The Hadassah Foundation has awarded grants this year totaling $284,000. The 2012 grant recipients include organizations in both the United States and Israel that support women’s empowerment, financial literacy and workplace equality. In Israel, grants were awarded to Bar Ilan University’s Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women’s Status, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development, the Center for Women’s Justice, Economic Empowerment for Women in Israel, Itach, IT Works, Negev Institute, Olim BeYachad, Shatil, Supportive Community, Women’s Spirit and Yedid. The Hadassah Foundation is also one of 17 American women’s philanthropy funds contributing to the newly-formed Jewish Women’s Collaborative to focus on specific issues pertaining to women in Israeli society. In the … Continue Reading
Jewcology Launches Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment
Jewcology, a project which provides materials and tools to support the Jewish environmental movement, announced today that it will launch a “Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment” from Tu b’Shevat 5772 until Tu b’Shevat 5773. Jewcology will launch the resources in coordination with Canfei Nesharim, its parent organization. These high-quality materials will be a significant contribution to the field of Jewish-environmental learning. Topics range from Trees, Food and Energy to Shabbat, Sustainable Use and Consumerism. “Canfei Nesharim has organized Tu b’Shevat Learning Campaigns every year since 2003,” explained Evonne Marzouk, executive director of Canfei Nesharim and one of the lead editors for this project. “This year, for our tenth annual Learning Campaign, we’re … Continue Reading
Jewish Indiana Jones Rabbi Pleads Guilty
from NYDailyNews.com: Rabbi Menachem Youlus admits to Torah scam A rabbi who proclaimed himself the “Jewish Indiana Jones” admitted Thursday he was really the villain in a made-for-Hollywood swindle. Menachem Youlus, a Baltimore bookstore owner, pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to spinning a web of lies that snared a billionaire philanthropist. He faces up to five years in prison for creating a bogus charity built on fictional tales of rescuing Holocaust-era Torahs, selling forgeries and pocketing the dough. … Continue Reading
Conservative Rabbis Learn Management Skills
Los Angeles, Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - 14 Conservative rabbis graduated this morning from the Rabbinic Management Institute’s Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. The graduates represent the first class of this program, geared towards providing rabbis with business skills and management training necessary to run their synagogue more efficiently in the 21st Century. The program is a joint venture by the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and the American Jewish University. … Continue Reading
ROI Community Kicks Off 2012 Recruitment
Seeking Best and Brightest Jewish Innovators for 2012 ROI Global Summit Jerusalem - February 1, 2012: Seeking to identify 150 of the most passionate and creative activists to change the Jewish world and beyond, ROI Community today kicks off recruitment for the 2012 Global Summit. Specifically, ROI is looking for 20- and 30-somethings who are leading initiatives in social action, environmental activism, arts and culture, media and technology, education, social justice, Israel advocacy and Jewish peoplehood, to join its 700-strong network in 50 countries. The Summit, ROI’s flagship program, will be held in Jerusalem, June 10-14, 2012. “We are reaching out to ROI Community members, strategic partners in the Jewish, social entrepreneurial and philanthropic worlds, and others, to refer the best … Continue Reading
On the Ground at NAJDS: What Funders Want
by Deborah Fishman The North American Jewish Day School Conference’s session “What Funders Want” dealt with a few striking questions which funders - and anyone interested in deciding where to devote resources - face. One such question is whether the needs of individual schools or “the community” as a system take priority. This can manifest itself geographically: How does what is occurring on the local scene relate to the national picture? It also surfaces when considering how schools work with one another: Do schools have unique needs they need to focus on inwardly - or can they collaborate? Three panelists - Daniel Perla from the AVI CHAI Foundation, Amy Katz from PEJE, and Holly Cohen from the Kohelet Foundation - discussed funding priorities with one another in a “fishbowl” … Continue Reading
German Government to Provide Financial Support to Yad Vashem
The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of Israel today signed a 10 year agreement, beginning this year, whereby Germany will support Yad Vashem to the sum of one million euro annually. The agreement signifies the German government's wish to help facilitate Yad Vashem’s various activities in Israel and globally which further commemoration, documentation and education of the events of the Holocaust. The funding will support the systematic location and acquisition of documents from the Holocaust at archives across the globe, as well as making them accessible; in disseminating information about the Holocaust online, including through a new German version of Yad Vashem’s website; and enrich the activities of the International School for Holocaust Studies of Yad … Continue Reading
Siegal, Case Western Reserve form Partnership
from Cleveland Jewish News: Siegal College, CWRU form partnership Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland and Siegal College in Beachwood will combine their adult education programs into a new initiative to launch this fall, the Laura and Alvin Siegal Lifelong Learning Program at CWRU. The Siegal College board of trustees approved the alliance at its meeting on Monday evening, Jan. 30, following months of discussion between its own stakeholders and representatives of the university. The collaboration will integrate the continuing-education programs from each institution, which will increase the offerings available to their respective students, said Terri Kline, chair of the Laura and Alvin Siegal College of Judaic Studies board. ... Siegal College’s degree programs are … Continue Reading
A Storied Chicago Institution Works through a Financial Crisis
from Chicago Tribune: Spertus Institute reinvents itself When Hal Lewis became president of Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, in July 2009, the future of the place looked grim. Spertus owed $43.6 million of the $51.6 million it had borrowed to build its architecturally stunning site at 610 S.Michigan Ave., which had opened to wide critical praise in 2007. The timing, however, was unfortunate, for the ensuing economic crash meant that Spertus' endowment plunged 22 percent from the previous two years, to $6 million. As a result, Spertus' operating budget for fiscal 2010 took a commensurate nose dive: 23 percent down from the previous year, leaving the institution with a projected operating deficit of $500,000 (against a budget of $5.2 million). … Continue Reading
Yad Vashem Opens New Seminars Wing
Yad Vashem will today inaugurate a new 45,000 square foot International Seminars Wing of the International School for Holocaust Studies. The wing incorporates eleven new classrooms, a video-conference suite, conference rooms and auxiliary facilities, as well as a 330-seat lecture hall. The International School holds seminars for educators from some 55 countries around the world, as well as in Israel; develops custom-made pedagogical tools for specific countries and age groups, in more than 20 languages, and hosts hundreds of thousands of students and soldiers annually. The new wing is supported by Joseph Gottdenker of Canada along with Friends of Yad Vashem worldwide, and the new Edmond J. Safra Lecture Hall, was donated by the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. … Continue Reading
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