What do you think is a perfect end to winter? Watching TV near by the fireplace, successfully passing your exams, a hot latté from Starbucks? Hmm… maybe…
How about 3 days of sunshine in CA with your fellow Jews, tons of food and late concert madness while East Coast is freezing and buried under tons of snow?
That’s exactly what some UMBC Hillel students chose to do out of all their options:
Jewlicious Festival 5.0 in Long Beach, CA!
As far as the Festival goes, it was in almost every respect a smashing success. JF had nearly 1000 Jewish students and young adults enjoying a weekend full of fun, food, music and over 120 individual programs. Their success was due in no small part to a grass roots effort by a large crew of volunteers who helped guide almost every aspect of the weekend’s programing. Add to that both local and national philanthropists and organizations who allowed JF to keep costs down while still offering a world class event and you have a supposedly simple recipe for success. Yup, as simple as uniting close to 1000 young Jews representing every denomination and orientation in Judaism for a spirited, fun, educational and inspiring weekend… so much for that whole “2 Jews, three synagogues” malarkey! Read more about it at the “State of Jewnion” HERE
Jason Lipeles blogging the Festival over on the Jewish Journal’s Blogs
My adrenaline is still rushing, my heart is still pounding, and, most importantly, my mind is still racing after attending Jewlicious Festival 5.0 this past weekend. Not only did I dance at the Saturday night concert and sing along at the 45-minute Havdallah Jam, I also discussed environmental activism with passionate young people in an event called “Why We Give A Damn.” What a breath of fresh air!….
The blog ends with a quote from Abby, a student at Claremont Colleges: “This is the first event I’ve been to where they successfully have had really religious people and totally, totally unobserving, secular Jews and it somehow works. It’s very impressive.”
He notes that “the Jewish community isn’t as fractured as I thought it was.”
Jewlicious Festival demonstrates that most young Jews are not interested in machlokes, they want Jewish unity, they want to find common ground, they want a Jewish future built on shared ideals and values.
Shemspeed captured a few “once in alifetime” moments that weekend at Jewlicious Festival 5.0. The fest was one of the main stops on the Shemspeed 40 Days 40 Nights Tour and was especially sweet since the tour got down with Matisyahu, Moshav, Nosson Zand, Jewdyssee, Rav Shmuel, Aharit Hayamim, Inbar Bakal, Vokcal & Kosha Dillz. These artists got down with the 40 core, Diwon, Dov & Y-Love. It was a pretty amazing weekend. Check out to the video above of Matisyahu performing “I Will be Light” acoustic.
More videos below:
Nosson Zand & Moshav Improv:
watch part I
watch part II
Freestyle session with Kosha Dillz, Nosson Zand, Y-Love, Diwon, & Vokcal.
watch now
For photos go to the Shemspeed flickr, here or directly to the official Jewlicious Flickr.
www.flickr.com
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We are waiting for you to join us at Jewlicious Festival 6.0
Do you want to start one in you city, let Jewlicious know 
