The Bronfman Fellowships Alumni VentureFund (AVF) – a peer-to-peer giving fund supported by donations from the Bronfman alumni community – has announced the Winter 2014/2015 Alumni Venture Fund Grantees. The AVF gives grants to innovative, creative, impactful alumni led projects that are in the spirit of the Fellowships’ core values. For the first time this year, both BYFI’s American and Israeli alumni governing bodies joined to make all grant decisions based on group deliberation and close discussion with applicants. The AVF has distributed over 200 grants, and Bronfman Fellowships alumni throughout the country and the world are making meaningful change in their communities as a result.

This year, our 21 grantees will be:

Bringing Yiddish into the 21st century….

• Eli Batalion (BYFI ’97) – YidLife Crisis (Montreal, Quebec)

LGBTQ Advocacy in Israel….

• Lior Soroka (Amitim ’99) – The Normal Heart (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Asaf Zagrizak (Amitim ’08) – Study Day on LGBTQ community and Reform Judaism (Jerusalem, Israel)
• Maayan Furth (Amitim ’06) – A Gay Pride Student Group in Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel)

Exploring the politics of food….

• Elisheva Goldberg (BYFI ’05) – Food Justice Salon (Jerusalem, Israel)

Preparing students for college….

• Elisabeth Cohen (BYFI ’01) – Ramp up for College Students for Enrichment in Secondary Schools College (Boston, MA)

Bringing literature to the workplace….

• Rachel Burstein (BYFI ’99) – Books@Work for female parolees in East Cleveland (Cleveland, OH)

Encouraging creativity in underserved populations….

• Edie Joseph (BYFI ’07) – Hearing Youth Voices: Writings from Connecticut Youth in Foster Care (Connecticut)

Creating a virtual community of donors….

• Anya Manning (BYFI ’02) – MatchMe (Virtual)

Making Tzitzit accessible for all genders….

• Maya Rosen (BYFI ’11) – Netzitzot: Tzitzit Designed for Women (Virtual)

Helping the neediest in Jerusalem….

• Yarden Mendelson (Amitim ’03) – Connections (Jerusalem, Israel)

Connecting modern day slavery to the Passover seder….

• Lev Meirowitz Nelson (BYFI’99) – Anti Human Trafficking Haggadah (Virtual)

Giving everyone the tools to write Jewish text…..

• Zohar Atkins (BYFI ’05) – Write Your Own Talmud (NYC)

Digitalizing the Jewish Canon…

• Brett Lockspeiser (BYFI ’99) – Sefaria (Virtual)

Documenting ancient cemeteries….

• Idit Ben Or (Amitim ’01) – Hands on History – Project archLive (Berlin & Jerusalem)

Revitalizing Jewish education….

• Rebecca Milder (BYFI ’91) – Jewish Enrichment Center Video Project (Chicago, IL)

Training a new generation of matchmakers….

• Raysh Weiss (BYFI ’01) – YentaNet (Virtual)

Increasing accessibility, creativity, and innovation in independent Minyanim….

• Raphael Magarik (BYFI ’05) – Berkeley Minyan (Berkeley, CA)
• Aliza Gans (BYFI ’09) – Kehillat Sha’ar (Waltham, MA)
• Eliana Golding (BYFI ’07) – Tikkun Leil Shabbat (Washington, DC)
• David Andorsky (BYFI ’92) – Minyan Na’aleh Shavuaton (the mountains, CO)