$50,000 Grants Offered to Jewish Day Schools

The Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC), sponsored by the Mayberg Family Foundation, is soliciting proposals to pilot innovative educational models in Jewish day schools. The objective is to identify and fund experimentation with new methodologies that foster and reward student effort, enthusiasm and proficiency.

To empower educators and administrators to disrupt the status quo, JEIC awards multiple grants up to $50,000 each over two years to programs that represent a paradigm shift in Jewish education. According to JEIC Managing Director, Rabbi Shmuel Feld, “We want to see reflected in the Letter of Intent a school based program that describes a team of colleagues who can transform their educational context in a game changing manner with the support of their board. This is not about a singular curriculum; it’s about changing the experience of Judaic education.” Throughout the grant period, grantees will have access to our educational and research staff to help their pilot programs succeed.

Selected programs must be revolutionary, practical, sustainable, accountable and scalable. Last year, JEIC awarded several grants, totaling more than $130,000. The deadline for the initial Letter of Interest is December 18, 2015. In an unusually transparent grant process, finalists present their ideas at the Foundation’s annual “Innovators Retreat” on June 1st and 2nd 2016 and grant winners are announced in late June.

Grants awarded through the Challenge are open to any Jewish day school (grades 6-12) in the United States and Canada. Eligibility and submission guidelines can be found at the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge website: www.jewishchallenge.org.

The Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) is a grantmaking initiative designed to disrupt complacency and encourage innovation in Jewish day school education. By rewarding and collaborating with talented innovators, JEIC seeks to improve the way Jewish values, literacy, practice and belief are transferred to the next generation. The project’s ultimate success will be the creation and implementation of revolutionary, practical educational models that are sustainable, accountable and scalable.