EnerJew, FSU’s Jewish youth movement, is starting off the new 2016-2017 season with a bang – six new cities are joining the active EnerJew family at the season’s opening, expanding the movement’s regional grasp. As for the new season’s plans and programs they are also running far and wide, aiming to connect, move, educate and create.

This fall EnerJew is joined by Estonia’s Tallinn, Khabarovsk and Birobidzhan in Russia’s far-East, Saratov and Volgograd from Russian central Volga river district and Kirovograd in Ukraine.

“The new additions come on the heels of a busy summer, when instead of taking a break, movement activists toured FJC’s Gan Israel camps and conducted 22 EnerJew Days – action-packed orientations that introduced the movement to the campers,” said Konstantin Shulman, the movement’s director. “In addition, EnerJew-trained counselors ran 5 summer camps themselves, organizing all the session’s programs and activities, which was very successful,” he said.

And the movement is not slowing down – the season’s opening events are happening this week, while club activists are already preparing for the holidays – a ‘hot’ time for the clubs, as they focus not only on creating programs for their own members but also on involving the youngsters and the elderly as well. This year the season’s theme is “My Heritage” that will present  an in-depth look on a plethora of enticing subjects such as the Hebrew alphabet, tzedaka, the Temple in Jerusalem and Jewish ethics among others.

The Also movement continues to invest a lot of energy in developing its ‘School of Madrichim’ that prepares club members for working as youth program coordinators, educators and counselors – “the next generation of community leaders” as Shulman defines them.

“By the end of 2016, our clubs throughout the FSU will have organized and conducted over 500 local events. Some of the prominent ones among them are multiple-city 3-day Shabbatons, a grand activists’ seminar, holiday programs and volunteering,” Shulman adds. “EnerJew is growing and developing, we see a lot of interest everywhere and most importantly, it is being nurtured from the roots, by the initiative of local members themselves,” he said.

EnerJew unites teenagers aged 13 to 18 across the FSU region in a Jewish youth movement. EnerJew is developed in partnership with the FJC and the Finger foundation, with the help of the Jewish Agency for Israel and additional partners.