creativity, design and thoughtfulness won a gift card.”
The Zoom meetings are broken down by school, according to Rabbi Stern, “to try to keep things more personal and for kids to have an opportunity to share.” Membership in each groups ranges anywhere from five to 25 students, depending on the school.
“It varies, but our biggest school is Blue Valley North,” he said. This year approximately 100 students have signed up so far to receive the monthly JSU boxes.
The JSU presidents get together one Sunday a month to put the boxes together.
“There’s always food involved to make everybody feel happy, excited and give people energy,” Rabbi Stern said.
He said it took him almost all summer to solidify the unBoxed idea. He brainstorms with other JSU staffers about different activities and challenges that can be included inside that box that teens “will find meaningful and engaging.”
Rabbi Stern said the unBoxed idea has been adopted in other areas including South Florida, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Houston. Jennifer Romanoff, director of Private School JSU for Southern NCSY in Florida, said the JSU unBoxed program has been a big success in her area.
“Every club this year is indefinitely virtual, so the boxes have really helped us maintain our connections to our current and prospective students,” Romanoff wrote in an email. “We have new programs on the horizon and the box has been a great communicative tool as well to get the word out for programs such as this one.”
Romanoff added that one new student got a box through a friend referral and is now in the process of starting a Jewish club at her school. Rabbi Stern is hoping that happens here as well.
“As a result of people spreading the word, we’ve reached some new kids and kids in schools where we don’t have a JSU club already this year,” Rabbi Stern said. “We hope this can lead to a creation of a JSU club in a couple of new schools.”
Before each month’s box is delivered, Rabbi Stern sends an eblast to students, parents and donors that includes a link to a YouTube video, hosted this month by The Barstow School JSU President Susanna King. In a 2-plus minute video, she discussed all the contents of the November box, which she described as awesome, cool and exciting.
The club presidents deliver some of the boxes to their friends. It takes about a week for Rabbi Stern to deliver the rest of the boxes.
“I like hand-delivering these myself,” he said. “I bring a snack and it’s an opportunity for me to say ‘hi.’ Those doorway conversations have been enlightening and it’s been a fun way to reconnect with the teens.”
He’s also gotten to meet some parents when he delivers the boxes. “They’ve been so supportive and helpful and kind and encouraging.”
JSU membership is free as are the boxes. JSU receives grants from Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation. The organization also relies on donations from parents, alumni and parents of alumni.
Rabbi Stern said the unBoxed program has had a lot of support from parents.
“Parents see the benefit of having this and appreciate the Jewish connection and bringing a Jewish box to their home,” he said. “Sometimes the moms are more excited than the teens to see these boxes.”
Rabbi Stern thinks these boxes have been an innovative way to reach people in their homes and make personal connections.
“It’s been a great way to bring Jewish inspirational content to their homes,” he said. “It’s been very exciting for me and a lot of fun and very rewarding. As soon as we finish one month, we’re already working on the next month. We basically have all these lined up already for the year.”
Emma Jacobson, a Blue Valley North junior who serves as co-president of that club with senior Zoe Sher, has been active in JSU since her freshman year. She likes the JSU unBoxed program.
“I really enjoy how it gives everyone something to look forward to each month, and an activity to help pass the time,” she wrote in an email. “It’s truly a fun way to celebrate the beginning of every month.”
In the past when the club met monthly, she loved the sense of community it brings.
“I grew up going to HBHA, so transferring to BVN for high school and having JSU for me there was a great way for me to engage with my Jewish peers,” she wrote.
To sign up for JSU or unBoxed, visit jsu.org/unboxed. To sponsor a teen’s box or learn more about JSU, contact Rabbi Stern at .