News & Blogs Category: From the Foundation Team

Insights from One of the Foundation’s Newest Team Members

I’m from Mexico City, where I grew up in a small-ish but mighty Jewish community. My parents are active lay leaders and have worked in several organizations within the Jewish community to support both Israel and Mexico for most of their lives. I’ve always actively participated in Jewish communal life, but am only now working as a Jewish professional in the U.S.

The Mexican Jewish community has around 44,000 people, with “sub-communities” of Ashkenazi (Eastern-European origins), Sefaradi (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Turkish origins), Shami (Damascus origins), and Halebi (Aleppo origins) Jews. Each has its synagogues, schools, and institutions, yet all are overseen by a Central Committee and all participate in umbrella organizations like Keren Hayesod and WIZO. Everyone has access to communal institutions and services, like the Jewish Sports Center. In this way, each sub-community can maintain its distinct traditions and customs while working together to create a stronger, broader Jewish community.

Even though I’ve lived in the U.S. for six years and have been part of Jewish life here, there are nuances to the American community that I am only now beginning to understand. It’s very different when a Jewish community has millions of people (like in the U.S.) compared to just tens of thousands where everyone seemingly knows, or knows of, each other (like in Mexico). I even ran into my dad’s architect at this year’s BBYO International Convention (IC)! He was accompanying the first Mexican delegation to participate at an IC.

Now as a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation, part of my onboarding is to increase my understanding of the multifaceted American Jewish community while using my experience from Mexico (and other countries where I’ve had the privilege to live and study) to enhance my work. Having several perspectives and a broader worldview, I believe, enables me to better support the grantee-partners with whom I engage. I’m on a learning tour that is fascinating and eye opening in many ways.

I’ve learned from Prizmah about the impact of Jewish Day Schools and challenges they face in the American Jewish community (in Mexico, 90% of Jewish kids go to Jewish schools). I’ve seen the leadership and community-building skills teens acquire with BBYO. I visited Hillels at Berkeley and Stanford and saw how staff help make the college experience meaningful for Jewish students (especially after October 7) while also helping them learn what kind of Jewish life they can create as independent adults. I’ve made art with the Jewish Studio Project to help me process grief and uncertainty. I studied with Hadar and became curious about aspects of Judaism I didn’t even know existed. I’ve learned about AI and the impact of social media on antisemitism with 70 Faces Media, and breathe a little deeper every time I listen to Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi on Shalom Hartman Institute’s For the Sake of Heaven podcast. I’m looking forward to visiting more grantees and understanding their work in greater depth.

At the same time, when I work with grantee-partners I also bring to bear my past experience in several entrepreneurial ventures, mainly in adult education. As a CEO seeking funding, I experienced firsthand the strong bond a positive grantee-funder relationship can build. I understand the joys, pains, and multiple roles that founders of small (and not-so-small) organizations must take on. I am happy to have learned that a key element of the Foundation’s grantmaking approach is to build strong, honest, and fruitful relationships with grantee-partners. My experience helps me empathize more with our grantees, especially in our Build Grants portfolio that aims to support newer and growing organizations. I am especially excited about our growing capacity building work, in which I am exploring new areas to support grantees while also leaning on my facilitator and entrepreneur background to tailor services to their needs.

Particularly after October 7^th, we see the enormous efforts (and myriad challenges) of grantee-partners to support Jewish learning and engagement—and the educators and leaders who make it possible. It is both a personal and professional honor to do my part and see the ripple effects of our work.

I have been immersed in this work for six months, and my learning has only begun. It is a privilege to work with incredibly knowledgeable and kind team members and mentors at the Jim Joseph Foundation, colleagues from other foundations, and grantee-partners. Every time I talk with a grantee, attend a conference or site visit, or read new research, I think ‘what a fantastic infrastructure the Jewish community has built, in Israel, Mexico, the US, and the rest of the Diaspora, that enables all these organizations to exist, flourish and make our lives better’. Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh, indeed.

Orly Goldsmith is a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation

My dear friend and fellow traveler in Jewish life, Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein, recently shared some commentary with me that resonated deeply. She said: “Jewish history is always this balancing act of how much energy we spend combating what’s around us versus how much we invest in fortifying and building who we are. The real question isn’t whether we’re fighting antisemitism enough — it’s whether we’re making the right call on how to allocate our limited resources between the two. The outside forces are always going to be larger than us. We can’t control them. But the inside — that’s ours to build.”

