Pathways Foundation

A Funding Partner of the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York, JeMM Productions (Jerusalem Multimedia Productions Ltd.), & the Righteous Persons Foundation.

Our Mission

Pathways Foundation, Inc., was founded to provide advocacy for Jewish teens and to consult on projects directed toward Jewish teens. .

Wisecrackers!
--Bar/Bat Mitzvah Edition

Attaining the age of bar/bat mitzvah
has never been so much fun!

(PC/Mac - English) produced by
JeMM Productions & Pathways Foundation

Our Story

Pathways Foundation was founded in 1997 to advocate for Jewish teenagers within the Jewish community, create or sponsor programs for families and youth grounded in Jewish values and spirituality, and to network with professionals who deal specifically in Jewish education for teens and their families.

Pathways seeks to regenerate Jewish values and resources not only in the teens who are the primary target, but throughout Jewish family systems.

Pathways views its recent collaboration with JeMM as a bright example of its goal to meet the current needs of American Jewish teenagers and their families. In developing the Wisecrackers! Bar/Bat Mitzvah CD-Rom it was entirely logical that we should meet teenagers where they actually are—in their homes, with their families, on line, on their computers. We firmly believe that the JeMM project achieves this goal and are therefore proud of our association with JeMM and of our two funding partners, the Righteous Persons Foundation, and the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York.

The
CHAIM
STERN
Liturgy
Fund

"Give me a purpose that will outlast my own days, one that will live in the days of those who will come after me: my children, it may be; my friends and comrades along life's path; and others, whom I may never meet, but whose souls resonate to the same dreams as mine." --  Chaim Stern, Day By Day

The Chaim Stern Liturgy Fund honors Chaim, keeping his memory alive by continuing his life’s work. Donations to the fund provide

	copies of Netivot Emunah: Paths of Faith to small and medium-sized congregations and college venues, and
	publication grants for new Reform liturgy.

The fund is vested with Pathways Foundation, Inc. Donations to the fund may be sent to Pathways/Chaim Stern Fund, 10114 Cliffwood Drive, Houston, TX 77035.

American Judaism suffered a heavy loss in the passing on November 5, 2001, of Rabbi Chaim Stern (z"l). For nearly half a century, liturgy has been indebted to the work of this sweet singer of Israel. His poetry adorned his prayerbooks; and his skills at translating and editing the poetry of others have given wings to the prayers of the simple and the great. Many of us quote English passages of his prayerbooks almost as freely as we quote Bible or Talmud. Chaim's wonderful book, On the Doorposts, has become a staple in Reform Jewish homes. His new translation of the prophetic passages used in the synagogue (in The Haftarah Commentary) make these essential messages understandable even to Bar and Bat Mitzvah students (and, of course, to the rest of us). His book, Day by Day, is a font of healing and meditation. Many of us continue to use his fine Passover Haggadah, Gates of Freedom, every year. And, all of this is not to mention Service of the Heart, Gates of Prayer and its many spin-offs, and Gates of Repentance. Surely, American Jewish life would be far different today, if we and especially our young people had not had the inspiration and direction of these works through the last half of the last century.

I had the privilege to work closely with Chaim, first as Director of Education in Chappaqua, New York, and then as editor and publisher of several of his works. He did not live to see the publication of his new translation of The Book of Genesis, but I assure you that it is yet another outstanding contribution in modern translation. At the end, he struggled to put the final touches on his new prayerbook, Netivot Emunah: Paths of Faith. He refused to give up his writing and translating to the very last moment, a testimony to his calling and his dedication.

-- Seymour Rossel