Screening Our Future, Bergen County’s technology awareness campaign, has announced its newest initiative, The Chanukah Challenge. The Chanukah Challenge is a community-wide program which encourages participants to go screen free for 30 minutes while the Chanukah candles are lit.
The Chanukah Challenge comes on the heels of the highly successful Nov. 18 inaugural event at Yeshivat Frisch where close to 1,000 people showed up for a presentation of “Screenagers,” which was followed by a talk by Dr. David Pelcovitz.
Screening Our Future is the collaborative effort of Ben Porat Yosef, The Moriah School, The Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, Yavneh Academy, Yeshivat He’Atid and Yeshivat Noam. By joining together, the hope is to reach new markers as we aim to reset our approach to technology.
Screening Our Future has recently partnered with a similar program based in Chicago called Project Focus. Currently in its fourth year of programming, Project Focus has successfully united the Chicago Jewish community to take a stance on cell phone usage and reconsider the role technology plays in everyday life.
“I think knowing that this is something being done by thousands of Jewish families around the world adds extra motivation and meaning,” said Rabbi Ephraim (Eric) Goldman, a New Jersey native, who has been instrumental in the development of Project Focus. Rabbi Goldman is excited to join forces with Screening Our Future in spreading this critical message.
The Chanukah Challenge is part of a series of programming that will be introduced in the coming months. The next major event scheduled for Jan. 7 (Asara B’Tevet) will be a screening of the documentary ‘Screenagers” for all eighth graders.
As Chanukah is fast approaching, Bergen County’s educational leaders and rabbis hope all students and parents will rise to the challenge and together go screen free for a short time each day of the holiday. For additional information about The Chanukah Challenge or Screening Our Future please email [email protected].
By Andrea Nissel
