Last spring, with the support of the Robert K. and Myra H. Kraft Foundation, the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, formally launched their Jewish Futures Project. For at least the next four years, they will follow the lives of more than 3,000 young adult Jews who applied to Taglit-Birthright Israel in 2001-2005. The project will track their journey from college, to first jobs, to careers, marriage or lifelong partnership and the creation of their own families. The researchers want to understand how members of the Jewish millennial generation find meaning and connection through their Jewish identities, participation in the Jewish community, and involvement with Israel. Unlike most Jewish social science which looks at a person's past for clues to the future, their goal is … Continue Reading
Revisiting Jewish Moscow after 25 Years
by Jonathan D. Sarna I last visited Russia in 1986. I came then, along with the late Judaic studies scholar Benny Kraut, to meet with refuseniks, the courageous Jews who demanded the right to emigrate to Israel. Our activities were covert, and during the course of a single week Benny and I experienced the fear that constantly accompanied the Soviet Union’s Jews at that time. Our hotel room was bugged and, on one occasion, we were hidden in a closet while the KGB interrogated our hosts. This time, I came to Moscow with a group of students from Brandeis University’s Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. Moscow’s Genesis Philanthropy Group sponsored the trip, and our goal was to become acquainted with the post-Soviet Jewish community and its institutions. Everything about this … Continue Reading
An Academic Grounding in Tzedakah
Getting Schooled in Tzedakah At NYU, Penn and Brandeis, Philanthropy is a Hot Topic by Howard Shapiro For Andrea Engel, giving to charity and volunteering for charity work - two basic facets of tzedakah - came as second nature. As a high school student in Birmingham, Ala., she headed her B’nai B’rith Youth Organization fundraising effort. As a Northwestern University undergraduate in suburban Chicago, she served on the executive board for the university’s huge marathon fundraiser and raised money for the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. So it made perfect sense when she decided, as a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, that she wanted some academic grounding in charity work. “All my experiences had been very ground based - I … Continue Reading
Is Your Donor Kosher?
by Jan Jaben-Eilon Weeks after the disclosure of controversial contributions by Hungarian-American mega-billionaire George Soros to the pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby J Street, the Jewish non-profit world is still mulling over the ramifications of the issue. Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s executive director, acknowledged on the J Street blog that he had been “less than clear” about the $750,000 the Soros family has contributed over the last three years, starting about six months after the advocacy group was launched. At the same time, however, Ben- Ami emphasizes, he was fully honest in his statements that Soros had not provided the initial funding for the establishment of the organization, early in 2008. Ben-Ami obviously had been more than “less than clear” about Soros’s … Continue Reading
JData: a Powerful New Tool for Educational Organizations
JData.com, a groundbreaking online database that promises to revolutionize data management and sharing for Jewish communities and their education organizations, today launches its 2010-2011 national outreach, calling on Jewish camps, schools, and early childhood centers to enter their organization's data into the site. Conceived and funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation and developed by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, JData.com is partnering nationwide with Jewish federations and local and national agencies to offer unprecedented high-quality, reliable and practical information to the world of Jewish education. JData's mission is to strengthen the Jewish education sector by making available high-quality data that support fact-based decision-making in four key … Continue Reading
The LTV of Jewish Summer Camp
Make Yourself a Friend at a Jewish Summer Camp by Amy L. Sales The Ramah camps, a jewel of the Conservative movement, set their clocks to Ramah time, which is an hour off from time in the real world. When I first visited these camps when I was working on a national study of Jewish summer camps, I found the shift curious. Summer days are long and lazy and although people at camp are aware of meal time, swim time, and tefillah time, they seem unconcerned with 10 o’clock versus 11. I have come, however, to appreciate the symbolism of the time change. It is another way in which camp is set apart from life back home, separate from the rest of the world, a cultural island. It also reinforces the message that camp is not about time. It’s about life lived in the here and now. The research, … Continue Reading
Hartman Institute Expands to North America
The Shalom Hartman Institute is building on the work it has long done in Jerusalem by expanding programming directly to North America. Yehuda Kurtzer has been selected to spearhead this new initiative. Two years ago, Kurtzer was selected from over 200 other applicants as the first Charles R. Bronfman Visiting Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation at Brandeis University. In announcing the expansion, Donniel Hartman, the Institute's president, said, “The vitality and independence of the North American Jewish community requires us to have a North American base of operations to ensure that we sufficiently serve this community. North America has its own unique challenges. We need to make sure that we service the Jewish community there at the highest level, which is tough to do at a 6,000-mile … Continue Reading
Fundraising Continues Strong at Brandeis
Brandeis University enjoyed another strong fundraising year in fiscal year 2010, securing $72 million in donations. It was the fifth consecutive year in which the total exceeded $70 million. The target for the all-important Annual Fund, which supports student financial aid and other urgent needs, also was exceeded, by 30 percent. The positive results for the fiscal year that ended June 30 came despite continued economic turbulence around the world and a presidential transition at Brandeis. Jehuda Reinharz, PhD ’72, who has served as president since 1994, will step down on January 1, 2011, and be succeeded by Frederick Lawrence, who is currently dean of the George Washington University Law School. During fiscal year 2010, Brandeis received seven new commitments of $1 million to $4.25 million, … Continue Reading
Jim Joseph Foundation Makes $5.2m Grant to DeLeT
The Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded a three-year, $5.2 million grant to the DeLeT teacher education program at Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. The grant extends a donor relationship between the foundation and DeLeT that began two years ago. According to an evaluation commissioned by the foundation, DeLeT represents a “paradigm shift” in the preparation of Jewish day school teachers, integrating graduate coursework with a yearlong immersive field experience in partner schools. As of this summer, the program will have prepared more than 130 Jewish day school teachers, working in 40 schools across the U.S. DeLeT, the Hebrew word for “door,” stands for Day School Leadership through Teaching. Philanthropist Laura Lauder founded the … Continue Reading
Brandeis Names New President
Frederick M. Lawrence, dean of the George Washington University Law School and one of the nation’s leading experts on civil rights and free expression, has been named president of Brandeis University. Lawrence, 54, will become the university’s eighth president on Jan. 1, 2011. He will succeed President Jehuda Reinharz, who announced last October that he was stepping down after more than 16 years as president. Reinharz will join the Mandel Foundation, an international philanthropy, as president when he departs Brandeis. During his long tenure, Reinharz has overseen the physical redevelopment of the Brandeis campus, raised $1.2 billion for the university, substantially increased the diversity of the student body, and made it possible for any qualified student seeking a Brandeis education to … Continue Reading
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