A way to ‘J-Connect’ — in the streets and online

The name's changed, but the mission of New Bridges is alive and well on the Peninsula.

Launched in 1998, the outreach was designed to connect unaffiliated Jews to the community. The To Life! Street Festival is one of its most successful efforts.

Along the way to success, New Bridges became a program of the Palo Alto Jewish Community Center. Last year — as the JCC began planning construction of the new Campus for Jewish Life and looked toward the future of communal programs — it found a perfect place for New Bridges, folding it into the J-Connect program at the beginning of this year.

"New Bridges was a really well-respected entity in this community because no one else was doing outreach," when it began, said J-Connect director Stephanie Brown, who was brought on board last year to head the department.

"The street festival was their premier outreach event," said Brown, noting that New Bridges and its To Life! festival have received national recognition and accolades from the Jewish Outreach Institute.

The festival "takes Judaism out to where the people are, and it allows you to be out on the street and recognize your Jewishness."

Initiated by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Foundation with funding from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund and South Peninsula Council, New Bridges gathered momentum and drew the assistance of some enthusiastic volunteers. Over time, the organization collected not just hundreds of names but well over a thousand names in its database.

J-Connect will maintain and hopefully build on New Bridges' mailing list of 1,800, and continues to send out monthly e-mails to these contacts. The newsletter serves as a "clearinghouse of information," Brown said, including updates on JCC happenings that may be of interest to singles and unaffiliated Jews — but are not "singles events" per se.

Combining New Bridges with J-Connect made the "perfect marriage," explained Randi Brenowitz, the JCC's chief operating officer.

"The mission is to create a low-barrier way" for people to become part of the Jewish community. "The J-Connect monthly is another way to know about what's going on in the community that would be of interest to anyone who otherwise may be unaffiliated or uninvolved in the Jewish community."