Good Wednesday morning!

The Slingshot Fund, which works with young philanthropists to promote Jewish innovation, has released its 2022 “10 to Watch,” a list of 10 relatively new Jewish nonprofits responding in original ways to the current concerns of American Jews.

This year’s list spotlights issues that have become priorities in Jewish communal discourse in recent years, including gender equality, mental health and Jewish racial diversity. Slingshot doesn’t fund the groups, but creates the list to draw attention to them in the hope that they’ll forge connections with Jewish philanthropists, especially younger ones, the group’s CEO, Stefanie Rhodes, told eJewishPhilanthropy.

“We’re speaking to our people and saying, ‘This is stuff based on what you’re interested in, and what your family funds, and the change you’re trying to make in the world,'” she told eJP. “Here’s 10 really interesting programs or projects that are worth your taking a deeper look at.”

This year, Slingshot changed its application process, no longer requiring organizations to submit a special application. Instead, it invited groups to send in a grant application or annual report they’d already written, which led to a greater number of eligible submissions — 53 this year, up from 37 in 2021. Rhodes also noted that roughly one-sixth of applicants focused on Jews of color. “It turns out, actually, that when you ask an organization to tell you about their work, and [do] not try to fit them into a template, you can get excellent, wonderful information,” Rhodes said.

Gabby Spatt, the executive director and sole full-time employee of The Blue Dove Foundation, which addresses mental health through programs related to Jewish culture and ritual, hopes that inclusion in the list will allow her to grow her $310,000 budget. But she also sees the group’s selection as a sign that the Jewish community is more willing than it has been in the past to openly discuss mental illness.

“It means that the community is thinking differently,” she said. “Over the last two years in the Jewish community we’ve seen an influx of this topic… This just shows that the community is ready to have these kinds of conversations.”

The full “10 to Watch” list includes:

• Rise Up
• The Blue Dove Foundation
• Mitsui Collective
• The Jewish Fertility Foundation’s Cincinnati branch
• The Rekindle Fellowship
• ish
• Jewtina y Co.
• Gender Equity in Hiring Project
• SEA Change Initiative
• Devorah Scholars

Read the full story here.

PRESSING PAUSE

SoCal Jewish News, a fledgling local publication, goes on hiatus as editor undergoes surgery

Courtesy of Hartog

Atop a mix of articles covering arts, culture and community events, the homepage of the SoCal Jewish News now features a letter, written by editor Kelly Hartog, that explains why the digital outlet will stop publishing for at least two months. In the letter Hartog discusses how her impending kidney transplant has impaired the ability of the Jewish News, which launched last July, to do its best work. But she told eJewishPhilanthropy that she still has high hopes for the site.

A new venture: Hartog founded the Jewish News last year along with a team of six other journalists, several of whom, like her, once worked for the region’s largest Jewish publication, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. In October 2020, facing pandemic hardships, the Jewish Journal suspended its print edition. Around that same time, Hartog, the Jewish Journal’s managing editor, was laid off.

Startup challenges: The Jewish News launched the following May and faced obstacles of its own, raising less than $5,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. But Hartog says the team has managed to bring in some money via advertising and donations, divvying up funds among the staff when possible while they supplement their income with other work.

Staying optimistic: Hartog’s illness has posed a test for the publication, which hopes to focus a hyperlocal lens on the Los Angeles Jewish community and cover arts and culture, all while pioneering a sustainable model of Jewish journalism for a digital age when many print publications have folded. “Had I known I was going to get this sick so rapidly, I probably wouldn’t have done it, but I didn’t know, so I figured I’ll just keep going,” Hartog told eJP regarding the publication’s launch. Following the surgery, she said, “I’m kind of going to be a brand-new person. I will be able to do even more than I was able to do when we started this.”

Read the full story here.

MISLEADING AND FALSE CLAIMS

The fight over biased ethnic studies courses is spreading to public schools nationwide

iStock

“As a Cuban American Jew who spent nearly two decades working on federal education and public history initiatives to reach diverse and underserved communities, I have observed what is happening in K-12 public schools with growing concern,” writes Ida R. Eblinger Kelley, senior advisor at StandWithUs, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Big picture: “In the big picture, our classrooms are increasingly caught in the culture wars between the right and the left. The impact of this on the Jewish community varies from place to place, but in far too many cases we have seen Jewish perspectives erased or anti-Jewish content actively promoted in public education. One example was the first draft of California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) — an important effort to fight racism that was twisted into a platform for antisemitism, anti-Israel narratives and other forms of bias.”

