News from Grantees

updated April 14, 2026
Adamah shared a comprehensive 2025 Impact Report, detailing its growth and impact. An excerpt from the report’s opening letter notes, “In these pages, you will learn about our expansion, and see the steady deepening of roots, new initiatives building upon what came before, and programs that widen our reach while strengthening our core. Whether through immersive retreats, youth leadership, climate action, campus engagement, community impact hubs, or strategic partnerships, Adamah is cultivating vibrant Jewish life that is resilient, empowered, and deeply connected to the earth.” A quick look at their impact by the numbers:

45,000 participants across all Adamah programs in 2025
9,000 students engaged through the Jewish Youth Climate Movement and Adamah on Campus, empowering the next generation
800 members joined the Jewish Green Business Network in six months
500 organizations joined the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition since launching in 2022
1,500 total ADVA alumni participated in the Young Adult Fellowships (Teva Educators and Adamah Farm) since their inception

updated March 10, 2026
Nearly 100 heads of school from Jewish day schools and yeshivas across North America gathered for Prizmah’s recent Head of School Retreat for three days of learning focused on the challenges and opportunities of school leadership. Each day began and ended with the sharing of a kavanah, “intention,” transforming simple transitions into moments of reflection, focus, and presence. Through these intentions, which you can read here, heads revealed the hopes, questions, and aspirations they carry for their communities, deepening connection and grounding their shared work in clarity, courage, and heart. Other highlights from the retreat:

Leaders in the field along with keynote presenters led sessions covering topics such as: navigating leadership challenges and opportunities with nuance and intention, developing ethical and future-ready artificial intelligence strategies for schools, addressing affordability, and more.
Sheila Dubin, a Fortune 1,000 leadership coach from Cultivating Leadership, served as Facilitator-in-Residence, led sessions on frameworks for effective decision-making in complex times and navigating real-life tensions to sustain healthy school communities. Christina Lewellen, President and CEO of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (ATLIS), spoke about AI in schools and other technological tools and strategies heads of schools can use to maximize human contributions.
It was a wonderful opportunity to sit with other heads of school, to learn about similarities of our schools, and to support each other in aspects of this work where our schools are different as well,” said Ilana Mann, Head of School in Kinneret in New York, and a participant in Prizmah’s Day School Leadership Training Institute for new and aspiring heads of schools. “We were able to pause and think about things in a meaningful way. The speakers’ thoughtful presentations gave tools that I can bring back to school and use immediately.”

updated February 10, 2026
At the Well, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025, shared key moments of impact in its year in review:

We served over 26,000 unique participants in 2025, inviting women around the world to learn, move, connect, and deepen their relationship with Jewish practices.
With the launch of our new Family Rosh Chodesh initiative and Rosh Chodesh Together toolkit, we provided teachings and resources to help parents bring sacred time into their homes for the next generation. We hosted 8 in-person and virtual workshops, equipping families to celebrate Rosh Chodesh at home monthly as a mindful Jewish moment. The early results of these trainings are powerful:
- 100% of participants felt equipped to talk with their children about Rosh Chodesh
- 75% rated their confidence as 5/5
- One parent shared: “The family Moon Manual is so helpful — the language is thoughtfullyadjusted for kids.”
We also invited our community into deeper relationship with each other inside the At The Well Collective—a digital platform with members from the U.S., Canada, Israel, Colombia, Jamaica, and beyond. This app is members’ digital home for connection, learning and belonging, and it represents a strategic investment in the long-term success of our Well Circles and the broader movement for Jewish spiritual wellness.

updated February 4, 2026
The Shalom Hartman Institute’s Rabbanut North America program–which aims to create a rabbinate grounded in pluralism, textual mastery, and moral aspiration–welcomed its second cohort. Cohort II includes 16 individuals, ranging from early- to senior-career professionals, public intellectuals, and global service leaders, alongside senior Jewish educators and institutional leaders. Following their first in-person gathering in New York, new cohort members reflected on their initial learning in the program:

I was fascinated by the deep dive into the history and texts about the evolution of the concept of the rabbi and the notion of rabbinic leadership. – Elan Kogutt, Senior Fellow at the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory at Harvard Kennedy School
We were introduced to a very sophisticated balance between the program as a shared journey and a sense of solidarity among the cohort, along with an encouragement for each individual to pursue and develop their own path and coherence. – Faustine Sigal, Strategic Advisor to PJ Library and Content Advisor for HBO France for “La Rabbine” (aired on HBO in North America as “Reformed”)

I found the [opening retreat] helpful for naming the ways that we both already know how to lead because of our professional experience, and that learning Torah has work to do in us. I loved the question [we were asked], “What does it look like when Torah succeeds?” I will keep asking that framing question. It’s such a core question for me and I loved getting to explore it with others. – Bethany Slater, Executive Director of Claremont Hillel

The head of the program, Hartman’s Rabbi Jesse Paikin shared insights on the cohort participants:
The students drawn to Rabbanut North America reflect the “untapped well” of future rabbis: medical doctors and psychologists; law professors and Ivy League academics; technologists and humanitarian workers. Their presence widens our understanding of rabbinic leadership itself. What has struck me most is not the structural innovations, but the effect of bringing together genuinely pluralistic cohorts and treating their ideological and developmental differences as part of their formation. Students describe learning to inhabit tension, not resolve it, as one of the most transformative aspects of their development. – Rabbi Jesse Paikin, Director, Rabbanut North America

updated January 4, 2026
Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) released the findings of 2025 State of the Field Census Part I: The Business of Operating Jewish Camp, highlighting record attendance at Jewish camps this past summer as well as field-wide mobilization to boost financial aid and renovate camp infrastructure. Key data includes: Jewish camps engaged nearly 200,000 young campers and staff in summer 2025 — a 5% increase over the previous year and all-time record. The report also details expanded financial aid distribution of $47.2 million, as FJC, camps, and community partners work to narrow the gap between requested and distributed aid. The report’s key findings include:

Increased Participation — 198,730 campers and young adult staff participated in Jewish camps across FJC’s network of 168 day camps and 161 overnight camps. This all-time record is nearly 9% higher than 2019’s pre-pandemic high, and nearly 30% higher than 2021, the first year camps moved to resume operations after COVID.
Camps Expand Aid Amid Rising Requests — In 2025, families requested $56 million in financial aid, partly driven by higher camp operating costs. At the same time, camps increased aid distribution to $47.2 million, narrowing the gap between requested and distributed aid. 37% of families who receive direct tuition aid say they would be unlikely to attend camp without it.
Investment in Facilities and Year-Round Engagement — Most overnight camps and more than a fifth of day camps have completed new buildings or renovated existing ones in the past five years. Even more are planning upcoming projects. As camps look to modernize infrastructure, many are also seeking to expand offerings outside of summer. Nearly half of overnight camps (49%) and over half of day camps (58%) are interested in providing additional programmatic and retreat offerings to engage campers, families, alumni, and communities throughout the year.

updated October 29, 2025
Multiple grantees offered timely resources immediately following news of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire going into effect and hostages being released. A sample of these materials includes the following:

To help communities hold and honor this moment, M² curated five resources that reframe Jewish customs, each offering a small ritual or gesture that can be done in classrooms, boardrooms, around the table, or even alone.
To help Jewish youth process the ceasefire deal in Gaza and the hostage release, Moving Traditions offered a new special edition curriculum.
The iCenter offered melodies and words to help process this moment and the wide range of emotions and questions it brings, designed to “lift up the human voices and stories, to learn from them, and to consider how to navigate the uncertainty, pain, and hope of this time as we continue to shape the educational work of the iCenter community.”

updated October 29, 2025
Hillel International shared its Learning and Planning survey results of local Hillel professionals providing feedback on their perceptions of Hillel International’s support to the field. This is the third such survey from Hillel, conducted initially at the request of the Foundation. Brief background info:

The third annual movement-wide survey launched to Field and SIC professionals in mid June and collected response data over a period of two weeks. Since 2023, over 1,000 Field Professionals have shared input and feedback through the Learning and Planning survey.
The survey invited professionals to share priorities, perspectives, and feedback, reflecting on the past year and, looking ahead to the next. In particular, the survey explored field satisfaction across current supports and resources and anticipated areas of focus.
This years survey yielded responses from 131 SIC Professionals and 359 Field Professionals across 140 unique Hillels in North America.
View the slide deck with survey results here.

updated September 29, 2025
Birthright Israel shared an “Insider Briefing Recap and Update” with the Foundation, which you can see below and includes links to slides from a recent funder presentation they gave.

2025 Program Recap & Looking Ahead to 2026 (Slides)

More than 24,000 Jewish young adults participated across all programs to date this year, with volunteer numbers exceeding expectations. We expect nearly 28,000 participants by the end of 2025.
We are proud of Birthright Israel’s successful operation in the face of significant challenges during Summer 2025, including foreign airline cancellations and the evacuation of 2,800 participants during the Iran war. Remarkably, we resumed and continued our programs from July through September.
A new Birthright Israel marketing campaign launched with core messages in two videos: “It starts with a trip. It stays with you” and “Come ask big questions.” Check one out here. Additionally, the campaign has a special focus on parents, with a dedicated landing webpage created just for them featuring testimonials, safety and security information, and practical guidance for families.

Educational Learnings & Impact (Slides)

Evaluation by the Szold Institute proved how Birthright Israel maintained high participant satisfaction scores for staff performance, engagement with Israeli peers through the Mifgash, reflection time, and group bonding and cohesion despite many geopolitical challenges this season.
The Szold Institute’s evaluation affirmed Birthright Israel’s high satisfaction ratings are in line with previous seasons. These findings highlighted successful staff performance, participant engagement with Israeli peers through the Mifgash, ample reflection time, and strong group cohesion.
Findings indicated that participants developed resilience, broadened their perspectives through peer interaction, and strengthened Jewish identity through experiential learning and their lived experiences in Israel.
Participants needed to process 10/7 together with their peers, through meaningful visits to the Nova Music Festival site.

Onward

There have been around 1,800 Onward participants this year to date, including 1,200 who were evacuated from Israel in June during Operation Rising Lion. Despite all they endured, hundreds of Onward participants returned to Israel to resume their programs and were joined by nearly 600 other Jewish young adults who started their Onward journey in July. We are proud that many of our internship partners continued hosting our participants for career-building opportunities after Operation Rising Lion, as well as demonstrating a strong commitment to offering engaging and positive internship experiences.
This included the launch of the Onward Storytellers Fellowship, which debuted successfully this summer with two cohorts of 50 participants from 10 countries. More cohorts are planned for the winter 2025/2026 season and throughout 2026.
The Storytellers Fellowship is redefining Jewish influence and shaping global conversations for a new generation. We are bringing together influential Jewish young adults from across industries and countries to transform their stories into cultural impact. Through two tracks — a 4-week fellowship on geopolitics, digital influence, and social media at Reichman University, and a 9-day incubator journey for founders, creatives and thought leaders — participants design projects and content that amplify authentic Jewish voices and shift global perceptions. Participants leave with the confidence to own their narrative, cutting-edge tools, and a powerful peer network to shape the conversation about Jews and Israel worldwide.

Volunteer

More than 8,000 volunteers have participated to date this year, exceeding our projections.
Volunteers joined together with residents of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in the Gaza Envelope, who recently returned to their homes for the first time since October 7^th. Together they celebrated in the public gardens and along paths renewed, planted, and built by Birthright Israel volunteers over the past month. This is one of countless examples of the remarkable impact that the volunteer program is having on our participants and Israeli society.
We launched a new initiative for six groups of parents of IDF lone soldiers to join us in Israel on our volunteer program. These experiences began with a Shabbaton with their children on IDF bases and led them to build community and connection. This program has been incredibly impactful, for both the soldiers and their parents. If you’re interested in learning more, please let us know.
Other recent examples of volunteer assignments include cleaning debris at impact sites of Iranian missiles in Tel Aviv and Bat Yam, cooking and baking for IDF soldiers, bringing joy to patients at hospitals (including wounded soldiers), and much more.

Excel (Slides)

For background, the Excel Fellowship begins with a summer business or tech internship in Tel Aviv. Each year’s cohort is made up of highly accomplished Jewish college students who are pursuing careers across a wide spectrum of industries within business and/or technology. Excel Fellows are selected for their potential to become Jewish business and tech leaders. Each Fellow embarks on an in-depth professional internship choosing among a wide selection of industries. Each Global Excel Fellow is paired 1:1 with an Israeli peer Excel Fellow when arriving in Israel. After the summer, the Global Excel Fellows become part of the lifelong Excel Community surrounded by professional development and personal development, cultivating Jewish leadership, and building further bridges to Israel.
This past summer, 78 of 80 Fellows returned to Israel in July after the evacuation, with strong internships, engagement, and leadership development. Two others completed their Fellowship remotely.
Please enjoy this Excel video recapping this year’s remarkable cohort. It’s worth the watch!
Excel held a very successful retreat for 60 Senior Fellows and the new Executive Cohort this past weekend in Washington, D.C.

updated August 27, 2025
Hillel International released a new 2025-2028 strategic plan, The Future of Jewish Belonging on Campus. Hillel noted, “This plan is the culmination of more than a year of work and thoughtful collaboration with Hillel campus professionals, lay leaders, students, and stakeholders, and will serve as a roadmap for how we’ll support Jewish college students and the Hillel movement during the next three academic years.” Other highlights from the plan’s release:

This plan is designed to meet the defining moment that our community faces: Jewish college students need meaningful spaces of belonging—spaces where they are not only safe, but also able to express their Jewish identities with pride, joy, and confidence. More broadly, the plan reflects our belief in the power of Jewish life not only to respond to the unique challenges of this period, but to shape a new generation of connected, confident, and courageous Jewish adults.
The Future of Jewish Belonging on Campus focuses on three key change strategies to achieve this future:
- Growing Jewish joy and connection on campus through expanded Jewish communal engagement
- Ensuring Jewish inclusion and resilience by addressing antisemitism and promoting Jewish pride
- Inspiring a transformative new generation of Jewish leaders by empowering more Jewish students than ever to create, build, and lead on campus and beyond
The plan also re-commits Hillel to its Core Continuing Strategies that it has implemented over the past decade:
- Attracting, developing, and retaining outstanding talent
- Pursuing and supporting excellence for every Hillel
- Enabling meaningful, high-impact Jewish life, learning, and Israel experiences
- Meeting the holistic needs of Jewish students on their Jewish and life journeys
- Growing relationships between Jewish students around the world
- Securing sustainable resources to fulfill Hillel’s mission

updated July 28, 2025
Foundation for Jewish Camp’s (FJC) Board of Directors announced that “Jamie Simon, who led the organization in an interim capacity since March 2025 and previously served as chief program and strategy officer, will take the helm as the organization’s next chief executive officer. Simon was unanimously selected by FJC’s Board after a highly competitive, nationwide search. She will be the first woman to serve as CEO in the organization’s 27-year history.” Additional excerpts from the announcement:

“Jamie is an exceptionally skilled, visionary, and inspiring leader who is deeply grounded in the values and mission of Jewish camp,” said Foundation for Jewish Camp Board Chair Jim Heeger. “After our extensive search with many qualified candidates, it was clear that Jamie is the best leader to steward the organization’s next chapter. She has already demonstrated extraordinary leadership within the organization’s ranks, developed strong relationships with partners, and has lived and breathed the mission and values of Jewish camp throughout her decades-long professional career.”
With more than 20 years of experience in Jewish camping, Jamie is uniquely prepared to shape the organization’s next chapter with vision, care, and proven leadership. Simon joined FJC in 2023 as its first chief program and strategy officer. She had previously spent 17 years at the Tawonga Jewish Community Corporation in California, including six years as its CEO.
At FJC, Simon has played instrumental roles in securing major, seven-figure gifts; leading FJC’s ongoing strategic planning process; and overseeing last year’s Leaders Assembly in Chicago that saw the largest turnout in the organization’s history, with nearly 950 camp professionals and field leaders in attendance.

updated June 30, 2025
The Jewish Education Project released a new three year strategic plan. Excerpts from the opening letter:

At The Jewish Education Project, we believe Jewish education is not only essential for individual thriving—it’s a vital strategy for the Jewish future. The 3-Year Strategic Plan sets the stage for a bold future, where Jewish education is both timely and timeless, equipping young people with cultural confidence, resilience, and a sense of purpose.
Whether Jewish education in a given setting has been exceptional, or not, one truth is undeniable: the world around us has changed at an unprecedented pace. These rapid shifts compel us to rethink—and in some cases, fundamentally redesign—the systems, structures, and strategies that shape Jewish education.
These times demand not only urgent responses but bold visionary leadership. As this strategic plan outlines, preparing for the next 25 years requires both a reinvestment in the strong infrastructure that has served us to this point and a bold exploration of new models and approaches that resonate with contemporary families.
For over a century, The Jewish Education Project has supported Jewish educators with the tools, training, and inspiration they need. Now, we are dreaming even bigger. This plan is our call to action—to innovate, elevate, and disrupt what no longer serves the Jewish people, while holding fast to the traditions that ground and guide us.
We can’t do this alone. We are committed to strengthening the entire Jewish educational ecosystem through bold thought leadership, high-impact professional development, and resources that drive excellence. Through deep partnerships across this ecosystem, we will deliver the transformational change our mission demands.
We envision a generation living with unshakable Jewish pride, embracing Israel as central to their identity, standing against antisemitism as well as all forms of hatred, and feeling a deep responsibility to the Jewish People and to building a better world. This plan is our path forward.

updated June 30, 2025
Foundation for Jewish Camp implemented a major public campaign at the start of the Israel-Iran war to help fill positions at camp held by Israelis who might be unable to fly to the states. This JTA article captures the sentiments of camp leaders and FJC’s efforts. FJC recently posted this positive update on Facebook:

Thank you to everyone who has stepped up to support Jewish camp this summer!

