Tonight, after White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel spoke to their General Assembly, the Jewish Federations of North America named me “The Jewish Community Hero of the Year“. I’m sure I’m not the first to say, “They made a huge mistake.”

To put it in perspective, I beat a father of nine who gave away his kidney to a stranger. (I think it’s because if they asked him to do it again, he’d say no. Donors like consistency. ) Then I was selected over people who work with thousands of special-needs kids, soldiers, imigrant workers, poor brides, and lost teens. In short, thanks to the wonderful people at the Jewish Federations of North America and their judges, I’m out of karma.

I walked around the Federation’s Assembly in awe of the thousands of Jewish leaders and volunteers who give their time, money, and passion to their communities in the pursuit of knowledge, peace, health, and meaning. There was a great positive energy there, with Jews of all backgrounds gathering to focus on the future. It was a gathering of thousands of heroes.

I’m humbled and grateful that they chose to highlight the work of the thousands of young Jewish heroes who are JCorps.

JCorps exists because committed people create it every day around the world with their actions. From the beginning, Rafi Farber, Barry Berkowitz, Eliana Bavli, Rebecca Saidlower, Ron Arazi, Shira Berenson, Jesse Nowlin, Leora Schanfield, Sara Cole, Doris Miriam, Jennifer Goldman, Jessica Leiter, Rebecca Gross, Oliver Josephs, Jennifer Citak, Steyer Reyhorn, Elad Blumenthal, Matthew Solomon, Nataly Gutflais, Gregg Alpert, and thousands more have contributed to the growth of JCorps, making events happen and getting people involved in making a difference. There would be no JCorps without them. Last year they fed over 21,000 hungry people, visited hundreds of seniors and sick children, and turned acres of unusable park into play-spaces for kids and families.

There are people who inspire and assist me every day. I would not be here without Peretz and Chanie Chein at Brandeis. This is their victory. I am humbled by their unconditional love for all people. They are part of my family, which is one that relishes and reveres out-of-the-box thinking, education, and community. We get that from our passionate and always-amused Grandma and Bubbeh. Mom, Dad, Alana, Mendy & Ariela, Israel, Bina & Tzvi, Elaine & Alan, Rachel & George, Debbie & Larry, Jesse, Danny, Daniel, Jill, Yodels & Bagels, Daniel, Aaron, Janelle, Arianna, Ilan, Max, Yoni, Avner, Mike and Elissa, have all taught me how to laugh and see the world differently. For a few years this resulted in medication, but I am still grateful.

I am grateful to my dear friends who have stood behind my crazy ideas, and supported me constantly. If you can judge a person by the friends they keep, maybe I’m not out of karma. Or maybe they are.

I’m also grateful to those along the way who recognized JCorps’ potential and gave us encouragement, and taught me some of the many things I need to learn. Tamar Snyder and the Jewish Week, the JTA, NATAN and Felicia Herman, Shawn and Joshua at Jumpstart, ROI and Lynn Schusterman and Sandy Cardin, Alan Feld, Blank Rome, Google, David Sarna, Graham Hoffman at Hillel, the Birthright teams, my home town of Teaneck and its neighbor Englewood, Mayor Bloomberg’s  Volunteer Team, and to folks like Seth Godin and TED for priceless, practical wisdom. A special thanks to Andy Neusner and his team at JFNA who shined 500,000 candles on the service done so many great people.

Every night, I get to step into a real-life dream as a comedian, and one of the biggest perks is the people who share that world. It’s a world of artists and writers and performers and professionals and fans. The comedians I work with are some of the nicest people you’ll meet and they encourage and inspire me every night. It’s the best part of my life, and I hope you’ll visit us at a comedy club soon.

I am humbled to even be considered among the true heroes that are Finalists Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Devorah Benjamin, Shmuly Yanklowitz, and Rabbi Yonah Bookstein. I am jealous of them because each is truly dedicated to the Jewish people and if you want to see passion and success ask them about their causes. In my head I have the voice of Wayne and Garth, “I’m unworthy. I’m unworthy.” And the fact that I just quoted Wayne and Garth proves it.

I’m sure I’m missing a lot of people that deserve credit and thanks. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. Now that I have this award, I don’t have to help anyone ever again.

Thanks.

Ari

Join JCorps: http://jcorps.org
Comedy: http://ariteman.com

The Video from the Federation:

With Natan Sharansky (a real hero)

Thanks to the folks at New York’s Mann About Town for featuring me in their January 2009 issue. It’s really a very nice article and you should subscribe to their magazine. Subscribe twice because some articles are worth re-reading.

Here’s the text of the article. Photos and more here.

Helping from the Heart

It’s fifteen minutes past midnight and a steady flow of fans exits Manhattan’s A-list Broadway Comedy Club. “Thanks for coming,” says a dapper 26 year-old with a dimpled smile and a bright glint in his eye. “Oh, man, you were great, do you ever travel?” says a fan, the fiftieth-or-so to repeat this in a row, this one with a British accent. “Thanks, if you’d like, join my fan list and I’ll let you know when I’m coming to your town.” And so Ari Teman’s fan list is filled with the names of fans who have gotten to know him through his refreshingly clever, personable and insightful act.

