The light turns and suddenly the stone glistens with a new level of shimmer. That light hasn't changed anything. It’s only revealed what was always there.
For fifteen years, JEMs has been that light for the gems of Sydney. The classes, the songs, the friendships, Friday-night dinners, Day Camps, Bar and Bat Mitzvah journeys. All of it, for the Jewish kids, teens and young adults.
Light. So much light.
And in that light, gem after gem after gem begins to shine.
Here are the stories of three of them.
Sarah shines.
Sarah is nine years old. She's the only Jewish child in her year at an elite private school. A Catholic private school.
Being Jewish was something she knew about herself, but didn't share, because her friends wouldn't understand. No one in the canteen knew what hamantaschen were. No one in her class lit Shabbat candles.
Then she started JEMs, and over time, fell in love with it all. This part of herself she'd never really understood began to shine. The stories of proud Jewish women, the tunes she thought her mum had made up (turns out they're real songs, and mum just sings them really badly), the Jewish friends she made.
It brought something out in her, and the Jewishness she'd carried privately started to sparkle in public too. She hung the keyring she made at JEMs on her schoolbag; brought hamantaschen to class for show-and-tell; shared her hot challah from JEMs camp with her cousins who'd come over.
And her shine began to spread. Her cousins wanted in too. Now seven children from one extended family are part of JEMs. The grandparents have started hosting Shabbat dinners again, and now Sarah can join in singing those Shabbat songs with her mum, her cousins and her grandparents.
One gem catches the light. A whole family begins to shine.
That's the light your partnership brings.
Josh shines.
Josh started high school with a plan. He was going to be a doctor, a cardiologist to be exact, and every grade was a step toward that. He was the perfect student because perfection was the way to get there.
But by halfway through year ten, the plan was breaking him. He was burnt out and falling behind, and the dream he'd been chasing felt like it was slipping out of reach. His friends were going to JEMs teen programs, so he went too. There wasn't really a reason beyond that.
The first few months weren't dramatic. He just noticed he was looking forward to Tuesday nights in a way he wasn't looking forward to anything else. He started volunteering for the giving projects. Organising drives for families he'd never meet. Visiting elderly people he didn't know. It wasn't because it'd look good on his resume. He just kept saying yes because he enjoyed it.
Somewhere in there, the shine came back. His mood lifted and his grades climbed. He started studying again, but for a different reason. He'd realised medicine wasn't (only) about perfect grades after all. For him, it was about being there for people when their lives fell apart. JEMs hadn't given him a new dream. It had given him the clarity to see himself within the dream he'd almost buried under the pressure.
He's still planning to be a cardiologist. But it won't be the most interesting thing about him anymore.
One gem catches the light. Those around it bask in the light of its reflection.
That's the light your partnership brings.
Nicole shines.
Nicole didn't go to a Jewish school. Her parents enrolled her at JEMs Hebrew school after class, and that became her Jewish life. She loved it and kept going year after year.
Through bat mitzvah classes and into the teen programs, she kept coming. By the time she finished school, she'd been showing up at JEMs for over a decade.
She started university interstate, a bold new adventure far from home. There was no Jewish organisation on her campus, no obvious community to fold into, and she missed it. So she made one, just like she'd watched happen at JEMs for so many years.
She invited people over for Friday night dinner. First it was just one or two other students. Then it grew to a small table as students brought their friends. At Chanukah she set up a menorah in a common room, and people came. People who were so excited to see other Jewish students, just hadn't known how.
When she comes home, she can't wait to tell Rivky about it. About the girl who came to her first Shabbat dinner and burst into tears, because this was what she used to do with her grandmother, who had recently passed. About the boy who'd grown up secular and lit his own menorah for the first time. The thing JEMs had done for her all those years was now happening in her dorm, to people who'd never heard of JEMs at all.
A gem that catches the light young keeps shining for a lifetime. And the gems beside it begin to shine too.
That's the light your partnership brings.
* * * * * * * * *
Three stories. Three gems. And behind them, thousands more.
The boy in a public school who has no other Jewish touchpoint in his week. The teenage girl who walked in awkward and unsure, and graduated after leading the teen volunteer initiative. The mother who didn't grow up with this and wants something different for her kids. The grandfather who chaperoned his grandsons to a Friday-night dinner and insists on being the one to bring them next time too.
These aren't one-off stories that happen in faraway countries. These are your neighbours, the mum you do pilates with or the kid on your kid's soccer team. Jewish continuity starts here, with every Jewish child finding the light that shines within them and embracing it as a magnificent treasure in their lives.
Together, we can make sure every Jewish child shines bright.
* * * * * * * * *
Today, your impact reaches twice as many children.
Our extraordinary major donors have committed to match every gift that comes in — dollar for dollar.
Your $50 becomes $100.
Your $500 becomes $1,000.
Your $5,000 becomes $10,000.
We have 36 hours to reach our goal of $280,000 .
This is the day. These are our kids. This is our future.
Be the light that makes the next gem shine.