Good Friday morning! 

The Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act sailed through the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee this week — but with a lower funding proposal for the program than was agreed upon in the House.

The House version of the bill proposed providing $500 million for the program annually — far exceeding the $360 million funding goal that Jewish community groups and advocates for the program on the Hill had been targeting for 2023.

The version of the bill that passed the Senate committee this week brought the proposed funding level down to $360 million, in line with proposals from appropriators in both chambers for 2023 funding.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, told Jewish Insider that the proposed funding level was pared down because “there were some folks who weren’t willing to do the full amount.”

“It was just what we needed to do to get support to get it out of our committee,” he continued. The bill passed through the committee by a voice vote as part of a package of numerous other pieces of legislation. The bill passed the House at the $500 million level by a vote of 288 to 129, with all Democrats voting in favor.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), the ranking member of the committee, said during the Wednesday meeting that the Senate version of the bill also included an amendment that would allow nonprofits to receive support and technical assistance to apply for the program. Small organizations without grant-writing staff and experience have historically struggled to apply.

Elana Broitman, the senior vice president for public affairs at The Jewish Federations of North America, said that the House proposal “leaves flexibility for future growth should it become necessary,” but praised the Senate action on the bill. “The $360 million figure is a strong authorization level that is a clear signal of support for the funding level in the  appropriations bills, for which we have strongly advocated,” she said.

Read more here.

REDUCING HARM

The group helping those who can’t fast to find meaning

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For Sarah Osborne, Jewish fast days were trying. She wanted to fulfill the mitzvah, but the long hours without food and water led to some health scares. Things shifted after she spoke with a supportive clergy member who told her: “Your mitzvah is to eat.” This gave Osborne, who lives in suburban Washington, the reassurance she needed to protect her health by eating on fast days, but left her feeling disconnected from her community and religious meaning. To support other Jews in her position, and to bring meaning to eating on fast days, Osborne launched A Mitzvah to Eat in December 2021, Daniela Cohen reports for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Available resources: A Mitzvah to Eat provides accessible content that is available year-round, such as answers to frequently asked questions as well as prayers the group created that didn’t previously exist for eating on minor fast days like the 17th of Tammuz (which was in mid-July) and Tisha B’Av (which begins on Saturday at sundown). The initiative has already gained 500 followers between its Facebook and Instagram pages.

Ending stigma: Osborne wants to dispel the perception in the Jewish community that needing to eat on fast days is “very uncommon” unless you have a severe condition, such as an eating disorder. In fact, she says, there are many different reasons people may be unable to fast, reasons they may prefer to keep private. This could include being prone to fainting, balance issues caused by a stroke, trauma or other physical and mental health conditions. People receive “years and years and years of the messaging that eating and drinking is forbidden without … [asking] who is it forbidden for?” she told eJP.

Read the full story here.

PARSHA PHIL: DEVARIM

Stories speak to souls

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“It is a fundamental principle of Torah interpretation that every word of Scripture is meaningful, and not even one letter is there in vain. Over the millennia, our Sages have derived tremendous meaning from even the most seemingly insignificant turn of phrase or tiny grammatical hint,” writes Rabbi Adam Greenwald, senior rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Orange County, Calif., in a Parsha Phil opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Brevity is the soul of Torah: “Some of the Torah’s best-known stories and laws are delivered in an incredibly terse style — employing the barest number of words and leaving us with huge, unanswered questions: What did Sarah say when Abraham took their son to sacrifice? Who exactly was Jacob wrestling with all night long? Could you be a bit more explicit about whether the whole boiling a kid in its mother’s milk thing really means I can’t have chicken parmigiana? So, when we start the Book of Deuteronomy this week, we might be slightly surprised. The Torah, which begins in Genesis by telling the story of the creation of, well, everything in just 34 verses, will now spend 34 chapters retelling us stories that we’ve already heard before.”

Weaving experience into story: “Yet, as the Rabbis liked to say: ‘Why did God create humanity? Because God loves stories.’ Storytelling is one of the most primal and profound things that our species does. From the first myths spun around ancient fires to the never-ending torrent of content coming at us 24/7 today, there’s nothing more human than taking our experiences and weaving them into tales to be shared again and again.”

