Ezra Venture supports Héloïse Dahan and Elya Trigano in the development of ALEF-BET, a place dedicated to Jewish culinary art and culinary traditions in every form. It will offer cooking classes, a delicatessen, a bookstore and a space offering cooking ustensils. ALEF-BET aims at allowing everyone to discover and learn about Jewish culinary cultures.

ALEF-BET was developed as an original concept and it is designed to accommodate food lovers, Jews and non-Jews, irrespective of their level of technical knowledge, to provide classes, teach ‘by doing’, and allow them to taste – thus communicating the taste of the Jewish culinary alphabet.
For more information:  http://www.alef-bet.fr

Increased competitiveness at school and in the professional world do not allow every adolescent and young person to find a place for themselves in today’s society. Every year, many of them lose their motivation and all hope to succeed, including among the youths of the French Jewish community.

Developed as a response to a new need in today’s civil society, PEAJ proposes to support and accompany youth from the French Jewish community towards the construction of an individual, realistic and coherent project for their future, while assisting them with the development of their personal and social skills.

The programme includes internships in companies, exploration of their potential, training and motivation sessions, discussions on topics such as identity, 5-month trip to Israel to test themselves outside of the family environment etc. PEAJ makes a number of tools available to these youth to better ‘apprehend’ their environment.

PEAJ defines its method as ‘half way between support and coaching’, and the number of youths in each intake is voluntarily small to create an efficient yet peaceful environment, respectful of everyone’s beliefs and freedom, open to different facets of Jewish culture and tradition.
PEAJ is committed to providing these youths with the means and the desire to become more autonomous, to develop a sense of responsibility, discover themselves and open up to others. The objective is to lead them to commit to finding the way to form part of society, accompanied by a long term follow-up organised by PEAJ. Each participant to the programme will thus be able to flourish, grow up and contemplate the future with more serenity.
PEAJ elaborated a solid and professional project with the help of Ezra Venture’s expertise, network and support. Today, PEAJ is laying the foundations for the reception of a first group of youths during 2007, while setting up a global strategy that will allow PEAJ to last.

Delphine Weil

GENERATION J

For the past 6 years, Génération J has been a ‘meet tank’, a place where the 25-40 of the Parisian Jewish community come to meet each other, exchange and share. Generation J organises regular events, conferences, theatre and cinema outings, walks, week-ends and holidays, dinners, Jewish holiday celebrations, dance and cooking classes, visits to museums and artists’ dens, meetings with writers etc.

Generation J was set up 6 years ago to respond to a need: among French Jews of 25-40, many lose touch with the community in the course of their professional career. Their feelings for Israel and Judaism are thereby put into question, and this generation cannot find a place of its own within the ‘traditional’ boundaries.

Generation J developed new ways to develop a sense of ‘belonging’ to a community: meetings allow for exchanges about diverse experiences, they also help assuming one’s responsibilities regarding the transmission of Jewish culture and identity.  In this sense, Generation J can also be described as a meeting place for the re-discovery of a Jewish way of life, an open and warm environment based on trust and friendliness, supported by the knowledge of specialists – a framework which can induce each member to ask himself/herself constructive questions about their personal choices. 

With the assistance of Ezra Venture, Generation J professionalised its approach and extended its activities, from 1-2 per month to 6-8. In the same time, its membership base doubled to reach 2,000. Ezra Venture induced Generation J to approach more Jewish institutions and supported it in the establishment of partnerships and the development of synergies.  

Bruno Nahon

JUMU

Ezra Venture backs the blossoming of Bruno Nahon’s project : the creation of an independent label for Jewish contemporary music, JuMu (JudaicMUsic). This 30-year old entrepreneur uses his expert knowledge of production and distribution circuits to serve the richness of Jewish culture, through a “revamping” and a revisiting of its music and songs.

After organising several incredible concert (So Called, Matisyahu, Hip hop hoodios, Estelle Goldfarb...), their first compilation "JuMu presents: Nu Juwish Music" was released last September 2007 at V2, with success.

"Thrown into a world of twists and turns, like a billiard ball gone mad. The perfect setting for a joyful cacophony. Joyful, that yes, cacophony, not a bit of it, more like a mix spinning around a centre… totally off-centre, and what’s more, eccentric. This new Jewish music revolves around so-called Central Europe. A centripetal movement to make you giddy, if you follow the steps of this “via sacra”: this compilation “musiports” us from Montreal to Amsterdam, from Paris to Tel Aviv, from London to… yes… Toulouse, and from New York to… of course… New York!
In a word, a far cry from the Mittel Europe that it originally represented."

A modern compilation of their heritage, somewhere between pop and electro, to make known this emerging culture outside their community.

Behind the almost-veterans David Krakauer, Frank London and the Amsterdam Klezmer Band, surged new blood like the rapper, DJ and musician SoCalled, the violinist Sophie Solomon, singer Yael Naim, the Israelis from New York (Balkan Beat Box), from Paris (Boogie Balagan) and… from Israel (Boom Pam).

Rich in heritage, of course, but also astonishingly modern, for the dance floor and not only for bar mitzvah (the Jewish communion), in other words, completely “mechougueu” as we use to say in Yiddish. Nuts, crazy, as we say today…"

JuMu currently produces an album from the group "Anakronik Electro Orkestra" and prepares its roadshow for 2008 (more than 40 dates forcasted).
JuMu also works on the volume .02 of the compilation "JuMu presents: Nu Juwish Music" : we can't wait for it !

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/jumumusic