Collective Investment from Multiple Foundations and Major Planning Process Position Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies for Growth

More than $4 million combined over last year from Jim Joseph, Crown and Shapira Foundations

NEW YORK – The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies (www.pardes.org.il), renowned for inspiring life-long connections to Jewish life and to Israel, announced today that over the last year multiple foundations have collectively invested more than $4 million in Pardes, supporting a major business planning process and positioning it to achieve significant growth and institutional sustainability. Major gifts from the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Crown Family and the David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation will support and help expand a variety of Pardes initiatives. This includes the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators (PCJE), which operates the Pardes Day School Educators Program (PEP), the Pardes Educators Alumni Support Project (PEASP), the Pardes Experiential Educators Program, and other educator training programs. Taken together, these investments represent a major vote of confidence in Pardes moving forward.

The Jim Joseph Foundation, long the major supporter of PEASP, recently awarded a four-year grant of up to $3.7 million to PCJE and PEASP; funds from this grant in years three and four (totaling up to $1,823,000) will serve as a 1-to-1 match to funds raised by Pardes for PCJE. Earlier this year, the Crown Family awarded a major two-year grant to support PCJE and the David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation made several major grants for general support and business planning. In addition to these grants announced this year, the AVI CHAI Foundation has also provided Pardes with significant support recently, awarding $3.2 million for PEP and PCJE development in 2011 and $482,000 to support the newly-established Office of the President and CEO in 2012.

“This is an exciting moment as we move to expand the opportunities Pardes provides for open, diverse and intellectually challenging Jewish text-based learning,” said Michael Rosenzweig, Pardes President and CEO. “The business planning process and these significant grants chart a course towards sustainability. In many communities, organizations and schools around the country, Pardes graduates are at the heart of Jewish life and literacy. Those graduates inspire Jewish learners from all backgrounds and walks of life every single day, and we are eager to add to our capacity to develop even more talented, passionate and highly skilled individuals.”

Olive Grove Consulting worked with Pardes on its business planning process, which was supported specifically by the Jim Joseph Foundation, The AVI CHAI Foundation, and the David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation.  Pardes’s comprehensive business plan outlines a strategy for Pardes to pursue greater institutional sustainability, to stabilize its core programs and to grow its activity in North America. It also envisions construction of a new, state-of-the-art facility in Jerusalem. As part of this strategy, three new development positions will be added to help raise funds needed to support PCJE’s growth and success.

“Pardes recruits dedicated individuals who engage deeply in powerful learning to develop their teaching skills,” noted Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “We are pleased to collaborate with other funders in assisting Pardes to provide crucial support to Jewish educators. Pardes is now well-positioned to take important next steps to achieve long-term viability in its various programs.”

There are currently over 6,200 Pardes alumni enhancing Jewish life, including those who participated in PEP, a two-year Jerusalem-based program combining text study at Pardes with a Master of Jewish Education and a Certificate in Jewish Day School Education from Hebrew College. All of these graduates experienced the uniquely intensive learning environment of Pardes’s Open Beit Midrash, which embraces diverse learners, approaches and ideas in the exploration of Jewish texts through havruta (paired) study.

“For many years AVI CHAI has supported the development of teachers in the unique Open Beit Midrash environment that Pardes provides its students in the inspiring atmosphere of Jerusalem, the heart of Israel and the Jewish people,” said Yossi Prager, Executive Director – North America of The AVI CHAI Foundation. “Over time, Pardes’s program has shown that teachers trained and nurtured in this special environment help to energize the next generation of passionate and committed North American Jewish youth.”

Pardes also plans to grow its alumni engagement, in part through PEASP, which has been highly successful in helping to retain PEP alumni in the field and in creating an environment of support for teachers. These alumni and others promote Jewish learning and literacy by connecting all kinds of learners to Israel, the Jewish people, their heritage and traditional Jewish texts. Today, more than 1,000 Pardes graduates work as Jewish professionals in a variety of sectors in the Jewish community, including more than 300 as professionals in education; more than 85 as Hillel professionals; and more than 350 as rabbis across all movements. In total, Pardes educators reach more than 5,000 students in Jewish day schools and other educational settings on a daily basis in classrooms that integrate Jewish studies with 21^st-century learning, in engaging tefilah (prayer) encounters and in experiential Jewish identity formation.

“PEP was instrumental in my development as a teacher and as an educational leader,” said Rabbi Marc Baker, Head of School at Gann Academy: The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston and a PEP graduate (2002). “The deep immersion in beit midrash learning developed and inspired me, and the opportunity to learn about teaching in a community of passionate and reflective peers and mentors was invaluable.”

David S. Shapira, President of the David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation, said that the Foundation’s support for Pardes “reflects our belief in the power of philanthropists working together around common interests to make a difference. We are proud to partner with the Jim Joseph Foundation, the AVI CHAI Foundation and the Crown Family to help Pardes position itself to train our next generation of Jewish educators and leaders, laying the foundation for Jewish life and literacy for generations to come.”

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