Whether you filled out our form, shared the opportunity, or cheered from the sidelines—your passion and commitment mean the world to us. For those who signed up to work at camp, we’re actively matching folks based on skills, location, and availability. If there’s a fit, you’ll hear directly from a camp soon.

We’re also thrilled to share that some Israeli staff have arrived in North America, and we’re hopeful more shlichim will join their camp communities soon!

If you do not hear from a camp, please know that you are on our waitlist, and we will be in touch if a position becomes available. We will absolutely let you know about camp positions and other opportunities in the future. If a position at camp does not work out for you this summer, we still want you to know how much we appreciate your interest and hope to keep you connected to the Jewish camp community.

In the meantime, keep in touch! You can join our mailing list to stay up-to-date on everything Jewish camp! https://jewishcamp.org/signup/

updated June 30, 2025
The Jews of Color Initiative announced a new series of grants awarded to organizations and initiatives, “Addressing Antisemitism Through a JoC Lens.” The JoCI notes on its website:

This powerful cohort of ten inspiring projects brings bold, intersectional strategies to the essential work of addressing antisemitism, rooted in the leadership, creativity, and bridge-building insights of Jews of Color. Grantee leaders will meet quarterly in a JoCI-facilitated cohort to engage in shared learning and deepen the impact of their work through thought partnership and peer support, and share their learnings at the end of the year.
From youth education, interfaith trainings, to multilingual resource guides, public programming and community workshops, original research, and even a bridge-building card game, these grantees are building unique, adaptable approaches that challenge bias, shift narratives, and strengthen the entire American Jewish community’s capacity to address antisemitism in its many forms.
Together, these projects demonstrate how Jews of Color are not only reframing how we understand antisemitism, but also leading the way in building stronger, more connected, and more just communities for all.

updated May 13, 2025
More than 1,300 Jewish communal professionals convened for JPro25 in Baltimore, presented in partnership by Leading Edge and JFNA. This was the first JPro–the industry’s premiere conference–since Leading Edge acquired JPro earlier this year. eJewish Philanthropy was on the ground covering the event. A good recap is here. Key excerpts from the story are below:

Since Oct. 7, Jewish professionals have been experiencing a grueling tug of war. On one end, the rising scourge of antisemitism and polarization squeezes the field, while on the other, surging demand for Jewish communal spaces is a revitalizing force for Jewish organizations, and those who run them, even as it demands ever more of them. At JPro2025, co-hosted by Leading Edge and the Jewish Federations of North America, which drew 1,300 to Baltimore this week, professionals unpacked that push and pull and sought ways to meet in the middle.
According to a spokesperson for JFNA, a core goal of the conference, which ended on Wednesday, was to establish a sense of belonging and support for Jewish communal professionals. So while scaffolding was provided to help professionals navigate polarized and politicized spaces, the politics themselves were intentionally not at the forefront.
Notable was the representation from early career professionals, Gali Cooks, founding president and CEO of Leading Edge, told eJP last week. “The majority of the folks who are coming are five to 10 years into their professional career, and have made a decision to continue with a Jewish professional arc, which is exciting,” Cooks said. “We have a fair number of executive leaders and funders coming as well, who are also part of this whole ecosystem. So we see it as building the Mishkan together in ways that are rare. We’re in a world that’s polarized and bifurcated too often.”
The recent release of JFNA’s updated data indicating the continuation of the Surge also permeated conversation, with several speakers highlighting the importance of meeting the moment. “We are doing remarkable work, right? We have swung open our doors to try to make room for all the folks who have wanted to hop into Jewish life,” said Josh Miller, chief program officer of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “And there is absolutely more for us to be doing.”

updated May 13, 2025
Repair the World and Yahel brought leaders of major Jewish organizations (including many Foundation grantees) to Israel in April on an “Israel Service Seminar” to strengthen the movement of Americans volunteering in Israel, build bridges among the two communities, and make an impact in Israel’s continued recovery following the October 7th attacks. Cindy Greenberg, CEO of Repair the World, shared key takeaways from this experience and the opportunities she sees for the field in a letter to the Foundation and other funders. Here’s one excerpt:

We can build a movement, but we need to think bigger than any one organization. At the first Service Matters: Israel Summit, we convened over 140 leaders working with international volunteers in Israel. If we transition from individual players and organizations to a unified field, we can strengthen our efforts and build a movement. Our goal should be to send tens of thousands of American Jewish volunteers to serve in Israel. To make the biggest impact, we must collaborate both on recruitment/marketing and on operationalizing the service in Israel. The “field” needs investment and stronger infrastructure. Yahel’s regional hub model has been highly effective, matching organizations with volunteers for service projects in several geographic areas. This model coordinates volunteering efforts across various organizations, enabling organizations and tour operators who are not experts in service to deliver high-quality service experiences. It ensures service projects are grounded in partnership and listening, while alleviating the burden on small non-profits to manage volunteers. This model should be expanded, including adding a hub in Jerusalem, and there should be more convenings for the broader field to align, share best practices, and support one another.

Read Cindy’s full letter here.

updated April 8, 2025
Jakir Manela, CEO of Adamah, shared a brief recap with the professional team about Adamah’s recent staff and lay leader trip to Israel, funded by the Foundation. Here is his letter in full:

With your support, we took a total of 38 participants (16 total staff) on a leadership trip to Israel, exploring the environmental movement in Israel, peacebuilding and coexistence work through nature and environmental cooperation, Israeli climate innovation in the tech sector and urban planning, and interweaving Jewish wisdom and experiential nature connection all throughout the week. The trip included Adamah staff and board members, leaders from other Jewish environmental organizations, as well as committee members and lay leaders, with a focus on people who hail from Adamah’s Community Impact Hubs: Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

The trip included visits with: Wadi Atir, the al-Fouraa school, the Arava Institute, SPNI, Megama Yeruka, Planettech, the Tel Aviv Office for Sustainability, Bar Kaima, the Jewish Climate Trust, the Shapira Community garden and Hayim v’Sviva. In each meeting, participants learned about the current work of the environmental movement in Israel, but also explored how that work might integrate and overlap with Adamah’s work in North America.

The trip also included hikes, bonfires and daily spiritual practice. We also devoted an entire half-day to visiting the Nova site, and meeting with a farmer who lives at Kibbutz Nativ Ha-asarah to learn how the Israel-Gaza conflict has affected her livelihood. Every day included time for note-taking and group de-briefing, as well as a final wrap-up session with concrete next steps on Sunday. A few examples: a participant from Los Angeles learned about a fire detection technology that works kind of like the Iron Dome, to detect fires before they spread and put them out; we saw waste water treatment technology that could be easily integrated at our retreat centers and potentially at overnight camps all over the country; Megama Yeruka wants to learn from JYCM and the Adamah Campus Network, not just on how they might move their advocacy work forward most effectively, but to also understand how Adamah’s youth empowerment work integrates Jewish wisdom into the work, something that seemed very absent from almost every environmental NGO with whom we met.

Participants blogged each day, which you can read here. While the feedback forms are still coming in, every participant agreed that this trip could turn into an annual leadership experience, taking Adamah’s core value of Peoplehood & Planethood into a reality. At the end of the trip, one participant- a staffer from another Jewish environmental organization- remarked that he had kind of “put Israel on the shelf” in his work, because it was just too painful and divisive, but that after this trip he feels ready to re-engage with these issues in a deep and meaningful way.

updated March 3, 2025
Leaders of organizations in the Jewish Emergent Network reflected on the Network’s growth and evolution, and announced that its initiatives and other offerings are now housed at the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable and Atra: Center for Rabbinic innovation. Melissa Balaban of IKAR, Rachel Cort of Mishkan, Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum of Kavana, and Justin Rosen Smolen, formerly the director of the Jewish Emergent Network and now at Reconstructing Judaism, shared in eJewish Philanthropy:

As this loose affiliation began to take shape, we partnered with the Jim Joseph Foundation to create the Jewish Emergent Network, with the idea that new and thriving Jewish spaces could grow together in surprising and creative ways. The story of the Jewish Emergent Network echoes the story of Jewish tradition and innovation, in which new forms of community emerge in response to the needs and desires of the people we serve, informed by the past but fundamentally oriented to the present moment. The Network formed a meta-community as the leadership of our seven communities leaned on each other and learned from one another, creating relationships that have now lasted for over a decade.
The Network’s first official project was the Rabbinic Fellowship, crafted with the Jim Joseph Foundation, who engaged other funders. Rather than competing for grants or being cut off from national funding opportunities, the Network worked collectively on behalf of the seven communities to secure funding for the fellowship. This was a unique partnership — independent synagogues located in different regions of the country don’t usually collaborate with one another on projects of this scale or duration, and large national funders don’t usually directly fund individual spiritual communities.
In a period of reflection about the future of the Network, we looked around us to realize, with great joy, that the landscape of innovative and vibrant Jewish organizations has exploded since we began 10 years ago. There are entire organizations, like Beloved Builders and UpStart, dedicated to supporting start-up Jewish spiritual communities and organizations. There are organizations to support Jewish gathering around Shabbat on a large scale (OneTable) and to embed progressive rabbis in young adult communities (BASE). There is a hub for Jewish social change organizations, the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, connecting groups carrying out justice work rooted in core values of Judaism. And there is an organization devoted exclusively to rabbinic leadership and innovation, Atra.
We celebrate these exciting developments for the field — and it was in this context, after a year-long wind-down as an independent network, that this past summer the Jewish Emergent Network passed on its core initiatives to two thriving organizations best positioned to carry out specific aspects of the Network’s legacy: the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable and Atra.

updated January 27, 2025
Moishe House launched an umbrella brand, Mem Global, to house its expanding suite of programs, including Moishe House. The new brand was covered in eJewish Philanthropy:

Moishe House was launched as an organization in 2008 following the success of its pilot program, introduced in 2006. Since 2020, the number of post-college young adult participants has nearly doubled, with over 130 Moishe House “pods” around the world, according to CEO David Cygielman.
Over the last decade, the organization has expanded to provide additional programming — many spearheaded by Moishe House alumni — including Moishe Pods, Moishe House Without Walls, Embark, Camp Nai Nai Nai, Base, Learning Retreats and the Jewish Learning Collaborative. These programs will all continue without interruption under the new parent brand.
“We evolved from a single program to a suite of programs serving young Jewish adults, and we think it’s more clear as to who we are – we’re a platform for young adult Jewish life. So setting this up allows us structurally also to welcome additional new programs,” Cygielman told eJewishPhilanthropy. “We want to make it clear that we’re really an umbrella organization, a platform for all sorts of ways to engage in Jewish life as young adults.”
According to Cygielman, the rebrand to Mem Global was largely because of that growth — as Moishe House continues to expand the number and reach of its programming, establishing brand clarity to accommodate that breadth was necessary, he said. He also hopes it will allow the organization to develop infrastructure to support the growing number of programs.

updated January 22, 2025
Leading Edge and JPro announced that they are uniting as a single organization–under the Leading Edge Brand–to support, engage, and develop leaders and professionals throughout the Jewish nonprofit sector. They shared:

Together, the combined organization will create a central address for the people who lead, work and serve the North American Jewish community, empowering them to deepen their impact at a critical time for the Jewish community.
JPro has educated and connected Jewish communal professionals for generations, while Leading Edge, founded in 2015, has been a premier voice on leadership and culture, grounded in innovative data from the field. Leading Edge has focused on developing top executives, HR leaders, and Board members. United, they will transform the quality and impact of leaders and professionals across the Jewish world – holistically.
“This combination will bring unprecedented vision, unity, clarity, and capacity to serving professionals and leaders throughout the North American Jewish nonprofit sector,” says Gali Cooks, President & CEO of Leading Edge. “As we face new challenges in the post-October-7th world, our Jewish ecosystem must invest in our most valuable resource — our people. In this exciting next step, we will create a ‘whole-system’ approach to making Jewish organizations more effective so that our community and the world thrive. With less redundancy and more strategic alignment, we can grow and drive change together in ways we couldn’t do apart.”

updated December 10, 2024
The Wexner Foundation, in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation, announced the new cohort of the Wexner Field Fellowship. This class is the inaugural cohort under revised eligibility criteria, focusing on established professionals ages 37-50. With the new Wexner Field Fellowship age range extending the age eligibility up to 50 years, there were more finalists who have had non-traditional career paths toward professional excellence including those with leadership positions in early childhood education and supplementary Jewish education. These candidates reflect the diverse Jewish practice, background, and experience in the Jewish professional field.

The newest Field Fellows will participate in a 3-year cohort-based learning initiative including semiannual institutes. The Wexner Foundation prepares talented professionals within the Jewish community for the challenges of these uncertain and volatile times. These professionals will participate in leadership seminars with world-class faculty and also benefit from one-on-one coaching, Jewish learning, and individualized professional development opportunities.
Rabbi Elka Abrahamson, Wexner Foundation President, shared, “It is gratifying to welcome a new class of Field Fellows who enter the Fellowship with deep experience both in life and in work. Having observed the changing landscape within Jewish Professional Leadership we have, with the support of our partners at the Jim Joseph and William Davidson Foundations, expanded our professional development initiatives. The capacity to develop and support an emerging set of Jewish professionals is one The Wexner Foundation cherishes more than ever, and we are proud, at this historic time, to develop more professional leaders (30 new fellows annually) than ever before. We aspire to support their developments and actualize their visions for a strong and vibrant Jewish future.”
These fifteen professionals were selected from a large, competitive pool of applicants. All Wexner Field Fellows are integrated into The Wexner Foundation’s vast network of more than 3,000 professional and volunteer leaders in North America and Israel, including the 30 other outstanding professionals who are now active Field Fellows, and our 100 Field Fellow Alumni. The new Fellows are:
- Lisa David: Executive Director, URJ Camp Harlam, URJ Camps, Jenkintown, PA
- Aliza Craimer Elias: Interim CEO, Institute for Curriculum Services, Berkeley, CA
- Shaun Goldstone: Senior Director, Global Resource Development, JDC, Huntington Beach, CA
- Mandy Kaiser-Blueth: Associate Vice President, National Women’s Philanthropy, Jewish Federations of North America, Atlanta, GA
- Manashe Khaimov: Founder and CEO, SAMi Sephardic American Mizrahi Initative, Hollywood, FL
- Jason Leivenberg: Associate Vice President, Innovation, Hillel International, Los Angeles, CA
- Judith Moses Dworkin: Senior Vice President, Campus Life & Advocacy, Hillel Ontario, Hamilton, ON
- Leah Palestrant: Executive Director, Springboard Fellowship, Hillel International, Jacksonville, FL
- Dini Peterson: Chief Program Officer, Mental Health & Safety Net Services, Jewish Family Service of Metro Detroit, Oak Park, MI
- Lily Rabinoff-Goldman: President/CEO, JCC Greater Boston, Newton, MA
- Stacy Rigler: Executive Director, Association of Reform Jewish Educators, Bryn Mawr, PA
- Yonatan Rosner: Judaic Studies and Hebrew Principal, Jacob Pressman Academy of Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, CA
- Orna Siegel: Executive Director, ElevatEd, Silver Spring, MD
- Hannah Spinrad: Executive Director, North Carolina Hillel, Chapel Hill, NC
- Daniel Weiss: Head of School, Bornblum Jewish Community School, Memphis, TN

updated November 6, 2024
Prizmah’s new 2025-2029 strategic plan outlines ambitious new goals that build on successes of the last few years. In CEO’s Paul Bernstein’s email to stakeholders about the plan, he noted the following:

