Chanukah Cookies and Storytelling

Its Chanukah, a time for telling stories about our heritage, our history, and our families. Its how we pass along our values, our beliefs and rituals, and our legacies. At my familys annual cousins Chanukah party a tradition that is close to 50 years old (if not more), my aunt made sure to point out to the three generations present that the cookies she had baked for everyone were based on my late grandmothers recipe.

To the uninitiated, the cookies appear rather simple. They are probably best appreciated by those of us who grew up on them precisely because they connect us back to our family history and our grandmother. But the cookies are also part of the experience of the younger generation, those who did not know their great-grandmother personally, but who will instead associate those cookies with our annual family gatherings and make connections from their own vantage points. They are developing their own stories to share, stories that will extend our family’s narratives.

Story telling is important for organizations as well. There are many ways to tell our stories. One way is to share interesting practices and successes, as suggested by Lisas post below. How we present ourselves online is another way of relating our stories.

In what ways does your online presence depict your organizations story? How does it reflect the diversity of your membership and its experiences? What are the values, beliefs, and rituals projected in your online narrative? How would someone new to your community – a new reader – interpret your organizations story? And in what ways can we facilitate connecting these stories to the larger, ever expanding, intricately interwoven community?

Chag sameach!

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