Connecting Generations with G2G

What do you know about the lives of your grandparents? Do you have a special memory? Can you think of something that they taught you? Is there something that you could teach them? Is there anything about their life that you would like to know? The games they played as children, their favorite songs, their memories, their families?

Welcome to G2G: Generation to Generation. We encourage generations to connect via personal memories, favorite foods, mementoes, photos, questions, discussions, songs, geography, religion. You name it, we encourage it. Our platform and technology enables the youth of today to connect with the youth of yesteryear. In the process, we learn about one another. It’s funny the wealth of material that you can learn and share with people in your family.

G2G brings generations together. Literally. We connect children with their grandparents, elderly members of the community with their young counterparts. They meet together in an exciting environment, share stories, and teach one another. We invite them to meet in schools, synagogues, community centers, even coffeehouses!

Each young candidate is paired with an older participant. The older participants share their life experiences. The younger generation shares their knowledge of the internet, modern technologies (smartphones are a big draw) and information that is relevant to our current daily life. However, the most important aspect is the dialogues that arise between the generations. This is the exceptional aspect of our program and the inestimable benefit to all involved.

If you are a teacher or a parent, this is how G2G works. The school enrolls in the program. They designate a class or group of young students (usually age ten or eleven and up) and a group of seniors. The seniors can be grandsparents, synagogue goers, retirees in a home, and volunteers.

The students undergo brief training sessions prior to their meetings. They talk about the older generation, discuss Jewish values, shatter stigmas and stereotypes, and learn to be leaders in creative thinking.

The second stage? Close encounters of the G2G kind!  Usually there is an opening get-together with all participants. They break up into pairs, and begin their discussions. Each meeting includes a given topic (holiday memories, childhood, dreams, hobbies, and life-changing events). Together they document the meetings, using Ourboox, Google maps, Google earth, Youtube, searching for family trees, photos.

At the end of the meetings, the story is uploaded to the Beit Hatfutsot – The Museum of the Jewish People story collection.

The story collection includes thousands of stories from all over the Jewish world. It could be about growing up in Iran, Hanuka presents in Manchester, memories from the War of Independence, finding the afikoman in Mexico.

So come and join us now. It’s as easy as clicking on this link!