The grants announced today are part of approximately $1.7 million to be distributed this year.

Signature grantees include:

• The Binah School, Sharon, MA: $30,000 for one year for The Creative Collaborators Project, a program that integrates arts, social justice, community service, digital literacy and leadership development for the school’s Orthodox female students.
• The Center for Jewish Family Life/Project YES, Monsey, NY: $120,000 over three years to expand nationally the Bnos One on One Big Sister Program, which joins older and younger Jewish girls for mentoring opportunities in social and educational settings.
• Chicago History Museum: $35,000 for one year to support educational programming for the Shalom Chicago exhibit.
• Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco: $90,000 over two years to develop and launch the Jewish Education and Technology (JET) Institute, a program for Jewish day school educators integrating digital technology into their curricula and classrooms.
• The Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY: $140,000 over three years to establish and create programming at Camp Tussovka, an immersive and experiential Jewish learning environment for Russian-speaking Jewish families.
• The Epstein School, Solomon Schechter School of Atlanta: $40,600 over two years to continue and expand the Badges for Learning program, a digital platform combining learning, assessment and recognition of student achievements.
• Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, New York: $35,000 for one year to create an educational guide and programming for an exhibition of Jewish Food for Thought – a series of animated shorts exploring Jewish wisdom through the eyes of video artist Hanan Harchol – and to support a traveling exhibition of his work.
• The Jewish Education Project, New York: $193,300 over three years to launch and develop J-LINC (Linking Innovation, Networks and Community), an initiative to create intergenerational and developmentally appropriate Jewish education programming for families with children ages five years and younger.
• Jewish Learning Works, San Francisco: $145,500 over three years to support development and launch of Shalom Discovery, a program offering non-institutional Jewish programming to families with young children to keep them engaged in Jewish life and learning.
• National Jewish Education Innovation Network, Philadelphia: $45,000 for one year to establish Shinui, a network of Jewish agencies united in advancing and sharing innovative practices in Jewish education.
• NEXT: A Division of Birthright Israel Foundation, New York: $120,000 over three years to implement a pilot program to develop and enhance educational training and professional development for educators working to deepen Jewish community involvement among Birthright Israel alumni.
• Yeshiva University Museum, New York: $135,900 over three years to further develop and expand Re-Imagining Jewish Education through Art, an initiative based on the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education and using critical inquiry as a channel of Jewish education.

The new round of Ignition grantees include:

• Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI: $15,015 for one year to partner with Temple Israel in nearby West Bloomfield and bring college-level Jewish studies classes to Jewish high school students in the area.
• Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA: $20,000 for one year to create a curriculum and community of practice to familiarize and train educators to use Godly Play, a Bible program that enacts sacred narratives through storytelling to enable children to explore spirituality.
• Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago: $20,000 for one year to create curriculum and programming for the GIFTS (Gratitude, Family, Tzedakah, and Service) initiative, empowering and equipping grandparents to pass Jewish values and practice on to grandchildren in interfaith families.
• Lehrhaus Judaica, Berkeley, CA: $14,700 for one year to design and create an online distance learning component to a classroom-based Talmud study course.
• MoEd: A Jewish Afterschool Community, Chevy Chase, MD: $20,000 for one year to develop curricula for a cross-denominational, afterschool program serving elementary school children and emphasizing Hebrew language and Jewish learning.
• Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, New York: $20,000 for one year to launch and implement a pilot program applying Jewish text study to conflict resolution for students in four Jewish day schools in California.

Since 1991, the Foundation has provided more than $23 million to develop and support Jewish education and community-building projects and programs in North America.

The Covenant Foundation is currently inviting 2013 Signature and Ignition grant applications. Applicants should visit covenantfn.org/grants for information and guidelines. The deadline for submitting an initial letter of inquiry is Feb. 28, 2013.

The Covenant Foundation is a program of the Crown Family Philanthropies and the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA).