jerusalem (jps) | Semitic Satchmos, step forward and trumpet your shofar-blowing skills.
The Great Shofar Blast-Off is the latest effort by the National Jewish Outreach Program to engage American Jews in ritual practice. After last year’s Chicken Soup Challenge, the NJOP is inviting Jews from across the country to compete for a weeklong trip for two to Israel by mailing in DVDs or videos of themselves performing the traditional Rosh Hashanah shofar service.
Anyone who thinks their skills are tops should check out www.njop.org for the instructions and entry form. Entries must be postmarked by Aug. 26, a little less than a month before the finals are to be held in New York.
In addition to the contests, NJOP has for several years organized a yearly Shabbat Across America in which hundreds of Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues across the United States and Canada welcome unaffiliated Jews for get-acquainted services. The group also runs Hebrew literacy workshops.
Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald established the NJOP in 1987 to provide “basic Jewish education” courses and experiential programs. He was associated with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, now of Efrat, in similar programs at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York as early as 1980.
“We want to market Judaism like Nike markets sneakers,” an NJOP staffer once told the Jerusalem Post. “If it works for Nike, why not?”