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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/31844/full/31844/third-time-around-jewlicious-still-drawing-crowds/ <br /><br /> <b>Third time around, Jewlicious still drawing crowds</b> <br /> Friday, March 16, 2007 | by <p>lisa alcalay klug </p> <br /><br /><p>When Cecile Merrin, 18, made the 460-mile trek from Sonoma to Long Beach for her first Jewlicious festival last weekend, she was thrilled to make new friends. <br /><br /> “I like the diversity because we don’t have any students who are Orthodox at Sonoma State. And I really like all the people I met,” she said. <br /><br /> Merrin, a junior majoring in business accounting and financial economics, was among 26 Northern Californian residents attending Jewlicious @ the Beach 3.0 at the Alpert Jewish Community Center in Long Beach.<br /><br /> Designed for ages 18-26, the program brought together about 400 students and young professionals from eight states and 30 colleges and universities. On the menu: Sixty hours of music, food, fun, education and spirituality doled out in a mixture of workshops, festive Shabbat ritual meals, spirited prayer services, yoga, Pilates, concerts with Rav Shmuel, Golem and other cutting-edge performers, wine tasting, henna tattoos, film screenings and hanging out with games and classes late into the night. <br /><br /> But its most lasting impact may have been its ability to foster bridges among young Jews and create new opportunities for them to explore Jewish life and identity.<br /><br /> Merrin and her fellow Sonoma State classmates rode the bus with other Bay Area students. Among them was Tomer Altman, founder of Oy Bay, the Jewish Blog-by-the-Bay, who teamed up with Hillel to contract the bus. <br /><br /> It was last year’s Jewlicious 2.0 that inspired Altman to create his blog. <br /><br /> Other Bay Area personalities were Ayal Nistor, whose one-man band, A Second Surprise, performed the night of Sunday, March 11, and Ben Corey-Moran and Holly Moskowitz of Fort Bragg. Their employer, Thanksgiving Coffee Co., partners with a coffee co-op led by J.J. Keki, a Ugandan Jew.<br /><br /> The Jewlicious gathering united presenters from Israel, and New York as well as Merrin’s newfound friends from Utah, Oklahoma, San Diego and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, near Merrin’s family home in Arroyo Grande. <br /><br /> Merrin’s favorite activities included two Sabbath rituals. She had her first experience making challah for Shabbat, a tradition she plans to import to Friday night dinners at Sonoma Hillel. She also liked participating in Havdallah on Saturday night, marking the departure of the Sabbath. <br /><br /> That sentiment was shared by Sonoma State student Jordan Speizer, 20, a music major from Napa. Speizer also attended for first time, and found that he had deepened friendships with fellow participants. “I don’t even know the people from my Hillel that well, so it’s been a bonding experience. I’ve gotten to know them better. I came for that reason ... There was always something that interested me — in the media, in Hollywood, Shabbat in a cynical world. I’m not really that religious, so I like the discussions where you could just talk.”<br /><br /> David Abitbol, 42, who founded the blog Jewlicious.com in July 2004, has witnessed its growth from a blog, to a Birthright Israel trip, to what may be the largest youth festival of contemporary Jewish culture and identity. “We create a weekend where people come in and experience Judaism in a fun, positive, engaging, inspiring way,” Abitbol said. “It’s overwhelming. It’s great. We’re proud. “<br /><br /> Festival Director Yonah Bookstein, also serves as campus rabbi at Cal State Long Beach and Hillel of Orange County. Only Bookstein and his wife, Rachel, director of Long Beach Hillel, are paid festival staff.  “Most of the students don’t read the blog,” Bookstein said. A majority came “because a friend told them it was the best weekend for Jewish young people. We do many cool things.”<br /><br /> Merrin enjoyed the program so much she plans to return next year. The conversations also strengthened her interest in joining a Birthright trip to Israel next winter. <br /><br /> Speizer, too, is considering a Birthright trip, and a return trip to Long Beach for Jewlicious 4.0. “There’s a contagious energy,” he said. “With [400] Jews in a room, it’s hard not to be uplifted — especially for someone who went to high school with one or two other Jews.”<br /><br /> <br><br /><br /> Lisa Alcalay Klug is the author of the forthcoming book, <b>“Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe”</b> (Andrews McMeel, spring 2008).</p> <p> </p>

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