Good Friday morning!

Almost exactly two years after the first Shabbat, in March 2020, when many synagogues shuttered due to the pandemic, a new, wide-ranging study from the UJA-Federation of New York demonstrates a connection between attending Jewish communal programs and emotional well-being. A survey of a representative sample of 4,400 adults in Jewish households, with some data provided exclusively to eJewishPhilanthropy, shows that the more New York City-area Jews attended prayers and Jewish activities, the lower their rates of anxiety, depression, social isolation and substance abuse were.

“We have long held an assumption that ‘doing Jewish’ was good for the Jewish people, was good for our community, and now we feel like we have this evidence that says it,” Emily Sigalow, executive director of UJA’s ??Impact and Performance Assessment Department, told eJP. She noted that the study didn’t prove causation, or that going to synagogue makes one less anxious or depressed. But, she said, “even if we can’t prove the direction of an arrow, we know that doing Jewish is associated positively with these different measures of well-being.”

Across several variables, more Jewish involvement correlated with better emotional well-being. Thirteen percent of synagogue members, for example, reported feeling symptoms of anxiety or depression. The number rose to 26% among non-members. The more frequently one attended Jewish programs, the less likely one was to experience social isolation, dropping from 63% among those who never attend to 28% among those who attend once a week or more.

Overall, synagogue attendance dropped during the pandemic, with 27% of Jews saying they have attended religious services less during the pandemic, and only 5% saying they attend more — an unsurprising result given synagogue closures and quarantines.

More than three-quarters of Jewish respondents said their connection to being Jewish “has not changed much” during the pandemic, while 20% say they’re more attached and 3% report feeling less attached. And feelings of belonging in Jewish spaces drop among both LGBTQ Jews and racially and ethnically diverse Jews, 59% and 66% of whom, respectively, said they felt like they belonged in the Jewish community, compared to 80% of Jews overall.

The survey’s questions reached beyond issues of emotional well-being and belonging — asking respondents about their economic status, food security, drug and alcohol abuse and more. It found that New York’s large share of Orthodox Jews had higher poverty rates and less food security, and were more reliant on government aid. Nearly a quarter of Jewish households overall lived in or near poverty. Poverty numbers were even higher among Orthodox respondents, most of whom receive government food benefits.

Read the full story here.

ON THE HILL

Ahead of 2022 NSGP deadline, DHS increasing outreach to ‘underserved’ communities

Justin Merriman/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

With the application period for the 2022 Nonprofit Security Grant Program expected to begin in the coming weeks, Department of Homeland Security officials told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday that they’re working to conduct greater outreach to “underserved and marginalized communities” that may lack awareness about the program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Reaching out: “We know that there are parts of the country, there are particular communities that have not accessed this program, our analysis has shown that is not simply a matter of them being non-competitive, it’s that they’re not competing at all,” Christopher Logan, deputy assistant administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Grant Programs Directorate, said. “And we need to solve that problem.” The Jewish community has historically received the majority of NSGP grants.

The little guys: Several senators emphasized during the hearing that smaller congregations and nonprofits may struggle to submit applications due to limited staffing and a lack of expertise navigating the federal grant process. Prompted by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Logan told senators that the department is examining whether it is necessary to open a dedicated NSGP office within FEMA. The senators’ questioning indicates that there could be support for legislation creating a standalone NSGP office at FEMA, something the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, Charlie Cytron-Walker, has called for following the January attack on his synagogue.

Up next: Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) both highlighted the Pray Safe Act, legislation they introduced in 2021 that would create a centralized database of information for nonprofits to access information about federal programs and resources like NSGP. Marcus Coleman, director of the DHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, told the panel he believes this legislation could be a promising resource. He said his division and the White House are already examining a similar approach.

Read the full story here.

PARSHA PHIL

Ascending

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“The Torah portion for this week, Tzav, begins its list of the rules of various sacrifices with one called an ‘olah’ – translated by Everett Fox as ‘the offering up’ sacrifice. Olah is a feminine verbal noun and is identical to the Hebrew word describing a woman who goes up, or ascends. If we take the word out of its sacrificial context, we can recognize the word ‘olah’ as one that is also used to refer to a woman coming up to the Torah for an Aliyah,” Rabbi Tamara Cohen, chief program officer of Moving Traditions, writes in an opinion piece as part of eJewishPhilanthropy’s weekly Parsha Phil column.

