Introducing the Slingshot Class of 2011-2012

Slingshot present’s the seventh annual edition of Slingshot: A Resource Guide for Jewish Innovation, featuring 50 inspirational organizations in Jewish life in North America; and for the first time ever, 10 projects which have helped define Slingshot for the past seven years.

While many lament the changing nature of Jewish life and long with nostalgia for a simpler time of more automatic Jewish unity, Slingshot celebrates the relative peace and prosperity that Jews enjoy in the United States and Canada while highlighting those organizations that work to ensure that Jewish life isn’t left behind as the world moves forward.

While Slingshot ’11-’12 may be optimistic, don’t allow its self-confident portrayal of Jewish identity to mask the concern of the social entrepreneurs, start-up organizations and seed-stage funders showcased within. They all have projects on the horizon and are worried about where to find more funding. Nobody knows if even the most innovative idea can find long-term sustainability, as evidenced this year by the closing of JDub, the ultimate next generation social entrepreneurial platform. After sustaining innovation and impact for years, JDub has recently forced to close its doors due to lack of support. Rather than taking granted that someone else is funding next generation engagement, Jewish continuity, or whatever other name you want to give our community’s continued vibrancy, let Slingshot ’11-’12 inspire you to get involved with at least one organization …

Will Schneider, Slingshot’s Executive Director writing in the introduction

Here’s this year’s 10 Standard Bearers followed by the Slingshot 50 (all in alphabetical order):

1. Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community
2. Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
3. Hazon
4. IKAR
5. InterfaithFamily.com, Inc.
6. Jewish Funds For Justice
7. Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center, Inc.
8. Mechon Hadar
9. Reboot
10. Sharsheret

• ACCESS – AJC’s new generation program
• BBYO Panim Institute
• Be’chol Lashon
• Bible Raps
• The Bronfman Youth Fellowships Alumni Venture Fund
• Center Without Walls
• Challah for Hunger
• Diarna: Mapping Mizrahi Heritage
• Eden Village Camp
• Encounter
• Gateways – Access to Jewish Education
• G-dcast
• Haggadot.com
• Hebrew SeniorLife Chaplaincy Institute
• Hidden Sparks
• Hillel’s Campus Entrepreneur & Senior Jewish Educator Initiative
• Institute for Curriculum Services: National Resources Center for Accurate Jewish Content in Schools
• Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues
• Jewish Community Action – Foreclosure Prevention
• The Jewish Education Project
• Jewish Heart for Africa
• Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn
• Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation
• Jewish Rock Radio
• Jewish Teen Funders Network
• Judaism Your Way
• The Kavana Cooperative
• Kavanah Garden, Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs
• Kayam Farm at the Pearlstone Conference & Retreat Center
• Keshet
• Matan – For Every Child. For Every Community. The Gift of Jewish Learning.
• Moishe House
• Moving Traditions
• MyJewishLearning.com
• Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality
• OurJewishCommunity.org
• The PresenTense Group
• Project Chessed
• Rabbis for Human Rights-North America
• Repair the World
• Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council
• Rose Youth Foundation, an initiative of Rose Community Foundation
• Seeds of Peace, Inc.
• Shalom Hartman Institute of North America
• Shalom Sesame/Sesame Workshop
• Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists
• Teva Learning Alliance
• TORCH
• Uri L’Tzedek
• Wilderness Torah