However, they only know a fraction about Ari Teman. In a typical day Teman acts as CEO of a hot startup company, the head of an international volunteer organization, a writer, blogger, inventor, and artist. He has seven email addresses, three phone numbers, and every social networking tool out there. Pick a career that would overwhelm anyone, and Teman does five of them. And he’s just getting started.

Two years ago, Teman founded JCorps, considered the world’s first “social volunteering” network. JCorps (http://JCorps.org) is a non-denominational network that groups Jewish adults ages 18-28 to volunteer. Starting with $300, Teman built it into an organization with thousands of members, operating in New York, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Montreal, and Toronto. In a typical year it feeds 21,000 meals to the hungry, comforts hundreds of seniors, and visits many children in hospitals. If you’re enjoying the park, there’s a good chance a JCorps volunteer helped clean it up. The amazing thing is, Teman runs JCorps as a volunteer.

While charities around the world are complaining about decreasing donations, JCorps is entirely volunteer-run and continues to grow rapidly. Using the latest technology and empowering Team Leaders to make decisions within set guidelines, JCorps grows as fast as volunteers want it to grow — which it turns out is very fast. JCorps is about to open in two more US cities.

JCorps has also been studied by Hebrew University and the Cohen Center at Brandeis University. It has received grants from Google, and counts companies like Verizon and McGraw Hill as donors.

For all this, Teman was named to The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36″, recognizing the top innovators in the New York community. Teman is also deeply involved with other New York charities and events, and is often asked onto committees. Last year Teman was lauded in area papers for his use of psychology and high-technology to help the Sensi charity dinner raise almost half a million dollars online.

Teman is also the CEO of 12gurus, an award-winning innovation startup with a series of recognized services. One, GatherGrid (http://gathergrid.com ), was just called “the most useful interface I’ve seen to-date” by CenterNetworks, one of the worlds top technology magazines. It helps find you the ideal meeting or call time for a group of people, and it’s 100% free with no registration required. In keeping with his charity theme, GatherGrid even donates 10% of revenues to a charity you choose. Teman’s second startup, Contempe (http://contempe.com ), is poised to revolutionize the way you email, it will save firms millions of dollars a year in wasted time, and can increase email marketing response rates by double. But other than that, it’s a stealth company, so you’ll have to wait a few months to see its magic — or get in as an investor.

If you want to make things happen, you go to Teman. Last year Teman, who jokes with audiences, “I’m a Republican — It’s not a political thing. I just don’t like helping people.” invented a web-based system to connect and track political lobbying calls over the Internet. It was used to help rally on behalf of Jerusalem. The campaign, and the system it used, PhoneLobby (http://phonelobby.com ), also a 12gurus product, was covered by the Washington Post and Salon Magazine. For three days, the White House, State Department, and Israel Embassy call centers were overwhelmed and unable to handle the volume of callers Teman’s system drove their way. Both governments abandoned talks about dividing Jerusalem.

When Teman isn’t on stage or at some charity function, you can catch him speeding around Manhattan on his bike, hitting the latest restaurants with friends, or touring museums. Not one just to observe, Teman is an artist who sold a print last year at an auction by the renowned Simon dePury. Teman holds honors degrees in Studio Arts and Psychology from Brandeis University and will be honored at a Brandeis student dinner this year for his contributions as a student and alumni.

If there’s something magical about Ari it’s that you’d never suspect he had ten million plates spinning at once. Laid back and jovial, Ari will connect with you at an intense level and you’ll rapidly find yourself smiling and laughing. The fact that he’s got Edison’s brain cranking our solutions to your problems doesn’t hurt, but what’s reassuring is that no matter how difficult the problem is, Ari’s got a joke to help you smile about it.

And jokes he’s got! Ari is a regular at some of the country’s top comedy clubs. In New York, he’s a favorite at the Broadway Comedy Club (53rd and 8th Ave) and Stand~Up NY (78th and Broadway) and you can see him on the line-ups among comics from the Tonight Show, Letterman, Conan, SNL, and Comedy Central. He’s also a favorite at private events. After a recent performance at NYU, the vice president of the student organization that booked him called Teman, “comic genius”, and promised to have him back. Teman is a Jewlarious Magazine featured comic – putting him among Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Richard Lewis, Modi, Avi Liberman, and Robert Klein.

Teman’s style is endearing and mischievous at the same time. He can talk about racial and political topics and dance on the edge of the line and you’ll love him like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. He’s clean and innocent, and yet he’s got this inherent naughtiness to him that you notice as he walks the audience into realizing and laughing at their own biases. He’s Richard Lewis-meets-Lewis Black-meets-Larry David and he’s something entirely new. He has you laughing at the setups to his jokes and dying at the punch line. He’s strikingly intellectual and always five steps ahead of the audience. If you think you see it coming – you’ll always be pleasantly surprised. Amazingly, you leave the club after watching Ari, full of hope and wonder. Like the comic himself, you begin to see the world differently, and you smile.

Teman brings all of his passions together hosting charity comedy shows for organizations like BigBrothersBigSisters, the One Family Fund, and even JCorps, raising thousands for charities through laughter.

See when Ari is performing near you and connect with him at http://ariteman.com/schedule.

To learn more about JCorps, visit: http://jcorps.org