GRAPEJUICE
GRAPEJUICE was a non-profit organization (2015-2017) whose mission was
• to facilitate generosity by providing a platform through which people can invite “the strangers in our midst” to share holiday meals and celebrate together.
• to provide a sense of family and a promise of community to people whereever they are, geographically, culturally, demographically, spiritually, or otherwise.
short elevator pitch:
GRAPEJUICE
Your home for the holidays, Shabbat and beyond
Part-Airbnb, part-family-dating-site, GRAPEJUICE is a platform enabling you to celebrate with friends, invite your neighbors, and welcome the "strangers in your midst": organize small holiday gatherings, publicize larger community meals, and find home hospitality on the road. You’re home for the holidays. GRAPEJUICE.buzz
longer elevator pitch:
GRAPEJUICE
Your home for the holidays, Shabbat and beyond
Home is the heart of Jewish tradition: lighting the Shabbat candles, blessing the children, family meals at the high holidays, and of course, Passover seders. For all the efforts to do outreach and get people “in the door,” such home practices are largely out of sight and, if you are away from home, out of reach.
In some Jewish communities, the tradition of hakhnasat orchim-- the welcoming of guests to one’s home-- is considered one of the highest mitzvot; if you visit such a shul, you can expect to be invited for a home-cooked meal. For those “on the margins”-- unaffiliated, unsettled, or uncomfortable with aspects of traditional Judaism-- it’s more difficult to find a home for the holidays. And if you have a home-- a family or community, however defined-- it is easy to overlook the “strangers in our midst.” Or perhaps it’s just difficult to find them.
GRAPEJUICE will facilitate the revival of hakhnasat orchim for all: from established community members to travelers, newcomers, and strangers; from Orthodox to reconstructionist to reluctant, and everyone in between and beyond.
Sign up for GRAPEJUICE via Facebook, Google, or email. Plan a holiday meal: invite friends and family. Look for the strangers in your neighborhood: since your address will be released only if you approve a person’s RSVP, you can safely invite them along. Next time you’re a stranger, you’ll be invited.
So go ahead, do a mitzvah: join GRAPEJUICE. You’re home for the holidays. Grapejuice.buzz
for organizations:
GRAPEJUICE helps organizations to simultaneously engage in inreach and outreach, allowing their members and visitors to connect with one another and facilitating connections with newcomers, travellers, and the “strangers in our midst.” By building relationships, organizations can begin to bring new people into their social orbit, to create a welcoming space for new people, and over time, to increase their impact (whether measured by membership, enrollment, funding or otherwise).