Thank You JCRIF Funders

To the Leadership of the Aviv Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, the Jim Joseph Foundation, Maimonides Fund, The Paul E. Singer Foundation, Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, and Wilf Family Foundation, and Jewish Federations of North America.

JCC Association

We’re writing to say thank you. It seems somehow fitting that we just celebrated Pesach not long after having marked the anniversary of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though our organizations continue to face the effects of this difficult year, they were made easier because of your leadership, partnership, and most generous support in founding and funding the Jewish Communal Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF). You came together to focus your efforts around support and relief for a beleaguered Jewish community wandering in the wilderness, navigating unfamiliar terrain while bearing responsibility for a community in crisis, and absent any real insight into when and how this journey would end—a question that, even now, remains unanswered.

In short order, your endeavors produced tens of millions of dollars of zero-interest loans that made it possible for many to endure the onerous financial challenges and constraints we faced in communities from coast to coast. Your aligned grant program provided impetus and fuel for an array of innovative initiatives that improved our ability to support and engage, in real time, those to whom we are so steadfastly dedicated. For each individual grantee, the resulting programs provided important insights and invaluable experience that now are being brought to bear as we build on what we’ve learned. And given the growing levels of collaboration within and across sectors and communities, we are broadly tapping into that experience and wisdom in pursuit of something better—not only in the face of the continuing crisis, but with an eye toward what comes next.

JCRIF has both modeled and catalyzed collaboration and teamwork, which may well prove to be the most important outcome of all. Even as we embark on the next chapter of our work against the backdrop of JCRIF’s newest initiatives, we are deeply grateful to you for all you have done thus far, not only for us, but for all who have benefited from your generosity, your counsel, your wisdom, and your extraordinary example.

“Do not separate yourself from the congregation”: but rather share in their troubles. As anyone who separates from the congregation will not [live to] see the consolation of the congregation (Taanit 11a).
Bartenura on Pirkei Avot 2:4:3-4

May you and may we all go from strength to strength.

With our enduring gratitude,

Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC)

Julie Platt, Board Chair

Jeremy Fingerman, CEO

Hillel International

Skip Vichness, Board Chair

Adam Lehman, President and CEO

JCC Association of North America

Gary E. Jacobs, Board Chair

Doron Krakow, President and CEO

Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools

Yehuda Neuberger, Board Chair

Paul Bernstein, CEO

Repair the World

Robb Lippitt, Board Chair

Cindy Greenberg, President and CEO