Attack mode: “While California’s ESMC was revised over the course of two years, the writers of the first draft formed their own organization called Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Institute (LESMC). The leadership of LESMC has smeared the Anti-Defamation League – the largest organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism – as a ‘white supremacist’ group. Their website went further, attacking Jewish community relations councils and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. LESMC promotes the false narrative that Zionism is a ‘colonial ideology,’ erasing 3,000 years of the Jewish people’s history in their ancestral home… This problem is no longer confined to California.”

A national problem: “These challenges are not happening in a vacuum and should not be taken lightly. Rates of antisemitic crimes and incidents have skyrocketed, especially during the latest war between Israel and Hamas. This hatred grows partly due to widespread ignorance among young people about all things related to the Jewish community, from Jewish identity, history and diversity to antisemitism, Israel and Zionism.”

Read the full piece here.

AN EQUITABLE SECTOR

Applying an equity lens to evaluation

Courtesy

“In parallel with the growing awareness of the historical and systemic drivers of inequality, professionals in the field of evaluation are also reflecting on the intersection between our practices and a more equitable society,” writes Allison Magagnosc, a senior project associate at Rosov Consulting, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Doing the research: “With this awareness, Rosov Consulting designed an evaluation that uses more equitable techniques and is in service of creating a more equitable Jewish nonprofit sector for our client, JPro. By surveying and interviewing professionals in the field, we hope to better understand what factors enable or hinder their access to professional growth opportunities so that JPro can make systemic changes to ensure those experiences are accessible to all.”

Applying an equity lens: “Although we are penning this piece before we have findings, there are ways in which an equity lens can be applied before any data is collected. One such resource is the Equitable Evaluation Initiative (EEI). These principles — in addition to being used here as a framing device — are valuable for our work with funders and grantees in the Jewish communal sector and push us to continually reflect upon and improve our work process and product.”

Read the full piece here.

Worthy Reads

Have a Plan: Having a strategic plan will demonstrate that a nonprofit can be trusted to use philanthropic dollars wisely and encourage long-haul donors, Eric Ryan writes in NonProfitPRO. “For organizations about to embark on a campaign, having a strong strategic plan not only puts the organization in ‘the driver’s seat’ — in terms of their future, it also gives them credibility and differentiates them from other organizations that do not have plans… Today’s donors, especially newcomer Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, insist on knowing the financial health, objectives and long-range goals of a nonprofit. Much like an investment, they are basing their decisions on sound business practices versus an emotional appeal.” [NonProfitPRO]

Peptoc Hotline: On Feb. 26, the “Peptoc Hotline,” a series of bilingual recordings crafted to offer positive and encouraging mantras in challenging times, went live and is accessible to the public, writes Matt Villano for CNN. It was created as a public art project by students at West Side Elementary School in Healdsburg, California. “The effort was the brainchild of Jessica Martin, a local artist who doubles as the art teacher for the small school. Martin expected the effort to inspire some smiles and maybe lift a few hundred spirits in Healdsburg and the surrounding community. In less than a week, the project has gone viral, receiving between 300 and 500 calls an hour, and up to as many as 5,000 calls a day, Martin said. ‘The adults among us have been holding everything up for so long, it’s amazing to see what comfort children can bring,’ she said. ‘I was moved by the incredible collection of advice and encouragement they gleaned, and how easily and distinctly they were able to communicate it.’” [CNN]

NextGen Tech: Philadelphia nonprofit Coded by Kids is preparing young people from underrepresented backgrounds for leadership roles in technology, Nicole Wallace writes in The Chronicle of Philanthropy: “The students Coded by Kids work with range in age from 8 to 24. Participants learn about coding, software development, technology jobs, and more. A paid summer internship program teaches high-school and college students what tech start-ups do and how they work. Students get real-world experience creating apps, websites, and prototypes as interns with Draft Studios, the organization’s web-development company. Some stay on, and it becomes their job during college.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]

Pic of the Day

Janos Kummer/Getty Images

Ukrainian women and children arriving at Budapest’s Western Railway Station on Tuesday received flowers from local volunteers in recognition of International Women’s Day, which is widely celebrated in Eastern Europe. According to the U.N. refugee agency, more than 2 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion; Hungary has welcomed more than 144,000 Ukrainian refugees.