For day schools and yeshivas, there is truly no “going back” to what our schools looked like before Covid or before 10/7/23. Schools by nature adapt to changing realities just as the best educators instinctually modify their teaching to the needs of the new students and culture in their classrooms each year. We might even say that classrooms are in a perennial state of VUCA. You could say that this is our sweet spot, the moment we can soar.
As we plan for the next five VUCA years, Prizmah aspires to integrate the two approaches Finestone described: Both funders and grantees still need to engage in strategic planning and remain focused on long-term goals and outcomes. It just can’t be our exclusive approach anymore. We need to train ourselves, to strengthen our adaptive “muscles” so we are ready to quickly and effectively react to issues and unanticipated developments in as close to real-time as possible.
We have to work—in the same breath—on long-term vision as well as rapid response. Having a strategic direction provides a lens through which we can face unexpected challenges and make quick decisions. We are proud to share Prizmah’s new strategic plan for 2024-29, which is dependent on, in service to, and in partnership with the hundreds of day schools and yeshivas in the Prizmah Network throughout North America and across denominations. We believe that these schools are where the Jewish future grows and thrives.
The recent successes of our day schools and yeshivas enabled Prizmah to envisage ambitious goals for the field over the next five years. The goals include: growing enrollment by 10,000 students; moving the needle on affordability and raising $400 million in endowment funds; and investing in strong and stable leadership for our schools through increasing head of school tenure and growing the pipeline of future leaders.
We are committed to delivering these goals and to continue to strengthen the field through the Prizmah Network, building on our existing platform of programs and services in the areas of school advancement, talent, educational excellence, as well as expanding data-driven decision-making for schools.

updated November 5, 2024
SRE Network released its 2024 Standards Self-Assessment Report, which assesses how SRE member organizations are advancing efforts to create Jewish workplaces that are free from harassment, inequity, and discrimination. SRE Network noted in the release, “While the findings of this year’s report show that there is still much work ahead to ensure organizations are truly safe, respectful, and equitable, they also reveal a hopeful vision for the future of our Jewish communal landscape with the majority of members making meaningful progress.” Other key points SRE Network highlighted in the release:

SRE Network brings together 185 Jewish organizations to address gender-based harassment, discrimination, and inequity. Upon joining and each subsequent year, SRE’s member organizations complete the Standards Self-Assessment (SSA) – an annual accountability and learning opportunity to assess their organization’s progress on their journey toward implementing the Standards.
The results highlight how SRE member organizations are making gradual progress, implementing intentional change, and working to maintain their strides. The vast majority of organizations reported that they have implemented and are putting into practice SRE’s Standards, which serve as the foundational building blocks for safety (our environments are free from harassment, abuse, and violence), respect (we each engage one another with the Jewish value of kavod habriyot, which recognizes the inherent dignity of every person), and equity (all people are treated fairly and meaningful pathways are provided to close demographic disparities.).
There is still much work ahead. Implementation and communication of policies and procedures related to safety, respect, and equity remain growth areas for many, as does establishing pay equity fundamentals. It is also important to note that this year’s SSA was taken by members in early 2024, after the events of October 7.
The inspiring news is that, in the face of one of the most painful and tumultuous years in recent history, Jewish nonprofit organizations continue to prioritize the work of creating and sustaining safe, respectful, and equitable workplaces and communal spaces, and addressing gender-based harassment and discrimination. This report offers a hopeful vision for the future of our communal landscape.

updated October 8, 2024
The Shalom Hartman Institute publicly launched its Beit Midrash for New North American Rabbis (Rabbanut North America), designed to train visionary leaders in the Jewish texts, ideas, and skills they need to lead the North American Jewish community as cutting-edge rabbis. Yehuda Kurtzer, the Institute’s president, shared the rationale for the program in eJewish Philanthropy. The program’s website shares key information and this video:

The inaugural cohorts of Rabbanut North America will be ordained as rabbinic thought leaders fully equipped to lead communities and institutions grounded in pluralism, moral aspiration, commitment to Jewish peoplehood, and courageous leadership.
For most of Jewish history, our most essential leaders have been rabbis. Rabbis are the gatekeepers to Jewish communities, curators and custodians of the Jewish tradition, and the ongoing architects of what Judaism means for every generation of Jews. The central challenges facing North American Jews today are in the realm of ideas – what we believe in, what we stand for – and in the quality of our leaders.
In this challenging moment of Jewish history, Jews are turning to their rabbis in unprecedented numbers for pastoral support, moral clarity, guidance, understanding, and tools for activism. Jews are also flocking to community for a sense of belonging. This reengagement with Jewish community presents a renewed opportunity for rabbis to shape the future of Jewish identity, meaning, and purpose for the next generation.
Rabbanut North America, this new network of North American rabbis, will join their counterparts from Hartman’s Rabbanut Yisraelit: The Hartman Beit Midrash for Israeli Rabbis, which has ordained four cohorts of rabbis since 2015. Together, these innovative rabbis will form a pluralistic rabbinate for the Jewish people and forge new paths of leadership for the future of Judaism and Zionism.

updated August 26, 2024
Jewish Federations of North America and the Israel Educational Travel Alliance launched a new grant program—Serve Israel— to subsidize Israel volunteering trips. As reported in eJewish Philanthropy, the Initiative will help pay for 1,000 people to volunteer in Israel this year, with recipients able to organize their own trips or partner with Birthright or Masa.

“Over these past 10 difficult months, we have seen the critical role that Israel travel and North American volunteers have played in both helping Israelis confront the deep challenges they face and strengthening the bonds between North Americans and Israel,” Shira Hutt, executive vice president of JFNA, said in a statement.
Serve Israel, which is being administered by JFNA and the Israel Educational Travel Alliance, receives its funding from JFNA’s Israel Emergency Fund, the Jewish Agency, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry and the ministry-backed Mosaic United. JFNA has contributed $800,000 toward the program, according to its latest Israel Emergency Fund allocation report.
The grants are available to any Jewish federation or group that wants to organize its own trip — either 7-10-day ones or more intensive four-week program.
For the shorter trips, organizers can receive grants of $150 per volunteer per day, up to a maximum of ten days, which can be applied to all trip costs save for transportation. Alternatively, organizations can collaborate with Birthright Israel Onward for their trip and receive a $700 flight subsidy per participant. In order to qualify, the participants must be between the ages of 16 and 40 and self-identify as Jewish.
For the longer trips, the grants cover all of the programming costs – housing, health insurance, meals, security and ground transportation — and there is a 15% discount on El Al flights. Grantees have to charge a $200 registration fee from each participant.
The trips can offer a variety of volunteering options, from harvesting, packaging and distributing food to assisting displaced Israelis and families of deployed soldiers and tutoring children, JFNA said.

updated August 26, 2024
Foundation for Jewish Camp and The iCenter each shared reflections over the summer about the power and joy of Jewish summer camp, particularly as it relates to the first summer post-October 7th:

FJC’s Jeremy Fingerman shares how camp this summer showed “that we can successfully pursue joy in tough times without denying that times are tough….Camps aren’t just showing us the power of joy. They’re teaching us how to pursue it, by disconnecting from technology and the news and connecting to our creativity and one another.”
The iCenter’s Dan Tatar provides a window into the powerful North American camp experience this summer for American and Israeli Jews. He shares “witnessing countless moments of genuine connection and unity. Campers and staff bridged cultural divides through shared experiences. Many Israeli staff expressed gratitude for the support system they’ve found among their peers at camp.”

updated July 23, 2024
Repair the World shared its new “Adaptive Strategic Plan,” outlining its vision for 2025-2027. The plan emphasizes that the organization is “first and foremost, a Jewish engagement organization.” eJewish Philanthropy covered key parts of the plan, including the closing of two Repair communities and the expansion of other aspects of the organization’s work. The plan itself answers the question, “Strategic Planning – Why Now?” with this language:

Commitment to Jewish Education: We’re on the pathway to ensuring every act of service is a transformative Jewish experience with authentic social impact.
Success of Jewish Service Alliance (JSA): Repair is bringing the Jewish Service Alliance to scale; a record-breaking 73k+ participants served and learned with Repair in FY23 through direct programming and field activation.
Readiness for Financial Planning: Repair received a transformative one-time $7m investment in 2021; two years in, it’s time to reflect on our growth, the spend-down of our board-designated growth fund, and plan for the future as we prepare for key renewals.

*The October 7th massacre, the war in Israel and Gaza, and rising global antisemitism are reshaping our Jewish world. These events occurred during our strategic planning process and became an important lens for determining this strategic plan.

updated June 27, 2024
The Hadar Institute released its new strategic plan, covering 2024-2028. It’s Theory of Change is now articulated as follows:

Hadar seeks to transform the entire ecosystem of contemporary Jewish life. After 18 years, we understand better than ever where we have made a difference and where new strategies are needed.
To effect long-lasting social change, organizations must (1) impact people as individuals, (2) influence established organizations, and (3) build new and distinct spaces.
Pursuing any one of these strategies alone is limited. Working in all three areas is the pathway to change. Moving forward, we intend to invest even more deeply in institutional modes of change, as both an influencer and a creator.
Our plan for the next four years includes work on all levels of social change. We will continue to strengthen Hadar’s impact on individuals. We also intend to expand our institutional footprint, enabling more Jews to experience our holistic vision of Jewish life. Our goal is nothing less than laying the groundwork for a vibrant Jewish ecosystem that will enrich and empower the entire Jewish world.

updated June 24, 2024
The Jewish Education Project released a new prospectus, which captures who they are as an agency, how they approach their work, and some of their outcomes and vision for the future. The opening letter explains “Why Jewish Education Matters, Now More Than Ever,” including:

In our increasingly interconnected, complex world, Jewish education can, and must, play an integral role in the lives of children, teens, and their families. Jewish education is not about a single classroom or program or event. Rather, powerful Jewish education encompasses the whole learner, accounting for their interests, struggles, ambitions, and more.
Amidst the crisis in Israel and rising antisemitism, we know that understanding Jewish values, history, and heritage can help children embrace their Jewish identity, face adversity with pride and optimism, and stand up for their beliefs.
Our vision for a strong Jewish future powered by pride, knowledge, and a sense of belonging infuses all the work that we do. Educators are on the frontlines to positively influence how all students learn. Access to both the very best professional development experiences and programmatic models are the best tools to maximize their impact.

updated May 23, 2024
Svara shared its new strategic plan for 2024-2026, which outlines the following:

As a yeshiva, we equip and inspire those who learn with us—a dynamic community which is 95% queer, 52% trans and/or non-binary, 43% disabled, and 9% BIPOC—through deep, active Jewish learning with the skills, tools, and orientations they will carry with them as they push the tradition and our broader movements and communities forward. We ground our work in the Talmudic concept of svara—moral intuition—named for the source of wisdom and authority our tradition ascribes to our individual moral instinct. It is through this lens that we empower thousands of people each year, many of whom never felt they could access Jewish life, to trust themselves, surface their insights, and claim their own authority within a tradition that has always needed them.
Our aim is to activate individuals in bringing a liberatory understanding of Jewish tradition to bear on society today. Our learning model enables anyone—including those who have never studied Jewish text before—to access the tradition for themselves, translating texts, ideas, and core Jewish frameworks that uplift Judaism’s commitment to change as not only inevitable, but critical to building a more healed world.
Over the past several months, we have engaged in a robust internal strategic planning process that included analysis and evaluation of our current work, conversations with stakeholders, and an exploration of the ecosystems around us. The process led us to understand our role in the landscape as a yeshiva for the Jewish future: a place to inspire, activate, empower, and equip our students to bring their learning to bear in service of a more liberatory Judaism and a more liberated world. With four focus areas to guide our next chapter, we are poised to deepen our commitments towards expanding Jewish tradition as a guiding source for shaping an expansive, liberatory future for all people.

updated May 22, 2024
Yahel shared a letter with key stakeholders in advance of a public announcement about the “expansion of our efforts with the launch of two new Yahel Volunteering Hubs: the Southern Hub, serving southern Israel and based in Ofakim, and a Central Hub, serving central Israel.” Key points from the letter are below:

Israel’s resilience post October 7^th has shone through brightly. At the forefront of this resilience was the power of volunteerism, with Israel’s civil society rallying together to address numerous critical needs. Yahel takes immense pride in having facilitated the involvement of hundreds of volunteers in meaningful volunteer projects during the past seven months; it has been inspiring to see how many people have come to help Israel during these challenging times. The profound impact of volunteering in building resilience, both for the volunteers themselves and for those receiving assistance, continues to be unmistakably clear.
In response to the heightened needs on the ground across Israel, and the increasing interest from international volunteers eager to contribute, we are excited to announce the expansion of our efforts with the launch of two new Yahel Volunteering Hubs: the Southern Hub, serving southern Israel and based in Ofakim, and a Central Hub, serving central Israel. The new hubs, made possible through the generous support of the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and the Schafer Family Foundation, follow the success of our Haifa Hub, which has been serving the north of Israel for the past two years in partnership with the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.
The Hubs will serve as a mechanism for engaging international volunteers in Israel in effective, responsible and meaningful short and long-term volunteering experiences. Yahel’s steadfast commitment to providing meaningful volunteering experiences in partnership with local grassroots organizations, not only addresses immediate needs in Israel’s communities but also cultivates deeper connections to Israel and Jewish identity amongst international volunteers.
With our proven track record of driving social change through volunteerism, Yahel Volunteering Hubs are poised to make a lasting impact, fostering partnerships, facilitating service-learning opportunities, and delivering high-quality experiences throughout the country, shaping the broader landscape of volunteering in Israel and beyond.
As we gradually launch our new hubs and significantly expand our capacity and work, we are continuing to raise funds to fully operationalize the hubs and to expand to an additional fourth hub in Jerusalem. With the support of our generous donors and partners, we look forward to building the infrastructure to receive numerous volunteers from around the world who will be able to contribute to local communities in Israel in impactful, meaningful and responsible ways.

updated May 2, 2024
On April 26, Hillel held a Leadership Briefing with stakeholders about the current situation on campuses just ended. Hillel is working around the clock to support students and Hillel staff, provide guidance to campus administrators, and engage with state and federal governments to apply pressure on campus leaders to enforce their policies and keep Jewish students safe. In addition to providing an overview of what’s happening, the call also included a panel of students and Hillel professionals sharing stories of what they are experiencing. View the briefing here (passcode is 5nw9mDkL%^).

Prior to the briefing, on April 22, Hillel released A Passover Call to Action for College and University Presidents. Read the full statement here; the first few paragraphs are excerpted below:

Over the past 72 hours, the campuses of Columbia University, Barnard College, and Yale University have become increasingly hostile and unsafe spaces for Jewish students and staff, as threatening and unlawful antisemitic, anti-Israel protests have been allowed to rage unchecked.
At these schools, Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and speakers have been repeatedly verbally harassed, subjected to death threats, warned that the atrocities of October 7 will be inflicted on them 10,000 times over, barred from entering central areas of their campuses, and in the worst cases, physically assaulted and sent to the hospital. The situation at Columbia has deteriorated to the point that the school’s president announced at 1 a.m. today that all in-person instruction would be canceled and moved online.
The extreme tactics of those creating these encampments and related protests are unacceptable at every level: They are denying students access to safe learning opportunities and campus life. They are flagrantly violating clear campus policies and rules with impunity. They are fostering hate and discrimination, often targeted specifically at Jewish and Israeli students who are part of their campus communities. And while we fully support robust dialogue, debate and other expressions of free speech, these abuses are not even remotely within the bounds of free speech principles.

updated March 26, 2024
The Foundation received two Thank You notes from participants on the Mishlachot Areyvut trips to Israel, demonstrating the trips’ impact and value in helping leaders and educators at this moment. You can read both of them here.

updated March 7, 2024
CASJE is part of a new Center for Jewish Education housed at The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Known as “The Collaboratory,” it will incubate new ideas and engage public in new approaches to Jewish education. In addition to CASJE, other key organizations and peer funders of the Foundation are involved. A press release noted:

The Collaboratory: A Center for Jewish Education at GW will enhance an already robust network of partnerships and assets to further advance the field of Jewish education and address modern challenges faced by the global Jewish community.
Directed by Dr. Benjamin M. Jacobs and Dr. Arielle Levites and staffed by Program Managers Naomi Gamoran and Ilana Weltman, the Collaboratory is comprised of three key branches: The Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) for research, the graduate programs in Israel Education and Experiential Jewish Education for academic preparation, and the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership for public engagement.
The programs under the Collaboratory have earned credibility as a resource for leaders and educators. Current funders for these various endeavors include the Jim Joseph Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, the Mayberg Foundation, and The Marcus Foundation, which recently granted GW $2.9 million over five years to support four new cohorts of students in The iCenter/GW Graduate Program in Israel Education.
Notable initiatives that the Collaboratory is currently engaged in include:
- Antisemitism: The Collaboratory will launch a speaker series aimed at addressing the pressing issue of antisemitism on American college campuses. Dr. Rachel Fish, a distinguished national expert on antisemitism, visiting professor in the Collaboratory, and co-founder of Boundless, will lead these discussions. The series is designed to engage both undergraduates and the general public, fostering a deeper understanding of the challenges and complexities surrounding antisemitism.
- Fellowship & Summer Institute on Antisemitism and Jewish Inclusion: An annual cohort of teacher education faculty, campus administrators, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officers participate in this transformative program. The program focuses on recognizing, studying, and teaching antisemitism and fostering Jewish inclusion within university-based schools, colleges, and departments of education. This initiative aims to address the documented and troubling inattention to antisemitism in American educational efforts Fellows will be equipped to design and implement interventions that integrate discussions of Jews and antisemitism into broader conversations on diversity, enhancing curricula, programming, and overall campus climate.
- CASJE Research Digest: Created in response to increased research activity following the October 7^th terrorist attack on Israel and the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, the CASJE Research Digest provides accessible expert research summaries to help Jewish communal professionals make sense of new research, build deeper understanding of the impact of ensuing events on American Jews, and develop a shared evidence base that can inform plans for action.
- Israel Education: Serving 40 students a year, the Israel Education program, a partnership with The iCenter, is the first of its kind to be offered at a major university in the U.S. It brings together cohorts of Jewish educators, leaders and changemakers to learn new methods and techniques for Israel education.

