by Rachel Levin, Josh Miller and Adam Simon Back in 2010, when Facebook had but a meager 300 million users and the concepts of Google Plus and Pinterest were not yet on the horizon, there was a desire bubbling up within the Jewish community to capitalize on the new media and technological innovations happening across so many facets of our lives. How could we channel all of these new platforms to strengthen innovation within the Jewish community? How could these tools enable Jewish communities spread all over the world to reach, teach, learn, create and affiliate in unprecedented ways? With these questions in mind, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Jim Joseph Foundation and Righteous Persons Foundation joined together to design and unveil the Jewish New Media Innovation … Continue Reading
Innovating on Tradition: Reflections on the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund
by Lucy Bernholz and Conan Liu Introduction Every day we hear about new digital applications that make it easier to compare products, find news, animate books, and play games. We also hear from the creators of these tools that they want to do more than just build the next best shopping site; they want to do something that matters. At the same time, most organizations that serve our communities struggle to maintain working technology infrastructures, let alone to experiment and imagine how to achieve their missions in a digital world. Bridging this gap between media innovation and mission accomplishment was the core goal of the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund (the Fund), a pilot launched in 2010 by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation, and the Schusterman Family … Continue Reading
Charity Navigator Should Meet JData
by Amy L. Sales, Ph.D. There is much to applaud in Daniel Bloom’s suggestion of a common application for grant funding. JData, our system for tracking information from Jewish educational organizations, is based on the premise that shared information systems have enormous benefit and shared measurement systems are essential for collective impact. The JData system currently allows Jewish camps and schools to enter data about their operations and then generate a report that can readily be emailed to prospective funders. For their part, Jewish federations can download (into a format of their choosing) all of the data from the Jewish educational organizations within their catchment area. The one proviso is that the organizations grant permission. It is a only a few steps from these capabilities to … Continue Reading
Wexner to Develop New Cohort of In-service Fellows
With a new five year, $4.8 million dollar grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program is poised to offer enhanced academic fellowships for graduate students preparing for the Rabbinate, Cantorate, Jewish Studies, Jewish Education and Jewish Professional Leadership fields. Seeking to expand the reach of the Fellowship and attract talent beyond the academic setting, the grant will support the creation of a new cohort of Wexner In-service Fellows, drawing from high potential young professionals already working in the Jewish world. Additionally the grant will assist in building-up the Wexner alumni community including deepening efforts to promote life-long leadership learning through the development of a comprehensive mentorship program and … Continue Reading
Kevah to Begin Teacher Training Fellowship
Kevah, a Bay Area-based organization that engages Jewish identity and builds Jewish community through study of classical Jewish texts, has received a $250,000 grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation for the Kevah Teaching Fellowship. The Fellowship will provide participating educators with a fully funded professional development opportunity in facilitating Jewish small group learning for young adults. The Fellowship includes three in-person workshops over the course of the year, a supervising mentor, personalized guidance in curriculum development, participation in ongoing Jewish learning with other Kevah Fellows, and access to carefully selected curricular resources. Ideal candidates for the program will have at least a BA, basic to advanced Hebrew literacy, experience learning Jewish texts, and a … Continue Reading
Repair the World to Grow Israel Based Programs
Repair the World has announced that it will enhance its service efforts in Israel, bolstering existing programs and working to increase the number of North Americans who participate in longer terms of service. The work is made possible in part by a $215,000 grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation and an $80,000 grant from The Morningstar Foundation. In 2011, Repair’s support enabled 450 North Americans to take part in service opportunities in Israel. These latest grants will allow Repair to more than double that number to 1,000 by 2013 and support opportunities for North Americans and Israelis to serve together throughout the world. A particular area of focus will be placing American young adults into volunteer roles in which they teach English to school-aged children who may not otherwise have … Continue Reading
Foundation for Jewish Camp Receives $8.6m. Grant
With an $8.6 million grant, The Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is launching Specialty Camps Incubator II. The funding is being provided by The Jim Joseph and AVI CHAI Foundations. The second cycle of this program will be used to open four new nonprofit Jewish overnight camps dedicated to a specific skill or area of interest while introducing and integrating Jewish culture. "The five camps that opened in summer 2010 as a result of the first Specialty Camps Incubator are a notable success," says Al Levitt, Board President, Jim Joseph Foundation. "They exceeded their enrollment benchmarks by 146% in the first two years. They provided a new path to Jewish camp for many children: 40% of campers who attended these specialty camps reported that they had never attended Jewish camp before and 66% said … Continue Reading
A New Look at Israel Education: Mapping the Field and Charting the Future
by Anne Lanski Yesterday, in partnership with the Schusterman Family Foundation, the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Marcus Foundation and the AVI CHAI Foundation, the iCenter hosted iThink: A New Look at Israel Education. For a full day, more than 80 organizational leaders, Jewish and Israel educators, funder representatives and scholars reflected on the emergence of the field of Israel Education and envisioned what the future could look like. The basis for this conversation was Mapping the Field, a new report commissioned by the iCenter that documents the growth of the field of pre-collegiate Israel Education over the last 10 years and offers recommendations and goals for building on our progress. Mapping the Field follows a report commissioned by the Gilo Foundation 10 years ago, which found … Continue Reading
How to Fix Our Approach to Evaluation Research in Jewish Education – and Why We Need To
by Eran Tamir The Jewish community is blessed with lay leaders, philanthropists and professionals committed to creating vibrant and innovative Jewish learning opportunities across the lifespan. Their relentless efforts have resulted in many exciting new educational initiatives. Still, it is no secret that while we all have great hopes that each one of these initiatives will become a great success and have lasting impact on the field, not all do. Identifying the most effective initiatives is a daunting task, one for which solid evaluation research becomes a must for policymakers and funders. In 2007 I established the DeLeT Longitudinal Survey at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University. The project studies and tracks the careers of alumni of DeLeT, a professional … Continue Reading
CJP Launches New Approach for Teaching Special Learning Needs Students
February 6, 2012 - Boston, MA - Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) announced today that it is the recipient of a $1.89 million grant for serving Jewish day school students with a wide range of special learning needs. CJP will receive $1.69 million from the Jim Joseph Foundation (JJF) and $200,000 from the Ruderman Family Foundation. CJP, partnering with Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, based in Newton, MA, and Yeshiva University’s Institute for University-School Partnership in New York, will work with six Boston-area Jewish day schools to create “whole school” models for serving students with a range of learning needs. The grant will establish professional development and training programs to build the capacity of teachers and school leaders so that they are well-equipped to better … Continue Reading
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