We know we are facing a significant rise of antisemitism, which has increased tremendously since Oct. 7, most visibly on college campuses. Our communal organizations have responded to these events, working to counter antisemitism with reporting mechanisms and with safety systems, people, and physical infrastructure.

Read the full piece in eJewish Philanthropy.

Barry Finestone is President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation. Photo courtesy of RootOne.

One recurring learning from our research at the Jim Joseph Foundation is that Jewish people are complex and covered by a broad spectrum of identities. In our Jewish communal outlook, we sometimes default to thinking of our people in binaries when we assess Jewish institutional and organizational affiliation. Our professional community often refers to young Jews in North America as being connected vs. disconnected, engaged vs. unengaged, involved vs. uninvolved and so on. Communal professionals and stakeholders tend to utilize these simplistic categorizations to make sense of those who are “participants” in Jewish life, and those who are not — who is in, and who is out. While this shorthand approach may serve us in some contexts, we run the risk of undermining our basic idea of Klal Yisrael (the Jewish People) by relying on hierarchical labels like these.

As the Jim Joseph Foundation team delves deeper into understanding the nuances of the broad and diverse spectrum of our people (for example, this framework for how people learn), it is clear that oversimplification is unhelpful. At best, these binaries fail to capture and honor the rich complexities of individuals’ Jewish experiences, motivations and desires. At worst, it is a damaging obstacle to understanding ourselves as a people, and our work as educators and progenitors of Jewish community.

Stacie Cherner is the Director of Research and Learning at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full piece in eJewish Philanthropy.

Insights from One of the Foundation’s Newest Team Members

Last August, I stepped into my role as a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. As I’ve settled in, I’ve reflected on how my professional journey helped to shape the perspective I bring to my work.

Relationships have always been at the heart of my professional life. Prior to my time at the Foundation, I worked for a decade at Hillel in various capacities. From engaging students as an early-career Hillel professional, to cultivating meaningful partnerships with donors, and into my last job as the Director of Strategic Grants at Hillel International, the principle of centering relationships has been my guiding star. This is why I was especially pleased to learn that “Build Meaningful Relationships” is one of the Foundation’s First Principles.

Much of the relational wisdom I gained from my work with Hillel is applicable to my new job too, and the last six months have heightened my awareness about some key lessons.

1. See someone as a person and as a professional: Even in my interview process, I spoke about how important it is that people see me as Leah the human and as Leah the professional. I strive to do the same with all of my colleagues. At Hillel, building relationships meant sitting with students to hear their stories, engaging community stakeholders, and partnering with organizations to amplify impact. But I never immediately asked a student to become a student leader, nor immediately asked a donor for money. I started by simply getting to know them. The Foundation takes this approach too. From day one, I saw that calls begin with asking how people’s kids are, how their winter holidays were, and the like. People’s lives outside of work matter and certainly can impact how they are on a given day during work hours. I want to know who a person is, what brings them joy in their lives, and learn how they got to where they are. This makes the working relationship more meaningful and less transactional.
2. It’s a blessing to carry old professional relationships into new jobs: One of the most beautiful lessons I’ve learned is that professional relationships often come full circle. I’m currently in a conversation with a colleague I met 10 years ago whose organization is now a grantee-partner of the Foundation. I have known a handful of other CEOs of grantee-partners in my portfolio for about five years each. When I went on my first site visit, I spotted someone I knew well as soon as I arrived. I met my graduate school mentor from years ago for the first time in person at a conference; we rejoiced and shared a big hug upon seeing each other. At Hillel International’s Global Assembly in December, I couldn’t even make it across the room without running into people I had worked with over the years and stopping to have a conversation. These moments remind me that the relationships we build are enduring – they transcend job titles and responsibilities, and maintaining relationships is central to how I approach my work.
3. Bring more empathy into our work: While frequent communication is a hallmark of relational grantmaking, that relationship cannot just be premised on exchanging emails or reading reports. Cultivating and practicing empathy—truly feeling for someone’s situation and all that they bring into their work—is critical to maintaining a healthy funder-grantee relationship. Practicing empathy is most important when a grantee-partner faces unexpected challenges (we’ve all had plenty over recent years). I’m heartened by how the Foundation team practices empathy, both in personal interactions (including actively listening or offering support through difficult conversations) and in policy (adjusting reporting requirements and deadlines that account for challenges).

