Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT), the open Orthodox rabbinical school, has been awarded a second major ($1.2 million) grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation to support YCT’s transition to sustainability, which includes the succession in leadership from Rav Avi Weiss, the Founding President, to Rabbi Asher Lopatin, President as of July 2013. The grant is exceptional because the rabbinical school was awarded its first Jim Joseph Foundation grant ($3 million) less than three years ago.

The new grant challenges YCT to further develop its donor base by matching up to $1 million in new and increased donations over an 18 month period. In addition to the challenge grant, $200,000 is designated for capacity support, allowing the Yeshiva to expand on its successes in development, recruitment and curriculum planning and implementation. YCT is now positioned to continue developing future rabbis and educators ready to teach and infuse a love of Jewish learning.

YCT’s first Jim Joseph Foundation gift, awarded in 2011, included a challenge grant that offered matching funds for up to $2.5 million in new and increased donations over a period of five years. YCT met the challenge in just over two years. That grant was an important affirmation of the school’s record of achievement since its inception a decade earlier. YCT enhances communities by training professional Jewish leaders who serve all over the world in major synagogues, Hillels, day schools, camps, military bases and who lead a wide range of important communal organizations. Many of the YCT graduates are key educators of major initiatives funded by the Foundation in these and other settings.