These existing initiatives reflect the Collaboratory’s ongoing commitments and highlight its relevance to contemporary challenges faced by the Jewish community. The center’s multifaceted approach builds on a decade of groundwork, ushering Jewish education into a new era of innovation and impact.
“The field of Jewish education is ready for an entity well-equipped to operate as a central address,” said Dean Michael Feuer of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development. “The Collaboratory is positioned to lend vision, coherence, and rigor to a diverse and segmented field, and to explore the underlying dynamics that influence communal and individual decision-making, investment, and concern related to Jewish education.”

updated January 10, 2024
Moving Traditions shared its 2024 “State of the Union,” providing a look back at the last year, as well as a look ahead. Some highlights include:

In 2022-23, Moving Traditions partnered with 185 synagogues and Jewish institutions to engage a total of 6,295 Jewish youth in our programs. And we are already projecting an increase of more than 20% in 2023-24!
Last year, Moving Traditions trained nearly 200 educators to run our programs and another 350 professionals working with Jewish youth through CultureShift, our training and consulting program. More than 1,500 parents and educators attended our Raising Up Teens webinars, including the most recent, Rethinking Your College Gameplan.
Moving Traditions raised more than $4.3 million from individuals and foundations in 2023 annual campaign, which will help us reach even more youth this year. As we expand to reach more youth, our staff has grown too, as much as 44% in the last year and a half, from 21 to 31 individuals working remotely across the US.

updated January 10, 2024
Leading Edge’s 2023 Year in Review report covers Israel at War, Antisemitism on the Rise; Programs & Achievements; and Resources and Thought Leadership. Leading Edge writes, “The end of this year has been far from what we planned. And yet, effective leadership and supportive workplace cultures have never been more important for a Jewish nonprofit sector that has been strained and challenged by these events. Throughout the last three months, we have been supporting the people who are nurturing Jewish communities through this difficult time.” The section includes links to Leading Edge’s relevant offerings post-October 7^th, including resources, data on Jewish nonprofit employees, and a “Caring and Connection” gathering held with JPro and JFNA.

updated October 18, 2023
We received a nice update from a previous grantee-partner, the Gateways B’Yadenu Project. They note:

Educators in Jewish day schools continue to be aware of the need to support diverse learners, especially those with disabilities, in their schools. In 2012, made possible by the generosity and partnership of the Jim Joseph Foundation along with other leading institutions, Gateways: Access to Jewish Education launched the B’Yadenu Project to help Jewish day schools as they go through the journey of becoming more inclusive. The B’Yadenu Project supported day schools in and around Boston for several years before it was put on pause during the pandemic. Now in 2023, Gateways is thrilled to be reviving outputs from this invaluable project, and has a newly updated B’Yadenu toolkit – a document that emerged from the Project containing a comprehensive set of suggestions and resources for initiating whole-school change.

Recently, Gateways staff discussed practical implementation of the various components of this toolkit with leaders of Solomon Shechter Day School of Greater Hartford and New England Jewish Academy (NEJA) of West Hartford. These school leaders are excited to delve into the work of finding the best ways to make institutional changes, train staff, support families and, most importantly, educate as many students as possible in their small, tight-knit Jewish community. Over the next few months, Gateways has been invited to work closely with the West Hartford schools to build teams, complete an observation protocol, and begin the planning process. Gateways is thrilled to be using B’Yadenu, which wouldn’t exist today without the initial investment by the Jim Joseph Foundation, to help more Jewish day schools successfully reach all learners.

updated September 27, 2023
SRE Network shared its new 2024-2026 strategic plan, noting, “Informed by the voices of over 100 members, funders, grantees, and partners, our strategic planning process aimed at understanding our impact to date, and understanding emerging needs moving forward. What emerged from this process were the following needs:

Stronger member accountability and for membership to have more “teeth.”
More resources, including policies, trainings, and guides, specifically around equity and
accountability.
Increased awareness around our existing services and resources.
Shared clarity around our community investment and grantmaking process.

Through this plan, we have further refined our approach in these areas. Historically, women have been underpaid, under-promoted, and subject to harassment in workplaces. Given this continued reality, our work will continue to focus on efforts that address the needs of women-identified individuals in Jewish workplaces and communal spaces. We also understand that there is a broader need to support safety, respect, and equity across diverse identities. We understand gender to exist on a continuum and enthusiastically support the active participation and recognition of all gender identities and expressions in both our programming as well as our Jewish workplaces and communal spaces. Both our gender-focused and broader safety, respect, and equity culture change efforts will continue to be guided by a multi-dimensional, intersectional understanding of identity, structural bias, and inequity.”

updated September 27, 2023
JCC Association of North America, Jewish Federations of North America, and the Union for Reform Judaism announced the launch of ElevatEd, the “groundbreaking collaborative initiative intended to transform the field of early childhood Jewish education (ECJE). Formerly known as Project-412, the new expansive initiative will address the prohibitive early childhood educator shortage.” The news was covered in eJewish Philanthropy. Key highlights of the announcement:

In total, the JCC Movement and Reform Movement operate 475 early childhood centers serving more than 65,000 young children and their families across the country. Tens of thousands more remain on long waiting lists or simply choose not to even try due to the shortage of educators. ElevatEd brings together three prominent Jewish organizations to collaborate with funders, practitioners, educators, and community leaders in addressing the critical shortage of qualified early childhood educators, working together to expand the field of early childhood Jewish education in North America.
The three-year ElevatEd pilot will focus on 14 pioneer communities across 14 U. S. states, with a goal of recruiting, training, and credentialing up to 30 educators in each community, amounting to more than 400 emerging early childhood educators in total. ElevatEd launched in the summer of 2023 with five initial communities: Boston, Massachusetts; Denver-Boulder, Colorado; East Bay, California; Houston, Texas; and Long Island, New York; nine additional communities will launch in early 2024. Each pioneer community will pair their own funding alongside a substantial initial investment from philanthropic foundations, which will build a long-term financial model for improvement and growth.
When the school year begins this fall, participating emerging educators will enter a year of learning, 18 months of mentorship support, and will receive funds to support their work toward a credential in early childhood education. Equally important, mid-career educators in each ElevatEd school will participate in a research-based mentor training program to support the emerging educators in their schools.
ElevatEd’s investment of $12 million comes primarily from funding partners, including the Jim Joseph Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, and the Samuels Family Foundation. “The launch of ElevatEd is an important and timely development for ECJE that reflects the urgent, large-scale needs of the field,” says Dawne Bear Novicoff, chief operating officer of the Jim Joseph Foundation, “ECJE is an opportunity for the Jewish community to support young families and to welcome them into meaningful Jewish life.”

updated August 29, 2023
As part of its 10th anniversary, Sefaria unveiled a groundbreaking digital collaboration, the “Global Community Torah,” that is a unique opportunity for anyone to have a small part in “writing” a Torah—all 304,805 letters. Users first learn about different Hebrew typefaces and select their font before “making their mark” by entering their first name and location. They then receive emails with a graphic of the Torah verse containing their letter and information about the “parashah,” or weekly reading, of the Torah in which the verse appears. Users can spin the digital globe to see the locations of other Global Community Torah contributors, showing the geographical diversity of the participants. The project and 10th anniversary were covered in multiple outlets, including eJewish Philanthropy and Religion News Service, excerpted below:

Students of Judaism have applauded Sefaria for offering an in-book search function while also making it possible to search where a given biblical verse appears in other Jewish books. A “topics” page, meanwhile, allows searches of Jewish primary texts for terms like “abortion,” “gun-control” or “environmentalism.”
Educators, in particular, like Sefaria because they can build source sheets directly on the site, instead of cutting and pasting verses or paragraphs from different books and then trying to format it into one streamlined document.
The next area of growth for Sefaria, according to its creators, will include access to more modern texts that are not yet part of the public domain. In some cases, Sefaria will pay publishers to post them online. “We want to make sure that Sefaria is a space that works for all Jews and everyone who wants to use it,” said Chava Tzemach, Sefaria’s Director of Marketing and Communications.

updated August 29, 2023
Moishe House announced its acquisition of Embark, an innovative program fostering meaningful connections among interfaith couples in their 20s and 30s. Embark is grounded in the belief that diversity enriches the Jewish tapestry. Originally inspired by Central Synagogue’s Center for Exploring Judaism, Embark provides the opportunity for couples seeking to connect with Jewish life, traditions, and community without judgment. As covered in eJewish Philanthropy:

“Being able to provide high quality and scalable programming to connect young interfaith couples with each other and rabbis is a wonderful opportunity for the entire Jewish community,” David Cygielman, the CEO of Moishe House, said in a statement. “We feel fortunate to be able to build out Embark to serve more couples and cohorts.”
Laura Lauder, a venture philanthropist who founded Embark in 2022, told eJewishPhilanthropy that through the Moishe House collaboration, “there will now be a launching pad and home base for all young couples who are celebrating Jewish life and celebrating holidays once they finish the Embark program. [The program] is not like a synagogue or Jewish Community Center where they have to pay dues and there are no expectations like family,” Lauder continued.
Embark has run programs in Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco and Philadelphia; programs run between three to six months, with weekly or biweekly classes. Cost for couples is around $300. With Moishe House acquiring Embark, a two-day retreat is set to be added upon completion of Embark programs, allowing all couples who participated to meet. Moishe House will offer interfaith couples the option to live in “pods,” which are subsidized homes in exchange for hosting Jewish programming for fellow Jewish young professionals.
“What is important about Embark is big vision,” Lauder said. “Any interfaith couple who plans to have some element of Judaism in their marriage or expects to raise Jewish children, this vision is that they would have access to Embark so they can connect to other interfaith couples in the same stage of life, go through the program together as a cohort, to enable them [to understand] that this is something they can do.” She pointed to a Pew Research Center study that found 60% of all interfaith couples raise their children as Jewish.

updated August 10, 2023
Haggadot.com announced a new name, Recustom, and will provide more offerings to help people connect to Jewish rituals and moments that resonate with them. In addition to holidays, Recustom helps people connect with each other and create rituals around key milestones and stages in life, from birth to death and everything in between. Recustom brings Haggadot.com, High Holidays at Home, and Custom & Craft together on one platform. eJewish Philanthropy covered the news:

“We’re in a time of deep uncertainty, we need rituals to connect us, but we’re not just going to do rituals that don’t feel authentic,” Eileen Levinson, founder and executive director of Recustom, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “We all need to connect, and we believe that Judaism has a toolkit for connection and meaning making. People just need help using it.” The tagline for Recustom is, “Where intention meets play,” Levinson said, because “we embrace playfulness. Even the most serious moments can let us find something that’s a little bit different, and we can balance joy with seriousness.”
Whereas Levinson’s original sites – first launched with Haggadot.com and later including High Holidays at Home and Custom & Craft – offered a DIY approach to Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Shabbat, the new site, which is aimed at both Jews and those who are curious about Jews and Judaism, will feature rituals across the lifecycle.
“We’re thinking about all the places where people have been unseen,” Levinson said, giving examples of milestones such as, “doing IVF for same sex couples to have a baby… Rituals for gender transitions, taking on your new name and your new identity. People are living longer and wanting to still be engaged Jewishly. Their Jewish life is not just about raising their kids or being with their grandkids, but potentially having a new ‘b-mitzvah’ ceremony or rituals for retiring or when they move out of the home that they’ve raised their family in for 30 years.”
Recustom plans to license its mix-and-match technology to congregations and organizations that can create interactive ritual templates that they can embed on their main sites. Levinson describes the initiative as “like a WordPress, or even Slack, for Jewish ritual making,” and plans to launch it in late 2024. The templates will be able to be customized to change pronouns, insert family names, pictures, poetry and videos.

updated July 17, 2023
Leading Edge shared a “mid-year top ten highlights list” showing some accomplishments and positive outcomes from the first two quarters of the year:

In May, 18,212 employees across 327 organizations (from Aish to J Street to Leading Edge!) took the Employee Experience Survey and 304 CEOs completed the CEO Survey. This was a 50% increase from last year’s survey. Organizations are now receiving support through a robust After Survey Action plan designed to help leaders move from data to action. We look forward to releasing our annual report on employee engagement in the fall.
We marked one year since the acquisition of Boardified with the release of a case study about our experience. Written by Eben Harrell, a Senior Editor at the Harvard Business Review, the study provides key insights into the process, what we got right, and where we could have done things differently. Our COO Mordy Walfish also shared some recent reflections in The Wexner Foundation’s newsletter on the acquisition and integration.
We launched recruitment for the next cohorts of Leading Executives, our leadership program for new(ish) CEOs. We received more applications than ever before, which signals to us that the churn in the CEO role continues. Of note, we are seeing an increasing number of CEOs writing into their contracts that they would be able to apply to the program.
We wrapped cohort 7 of the Board Member Institute and launched research on board leadership in the Jewish nonprofit sector. In the coming months, we will be building out new tools and programs aimed at supporting professional and board leaders in creating more effective boards.
Our Chief Research & Innovation Officer Amy Born wrote an article for the Center for Effective Philanthropy on the work-life paradox and shared some wisdom on the Adapting podcast.
We collaborated with new partners to support more executive and board leaders in strengthening their shared leadership. In partnership with the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (NJHSA), we launched our third cohort of Leading Teams, which is supporting more than 50 senior leaders to become more effective teams. And we launched our fifth cohort of Leading Partners in Denver, which is designed to strengthen the working relationships between CEOs and Board Chairs.
We traveled to and Zoomed into countless conferences, speaking engagements, and conversations with funders and leaders about the sector’s current leadership landscape. There is a marked increase in interest and demand for culture and leadership-focused information and interventions.
We welcomed a new Board Chair, Daryl Messinger, who shared some incoming reflections as she began her tenure. And we celebrated the leadership of Scott Kaufman, our previous Board Chair (who thankfully continues to serve on our Board). Scott shared some outgoing reflections at the end of his three-year tenure.
Our team grew to 23 full-time employees! We’re fully remote and meet in person as a full team twice a year for team building and deep strategy work.
And, last but not least, we had another clean audit.

updated June 22, 2023
JIMENA and the Jews of Color Initiative were featured in a story in eJewish Philanthropy highlighting fellowships that are intended to “facilitate and improve entry of Jews of color into communal leadership roles. As Jewish groups looked to bring people of different backgrounds into their ranks, the process wasn’t always easy; these programs are looking to help.”

Sarah Levin, the director of JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, said that their fellowship program isn’t focused on prejudice but on empowerment. Prejudice is what Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews already know, Levin said, explaining that they often feel they must filter their experiences and culture in ways to make sense to Jews who aren’t from their background. “This is the reality that so many people have been born into,” Levin said, “that they’re living with every single day.”
So JIMENA’s Sephardic Leaders Fellowship aims to provide fellows with the tools to build community and bring Sephardic and Mizrahi culture into the mainstream. Fellows work with top Sephardic scholars, learning about topics including Sephardic culture’s current revival throughout Israel, best practices to bring Sephardic studies into Jewish day schools, the ways both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews have been targeted in America while also benefiting from structural racism and the methods that Sephardic sages and leaders have used to create inclusive communities throughout history.
“I felt pride in my background and my story,” said past fellow Vicky Tsur, the learning and prayer coordinator at Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, Calif. “The fellowship gave me a sense of belonging that I had not felt since leaving my parents’ home.”
Gabi Kuhn, the senior program officer at the the Jews of Color Initiative, told eJP that she sees their philanthropy fellowship as “a little bit like grad school for philanthropy in the Jewish community… We will obviously talk about power dynamics, race, equity and inclusion, as part of the work and how people navigate [philanthropy] with various intersectional identities, but the focus of the fellowship is specifically to train [fellows] as program officers and philanthropic professionals.”
They do this by teaching fellows the ropes of philanthropy by bringing in industry leaders to lead conferences and trainings. The program brings in Jews of color and people of color who work in Jewish spaces to talk about how they have navigated similar situations and learned to live “as their full and authentic selves.” Eventually, fellows dive into the work, shadowing the grants team and learning the entire request for proposal process. After the year program, the JOCI supports fellows in finding a job placement at a philanthropic organization.

June 6, 2023
CASJE announced the inaugural cohort of its Applied Research Fellowship Program. This summer, three fellows will begin the first of its kind, two-year program, which recruits social scientists to become adept at developing knowledge-for-use in Jewish education and American Jewish life:

The fellows, all of whom hold doctorates in social science or education, bring diverse foci, including the professional development of teachers, the use of online gaming in learning, and marshaling popular culture to foster a sense of identity and belonging. The fellows will develop partnerships with Jewish organizations that share these interests in order to build collaborative research projects that address real world problems in Jewish education and communal life.
This fellowship reflects CASJE’s commitment to expanding the pipeline of researchers positioned to conduct critical, high quality applied research in Jewish education and contemporary Jewish life and to prepare scholars to meet the research needs of Jewish educational and communal organizations,” said Dr. Arielle Levites, Managing Director of CASJE.
The fellowship program involves several components, starting with an ongoing seminar about applied research in the American Jewish context. To widen their methodological and conceptual reach as social scientists, each fellow is paired with a faculty mentor. As a cornerstone of the fellowship, fellows will develop and carry out an applied study in conjunction with a Jewish institutional partner. In particular, as Dr. Bethamie Horowitz, director of the Fellowship Program, explained, “beyond the hands-on mentorship with exceptional scholars, the curriculum offers two very special and distinguishing components: a focus not only on building research skills but also the capacities and tools necessary for more robust and successful partnerships between research and practice, as well as an emphasis on preparing researchers to sensitively and skillfully gain insight into diverse American Jews, Jewish communities, and the organizations that seek to serve them.”

May 17, 2023
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah shared an internal memo from David Pernick, Director of LGBTQ+ Community Initiatives, to Rabbi Dov Linzer, YCT’s President and Rosh HaYeshiva. It’s an informative update about their efforts in this area. David shares the following:

In mid-December, YCT launched its LGBTQ+ Community Initiatives with a listening and community-building tour, which I led. From the outset, we recognized that before beginning any initiatives geared towards rabbis and LGBTQ+ people, it would first be crucial to build relationships with, and get direct input from, exactly those rabbis, communities, and individuals whom we are seeking to help.
David conducted a tour this past winter of various Orthodox communities from across the country: Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Boston, Detroit and St. Louis. He met with rabbis from both YCT and YU, lay leaders and members of Orthodox LGBT communities. Over the coming months, he will continue the tour and visit locations closer to home, including NY and the tri-state area, MD and D.C. and more. Click here for his full memo with key findings and anticipated next steps, of which an abridged version follows:
- Developing the Network. One of the clearest takeaways of this trip is how essential it is to strengthen our on-the-ground connection with these and similar communities.
- LGBTQ-specific pastoral training for rabbis. We will be looking to bring LGBTQ+-specific pastoral training to rabbis in our network (both in shuls and schools) with the help of YCT’s pastoral team and in partnership of Shoval, an Israeli organization that specializes in training professionals in observant religious communities.
- A Guide of Best Practices. When we consulted the leadership of Eshel many months ago, they advised us to work on a book of “Best Practices” for rabbis. This would be a resource – beyond a network of colleagues – that would provide rabbis and school heads with different models of practices and messaging around creating welcoming communities and guidance as to best processes for getting buy-in from the community, all drawing on rabbis’ own experience in these areas.
- Advancing the state of Halacha. Most of the issues that the rabbis face are of a communal, and not halakhic, nature. We have also learned that many in the queer community feel quite strongly that they do not want halakhic issues regarding their sexuality and sexual life to be the topic of public discussion.

updated May 17, 2023
The iCenter launched its new program for educators and leaders, Conflicts of Interest, that addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with conflicts that arise in the Israel education and Jewish education arenas. The organization shares that it by leveraging The iCenter’s “rich content and expertise in learner-centered relational education, Conflicts of Interest prepares participants with the skills to educate with greater confidence and competence. The program was covered in eJewish Philanthropy:

Israel educators report feeling “fear, angst and anxiety” when teaching about those conflicts and therefore try to avoid discussing them, according to Alex Harris of Chicago’s iCenter. “Educators feared they didn’t have sufficient content knowledge. They worried that they didn’t have the right emotional dispositions to deal with some of these key topics. They worried, ‘How do I, as an educator, come to the students and bring in my own perspectives, but also maintain [a] sort of political neutrality, but also work with identity formation,” Harris told eJewishPhilanthropy.
According to iCenter CEO Anne Lanski, the multitiered Conflicts of Interest program is not a specific curriculum — with specific facts, values, messages and narratives – but a broader pedagogical method that individual institutions and teachers can adapt to their own perspectives on the issues of Israel, Zionism and the Palestinians. “Content and knowledge are very important, but… it’s our educational framework that is what makes this uniquely important,” Lanski said.
The program has three main tiers: a 20-hour in-person certificate program, a shorter virtual seminar, and what iCenter calls “Conflicts of Interest 101,” which is more of an introduction to the topic rather than a true course in and of itself. In addition, an academic course on conflict education will be offered through iCenter’s master’s degree program at George Washington University. Harris said the 20-hour certificate program will begin in the coming months. Each cohort of this program will have roughly 35 participants, with plans to have multiple cohorts each year.
According to Lanski, iCenter expects that “hundreds and hundreds” of educators will go through the program but believes that since many of the participants will then go on to train other educators in the Conflict of Interest framework, meaning the impact will be far wider, with “pieces of it going through the entire field.”

updated May 4, 2023
At the Well’s Q1 Impact Report shows impressive growth and also introduces the organization’s new website. Key highlights include:

After years of planning, we are so excited to be officially launching a new website! The first phase of the site features revised, user-friendly navigation, event support, Well Circle discovery functionality, and streamlined donation process. In Q3 we plan to launch a profile system and possibly a membership portal to help connect our users to one another.
5,500+ new community members so far this year (compared to 3,186 in all of 2022)
5,430 unique Moon Manual readers this year—an average of 2,000 per month! In 2022, we averaged 414 readers per month.
32,100 unique website visitors this year, totalling 93,400 page views
Hosted 16 programs, actively engaging 274 unique participants. This includes virtual monthly New Moon Circles, Non-binary and POC affinity space Well Circles, and in-person events in several cities

updated May 2, 2023
JCC Association of North America, Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) announced the appointments of Orna Siegel, MJEd, and Sasha Kopp, MAJE, MAJNM, to lead Project-412–“an innovative, collaborative initiative to transform the field of early childhood Jewish education (ECJE)”. More information from the press release:

Project-412 brings together these three prominent Jewish organizations to collaborate with funders, practitioners, educators, and community leaders to break the logjam on the critical shortage of qualified early childhood educators and elevate the field of early childhood Jewish education in North America. The initiative is launching as a three-year pilot focusing on recruiting, training, and credentialing up to 30 new educators in 14 pioneer communities. Project-412 is governed by representatives of the initiative’s partners, JCC Association, Jewish Federations, and the URJ, and Siegel and Kopp will formally be part of the JCC Association professional team.
According to the CASJE study, early childhood centers provides families with essential access to deep, long-term involvement in Jewish life. However, only 12-15% of families in North America enroll their children in such programs. Together, the JCC and Reform movements operate 475 early childhood centers that serve more than 65,000 young children and their families. Tens of thousands more remain on long waiting lists because of the critical shortage of qualified, trained educators. Project-412 will ultimately expand the ECJE system’s capacity to serve significantly greater numbers of children and families, inspiring new and lasting connections to the Jewish community.
The project is generously funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, and the Samuels Family Foundation; together, they have committed an initial investment of $8.5 million. Additional funding will be secured in each pioneer community, bringing the total investment to $12 million by the end of 2025. According to Jeremy Samuels of the Samuels Family Foundation and JCC Association board member, “Our family is honored to be part of Project-412, both nationally and locally, and we’re thrilled with both hires. Each brings an impressive track record of success and deep commitment to Jewish education that will serve the project well.”
The initiative—known by its working title, Project-412—takes its name from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Ancestors) 4:12, in which we read: “Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own, and the honor of your colleague as the reverence for your teacher, and the reverence for your teacher as the reverence of heaven.”

updated April 17, 2023
The iCenter welcomed more than 500 people to iCON, March 13-15, its biennial convening for educators and leaders “where Israel and education meet.” Due to the pandemic, this was the first iCON in five years. JTA covered the conference:

Conference attendees said they faced dual challenges: understanding the political issues at play and reckoning with what they mean for teaching about Israel. Their thoughts on the current historical moment suggested that those challenges would persist even though Israel’s government announced a pause on the judicial overhaul shortly after the conference concluded. “We are responsible for doing something, don’t get me wrong, but my immediate responsibility is trying to really get a handle on understanding it for myself and for my students,” said Rebecca Good, the assistant director of education at The Temple, a Reform synagogue in Atlanta.
Conference attendees included Hebrew school and day school teachers, executives from communal organizations, summer camp professionals, campus activists, young adult Israeli emissaries and more. iCON Program Director Ari Berkowicz estimated that 75% of the conference participants came from North America and 24% from Israel. Others joined from places like Mexico and the United Kingdom.
“One of The iCenter’s approaches to education is to make all that we teach and all that we learn about both timely and timeless, but the current moment obviously has an impact on who we are as educators and who we are as learners,” said Berkowicz. While the sessions scheduled for iCON 2023 remained mostly unchanged, the facilitators, speakers, and educators were “different people” from what they had been three or six months ago due to the upheaval in Israel, he said.

As covered in eJewish Philanthropy, prior to the conference beginning:

For the iCenter, one of the first organizations to focus on Israel education not as a discrete area of focus but as something to be infused in all aspects of Jewish education, the situation in Israel presents a particular challenge. On the one hand, the current moment is undoubtedly out of the ordinary, perhaps unparalleled in Israeli history, and therefore has to be addressed in some way at the upcoming conference, but at the same time, it is not the sum total of all that is Israel so it shouldn’t completely dominate the discussions either, iCON organizers said.
And yet, to [Anne] Lanski, [founding CEO of The iCenter], this current struggle should not substantially change the basics of Israel education. “Educational frameworks that have to be changed every single time something happens are not fundamentally solid foundations,” she said. “The approach, the educational approach and framework, the language, the commitment, those things don’t change. The content of some of the presentations gets adjusted, but that is true anytime.”
And Israel education, which was once a superficial, separate curriculum, is now “integral to Jewish education,” Lanski said. “Israel education isn’t 50 teachers anymore, it’s the entire North American Jewish community in every setting, in every organization.” The iCON focuses less on teaching facts and figures and more on broader concepts and ways of thinking about Israel. The three-day gathering is made up of dozens of sessions on topics like Israeli television, Jewish-Arab relationships, the Hebrew language, Israeli comics, poetry, and music. One set of sessions will consider three texts: Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, and former Knesset member Ruth Calderon’s 2013 inaugural speech in the parliament.

updated March 13, 2023
Hillel shared its winter quarterly operations summary. Among many highlights covering a range of areas are:

Israel Leadership Network (ILN) – iSummit: We are delighted to share that ILN successfully hosted the Hillel International Israel Summit – In Los Angeles with 200 participants coming from 50+ campuses, and in Boston with 250 participants coming from 70+ campuses. Partners at the Boston summit included: AIPAC, the Jewish National Fund, StandWithUs, the Israel on Campus Coalition, CAMERA, Passages, the iCenter, the Israeli American Council and Jewish on Campus.
Social Impact – Service Engagement Internship: To date this year, this partnership with Repair the World has produced close to 100 programs which have in turn engaged over 1,300 student participants; the 183 Service Engagement Interns and the peers they’ve engaged have accomplished a total of 3,972.5 hours of service.
- Highlight: Through the FEMMES+ club (Females and Allies Excelling More in Mathematics, Engineering and Science), I helped to prepare and lead free weekly science and engineering-related programs with seven other Duke students for a group of 18 children at Forest View Elementary School in Durham. Each week, I facilitated group conversations that encouraged girls and other individuals who are underrepresented in STEM fields to pursue their interests in STEM. – Sammie Seewald, Duke University
- Highlight: For MLK Day of Service, 15 University of Rochester student volunteers and 15 seniors from Jewish Senior Life worked together to pack 60 care kits for houseless folks in Rochester.

Campus Success – Campus Support: Measurement/HEaRT: Based on data tracked in HEaRT (our student engagement tracking system) by 138 Campus Hillels serving 531 schools, Hillel is seeing 16% growth in both breadth & depth of Jewish undergraduate student engagement compared to this time last year (FY22) and a 61% jump in breadth & a 33% increase in depth from this same time two years ago (FY21). The team is also working on a platform integration between HEaRT and Little Green Light (the majority of Hillels use this system for donor management) with the goal of automating the flow of information between the two systems which has, up until now, been a manual process.
Campus Success – Strategic Grants (formerly known as Talent Grants): We recently awarded 10 Campus Hillels with 5-year Strategic Growth Grants (SGGs). The goal of these grants is to invest in 25 Campus Hillels by the end of FY26 that have the potential to increase student engagement significantly (defined as number of students engaged at least once) as well as the potential to sustain this investment beyond the grant period. We currently have 7 Strategic Growth Hillels and so this recent investment round brings us to a total of 17 Hillels

updated March 10, 2023
Atra, formerly the Center for Rabbinic Innovation, shared the growth outlined in its $6 million strategic plan currently underway, along with the meaning behind its new name. eJewish Philanthropy covered the story:

Atra’s new name invokes the Aramaic phrase “mara d’atra,” meaning the teacher or rabbi who serves a particular place, a hat tip to the modern ubiquity of places where rabbis can be found. Over the next three years, the organization expects to expand its outreach to rabbis and other Jewish spiritual leaders, as well as bring 45 organizational partners into the emerging conversation about what makes a rabbi, Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein, Atra’s executive director, told eJewishPhilanthropy.
The organization’s strategic plan (available online here) calls for program expansion, establishing a field of rabbinic training, new research and a stronger national network among rabbis, and is supported by recent grants from Crown Family Philanthropies and the Jim Joseph Foundation. Those new grants, along with other donor contributions, total more than $2 million toward the organization’s $6 million strategic plan.
Atra is now moving into a regional strategy, building cohorts in specific cities to be announced at a later date. Epstein expects at least one city to launch in the next year, and notes that even if all rabbis want to learn new skills, Atra programs differ between cities, “because every city or region’s Jewish community, and current communal infrastructure is a little bit different…When we look at a region [we ask] what is the Jewish need here, how might we work with these rabbis to address that need,” she said. “We’re trying to go slowly enough to actually build what’s necessary.”
“We believe that rabbis are a key gateway, models and change agents for Jewish identity, meaning, ethics and practice for the Jewish people,” said Barry Finestone, president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “There’s a demonstrated need for more skilled rabbis as leaders in the North American Jewish community. Rabbinic training as a field has been under-resourced. Importantly, Atra has developed practical and effective ways to provide relevant, needed training for rabbinic leaders serving in the field across the denominational spectrum and in a range of settings.”

updated February 28, 2023
Steven Green of the Foundation recently participated in Makom’s pilot training seminar, Dreams of Others, designed for educators seeking a deeper understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Over the course of five, trip participants traveled around Israel and the West Bank. Steven shared reflections of his trip, along with an update on investments in Israel education, in an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, “Turning Off the Bypass Road of Israel Education.” Excerpts from that piece:

Using the pedagogy of respect and judgment, and a framework of dreams and nightmares to understand personal bespoke narratives, we visited the in-between spaces…We visited the home of a Palestinian woman named Hinadi living in Silwan and the home of Ahron in Ir David, ostensibly in the same neighborhood while worlds apart. We visited Mayor Oded Revivi in Efrat before meeting Ashraf Al Ajrami, the former minister of detainees and ex-detainees affairs in the Palestinian government, in Atarot. We met with Palestinian and Jewish devotees of civil society and those with completely divergent viewpoints.
The purpose of the Dreams of Others Seminar and other conflict education experiences is not to change the minds of the participants. There is no political agenda. Rather, it is a deep learning and training opportunity to help educators create experiences for learners premised on connection, meaning, and purpose.
Young Jewish learners are asking and, in some cases, yearning for an authentic approach to Israel that includes dialogue about the conflict from many vantage points. In juxtaposing their universalist human values with their particular Jewish ones, many are finding the topic of Israel more of a wedge than an opportunity to engage. These immersive experiences can help them navigate and lean into nuance and varying perspectives. Similar to our belief in trust-based philanthropy as a methodology to achieve effective relational grant-making, we believe that we should trust the young Jewish women and men we serve to engage in courageous conversations as they build their complex identities.
The Jim Joseph Foundation is now following the lead of other philanthropists who have led the charge by investing in Israel education that includes the conflict. Conflict education is the more multi-layered approach that engages with different perspectives and people. This approach trusts that offering a balance of perspectives will not turn a learner away; rather, it will have the opposite effect.

updated February 13, 2023
A new initiative, impala, launched in partnership with the Jewish Funders Network, launched “a platform that serves as a database for publicly available data on millions of foundations and nonprofits.” The platform scrapes details from the IRS 990 forms — mandatory paperwork for U.S.-based nonprofits — as well as the websites and annual reports of nonprofits and foundations. As reported in eJewish Philanthropy:

impala was founded by Shahar Brukner, a student at the Harvard Kennedy School, getting his master’s degree in public policy analysis, along with Simon Dickson, a HKS classmate, and Tom Huberman, an alum of the IDF’s elite 8200 intelligence unit. Brukner started his own nonprofit, a fellowship that aimed to bring financial resources to Israeli students studying in the U.S. But in order to do that, Brukner had to raise the money.
“Right from the beginning, there’s so many difficulties that fundraisers face in this world around basic questions,” Brukner told eJewishPhilanthropy last week. “Like, ‘What funders care about what I’m doing? How could I get to know about them? How can I connect with them? Are there any other nonprofits that are doing what I’m doing? Maybe I can collaborate with them?’ Answering these questions took a lot of time. It was extremely hard and [there was] nothing [in terms of] really centralized data in one place.”
impala came out of “the idea of creating a network platform for the nonprofit sector — one place where every nonprofit and every foundation and every funder can get the information that they need to understand [what] this sector looks like,” Brukner explained.
“We were starting to build impala and build it with basically two user communities,” Brukner explained. “So certain people working in nonprofits, mostly fundraisers. And then the other side, certain people that are working either in philanthropic foundations or with funders, people who decide how to deploy philanthropic money, and we wanted to make sure that we basically built something that would serve both sides.”
More than 20,000 entities — all JFN members and their grantees, both Jewish and non-Jewish — will receive free access to impala’s premium edition for two years. Support for the project came from the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Glazer Foundation, DARE Foundation and the Jewish Funders Network’s board chair, Marcia Riklis, who collectively are providing $525,000 over two years.

updated January 24, 2023
Leading Edge announced 20 senior-most executives leading Jewish nonprofits who will participate in the second cohort of Leading Executives. From February through June 2023, these leaders will receive leadership training, coaching, and opportunities for connection and mutual support. When the program ends, they will join the growing alumni network of Jewish nonprofit leaders who have completed Leading Edge Executive Programs. eJewish Philanthropy covered the differences between this year’s program and previous iterations:

The program’s structure, which was piloted beginning in September, is one more sign that the legacy of COVID is continuing to shape Jewish institutions and the people who lead them, even as restrictions and changes to everyday life have largely faded away.
Unlike Leading Edge’s CEO Onboarding — the 12- to 14-month-long predecessor to the current program — Leading Executives lasts for roughly six months. Instead of meeting in person three times over the course of the program, cohorts only gather face-to-face once; the rest of the training takes place on Zoom. Instead of 11 to 14 participants, there are 20. And for the first time, the program is open to CEOs with up to five years of experience in the position, rather than a cap of three — a recognition that the most severe pandemic years felt, in some ways, like an alternate timeline.
“The period of the pandemic was like a blip for people, so did they really get that same onboarding experience that many other people were getting?” Dena Schoenfeld, Leading Edge’s chief program officer, told eJP. “It really disrupted time for them, and also because people were being pulled in so many different directions during the pandemic, professional development for many had to fall to the bottom of the priority list, because, frankly, if you’re worried about feeding people, you’re not worried about your own professional development.”
The fellows each get an hour of professional coaching once every three weeks, and the curriculum covers four other areas: peer consulting with fellow cohort members; relationships with board members; a conversation with Leading Edge program alumni; and what’s called a “360 evaluation,” where they complete a self-assessment and get feedback on their performance from board members, partners and employees.

updated January 24, 2023
Hillel’s fall quarterly update to funders covers myriad areas of interest and demonstrates their strong partnerships with many of the Foundation’s other grantee-partners, including Birthright, Resetting the Table, BeWell, JFNA, Moishe House, BBYO, Gather, Repair, Hartman and others. Here are just a few highlights from sections of the update:

Jewish and Israel Education and Student Leadership: IACT (Inspired, Active, Committed, Transformed), Hillel’s comprehensive strategy that leverages Birthright Israel to transform Jewish life on campus, was in full swing this fall semester on 29 campuses. The IACT Coordinators came together for their first in-person gathering in three years at Boston University Hillel in August. The two-day training provided them with an opportunity to learn and develop new skills and create meaningful relationships among the cohort. The cohort has a Winter Training in late January taking place at Miami Hillel. Hillel leadership is in the midst of a series of campus visits to IACT Coordinators who are new to Hillel or began their positions during the pandemic. The campus visits are built to support the IACT Coordinator and provide them with an opportunity to share their work with an opportunity for growth and feedback. Finally, all of our IACT Coordinators are staffing Birthright Israel trips for the Winter season.
Shabbat Hosting Lab: The Shabbat Hosting Lab (SHL) is an exciting new opportunity from the CJIE/Meyerhoff Center Team launching on campuses in the 2022-2023 academic year. The SHL experience is a comprehensive 10-week fellowship and campus grant, including a curriculum with robust Facilitator Guides and student source sheets, as well as three Friday night Shabbat experiences – one hosted by the educator, with the other two hosted by the fellows themselves for their peers. As a Fellowship that is rooted in purposeful gathering and intentional curation of ritual, Shabbat Hosting Lab aims to give students the confidence and knowledge surrounding Shabbat rituals, to design and execute a Shabbat skill set, and to become emboldened hosts, capable of facilitating a table experience in their own living spaces that is informed and inspired by Jewish wisdom and tradition. Highlights:
- 15 campuses have secured funding for Shabbat Hosting Lab.
- It is estimated that 186 Shabbat Hosting Lab Fellows will be selected to participate in this pilot year. Each fellow will host two in-person Shabbat meals for approximately 10 of their friends, resulting in an additional 1,860 unique student touches in Shabbat engagement around the country.
- In November, SHL educators engaged in three hours of training designed to equip them with everything they will need to successfully recruit students, launch SHL, and execute the curriculum through their own authentic pedagogical approaches.
Social Impact: As we continue to refine and build out Social Impact work, the Hillel International team is working closely with a campus field advisory committee to adjust and expand based on the reported needs from campus.
- Service Engagement Internship: Given the overwhelming interest in the Service Engagement Internship, we were able to secure an additional 20 spots, increasing from 230 to 250 student participants across 60+ campuses. These interns will be participating in skill-building workshops through the fall as they work on engaging their peers in acts of service.
- Alternative Spring Break: In November we began recruitment for the newly revamped Hillel Alternative Spring Break. We anticipate having 60 students participate in an alternative break experience focused on climate change with partners at Hazon and Repair the World. We are also collaborating with our colleagues in Immersive Experiences to ensure that global alternative breaks follow the same educational curriculum and that students participating in international Hillel programming are able to receive the same high-quality, transformative, responsive experience.
- Resetting the Table: Launched our second cohort with Resetting the Table, for a dozen senior campus professionals to participate in this comprehensive training, which will culminate in each participant facilitating a dialogue across difference on their campus.
- Arc of Change Fellowship: Launched the Arc of Change fellowship in partnership with Dimensions Consulting. This small cohort will provide support for a dozen campus staff and a dozen students as they address racial justice on their campuses.

updated January 11, 2023
Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools held its three-day biennial conference for the first time in four years, with over 1,000 participants convening in Denver. Prizmah shared a video recapping the conference, and eJewish Philanthropy covered it as well:

Participants were bullish about attendance figures at Jewish day schools that have remained high after two years of gains during the pandemic. Now, Prizmah is turning its attention to an area where, its leaders say, numbers are flagging: among the educators themselves.
Prizmah announced that, in partnership with the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge, it will be convening a working group of school administrators, teachers and other practitioners in the field to meet over the course of a year and come up with solutions to increase recruitment and retention among Jewish educators. One priority is “making sure that a career as a Jewish educator is really a valued and rewarded career,” Prizmah CEO Paul Bernstein told eJewishPhilanthropy. “There is clearly a compensation issue that affects teachers as well.”
Bernstein said that many challenges that affect Jewish day school teachers are faced across schools of all kinds. But he added that Jewish day schools also contend with their own difficulties, including finding Judaic studies teachers who are qualified and fit the school’s philosophy. Ultimately, the two big questions are, ‘How do we make a career in teaching, and a career in school leadership, something that young people will aspire to?’” he said. “And then, once they are in there, how do we make it a rewarding experience that they can grow through, throughout their careers?”
Conference sessions covered everything from Israel education to tuition affordability to increasing diversity in schools. Breakout sessions covered topics including, “Girls + Computer Science = A World of Opportunities,” “Making a Big Bet on Day Schools: A Funder Conversation” and “The Numbers are Low: How to Quickly and Strategically Grow Your Applicant Pool.” The keynote speaker was Tal Ben-Shahar, a lecturer on positive psychology who spoke to the audience about ways to improve mental health and address trauma. The conference also featured a group of educational futurists from Stanford University.

updated January 4, 2023
UpStart announced a new partnership with Giving Group Community, a platform for philanthropists, that will introduce innovative projects to funders looking to support new initiatives. As covered in eJewish Philanthropy:

In 2021, Giving Group Community (GGC) emerged as a 501(c)(3) with a proprietary platform for Jewish philanthropists of a certain level to invest in pre-vetted Jewish and Israeli nonprofits; 80% of featured causes are based in Israel, and about 20% elsewhere, mostly the United States. As 2023 begins, the two organizations are collaborating toward building a more vibrant Jewish future.
GGC provides its donors with a menu of causes to support; now, that “deal flow” of highlighted causes will include seven projects of Jewish social entrepreneurship, six of them from the UpStart venture network’s 129 organizations: Jewish Studio Project, which nurtures creativity to deepen connection to Judaism; Grow Torah and its hands-on environmental education programs; BaMidbar, which supports Jewish youth mental health and wellness; spirituality and mindfulness organization Or Halev; mikveh network Mayyim Hayyim; and Jewish education model Jewish Kids Groups. GGC has added a seventh project, the New York-based project Athletes For Israel, which is not an UpStart-cultivated project but mobilizes athlete-influencers to transform the public conversation about Israel.
“The organizations in the UpStart Network are working to make Jewish experiences more relevant and meaningful but often face challenges with fundraising and access to new funding prospects,” said Aaron Katler, UpStart’s CEO. “Featuring their work on a site dedicated to increasing their visibility, amplifying their impact and expanding funding opportunities presented a clear win for everyone involved.”
GGC’s due diligence in selecting these entrepreneurial organizations started with assessing the projects’ leadership, executive team and board and ensuring that they have a strategic growth plan in place, with a “healthy” budget and clear key performance indicators (KPIs) for several years into the future. The initiatives also had to have successful local pilots under their belt, a major foundation and/or major donor already supporting growth and research and/or measurements of programs’ impact.

updated December 16
Foundation for Jewish Camp hosted its biennial Leaders Assembly, with more than 800 day and overnight camp professionals, lay leaders, federation partners, educators, and funders. Jeremy Fingerman, FJC CEO shared: We gathered together in-person – for the first time in nearly five years and at record-setting levels – to celebrate our collective accomplishments, share best practices, and dream about tomorrow…The energy during the three days was palpable – in every plenary, breakout session, meal, and affinity group meeting, you could feel the positivity of a field reunited, reinvigorated, and recharged. Our theme, “Imagine What’s Possible”, encouraged attendees to dream big about our shared future and how Jewish camp can continue to excel . Leaders Assembly was featured in Jewish News Syndicate, which highlighted:

Workshops and discussions addressed such topics as camper and community care, registration security, recruitment and Israel programming. There were sessions titled Fostering Resiliency, Supporting LGBTQ+ Campers, Camper Recruitment, Supervision, Day Camping, Empowering Boards, Lay Leaders and Communities to be Radically Welcoming, Israel at 75, Staff Training, Vocational Programs for People with Disabilities, Disaster Preparation, and Building and Renovating Camp with Your Core Values in Mind.
Indeed, Israel was very much on the agenda at the Leaders Assembly. On the final day of the conference, camp directors offered reflections on the impact of Israel delegations on camps and campers over the years, including welcoming soldiers to Camp Ramah in Wisconsin in 1967 direct from fighting in the Six-Day War. Others spoke of the importance of sending teenage campers to Israel and shared details of RootOne, the initiative to jump-start and subsidize teen travel to Israel.
FJC also works to elevate Jewish camp on the cultural and philanthropic agenda, creating opportunities to engage even more young people in Jewish camp through groundbreaking programs such as One Happy Camper and FJC’s Specialty Camps Incubator. FJC advocates for more than 300 day and overnight camps that provide nearly 180,000 campers and young staff each summer with a meaningful, personal and lifelong connection to Judaism.

updated December 2
Honeymoon Israel shared an update on its trips from the last few months, its post-trip engagement with couples, and its progress toward enhancing the Jewish experience of HMI:

From March to Nov of 2022, 438 Couples comprising 26 cohorts from 18 cities began their HMI journeys in Israel. Cohorts were from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, East Bay, Greater MetroWest New Jersey, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Richmond, the SF Bay Area, Seattle, and Washington DC.
Honeymoon Israel was incredible and I’m so thankful that my wife and I were able to enjoy this experience. As an interfaith couple, we went in with expectations that we would discuss important subjects relating to our spirituality that we would carry with us beyond the trip, and that we would connect with couples with similar backgrounds. We got that and so much more! It was truly a once in a lifetime journey. – Larry, HMI Cleveland
HMI Rabbi Recruitment and Training. HMI created two new roles on its Education Team, Director of Jewish Educational Talent and Director of Jewish Journeys and Enrichment, to enhance the Jewish experience at HMI. The team has revamped how they recruit and train HMI rabbis. HMI now has a multi-step selection process to ensure each HMI rabbi is a strong fit for communities.
- First-time HMI rabbis are matched with veteran HMI rabbi mentors before their first trips.
- HMI has a new training process to ensure each rabbi is prepared to meet the needs of HMI couples.
- After implementing this new model, “the survey results from affected trips have been fantastic” – the rabbis and trip educators were very well received with new rabbis scoring as well as returning rabbis on the Post-Trip Satisfaction Survey.
HMI High Holiday programming helped couples build community and celebrate the holidays together, in all of HMI’s cities. “We had an amazing time hosting our friends out in the Berkshires during peak leaf-peeping season to enjoy the outdoors and celebrate nature’s harvest during Sukkot. Hosting 20 people is extremely difficult and a lot of work, so the generosity of HMIs lovely donors allowed us to stress about one less thing and have all the food for the weekend catered! We had an amazing time hiking in the woods, sleeping outdoors, and catching up around the campfire over s’mores and wine. We’re hoping to make this an annual tradition!” – HMI Boston 2022 Alum

updated November 15
The Berman Jewish Policy Archive has rebranded as the Berman Archive under the continued leadership of Dr. Ari Y Kelman of Stanford University. The Archive documents American Jewish Communities by providing a platform for collecting, preserving, and sharing ideas that define the American Jewish experience. The Archive notes:

With open access to digital artifacts from 1900 to the present, we’re the largest archive of the printed material of communal American Jewish life. We’re a platform for knowledge and intellectual engagement with ideas, data, and points of view that have defined and sustained the American Jewish experience.
Our collections, public programming, and content efforts chart the full range and evolution of Jewish voices in the academic, religious, communal, and professional spheres. We house collections of “gray literature,” material produced outside traditional academic and commercial spheres, offering a unique and valuable look at the many past iterations of the American Jewish experience. Now that so much is available digitally, the Berman Archive can serve as a central repository for the long history, active present, and robust future of the gray literature of American Jewry.
We are committed to an ongoing critical engagement with our holdings—preserving collections from a diversity of perspectives, and highlighting points of view from the mainstream and the margins of American Jewish life. We welcome comment, criticism, essays, and ideas from current professionals and scholars engaged with the American Jewish community.

updated November 15
The Jews of Color Initiative, in collaboration with Slingshot, released a new book, Racial Equity-Informed Philanthropy: A Funder Resource from a Jewish Perspective. This guide is part of a collection of resources provided by Slingshot and serves as a “vital resource for helping funders of all ages, foundations, giving circles and grantmakers across the United States assume an anti-racist posture in their philanthropy.” Stefanie Rhodes, CEO of Slingshot, and Ilana Kaufman, Executive Director of the Jews of Color Initiative, shared the guide in eJewish Philanthropy and noted:

“We asked ourselves and each other: How would a shift in paradigm at the intersection of racial justice-informed Jewish philanthropy sharpen our communal focus on the distribution of money and power to build a truly anti-racist Jewish community by 2050? How can funders align their personal passion for racial justice with their professional influence to center the voices and experiences of Jews of color? In what ways can we activate philanthropy that is rooted in a framework of racial justice? How can we fully invest in the multiracial reality of Jewish life today?
This new guide is not an intellectual exercise. To the contrary, it is a vehicle for action. Informed by core values and activism, these pages offer stories, insights and tools for equity and justice-informed philanthropy. Some of the content in this guide may make you uncomfortable. We invite you to embrace that discomfort. Some of the content may make you feel defensive. We urge you to interrogate your defenses. As the co-creators of this guide, we have at times felt uncomfortable and defensive ourselves.
Understanding racism and building an anti-racist future is hard and messy. It’s personal and political. We don’t always get it right, and neither will you. But as Jewish tradition teaches, hafokh ba v’hafokh ba — “turn it over and over.” In other words, wrestle with what it will take to become an anti-racist Jewish funder. Commit to building a Jewish future rooted in racial justice and equity — it’s the future we all deserve.

updated November 8
Rabba Sara Hurwitz, co-founder and president of Yeshivat Maharat, shares in eJewish Philanthropy lessons to “learn about the present and future of Orthodox female clergy from the history of Maharat.” In its 14 years, Yeshivat Maharat has produced nearly 60 graduates who use their Maharat training to serve approximately 35 communities across the world in Orthodox pulpits, as educators and administrators at Jewish day schools, in hospitals as chaplains and in other Jewish communal leadership positions. Along with many other insights, Rabba Hurwitz reflects (excerpted below) on the rabbinical ordination track funded by the Foundation. She shares:

A study in adaptation is the evolution of Maharat’s Advanced Kollel: Executive Ordination program. In 2013, we realized that there were many women with advanced Jewish degrees who were already working in the field as female Orthodox leaders — without ordination or broad institutional support. In response, we opened up a new ordination track where women with strong learning backgrounds could access rabbinic education. With foundation support, we developed a program that would intentionally sunset and transition into a new high-level post-graduate learning program, the Center for Lived Torah. This year, we welcomed our final incoming Advanced Kollel class after experiencing an unprecedented number of candidates. Many of our Advanced Kollel students are already leaders in their organizations, and theoretically, the degree of semicha (ordination) would not change their day-to-day work. Yet, they have come to Maharat and are seeking semicha.
Even as women join the ranks of Orthodox rabbinic leadership, it is clear that a stained-glass ceiling prevents them from progressing to senior positions. This lack of mobility is a very real obstacle to transforming the role of female leaders in the Orthodox community. Learning from our prior support of congregations who place our graduates in assistant clergy roles, Maharat will be investing in senior leadership positions in partnership with the nonprofit Beloved, supporting our alumnae financially as they forge new ground and normalize the female senior Orthodox clergy role.
We have always believed there is strength in collaboration, so from its inception, Maharat sought out partnerships from like-minded institutions. We needed help but were hesitant to redirect resources away from existing organizations. The Drisha Institute took Maharat under its wings in those early years, providing crucial support, and we hope that one day, we can return that kindness by bolstering their work as well. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah is a frequent partner, and we look forward to our new partnership with Beloved. While some institutions shy away from partnerships, for fear of losing resources or giving up authority, Maharat seeks them out.

updated November 1
Moving Traditions released a new strategic plan with a goal to double its impact on Jewish teens over the next three years. This brief video provides an overview of the plan. The organization’s leadership notes:

Our strategic plan has three goals: (1) to reach more teens; (2) to create an ecosystem of teen support; and (3) secure the resources to make it happen. In order to accomplish our goals and double our impact on Jewish youth, we need your help!
Because we have such a strong foundation of programs, staff, and partners, we need only a 25% increase in budget to reach 100% more participants annually by 2025. At Moving Traditions, we believe that when you give teens a sense of confidence in who they are (shleimut) and connect them to a caring community (hesed), you develop youth who thrive – and have a sense of purpose to make the world a better place (tzedek).
“If we want to authentically engage young people today with Judaism, there’s a very small group of things that they’re feeling connected to,” Moving Traditions CEO Shuli Karkowsky, who took the post earlier this year, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Finding their own sense of self and well-being and identity is a really good way to connect people back to Judaism… The other thing is giving them the tools to be leaders in the causes they care about.”

updated November 1
Leaders at The Jewish Agency for Israel shared in eJewish Philanthropy about the organization’s work “developing an educational program that addresses, indeed embraces, this challenge. Makom: The Israel Education Lab of The Jewish Agency, with generous support from the Jim Joseph Foundation, and in consultation with an advisory board of Jewish lay leaders from across the political spectrum, has developed Dreams of Others: A Seminar on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – an in-depth course that integrates education about the conflict in a Zionist but non-partisan manner.” Their piece notes:

By avoiding the conflict or promoting a single narrative, we have lost considerable credibility among young people — for whom the conflict is of central concern. And the vacuum we have left has been filled by others — for the most part, actors who are not interested in presenting Israel’s actions fairly or concerned about the wellbeing of Jews.
A new approach is called for. We need to teach the conflict with candor and in a way that does justice to its complexity. Those charged with educating our young need tools for exploring and considering the conflict knowledgeably, with understanding and with empathy. And we need to cultivate in the next generation the capacity to do the same. Genuine engagement with Israel requires telling students the full story of the country and region, including the history and worldviews of the Palestinians.
Since 2019, over 100 educators have participated in an eight-part online version of the course. Participants were drawn from a wide array of Jewish backgrounds and settings, including Hillel, youth movements, congregational schools, day schools, Jewish camps and federations. Each session has featured a unique guest speaker: Israeli Jews and Palestinians of various orientations.
In the coming months, Makom will run its first in-person, week-long version of the program. This pilot trip will be run for senior representatives from major organizations bringing young North American Jews to Israel — Birthright, RootOne, Masa Israel Journey and others — as well as potential future funders. In the spring, we will run our first pilot trip for educators. Participants will be exposed to the wide diversity of perspectives on the conflict. They will be invited to step into the various “worlds of meaning” different groups inhabit — their memories, dreams, aspirations and fears — and to develop the capacity to see their struggles from within.

updated October 19
Sara Allen and Rabbi Dena Shaffer of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative shared in eJewish Philanthropy about the Collaborative’s newest initiative, “The Name Game.” They discuss the evolution and plans for the initiative:

The pandemic forced us to rethink how genuine relationships can develop…Recognizing that they were liberated from geographic constraints and no longer dependent on expensive conferences for networking, The Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, quickly responded to the opportunity and need. We launched a virtual networking and learning platform called Expanding Your Reach, a national, accessible and inclusive online masterclass initiative. Each gathering drew nearly 100 professionals who formed new and lasting relationships in classes covering a range of topics, from emotional intelligence to mindfulness and breathing techniques, to developing an entrepreneurial mindset and more.
“The Name Game,” developed on the platform Intros.AI, offers a tech-driven way to expand and deepen professional networks. We are building on a platform that matches users based on self-identified interests to create a modern way to network, build trust and find others in the Jewish community you can rely on. During a quiet beta test earlier this year, dozens of users signed up, demonstrating the demand for ongoing connection and youth professionals’ continued hunger to widen their circle.
In many virtual learning settings, powerful relationships often form in the unstructured spaces: thoughtful introductions, a chat box, breakout sessions and confidential rooms. As the name implies, the Name Game moves the “side chat” front and center, reimagining tired icebreakers and traditional networking.
We’re empowering educators – often working alone or in siloes, and most without a wide professional network – to share wisdom and spark creative partnerships with others they might never otherwise meet. Users simply sign up for free and complete a profile with their personal and professional interests – information which leads to better and more relevant matches. We leveraged the platform to intentionally foster reciprocal relationships from the start. Professionals can identify the skills, wisdom and knowledge they can offer; they also list what they’re seeking in a match, such as a collaboration, new mentor or even just friendly conversation. Users determine for themselves how often they’d like to be matched and the priority of matching criteria, and set up their own Zoom conversations. Introduction emails are sent automatically and include brief bios, what each individual is seeking, and playful conversation starters.

updated October 11
R&R: The Rest of Our Lives, an organization offering three-month paid sabbatical grants to a handful of CEOs and directors of Jewish nonprofits, announced its first cohort of five grantees out of 26 total applicants: Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum, co-Founder and Executive Director of Kavana Cooperative; Asher Gellis, founder of JQ International; Dr. Ora Horn Prouser, CEO and Academic Dean of the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR); Yavilah McCoy, founder and CEO of Dimensions Educational Consulting; and Aliza Kline, CEO and president of OneTable. As reported in eJewish Philanthropy:

The grant has two parts: $50,000 directly supporting salaries and benefits for the awardees during their sabbatical, and $10,000 to support interim leaders and staff during their absence. This might include leadership development or a bonus for the deputy playing a larger role in their absence.
“Sabbaticals are proven to reduce burnout, retain talent and spark the next generation of great ideas,” Josh Feldman, R&R’s founder and CEO, told eJP. “R&R believes every worker deserves access to a sabbatical during their career… This grant honors these five leaders’ significant and longstanding contribution and leadership through a significant investment of time for them to rest, renew and recover.”
All of R&R’s sabbaticals will be a minimum of three consecutive months and must begin by August 2023, Rachel Zieleniec, R&R’s program director, told eJP. Each leader and organization has the coming year as a “window” to select from. They will also stay in touch as a cohort. The grant’s only requirement is that grantees must disconnect from all professional work during their time away. These sabbaticals are geared strictly toward rest and renewal for the leader, however each leader defines those terms, Zieleniec said.

updated October 11
Keshet shared its 2022 zine, At the Intersection of Queer and Jewish, featuring content created by and for LGBTQ+ Jewish youth and young adults. Over the course of two months, Keshet received submissions from LGBTQ+ Jewish creators between the ages of 13 and 24. These creations are about their experiences being Jewish and LGBTQ+, as well as the experiences and art of Jews of Color, Jews by choice, disabled Jews, and Jews from multifaith backgrounds. Keshet’s is to celebrate all of the creative youth in its community and to uplift their experiences by featuring them within this zine.

updated September 19
GatherDC is expanding to the San Francisco Bay Area, with plans to grow into more cities, eJewish Philanthropy reported. GatherBay will build partnerships with local organizations to reach Jewish young adults who are minimally or not involved in Jewish program-based experiences. Instead, these young adults find meaning and community through relationships that often form outside of institutional spaces.

Gather shared the following funding information: Gather’s expansion to GatherBay is funded by the Rodan Family Foundation with additional support from the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund. Contributions from the Jim Joseph Foundation and Schusterman Family Philanthropies through JCRIF will also enable broader national engagement efforts under the Gather, Inc. banner. GatherDC will maintain its full operations in Washington, DC. with the ongoing support and generosity of The Morningstar Foundation (one of Gather’s initial investors) The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and individual donors.
Caroline Kessler, GatherBay’s new Community Director, shared, “It can be very challenging to not only understand what’s going on, but just literally to hear about events,” she told eJewishPhilanthropy, noting that a person may have to subscribe “to like 20 different newsletters to know what’s going on at Moishe House, or what’s happening at this synagogue that you may or may not be interested in going to…Part of the role that Gather hopes to play in the ecosystem, or ideally will play, is being that connector and disseminator of information so that people not only can find their place, but understand what are the opportunities and the options here. This interpersonal, concierge-style approach is more than just sending someone a link. It’s about connecting with a group of people who are also interested in checking something out and meeting up to go together.”
The Gather model emerged from the nation’s capital in 2011, when a group of young adults got together to share information about and attend Jewish events. In 2016, that evolved into the nonprofit GatherDC, which now has an annual budget of $850,000 and 12 full-time employees. Today, more than 100,000 people use the group’s online resources every year, and it has a mailing list of more than 12,500 young adults across greater Washington. Of those, more than 11,000 community members have been engaged with Gather staff or experiences over the past six years.

updated September 19
CASJE announced a new research project supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation to explore the impact of Shabbat dinner as a spiritual exercise to promote flourishing. The project is a partnership with OneTable, a national nonprofit that empowers young adults to find, share, and enjoy Shabbat dinners. The research, which will occur over the next three years, is also supported by the Foundation and the BeWell Initiative at Jewish Federations of North America:

“There’s a national epidemic of loneliness, there’s deep political divisiveness, there’s a real fraying of society and social connectedness. Shabbat dinner, in particular, is often used by Jewish communities as a tool for fostering connection and community. Now we have an opportunity to use empirical data to test this hypothesis. Social connection is a fundamental, universal human need. By deepening our understanding of the Shabbat dinner experience and its potential effects, we hope to reveal new ways to promote connection among people.” – Dr. Arielle Levites, Managing Director of CASJE
This new study is the first rigorous scientific investigation of this ancient and ever evolving tool for social connectedness. The study’s focus on social connection honors the collectivist nature of Judaism, seeking to understand how Jewish practice can promote not only individual, but also, group flourishing.
“Different faith or civic groups might adapt these Shabbat dinner components, inspiring meaningful, ritualized gatherings that result in a more cohesive community. In the Jewish community, we certainly see Shabbat dinner’s influence on social connectedness which leads to happy, healthier lives. Other communities might develop their own programs and infrastructure to help combat a national epidemic of loneliness and social fraying.” – Aliza Kline, CEO of OneTable

updated August 29
Hillel International unveiled a new look and feel, premised on the tagline that Hillel is “there for ALL Jewish college students.” They shared a new video as part of this campaign and in an email, Hillel noted:

Hillel is designed to serve all Jewish students regardless of their backgrounds, Jewish ideologies, or denominations. It is welcoming to every type of Jewish interest or expression in the campus community. Those words were written by Rabbi Benjamin Frankel, the founder of Hillel, back in 1923. And now nearly a century later, they have never been more relevant than they are today.
As the world’s largest, most inclusive Jewish campus organization, Hillel is there for ALL Jewish college students. Just as we have been for 100 years. Just as we will be for 100 years to come. All thanks to the support of our incredible community.
Throughout the new school year and beyond, you’ll see Hillel International’s updated look and style, and coming this winter, a brand new website. And you’ll also see our commitment to serving every Jewish student — the vision that inspired Rabbi Frankel to create Hillel a century ago.
As we prepare to mark 100 years of building and nurturing vibrant Jewish life on campus, we invite you to join in the celebration, along with the 1 million-plus students and alumni around the world who have been impacted by Hillel.

updated August 17
Resetting the Table has received an influx of new grants to expand its work “building dialogue and deliberation across political divides.” As reported in eJewish Philanthropy:

Resetting the Table has worked with 35 federations plus The Jewish Federations of North America and Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and trained 58 federation CEOs. The nonprofit, which has fiscal sponsorship through JCPA, has significant funding from The Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, Project Accelerate, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, Civic Health Project and The Jim Joseph Foundation, among others.
After distributing two smaller grants in 2018, the Jim Joseph Foundation provided a three-year grant in June to provide general operating support for Resetting the Table’s work. Specifically focused on Jewish educators and leaders, the funding will support grantees’ efforts to engage young people in content about Jewish identity or Israel, the foundation’s chief operating officer, Dawne Bear Novicoff, told eJP.
“In today’s day and age, young people are looking for places to be honest, to be open, to have nuanced conversations,” Bear Novicoff said. “They don’t want to shy away from difficult conversations; therefore this is providing an opportunity for the grantees and the educators to help hold those conversations.”
Resetting the Table’s first federation partnership, with the UJA-Federation of New York, had formed to identify what was driving young adult disengagement from Israel; the process revealed that what looked like apathy toward Israel was actually fear and anxiety, the organization’s co-founding executive director, Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, told eJP.
“So much of what young adults were calling for was a more productive conversation across difference,” Weintraub said. “Young adult disengagement also was in part driven by other dynamics in the community that we have to change — communal institutions and what the climate is like around Israel.” She added, “I think a lot of the impasse is around our own ideological silos within the Jewish people. I’m a big believer that we need a kind of collective insight to solve problems that we don’t have when we all live in echo chambers.”

updated August 17, 2012
In addition to a video of the RootOne Big Tent event in Israel, David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, shared an update in eJewish Philanthropy on the impact of RootOne Israel trips with more than 5,000 teens this summer:

“RootOne’s partnerships with over 40 trip providers and 30 educational providers across the spectrum of Jewish life in Israel and North America make it one of the broadest initiatives in the Jewish communal ecosystem. These partnerships lead to impressive numbers. In two summers, even with COVID anxiety, more than 9,000 Jewish teens traveled to Israel with RootOne — double the number who would have gone to Israel without RootOne vouchers. In 2022 alone, 98% of the more than 5,000 Jewish teens completed an average of 14 hours of learning prior to boarding the plane to Israel — over 85,000 hours of online Jewish learning on one platform.”
“RootOne’s high quality immersive and other Israel education experiences are deeply informed by The Jewish Education Project’s strong understanding of Jewish teens today, gleaned over many years from our work together with UJA-Federation of New York and the Jim Joseph Foundation. Moreover, the learnings from our ongoing research and evaluation of RootOne conducted by Rosov Consulting ensure the initiative’s continued evolution and improvement.”
We share these learnings with our partners including The Jewish Agency, The iCenter, Unpacked and others to provide the very best platform that spans the entirety of the Jewish community. All of these qualities have led to a growing list of philanthropic foundations backing the RootOne initiative’s ambitious growth plan, now also including programmatic and financial support from the Israel Ministry of Diaspora through Mosaic United.

https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/rootones-impact-on-the-jewish-communal-landscape/embed/#?secret=69I6Ck24Ln#?secret=J2HRFmsu77

updated July 20
Honeymoon Israel shared an update from the last few months, during which it relaunched trips to Israel and continued its work engaging couples back at home. Some key highlights include the following:

Since the relaunch of trips in March 2022, HMI welcomed 266 couples into 16 new cohorts and launched 16 application cycles around the country. Cohorts have been from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, East Bay, Greater MetroWest New Jersey, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Richmond, the SF Bay Area, Seattle, and Washington DC.
From post-trip surveys, participants rate the trip very positively (9.3 out of 10), and they are very likely to recommend the trip to a friend (9.7 out of 10!). For many participants, their HMI trip provides their first Shabbat experience. On average, participants rate Shabbat as 8.9 out of 10!
HMI also continued its at-home engagement:
- “Passover provided the perfect opportunity for HMI alumni to gather together after two years. Many cohorts organized their own Seders and used HMI-created resources to make Passover meaningful to them.”
- “In an effort to connect with our alumni who have recently grow their family, we partnered with PJ Library to curate the Welcome Baby Experience Box! This free box included a “Future HMIer” baby romper, a portable bluetooth speaker, a silicone bowl with a baby-safe hummus recipe, a PJ Library book, and more. This project was very well received and gave us the opportunity to update our database with the names and ages of children of our alumni to ensure we continue to provide programs and resources that are beneficial to young families.” 419 alumni families ordered the Box and 132 Alumni families signed up for PJ Library

updated July 18
Reboot launched Reboot Studios to “provide funding and creative support for fresh and imaginative film, multimedia and art projects.” A list of their first grantees is here, and as Reboot shared:

Reboot Studios will provide seed investments to develop new inspirational and transformational Jewish content. Driven by the belief that art influences our world, enriches our lives and has the power to educate, inspire, create movements and change the way we think, Reboot Studios will tell stories through a Jewish lens about the shared human experience.
Reboot is uniquely positioned to create the best, most exciting and high-quality Jewish content and to distribute and launch projects at a national level, while also targeting local communities via existing partner organizations, using a model and relationships developed over the past 15 years.
Reboot’s previous successes funding a multitude of projects across all media, including the widely hailed virtual Passover production Saturday Night Seder, with Jason Alexander, Billy Porter, Henry Winkler, Pamela Adlon, Cynthia Erivo, and more, led to Reboot Studios. Most recently, Reboot also supported the launch of the HBO film The Survivor, hosting a Reboot Ideas conversation with USC Shoah Foundation featuring director Barry Levinson, actor Ben Foster and producer Matti Leshem, moderated by Sami Sage, co-founder of Betches Media.

updated July 12
Leading Edge announced 20 senior-most executives leading Jewish nonprofits who will inaugurate its Leading Executives program. From September 2022 through February 2023, these leaders will receive leadership training, coaching, and opportunities for connection and mutual support. When the program ends, they will join the growing alumni network of Jewish nonprofit leaders who have completed Leading Edge Executive Programs.

A successor to the CEO Onboarding Program, one of Leading Edge’s original flagship offerings, Leading Executives expands the core elements of that program, while streamlining the experience to offer it to more leaders, more frequently.
Leading Edge’s research into the experience of Jewish nonprofit executives shows that CEOs of Jewish organizations are overwhelmingly proud to lead their organizations, interested and challenged by their work, and positive in their assessments of their relationships with their boards and senior teams—but often feel less confident in areas like creating and maintaining a great workplace culture, inspiring the board, and managing their organizations through significant change.
Leading Edge’s data also reveals that leaders find connecting with other leaders to be one of the most helpful factors contributing to their success. As one alum of Leading Edge executive programming said recently, “Because of Leading Edge, when I’m lonely as a CEO there’s always someone I can call.”

updated July 12
The Jerusalem Post covered the Foundation’s grant to “For the Sake of Argument,” a new initiative from leading educators Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringras to help Jewish communities engage in “collaborative discussions when arguments regarding Israel’s complexities arise.”

In an email, Dauber Sterne and Gringras shared that their “focus over the next two years will be on developing a clear methodology for ‘teaching towards argument,’ while conducting applied research to understand the kind of impact this method has for Israel education and beyond.”
Dauber has reflected on her and Gringas’ roles as innovative Jewish teachers. “As educators, our instincts are to create environments in which we agree,” she said. “Ironically, disagreement and argument hold within them exactly the energy and passion that we, as a community of educators, should seek to engender.”
“Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringras have a timely, important vision to create a new multidimensional learning model for Israel education. This trust-based approach is about engaging young learners in authentic, deeply meaningful conversations around Israel based on disagreements that acknowledge a diversity of perspectives. The Foundation is pleased to support their efforts.”
– Steven Green of the Foundation.
FSA was initially formulated at the Jewish Agency’s Makom: The Israel Education Lab with support from the Jim Joseph Foundation. The publication of Stories for the Sake of Argument, a collection of short stories written by Dauber Sterne and Gringas, was the first stage of the project.

Inside Higher Education profiles Resetting the Table, “An organization that promotes dialogue and understanding among people with different political and religious perspectives is expanding its partnership with Hillels to address tensions among Jewish students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The story notes:

As tensions between Zionist and Palestinian student groups simmer at colleges across the country and rival protests erupt on campuses, Jewish students and employees involved in Hillel programs say there are also deep fissures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict among Jewish students themselves, which leave some of them feeling alienated and obstruct productive dialogue on campuses at large.
Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, co-founding executive director of the organization, noted that Jewish students belong to various clubs on campuses focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ranging from Israel advocacy organizations to Palestinian rights groups, while others have feelings and opinions on the issue but don’t share them for fear of getting involved in the fray.
The goal isn’t to eliminate “profound differences” among students but to demonstrate that “people are writing each other off,” including people “that they can reach and engage in the right conditions with the right tools,” said Weintraub, who is also the former founding director of Encounter, an organization intended to expose Jewish leaders to diverse perspectives on the conflict. “We’re living in a cultural moment in which many of us are drawing our red lines too close to ourselves … It’s easy to see other people as beyond the pale and not worth speaking to before we’ve really tried.”

R&R: The Rest of Our Lives is a new organization offering three-month paid sabbatical grants to a handful of CEOs and directors of Jewish nonprofits. As reported in eJewish Philanthropy:

The reenergizing potential of sabbaticals, especially at a time of rising concern over pandemic burnout, is the guiding motivation for the new organization, founded by Josh Feldman.
The group’s budget for the current fiscal year is $400,000, a figure that will rise to $650,000 in the coming year, when the grants will be awarded. The project is fiscally sponsored by the Social Good Fund, a California nonprofit, and funded by individual donors, the Jim Joseph Foundation and RiseUp, a social justice initiative funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
Feldman said R&R is the first organization to provide sabbatical grants to the Jewish communal sector on a national scale, and expects to offer five organizations a total of $60,000 each — $50,000 for the awardees to rest, travel, reflect or renew for a minimum of three consecutive months while maintaining their current salary and benefits; and $10,000 to support interim leaders and staff in the CEO’s absence.
“The audacious goal here, what R&R is after, is what if after a week, month or year of our work, we felt healthier partly because of the organizations we worked in?” Feldman said. “There is a new zeitgeist around rest and rejuvenation. We hope that many communities start to support their grantees and grant recipients with rest-based solutions. There needs to be an entire ecosystem supporting the rest and rejuvenation of workers. And there will be a need that far surpasses their resources unless it’s made a major priority.”

JFNA launched the BeWell Initiative, which comes out of efforts from the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative to address youth mental health. The news was reported in eJewish Philanthropy:

First launched in several cities around the United States, BeWell, is a $2.75 million well-being and mental health program looking to bring together Jewish agencies and organizations around the country to support the mental health of teens and young adults, ages 12 to 26.
A partnership between JFNA and the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (NJHSA), the program aims to provide support to Jewish schools, camps, youth groups, synagogues, JCCs and any other programs working to support youth, while breaking down barriers between them so they can work together to combat an overarching issue.
The also aims to form Resiliency Roundtables within local communities, which would bring together federations, community organizations, Jewish human service agencies and community members to discuss how to best support their youth. The roundtables would then implement evidence-based and other practices such as mindfulness techniques and a variety of therapeutic techniques.

CASJE announced the launch of the Foundation-supported new fellowship program that will provide advanced postdoctoral training and mentorship to researchers with an interest in applied studies in Jewish education and Jewish communal life. The fellowship will support two cohorts of three fellows each and is open to those who hold a doctorate in Jewish education, general education, social sciences, and adjacent fields:

Leaders in Jewish education and Jewish communal life increasingly seek sophisticated data, analysis and insights to frame practice and policy. The fellowship will expand the pipeline of researchers who conduct critical, high quality applied research and prepare emerging scholars to meet the research needs of Jewish educational and communal organizations.
Fellows will pursue their own research projects while also participating in a cohort learning experience. A special feature of this program is its intent to recruit select fellows whose identities and/or focus of research reflect the diversity of the Jewish communities in the United States. The application process will launch in the fall of 2022 with the first cohort beginning in July 2023.
CASJE has a proven record of cultivating and supporting research that influences how the field addresses challenges and opportunities in Jewish education. Just as important, CASJE helps researchers share their findings broadly so they can be used by a wide range of Jewish educators and leaders. The Jim Joseph Foundation welcomes this opportunity to support more vital research to improve Jewish education. – Stacie Cherner, Director of Learning and Evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

JPro22 convened in Cleveland May 2-4 and brought together more than 1,200 Jewish professionals from 30 communities and over 400 organizations across the United States and Canada. The conference, which combined JPro with the Jewish Federations of North America’s two conferences, FTPI and FedPro, carried the theme of collaboration over the three-day period and took place in person for the first time since 2019.

Participants attended a variety of Jewish text classes, professional development sessions and meetings based on home locations or groups such as attendees of color or LGBTQ attendees. The professional development sessions covered everything from email marketing to mergers and acquisitions to how to run an effective meeting.
As one of the chairs of the conference, Barry was asked to write a piece for the Cleveland Jewish News leading up to the conference’s start. He used that space to express gratitude to the professionals in the field: Let’s keep the same commitment, the same desire to work together and to create meaningful experiences that add value to people’s lives, especially amid challenges. On behalf of the Jim Joseph Foundation, thank you to the Jewish Federation of Cleveland for hosting us, thank you to JPro and Jewish Federations of North America for bringing us together, and most of all thank you to all the professionals who move our field forward and help us all thrive each and every day.
JPro shared some early testimonials from participants:
- “My entire drive back home from Cleveland yesterday afternoon was consumed with thoughts and images of our three days in Cleveland and I wanted to share with you both my extreme gratitude for the work and vision that you both brought to this incredible experience. The tone was perfect, the messaging of collaboration, inclusion and appreciation that was shared across our professional field was both timely and inspirational. The icing on the cake was the closing and sharing that you both expressed at the final plenary for all of us. I felt a sense of excitement and delight while hearing your shared words that has given me a new sense of hope for the future of our field. I see these past three days as a shining example that validates all of the work that we have all done for so many years to elevate the understanding that we are in fact a strong and thriving professional field. Thank you for sharing a glimmer of positivity that we all need to hear and emulate during these challenging times. Kol HaKavod!”
- “Thank you for consciously providing presentations by Jews from across the spectrum of Jewish life. It is so important for us to actually see Jews who don’t look like us and to hear their perspectives, so our eyes can be opened to the diversity of our community. The plenary on Tuesday was a fantastic display of all that we do to support a better world. Ted was so inspiring! As were all of the presenters and the panel discussion. Thank you also for your sustainability efforts. It’s so important to model our “local” efforts on a grander scale. I was also grateful for the visible security. Saddened that it is necessary in the US today, but happy that they were there. As a former health & wellness professional, I was also appreciative of your reminders to everyone to stay hydrated, and for the Quiet Space! Bravo.”

Leading Edge announced that it will acquire Boardified, Jewish nonprofit sector’s premiere platform for board development. The announcement noted:

Both Leading Edge and Boardified have learned through their work that board leadership, professional leadership, and culture are critical for success—and inherently connected to each other. By uniting both organizations’ programs, expertise, and networks of participants and alumni, Leading Edge (with Boardified as a part of it) will drive stronger partnerships and more shared learning between board leaders and professional leaders throughout the Jewish nonprofit sector.
The Boardified team will become Leading Edge employees as soon as possible, allowing both teams to begin focusing on their work together. By July, the acquisition will be officially complete. At present, all programs currently operated by Boardified and Leading Edge will continue. Over the coming year and beyond, Leading Edge will explore the best ways to evolve and integrate existing Boardified and Leading Edge programming focused on board leadership and strengthening their partnership with professionals in the field.
“We are so impressed by what Boardified has accomplished,” says Gali Cooks, President and CEO of Leading Edge. “They’ve supported boards in improving their performance, and really put the need for board leadership development on the map in our field. This is a big win for both sides and a case where 1 plus 1 will equal 3.”

The Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies released an impact report, “Celebrating 10 Years of Enriching the Academic Landscape on Campus”:

This year, we celebrated a decade of the Institute’s success as an academic hub with campus-wide scope, housed at the UC Berkeley School of Law. In February 2021, we welcomed a $10 million endowment and renaming gift from the Helen Diller Foundation. This gift cemented our future as a leading academic institution for Israel Studies and the study of Jewish Law, Thought, and Identity, elevating our position nationally among our peers. The Institute is now able to provide more innovative learning opportunities to thousands of students, faculty, and community members each year.
The Institute is instrumental in bringing diverse voices and narratives about Israel to Berkeley’s campus. By providing a wide variety of programming and taking a nuanced approach to these issues, the Institute opens the door for students and community members to make informed decisions about their beliefs. – Dr. Rami Zeedan, visiting professor, Helen Diller Institute
The Institute allowed me to explore my interest in Israel and Judaism through an academic lens. It really complimented my cultural and political interests and created a more holistic understanding of what it means to be someone who cares about Israel, someone who is Jewish, and someone who has a strong Jewish identity. – Nir Maoz, class of 2015

Over the past 10 years, the Institute has:
- hosted over 40 visiting faculty from academic institutions across Israel and the U.S.
- taught over 2,000 students in 127+ Institute-sponsored courses
- mentored over 60 future leaders in its undergraduate fellows program
- hosted hundreds of events for students and the public

Following its recent merger with Onward Israel, Birthright launched a new program, Brightcode, a coding boot camp for Diaspora Jews ages 18 to 32 that brings them to Israel for two years.

Brightcode will lead to a guaranteed job at an Israeli tech company for two years, with a competitive salary.
In addition to benefiting Diaspora Jews, Birthright hopes to fill one of Israel’s needs — growing demand for web developers in its sprawling tech industry.
“Brightcode does not represent a change in Birthright’s mission. We’re willing to offer a lot of things that are needed in the Jewish world….If more such possibilities arise, we’re open to offering more opportunities through the high-tech industry in Israel. We’re always happy for people to have a longer immersive experience in Israel. And we think that within the two years, if the Brightcode participants decide to either stay or go back to their Jewish communities, both are great choices from our standpoint.” – Noa Bauer, Birthright’s vice president of marketing, in eJewishPhilanthropy.

Repair the World shared it new adaptive strategic plan, which it developed following recent major gifts:

As we look to the future, we lean on learning from the pandemic and valuable reflections from our stakeholders. Repair’s adaptive strategic plan includes four interconnected spending pillars to build our Jewish Service Movement over the coming years:
1. Catalyze our impact by expanding national partnerships (see Appendix) and our Jewish educational strategy;
2. Strengthen our team by more deeply investing in staff, fellows, corps members, and DEI work, including increasing our Economic Access Fund;
3. Tell our story by expanding our marketing, data and development capacity and systems to build the Jewish service movement, engage more people in service and drive resources to Repair; and
4. Secure our future by building operational reserves and pursuing additional investments.