Summer 2008 Press:

Israel's bootcamp for social entrepreneurs
Israel 21c
by Brian Blum

Halutz 2.0
Haaretz's The Marker
by Guy Grimland

A Zionist Kick in the Pants
Jerusalem Post
by Haviv Rettig

Connecting with People
eJewishPhilanthropy.com
by Dan Brown

Organizations and Community
MyJewishLearning.com's Mixed Multitudes Blog
by Mark Berch

Summer 2007 Press:

A Youthful House

By Matthue Roth

The physical living structure at the PresenTense House was orchestrated to invite collaboration. One room adjacent to the living room was filled with everyone’s computers, set up like a press room; it even had a makeshift recording studio in a corner.

The six-week program concluded July 31 with a graduation ceremony in which each participant gave a presentation on the future of his or her program. Bar is gearing up to record his album. Jason Lustig, another participant and a senior at Brandeis University this year, is getting ready to take his networking Web site, MavenHaven.com (a kind of business-oriented, Jewish Facebook), live.

And Beery and Horowitz? They’re already planning next year’s house, discussing location, candidates and expansion. “We’re envisioning a network of houses spread across the world with a spiritual and creative center in Jerusalem,” Beery said. For next year, however, he is certain that there will be another installment of the PresenTense House for Creative Zionism — which is one good reason to feel hopeful about the state of the State.

Room with a Zionist View

By Ruthie Ellenson

This summer, in the upscale Jerusalem neighborhood of Rehavia, an assortment of 30 or so activists, artists and entrepreneurs are spending all their waking hours huddled over laptops, listening to visiting speakers and documenting it all on various blogs, while sleeping sometimes five to a room. They have come together for what participant Esther Kustanowitz, a writer from New York, jokingly describes as a "Zionist sweatshop."

The crew of young Jews from countries like the United States, Panama and Holland have gathered for two months at the PresenTense Institute for Creative Zionism (PICZ), a grassroots think tank whose aim is to unite the political and the practical by nurturing activists, artists and entrepreneurs in creating vital, self-sustaining Jewish programs, all in an environment that with its diverse cast of characters living in close quarters could be described as the "Real World Jerusalem." Cross-pollination is encouraged.

Redefining 'Jews by choice'

By Esther D. Kustanowitz

But after hearing Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League say "there have always been Jews by choice" and that we have "always survived because there has been a tenth committed to continuity," I reconsidered the strength of my reaction.Let's talk about that tenth. The reason I was in Israel this time – actually the reason I've been to Israel the last three times – was because I have the honor of being involved with several ongoing initiatives that are designed to accommodate the philosophical, cultural, technological and spiritual makeup of the contemporary 20-something and 30-something Jew. (Two of them, the ROI Summit and the PresenTense Institute for Creative Zionism, were profiled recently by the JTA.)In Israel, I saw both initiatives in action, and my completely biased opinion is that the people and organizations involved in these initiatives are changing the face of tomorrow's global Jewish life.

Jewish Week: A Hand in Designing Zionism 2.0

by Esther Kustanowitz

Three weeks in Jerusalem never seems long enough; but surrounded by young Jewish innovators, all with unbridled creativity and endless potential, abandoning the buzz is that much harder. At PICZ in particular, all of us were part of something else on an intravenous level, mainlining the energy of contemporary collaborative creativity and innovation. In PICZ headquarters, in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, more than a dozen fellows and interns in their 20s and 30s, spend their days and nights working at their laptops. Two wireless routers, several extension cords, central air conditioning, and constant coffee support the industry. Each is immersed in his or her own project of Jewish innovation and creativity designed to support world Jewry and/or Israel and collectively billed as the next iteration of Zionism: "Zionism 2.0."

JTA: Cooking UP Fresh Ideas in Jerusalem

by Uriel Heilman

Organizers of the institute hope the program, which they dreamed up several months ago, will serve as an incubator for creative Jewish concepts. The idea is to produce great Jewish achievements not just as a result of the training participants receive in the fields of Web publishing, podcasting, grant writing and business development, but also as a result of the synergy among talented people working together.

Also Featured in:
The Jewish Review (Oregon)
The Canadian Jewish News
The Jewish Life
Zionism-Israel News

TheMarker: Drying Up Swamps with Open Source Code

by Guy Grimland

"במהלך הקיץ ישתתפו במחנה 18 יזמים ועוד עשרות עד מאות משתתפים לא קבועים. הם יבואו להרצאות וייצרו קהילה. אנחנו רוצים שהקהילה הזו תשמור על קשר דרך האינטרנט גם לאחר מחנה הקיץ. הייתי רוצה שתיווצר קהילה שתפעל יחד בנושאים חשובים. בנוסף, חשוב לנו ליצור שותפויות עם ארגונים שרואים ערך בגישה החדשנית שאנחנו מביאים, בכל הנוגע לקידום ציונות ויהדות. אנחנו מקווים לשתף פעולה עם כל חברה פרטית או ציבורית שתביע עניין".