Seeing the whole person; Maintaining meaningful professional connections; Expressing and practicing empathy—I already see how approaching work with these three mindsets is critical to cultivating trust with the Foundation’s grantee-partners. This opens the lines for honest communication and working together to overcome challenges— ultimately enhancing our collective impact.

As I continue to grow in this role, I remain guided by a belief that we all should feel seen and valued in our work. One of the Foundation’s staff values is b’tzelem elohim – to value each person and their perspectives as unique and deserving of respect and attention. When we support each other beyond transactional grant dollars, and approach our work with trust, authenticity, and empathy, we increase our chances to create real change. At the end of the day, I aim to be Leah the human first, just as I strive to see others as their full selves.

I’m excited to continue building relationships, learning from colleagues, and supporting the meaningful work of grantee-partners. If our paths cross in this work, I hope we can connect – not just as professionals, but as people invested in creating a thriving, inclusive Jewish future.

Leah Chakoff is a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation, helping to lead the Foundation’s work in its Exceptional Jewish Leaders and Educators focus area.

What can social science and education research help us understand about how people learn?

We are asking first-principle questions about the nature of Jewish education and, even more fundamentally, how do we learn anything? The science of learning is a rich and established field of academic study that has a lot to teach us when we think about our vision for Jewish learning. Yet, for all of its rich resources, Jewish education has no theory of learning.

As part of our Emergent Strategy at the Jim Joseph Foundation, we have a desire to explore new and more effective pathways in understanding and practicing Jewish education. To this end, we looked to familiarize ourselves with landmark research and learning theory. We turned to Ari Y. Kelman, the Jim Joseph Professor of Education and Jewish Studies at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. Kelman shares a model for how people learn that we think is foundational for understanding more about how people learn to be Jewish. 

Read the full piece in eJewish Philanthropy. 

Stacie Cherner is the Director of Research and Learning and Yonah Schiller is the Chief R&D Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. 

As the Jim Joseph Foundation aspires to enable all Jews, their families and their friends to lead connected, meaningful and purpose-filled lives, and to make positive contributions to their communities and the world, we invest in powerful Jewish learning experiences. In this investment area, BBYO, Foundation for Jewish Camp, Hillel International, Birthright Israel and Moishe House are categorized as “signature grantee-partners” in our Deliberate Grantmaking Strategy. These grantees have made evaluation an integral part of their work, informing their own efforts, the Foundation’s, and the field. More recently, the Foundation has also integrated cross-portfolio evaluation into more of our work to learn about shared outcomes across different sets of grantee-partners.

In cross-portfolio evaluation, we’re able to identify overarching trends and opportunities. Our latest cross-portfolio evaluation, for example, conducted by Rosov Consulting, covers all five of these signature grantees and identifies a set of common outcomes and ways to measure the participants they serve. When we began this evaluation, we didn’t know this would be the end result. However, as we convened the grantees and dug into their own evaluation structures and findings, we recognized the opportunity to learn about the value of participating in multiple experiences during the teen years and 20s/30s. Through a qualitative study with the alumni of programs, we came to understand the added value of the programs, the interactions between outcomes created by the programs and the pathways that take young people from one program to another.

Read the full piece at eJewish Philanthropy.

Stacie Cherner is director of research and learning at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Over a decade ago, the Jim Joseph Foundation convened more than a dozen local and national funders of Jewish teen programming for a series of discussions on expanding teen involvement in Jewish life. We recognized that adolescents are a critical demographic and adolescence is a moment of inflection. Moreover, teens are holders of great insights and have the ability to articulate them and the realities they hope those insights can create. To paraphrase Joel 3:1, while those of us around the table had dreams, we knew it would be teens holding the vision to move us forward. We felt and continue to believe that teens are the futurists and optimists that our world needs.