Read the full piece here.

LETTING GO

Mourn the past, but build a better future (Tisha B’Av 5782)

Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany

“I thought about Tisha B’Av recently, as I stood in Jerusalem’s Davidson Archeological Park (thank you, William Davidson Foundation!). There, you can walk on the very street that Jews used, 2,000 years ago, to ascend to the Temple of Jerusalem. You can see the remnants of the stairs that led to the Temple entrance though Robinson’s Arch, the oldest overpass in the world, and most poignantly, you can see the stones from the Temple compound that Roman soldiers threw onto the street below as they destroyed the holy site,” writes Andrés Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Magical spell: “All that is incredibly emotional and magical. For a minute, I felt a sort of cosmic nostalgia, as though I could be myself climbing onto the Temple Mount with thousands of pilgrims from all corners of ancient Judea. But as I continued with my revelry, I must admit that the magic broke somehow. Do I really want to see how animals are sacrificed and the high priest sprinkles their blood on the altar? Do I really believe that God demands offers of incense? I mean, I love a good barbecue, but do I really want my faith to be celebrated that way?”

Nostalgia: “The word ‘nostalgia’ comes from the Greek ‘nostos’ (return) and ‘algos’ (pain). We yearn to return, but we know that a return is impossible, and hence the pain of a lost place and a lost time. But there’s something sweet about nostalgia too, because it allows a certain connection with the past without really needing to go back to it, something that, deep inside, we may not want … And that may be because the healthy attitude towards pain and suffering is letting ourselves be transformed by it, and hopefully emerge on the other side of grief as better versions of ourselves.”

Read the full piece here.

Worthy Reads

Over Heard’s Pledge: A pledge is not a donation, “regardless of the amount of money being discussed,” Lisa Z. Greer writes in Philanthropy451, in a piece inspired by testimony in the Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp trial; Heard claimed that her 2016 $7 million divorce settlement was going to be donated to charity, split between the ACLU and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA): “One can pledge a donation, but that pledge is — well — a promise to make the payment. It seems proper to assume that the pledge will be paid in the very near future. Sometimes the pledge is to convey that part of the gift will be paid immediately, but the balance will be paid over time (just like payment terms in the for-profit world.) When a donor pledges a donation — and insists on press releases and fawning accolades related to the donation — the nonprofit has no reason to think that the money won’t come in. But pledge money isn’t cash, and most nonprofits will hold off on actually spending that money until the funds arrive. However, when that gift is in the public eye (in a major way), the NPO [nonprofit organization] will be thinking about and discussing how that donation, when it comes in, will be turned into impact.” [Philanthropy451]

Teens Seeing Philanthropy: The Milwaukee Teen Philanthropy Board chose local grant recipients and are now doing site visits with those grantees, to see philanthropy in action, Ellen Braunstein reports in The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle: “‘It’s a perfect opportunity to find new ways to help people through decisions on how to allocate funds,’ said Bennett Friedman, a junior at Nicolet High School…Levi Stein, executive director of The Friendship Circle of Wisconsin, is impressed with the board, which allocated $4,900 to his organization. ‘It’s a beautiful program. Nowadays, a lot of grown-ups struggle with understanding what it means to give and what it means to be a true philanthropist. Teaching them at a young age will really help train their minds to think at those levels.’ ‘Normally in the past we’ve allocated funding to these organizations. I think it’s important that teens get to know the organization inside and out to really understand where their funding is going and the difference they’ve made with their dollars’ [said Jennifer Saber, the Federation coordinator of the Teen Philanthropy Board.]” [JewishChronicle]

Pic of the Day

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Assuta Ashdod Medical Center, south of Tel Aviv, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday for a new pediatric playroom. The light-filled playroom, made possible by Brooklyn-based Toys for Simcha, features a lounging area, video game corner, reading library, foosball table, play kitchen, toys and tech for toddlers to teens.