If you’re not familiar with city nicknames, the title of this post may come as a bit of a surprise. But really, it’s just a fancy way of saying that we are going to the General Assembly (GA) in New Orleans, Louisiana. By “we”, I mean a contingent of 40 people from Pittsburgh’s Hillel, as well as myself. I’ll be participating in Hagshama’s “Do the Write Thing,” a track at the GA focused on Jewish journalism.
I’ve booked my flight the crack of dawn (literally, 6.30 a.m) out of Pittsburgh on Sunday, to get to “Nawlins” by 10.30 a.m. Then, I leave Tuesday evening, getting back to the ‘burgh just before midnight. So, now that I’ve stressed my way through Delta’s website and thought about what warm clothes I can bring (it’s 44 degrees in lovely Pittsburgh right now), I’m ready to prepare in a more intellectual and academic way for this conference.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, the GA is presented by the Jewish Federations of North America. I couldn’t have said it better myself, so here it is:
The General Assembly (GA) is the premier annual North American Jewish conference, attracting key Federation lay leaders, donors and professionals as well as the leadership of JFNA’s partner organizations and other important national Jewish organizations. The GA plenaries, forums and workshops feature top speakers from the political, business and non-profit realms.
The conference officially begins on Sunday morning, after two days of GA-related Shabbat programming, if you decide to come in early for that. Head honchos like President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu were present at last year’s GA. This year, Vice President Biden will speak at the closing plenary on Tuesday evening — so you better stick around!
If you’re a student, writer, reader, blogger, fan of New Voices, or even none of the above — but you’ll be attending the GA — leave a comment! I’d love to get a sense for who will be there, from all over the country.
A huge thanks to the Hillel-Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh for making this possible!
