The Jewish federation system wants to know “what’s your ish?” — as in, what makes you Jewish?
Jewish Federations of North America has launched an advertising and marketing campaign that asks young Jews, 19 to 36, to use social networking tools to share what makes their inner Jew tick.
The idea is to encourage them to express themselves Jewishly via Twitter, Facebook or YouTube — and to raise their awareness about Jewish federations. Participants who submit an “ish” can choose one of several charitable causes to which the JNFA will donate 25 cents. The organization has $50,000 to give away in all and is seeking 200,000 submissions.
In one submission, comedians Randy and Jason Sklar made a two-minute video describing why former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute scandal made them feel Jewish.
“When the scandal hit, non-Jews were like, ‘Ugh, his poor wife, he’s probably going to lose his job. There’s bad news there,” the two, who have appeared on such TV shows as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Entourage,” say on the video. “But Jews — Jews were like, ‘This is bad for Jews everywhere. This is bad for the State of Israel. This is bad for Rod Carew.”
That’s right, the JFNA is pitching a video that uses the word “hooker.”
“We didn’t anticipate them going there, but that brings authenticity,” vice president for strategic marketing Adam Smolyar told the Fundermentalist, a JTA blog about Jewish philanthropy. “We want to interest and intrigue them in the federation, but it has to be done in their language.”
The campaign is the latest effort to reach a segment of the Jewish population that is considered insufficiently aware of or engaged in Jewish federations. According to a marketing study conducted last year, only 29 percent of an estimated 1.2 million Jews between 19 and 36 even know what a Jewish federation is.
“This campaign will not solve all of our problems, but it is very targeted,” Smolyar said. “We know we have problem with focus and know we need to have more eyeballs on the federation.”
By asking users to tag their contributions with the mark #ish, the federations plans to use a combination of automated technology and human project managers to post all submissions — be they 140-character tweets or five-minute videos — on the website www.whatsyourish.com.
The site is live now but will be promoted with an online ad campaign on Jewish sites geared toward younger Jews, such as Jewcy.com and Heebmagazine.com, as well as on larger sites such as the New York Times.
Some early contributions on Twitter: “Craving a kn#ish,” “gentiles envy my beard” and “I’m single because my mother still hasn’t met anyone she likes yet.”
The federations intend to allow any type of contribution with the exception of racist or offensive submissions.
This is the third time over the past two years the JFNA has attempted a significant outreach effort using online social media. The first attempt, which tried to engage people in an online color war of sorts through Facebook, did not get the hoped-for response.
But last fall the JFNA ran a successful campaign called Jewish Community Heroes that asked participants to nominate and then vote for people making a difference in Jewish life. The campaign garnered 1.5 million page views on Facebook and 570,000 votes, and captured 40,000 e-mail addresses. The winner received a cash prize.
That campaign was about putting the federation system on the map for young Jews, organizational officials said. The ish campaign takes the idea a step further and starts to explain the federation system.
“This campaign is more about the power of collective and giving,” said Vincent Mota, director of online giving.
The JFNA is working with Hillel to promote the project and has enlisted interns on 50 college campuses to get college students to make submissions.