Getting wrapped up

Start Your World Wide Wrap Planning, Yesterday

By Bruce Gordon

Wrapping tefillin is definitional for Jews, but it takes just a few minutes.

If you add a few prayers and perhaps some study, it still will only consume no more than 15 minutes of your morning if you wrap solo.

I got my start of daily use of tefillin at a World Wide Wrap many years ago, and have never looked back. The Shema even commands us to wrap tefillin daily: You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.   

That’s why I think every day is World Wide Wrap. But as FJMC International, we’ve selected one day in particular to focus on it. This year, that falls on Feb. 7, 2027. And while your club’s planning for it would ideally have already begun, it is certainly not too late to start.

It has been my experience that this event is an effective way to build your club’s membership, facilitate succession and increase value for your community. As World Wide Wrap Chair Bill Becker has noted, please go to the FJMC website to pick up more tools.

Make note that this year’s international event falls a week before Super Bowl Sunday. That’s because religious schools are closed for President’s Day the following weekend, the day after the Super Bowl, which precludes drop-in parents from participating on what would normally be our date.

How do you build your membership with this program?  It’s easy.  Have your program leader be a regular at the Sunday Shacharit Service. There you will find other Jewish men and women also using tefillin. If these are not already part of your program, recruit them to be trainers. Have leadership training once or twice before the actual event. Encourage your trainers to recruit others to your Wrap. Drive your numbers up!

I recruited my successor who is leading this year’s wrap from our local leaders. He is now attending board meetings. I met our immediate past president Seth Feldman at our Wrap about seven years ago. I invited him to attend our board. He rose in succession and led a large delegation to the 2025 convention.

Here are other best practices:

1. Meet with your rabbi(s) to get their input early. In that way, you will get their buy-in, participation and support.
2. Meet with your religious school director. Doing this provided us with a meaningful enhancement. In previous years, the kids would show up during Shacharit, and chaos ensued. Our meeting with the director enabled us to do separate children’s training after the adult training.
3. Donate tefillin to your shul. B’nai mitvah tefillin are much cheaper and kosher. Our club donated five sets in 2025.
4. Encourage wrappers to order tefillin.
5. Donate used tefillin for needy Jews around the world. Refer to Rabbi Raucher’s program on the website, through Kulanu.
6. Donate new tefillin to needy Jews. The International Kiddush Club, a program of FJMC, donated 10 pairs in 2025.
7. Partner with an international club and support them with tefillin and outreach. Contact FJMC International Region President Jerry Brodsky, and he’ll get you going.
8. Involve women and girls. What makes the Masorti Movement special is our commitment to rigor and inclusion. I love the energy a great woman service leader brings.
9. Consider Build-a-Pair. Many communities embrace this program. It creates a love for the mitzvah early.
10. Consider partnering with neighboring clubs. That’s what Bill Becker and his brothers in Texas do. And they have great hospitality along with it.

Don’t forget to register your Wrap early. It warms Bill’s and my heart to see those clubs on the roster. It is a Quality Club requirement.

Please reach out to us for support. Make this year’s World Wide Wrap a winner!

Bruce Gordon is co-chair of World Wide Wrap for FJMC International.