Helping Judaism rise: “When Judith Kaplan ‘rose up’ to become a bat mitzvah, she was not just an individual girl rising spiritually by reading Torah and becoming a bat mitzvah. She — and the many who followed in her footsteps and expanded the access of girls and women, and now also non-binary and transgender people, to Torah — was in fact helping Judaism rise to new spiritual heights.”

Elevating collaboration: “Also this week, Moving Traditions renamed our fellowship for Jewish teen activists in honor of our founding CEO, Deborah Meyer, and our founding board chair, Sally Gottesman; the Meyer Gottesman Kol Koleinu feminist fellowship renaming represents another important element of torat ha-olah, and provides an opportunity to reflect on the role of philanthropy in advancing equity — both within the Jewish community and beyond. This raises up different models of organizational leadership and positions them as equals, recognizing collaboration that crosses lines between funder and professional, lay leader and paid leader. We rise up together, in partnership, side-by-side.”

Read the full piece here.

FULFILLING MITZVOT

Finding the joy of Purim for Ukrainian Jews

Hillel Warsaw

“This Purim is not like any other. Usually, at this time of the year we would be planning a Purim celebration for Hillel students and young adults and finding creative ways to present the Purim spiel for the larger Jewish community in Poland,” writes Magda Dorosz, director of Hillel Warsaw, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Humanitarian crisis: “Instead of planning a joyous Purim celebration, we are tending and caring for the needs of refugees. In this third week of war, Poland has received 1.9 million refugees from all over Ukraine, which has created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Polish society and the Jewish organizations in Poland have come together united in one goal: to help and save as many refugees as possible.”

On the ground: “Hillel Warsaw, together with the Taube Center for Jewish Life and Learning and the Jewish Historical Institute, opened a day center last week for refugees, providing a safe, welcoming and comfortable space to spend time during the day. The space is where refugees can get a hot meal, get help and advice on their legal next steps and be able to find work, as we are supplying computers for them to use. The space is also equipped with a playground area where kids can play, enjoy each other’s company and be kids again. As one of the mothers who comes to the center said: ‘I see my daughter smiling again, she is a happy child again and she doesn’t have to worry about the horror we have been through.’”

Read the full piece here.

BASIC NUTRITION

Beyond shakshuka: Lessons from an Israeli breakfast in combating juvenile hunger

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“For the majority of people, the idea of ‘School Breakfast Week’ will probably pass by without most giving it even a second thought. Just another awareness day or week on the calendar. But the fact that this awareness week exists perhaps demands that we take a moment to think about why such a concept has made its way into the calendar — and why it is important to take more than a fleeting moment to think about school breakfast,” writes Rotem Yosef-Giladi, CEO of Nevet, an Israeli nonprofit that provides healthy fresh sandwiches to students who need them, in an opinion piece foreJewishPhilanthropy.

Israeli breakfast: “Here in Israel, this is an understanding that is deeply embedded in our national culture. We take breakfast extremely seriously and for those of you who haven’t enjoyed an Israeli breakfast, trust me when I say that you’re missing out… The very basis for our heavy investment in this meal is rumored to originate in the agricultural focus of the early settlers of modern Israel. Every morning, workers would awake well before dawn on kibbutzim (communal farms) all across the country. The diverse breakfast menus that have come to define our culinary identity would provide the ‘fuel’ to get them through the hot summers and rainy winters and transform our country into one of the world’s most successful farming and productivity nations.”

Nothing to eat at home: “Because of our love for breakfast — and for food in general — we are particularly pained by increasing evidence of tens of thousands of Israeli schoolchildren who come to school without breakfast. That lack of this key meal is not because they were rushed in the morning and didn’t have time to pack food, but simply because they have nothing to eat. A hungry student is typically unmotivated, distracted or angry, leading to behavioral problems and educational deficiencies. Even the most ambitious and creative students will be unable to concentrate on an empty stomach.”

Read the full piece here.

Pic of the Day

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images

Haredi children in Purim costumes reading the Biblical Book of Esther on Thursday at a synagogue in Bnei Brak, Israel.