These early conversations, which included teens themselves, taught us a lot — namely, how much more we still needed to learn. As a result, we commissioned groundbreaking research to identify and unpack strategies from both the non-Jewish and Jewish worlds are most effective in educating and engaging teens. This research ultimately gave us the knowledge to design responsive local teen initiatives in 10 communities across the country, under the banner of the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative. United by the shared aspiration of creating and nurturing contemporary approaches to Jewish teen education, engagement and growth, this new network of national and local funders and practitioners worked side by side with teens. Together, they reimagined the youth-serving ecosystem in these communities of varying sizes and demographic composition, with a commitment to sharing whatever unvarnished lessons they would learn.

read the full piece at eJewish Philanthropy

• NOW WATCHING: Debate between former President Trump and President Biden
• BREAKING NEWS: Assassination attempt against former President Trump
• BREAKING NEWS: President Biden announces he will not seek reelection
• LATEST UPDATE: Democratic party rally around a new candidate in record time
• BREAKING NEWS: Rocket kills 12 Druze children playing soccer
• BREAKING NEWS: Assassinations of #2 of Hezbollah and head of political wing of Hamas

All of those major events occurred in a span of 33 days, coinciding with Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia, a landmark election in the U.K., the warmest days ever in the history of our planet and countless other major events.

We are in a state of VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — a concept coined by the U.S. Army College in 1987 and popularized by the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus. In short, the term describes the current state of our world.

Yet, as coach and facilitator Robin Sawan stated in 2020, “[w]hile VUCA may be the latest buzzword, this constant evolution is not really anything new. Businesses have been facing bold, dramatic change in their specific industries for many years.”

read the full piece at ejewish Philanthropy

This blog originally appeared in eJewish Philanthropy.

Planning a retreat for a professional team is an opportunity to create a space filled with meaning, where colleagues have a sense of belonging and each person feels they are at the center of the experience. Priya Parker is an expert on this subject, writing about the “art of gathering” and the intentionality required to do this well. She notes that “gatherings crackle and flourish when real thought goes into them, when (often invisible) structure is baked into them, and when a host has the curiosity, willingness, and generosity of spirit to try.”

“Think of what you want to be different because you gathered,” she advises, “and work backward from that outcome.”

In the Jewish professional world, the need for this intentional gathering space feels more important than ever.

Read the full blog at eJewish Philanthropy.

Recently, over morning coffee, my wife remarked to me how lucky I am to do the work I do to help the Jewish community in this moment.

She was and is 100% correct. “I know that I am so fortunate,” I said. “I have an amazing job, incredible colleagues and a brilliant and supportive board.  I am on the funder side, where true emergencies are extremely rare.”

“Even with all that,” I confided, “I very occasionally wish I was doing something else. It’s hard to be in the Red Zone all day, every day, which has been the case since Oct. 7.”

Barry Finestone is president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full blog in eJewish Philanthropy as part of its opinion column “The 501(C) Suite.”

Over a year ago, the Jim Joseph Foundation shared with eJewishPhilanthropy readers that it would be investing in a new grant area: Build Grants (“Building something together: How our new grant category supports organizations’ growth and sustainability,” May 9, 2022).

“One of our three strategic priorities is investing in Powerful Jewish Learning Experiences (PJLE),” the foundation shared then. “Build Grants support organizations to invest in their capacity to expand their programs and operations, thus engaging more people at different life stages in meaningful Jewish life. And importantly, we utilize these grants, in part, to support offerings that engage new audiences of young Jews whom we are not reaching with our existing investments.”

Aaron Saxe is the program director of Powerful Jewish Learning Experiences (PJLE) at the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Rachel Shamash Schneider is a program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy.

We are in the immediate wake of the most significant Jewish event of our lifetime. Jews all over the world will mark time as everything before October 7^th, 2023, vs. everything after October 7^th, 2023.

Still in the sheer horror of the moment, Jewish philanthropy–individual donors and foundations alike–are supporting Israel to an unprecedented degree. This is exactly what we should be doing, and it is not the only thing we should be doing.

Our actions in this moment will have a lasting impact, for better or worse, on the American Jewish community. Right now, the Jewish philanthropic community must have a “yes, and” approach toward funding. Yes, we absolutely need to support Israel and Israelis. We need to contribute mightily to the multitude of needs Israel has—for the orphans, the evacuees, the businesses whose employees are now on the front lines, the mental health of the traumatized. All of these causes need our philanthropic support. Yes, give.

Barry Finestone is President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy