News & Blogs Category: Partners in the News

   Professional development program trains exceptional staff for Taglit-Birthright Israel trips

Taglit-Birthright Israel opened registration earlier this week for Cohort 3 of Taglit Fellows, the professional development program launched in 2014 in partnership with the iCenter for Israel Education as an educational intensive for exceptional Jewish leaders and aspiring Jewish educators looking to staff Taglit-Birthright Israel trips. The first two cohorts were comprised of nearly 200 Fellows who were selected from over 1,000 applicants. The program will welcome in another group of highly motivated and talented individuals to increase the quality of the Taglit-Birthright Israel experience and to play significant roles in the ongoing Jewish journeys of young adults. Registration is at www.taglitfellows.com and is open through May 15, 2015.

“We are excited to build on the successful Taglit Fellows model and the great momentum of cohorts 1 and 2,” said Anne Lanski, Executive Director of the iCenter. “Through the program, Fellows gain new skills that help them leave a lasting impact on Birthright Israel participants and on Jewish youth in their home communities. Now a new cohort will learn directly with leading Israel and Jewish educators to create meaningful Israel experiences that help young Jews develop personal connections to the country and people.”

The Taglit Fellows program includes a four-day in-person seminar of interactive trainings and in-depth conversations with master Israel educators focusing on a range of areas, including how effective storytelling is a tool for education and engagement; how to create ritual moments with personal meaning; and what experiential education might look like at a range of sites in Israel. In addition to the seminar, Fellows engage in online learning and workshops in experiential Jewish education, and over time, form a close network of peers.

Naomi Karp, Director of Student Life at UCLA Hillel and a member of Cohort 2, reflected on her training seminar from earlier this year: “Not only did the Taglit Fellows seminar give me a number of new tools and activities to use when staffing future trips, it also provided me with an incredible community of 100 other Fellows. It was inspiring to learn from the experience of the facilitators and my peers, and I feel empowered with the responsibility of creating more intentional and meaningful experiences for Taglit-Birthright Israel participants rooted in Jewish content and Israel education.”

The program, funded by the Maimonides Fund, accepts 100 participants aged 22 and above every six months, with the majority of Fellows either professionally or personally serving as leaders, educators, and connectors in their Jewish communities. The first Fellows staffed Winter 2014/2015 trips, and Cohort 2 Fellows will begin staffing this summer.

“The bottom line is that the strength of the educational staff is a key factor that influences the quality of the trip,” says Taglit-Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark. “So we want to continue to raise that quality with more Fellows who are trained to impact the Taglit-Birthright Israel experience.”

Taglit-Birthright Israel has sent close to 500,000 young Jewish adults to Israel from more than 66 countries and from all 50 U.S. states, including students from nearly 1,000 North American college campuses accompanied by more than 70,000 Israelis.

Taglit Fellows enhances both Taglit-Birthright Israel experiences as well as the broader field of Israel and Jewish education by cultivating emerging Jewish professionals as role models and educators. Taglit-Birthright Israel has a unique, historical and innovative partnership with the Government of Israel, thousands of individual donors and private philanthropists, and Jewish communities around the world through Jewish Federations of North America, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency of Israel. Visit taglitfellows.com and follow #TaglitFellows for more information.

Source: “Taglit Fellows Now Accepting Applications for Cohort 3,” Jewish Scene Magazine, April 16, 2015

The Jim Joseph Foundation in San Francisco has announced two rounds of grants totaling nearly $24 million in support of Jewish education.

Grant recipients include the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which was awarded $3 million to expand its Entwine young adult service division and increase the number of young adults participating in immersive Jewish service experiences; the Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, which will receive $971,620 over three years to create a CEO on-boarding pilot program; Brandeis University, which was awarded $600,000 in continuing support for its Summer Institute for Israel Studies; and Hazon, Inc., which will receive $7.5 million in support of a fellowship program and other activities.

In addition, the foundation awarded a general operating support grant of $2.65 million over four years to Reboot, Inc. to sustain, strengthen, and amplify the organization’s experiential programs for Jews in their 20s and 30s; $3.2 million to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago to match support for a new multi-faceted education initiative designed to increase the number of Chicago-based teens engaged in high-quality Jewish-learning experiences; and $4.2 million to the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles to deepen the quality of learning experiences provided to Jewish teens in Los Angeles and double the number of teens engaged in Jewish life.

“These two rounds of grant awards reflect an especially exciting moment for Jewish education and the grantees with which we partner,” said Jim Joseph Foundation president Al Levitt. “Whether in Israel education, teacher preparation, Jewish camping, service-learning, or other well-conceived efforts to engage youth and young adults, there are many new opportunities to both deepen and create more dynamic Jewish learning experiences.”

Source: “Jim Joseph Foundation Announces $24 Million in Grants,” Philanthropy News Digest, March 6, 2015

It hasn’t achieved Starbucks-level growth, with a franchise on every corner. Not yet.

But Moishe House, which offers subsidized housing to young adults who agree to live and work together on promoting Jewish life to their peers, has expanded at a dizzying pace. Since its establishment in Oakland in 2006, it has grown to 77 houses in 17 countries on five continents, with more than 5,200 people calling Moishe House home last year.

Passover 2014 at Moishe House East Bay in Oakland photo/eli zaturanski-elizphotography.com

The Bay Area hosts a number of houses — three in San Francisco (North Beach, the Mission and a Russian-speaking house in the Sunset District) with a fourth slated to open later this year, along with one in Oakland and one in Palo Alto.

Built on the idea that young adults are more likely to show up to events if they’re invited by their friends or peers, the nonprofit boasts a $5.2 million annual budget, with support from such donors as the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Koret Foundation, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation.

Moishe House CEO David Cygielman and his team built the organization by applying the old capitalist maxim “Find a need and fill it.” In this case, the need was the vastly underserved segment of post-college 20-somethings in the Jewish community.

“I see Moishe House as a conduit to directly supporting young Jewish adults and building Jewish community,” says Cygielman, a Bay Area native now running the nonprofit from Charlotte, N.C.

Passover 2014 at Moishe House East Bay (left) photo/eli zaturanski-elizphotography.com

The concept of Moishe House grew out of a dearth of programming for young adults. With their BBYO and Hillel days behind them, and married life still ahead, there were few opportunities for millennials to live Jewishly, especially those from secular or marginally religious backgrounds.

Residents apply to live in a Moishe House for one to three years. The selected group of up to five residents is responsible for locating a suitable rental and signing the lease. In return for heavily subsidized rent — courtesy of the Moishe House organization — they commit to hosting Shabbat dinners and holiday celebrations and creating programs in the realms of Jewish learning and culture.

That makes the Moishe House a combination co-ed fraternity, classroom and community center. Throw in comfy chairs, a big-screen TV and a bowl of Doritos, and it becomes a magnet for young adults.

The housing subsidies are a big incentive to attracting residents. Instead of paying market value, they get up to a 75 percent discount. In San Francisco, residents pay between $300 and $650 a month — quite a deal when the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is well above $2,500.

“It’s pretty much a work exchange,” said Analucia Lopezrevoredo, a San Francisco resident. The 28-year-old, who works full time at the nonprofit JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa), said she and her housemates spend around 20 hours a week planning, shopping, cooking and promoting the seven events their house must host every month. They use social media to promote their events — anything from a Kabbalat Shabbat to a co-ed soccer team — put out newsletters and write reports for the national office.

Welcome Home Shabbat” event on Jan. 30 at the Mission District Moishe House in San Francisco photo/courtesy moishe house

“There’s a constant rhythm to planning,” Lopezrevoredo added. “Creating community by community is the key for millennial Jews. In the traditional model, you either go to shul or you’re not involved in Judaism. Moishe House is a great alternative.”

Cygielman noted that almost all programming ideas originate with residents. Two favorites he cites are a “pink” Shabbat for breast cancer awareness and a garment giveaway, in which houseguests throw their unwanted clothes on the floor. What isn’t snatched up by others is donated to local charities.

And then there was the Matzah Ball Stars, a Moishe House softball team that was started in 2010 by an S.F. resident who wanted to do outreach to prisoners.

“He contacted San Quentin,” Cygielman said. “He found out the only way to get in was to put together a softball team, go in on Sundays and play the inmates. They started the team and played the inmates once a month.”

These kinds of innovations attracted funders such as the Jim Joseph Foundation. Senior program officer Josh Miller has helped administer the foundation’s grants to Moishe House, so far totaling nearly $5 million.

“From the beginning, Moishe House has had a model that seemed compelling to the foundation,” Miller said. “They’ve been an entrepreneurial and savvy organization from day one, thanks to the nature of their founding, the leadership and the culture of the organization. It’s nonprofit management done well.”

Miller notes that Moishe House is not the only Jewish nonprofit serving millennials. But he is impressed with Moishe House’s adaptability, noting that the model works as well in Budapest as it does in Boston.

Cygielman and his staff have now turned their attention to life after Moishe House. For example, a new pilot project, Moishe House Without Walls, will help former residents build on the experience and leadership skills gained while living in a house.

Meanwhile, the ticker at the top of the nonprofit’s website, tracking the number of Moishe Houses around the world, continues to grow.

“We did a little internal study to see how many houses we think we can have,” Cygielman said. “We think we could be at 150 without oversaturating.”

Source: “At Moishe House, A Central Address for Jews in their 20’s,” Dan Pine, J Weekly, February 26, 2015

ATLANTA (JTA) — Over 3,000 teenagers from multiple Jewish youth groups gathered in Atlanta for a series of events aimed at strengthening Jewish identity among teens and rallying philanthropic support for such programs.

The main attractions were the annual conventions of BBYO and NFTY, which were held for several days in adjoining hotels and featured some joint programming. Prior to the start of the two conventions, dozens of teen leaders from BBYO, NFTY and several other youth groups met to resurrect the Coalition of Jewish Teens.

Also, prior to the conventions, about 250 people took part last week in the Summit on Jewish Teens, a gathering of foundations, federations and individual funders.

Last week, on the eve of the gatherings, four major supporters of BBYO — the Jim Joseph, Schusterman, Marcus and Singer foundations — published an opinion piece explaining their goals for the gathering and calling on other funders to join them in supporting youth groups and other teen initiatives.

“The good news is that study after study proves that when young people are involved in meaningful Jewish experiences during their teenage years, they are much more likely to be active, lifelong members of the Jewish community,” the foundations wrote in their opinion piece, which was published by eJewishphilanthropy. “The bad news is that as far as we have come, we still have a long way to go before we fully address the disturbing fact that in most communities, an estimated 80 percent of Jewish teens drop out of Jewish life after their b’nai mitzvah.”

The four foundations urged funders to work together. Teen leaders, meanwhile, issued their own call for collaboration, playing up their desire to find ways for the various Jewish youth groups to work together on social action projects and other initiatives.

Organizers of the various events stressed the idea that the most effective way to attract teens is to offer them opportunities to design and run their own programs.

Several organizers also said that there was a strong need to instill teens with a deeper appreciation and understanding of Israel before they head to college and find themselves in the middle of highly charged debates about the Middle East.

Source: “As 3,000 Jewish teens gather in Atlanta, funders urge more support for programs,” JTA, February 17, 2015

George Rohr’s op-ed provides us with a salient and powerful message: Day
schools help ensure a vibrant Jewish future (“Tackling The Day School Affordability Crisis,” Education Supplement, Jan. 30). And in order for day schools to
 survive and thrive, they need long-term viable income streams. Investing in 
and building endowments for day schools addresses that critical need. Over the past several years, Los Angeles has also been investing in day
school endowments.

A lead gift commitment by the Lainer family in 2007 
initiated development of the Simha and Sara Lainer Day School Endowment Fund,
a 1:4 match to incentivize schools to build endowments. In 2009, in
partnership with BJE-Los Angeles and the Jewish Federation, the Jim Joseph
Foundation provided a generous grant (The Los Angeles High School
 Affordability Initiative) that provided resources for coaching and training,
 built schools’ development infrastructure, created a culture of giving, and
provided middle-income tuition assistance while the high schools raised 
endowments to sustain these tuition grants.

Over the past six years, at the participating high schools, fundraising culture 
changed dramatically, as existing donors were educated and new donors were
brought on board.
 To date, the five participating high schools have collectively raised nearly
$17 million for endowment, matched by an additional $4.25 million from the
 Lainer fund. More importantly, each school now has a growing endowment that 
will generate distributions for tuition assistance beyond the grant period.

And endowment has caught on in a big way in Los Angeles. To date, 12
elementary/middle schools have participated in the Generations project,
sponsored by PEJE and The AVI CHAI Foundation, and have collectively raised 
over $10.5 million, with a new cohort of schools scheduled to begin later this
 year. Are the schools done? Of course not. As Mr. Rohr points out, it is
critical that endowments continue to expand and grow to meet the needs of 
future families and students.

The two programs in L.A. are models for other communities and BJE, with the 
support of the Jim Joseph Foundation, has created a website, www.LAHighSchoolAffordability.org, where donors, schools, and communities 
interested in undertaking endowment development can obtain detailed
 information on what we have learned and how to implement similar initiatives
in their own school or community.

NEW YORK (JTA) — A new $9.2 million initiative will attempt to expand and improve Jewish summer programming for New York-area teens.

The New York Teen Initiative for Immersive Summer Experiences for Jewish Teens, a project of New York’s Jewish Education Project, through an incubator project will help launch eight programs this summer that are designed to match specific interests and needs of Jewish teens.

The eight programs include local options, like a Jewish surf camp and a theater program, as well as travel and community service opportunities, including ones in Panama and Memphis, Tenn. One program is specifically for Russian Jewish teens, while another is an Israel tour designed for teens from interfaith families. The programs also will focus on connecting participants to year-round Jewish learning opportunities.

“Summer is a great time to engage teens in Jewish experiences,” Robert Sherman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, said in a news release.

The initiative, jointly funded by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jim Joseph Foundation, is providing financial support, personalized coaching, marketing assistance and educational workshops, as well as a series of interactive educational workshops, to the eight programs.

The goals of the initiative include increasing the number of teens participating in accessible, affordable and inspiring Jewish summer experiences, and expanding the pool of available scholarship dollars for such programs. In addition to serving the eight programs in its incubator, the initiative also plans to provide professional development opportunities for other Jewish summer program providers in New York.

The new initiative will also fund a limited number of “innovative and emerging” summer programs, including a special needs track on the Ramah Israel Seminar and an arts program called Pop Up NY.

Source: “$9.2 million initiative aims to expand summer options for teens,” JTA, February 10, 2015

NEW YORK (JTA) — When his new camp opened last summer, Greg Kellner suspected he needed a morning ritual different from the traditional flagpole gathering at many Jewish overnight camps.

Kellner, the director of URJ Six Points Sci-Tech Academy in Byfield, Mass., a Jewish science-themed camp in the Reform movement’s network, knew his campers were more interested in science than singing, so he devised what he calls the “Boker [Hebrew for “morning”] Big Bang.”

“Instead of singing a closing song [at the flagpole], we – well, we blow something up,” Kellner said.

That “something,” whether it is dry ice or a different element of a chemical reaction, is of course part of a controlled scientific experiment.

Six Points Sci-Tech Academy, which focuses on science and technology, is one of four new camps developed under the auspices of the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Specialty Camp Incubator II, a program to help launch and grow new Jewish camps focused on particular themes.

The four – the others are JCC Maccabi Sports Camp, Camp Zeke (a health and fitness camp) and Camp Inc. (an entrepreneurship camp) – opened last summer, four years after the FJC’s first incubator launched five specialty camps, including ones focused on sports, environmentalism and outdoor adventures.

Morning prayer services at URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy before the camp’s “Boker Big Bang,” summer 2014. (Courtesy of URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy)

The thinking behind the incubator, which provides financial resources, mentoring and other support, is to encourage kids and teenagers, particularly those with special interests they could not have explored previously at a Jewish camp, to have a Jewish summer experience.

Early on, the new camps have been a success, with all but one (JCC Maccabi Sports Camp, which had a modest shortfall) meeting – and several exceeding – their goals for enrollment and camper retention. The new camps have also inspired several established Jewish camps to add specialty tracks and programs. For example, the New Jersey Y network of camps now offers multiple specialty tracks in the arts, science and sports, among them filmmaking, lacrosse and physics. Camp Ramah in the Poconos now has basketball and tennis “academies.”

The specialty camps have succeeded in recruiting people who might not otherwise consider Jewish camp: Of the more than 4,000 campers who have attended the FJC incubators’ nine specialty camps since 2010, half said it was their first Jewish overnight camp experience.

Comprehensive data on the second set of specialty camps has not yet been released, but the early numbers are promising: 520 campers enrolled in the four new camps last summer. Enrollment at the first five specialty camps, which launched with a total of 590 campers, has grown steadily, with 1,575 campers attending in 2014.

The second round of specialty camps benefited from lessons learned the first time around, said Michele Friedman, the FJC’s director of new camp initiatives, who noted that the first incubator was an “experiment.”

This time, camp directors addressed their business operations – from fundraising to building their boards – early in the process. While many non-Orthodox Jewish educational programs have trouble recruiting boys, two of the new specialty camps had the opposite problem.

At Six Points Sci-Tech, Kellner’s biggest obstacle was recruiting girls, which he said is also a struggle for most secular science camps. Of the 160 campers, only 27 were girls.

However, 40 girls have already signed up for this summer, and it is still early in the registration process.

Josh Pierce, the director of Camp Inc. in Boulder, Colo., had similar trouble. He estimated that only 30 percent of his 85 campers were girls, but he pointed out that next year’s group will be closer to 40 percent female.

Camp Inc. is structured to culminate in a “Shark Tank”-like presentation: Last summer’s campers formed teams, worked on an idea for a business and then presented their plan to a panel of professional entrepreneur judges. The judges included “Punkass,” a founder of the popular Tapout clothing line.

Also, Camp Inc. attendees visited 16 local companies, including Google’s office in Boulder, and heard lectures from 59 guest entrepreneurs.

Directors of the new specialty camps say they plan to expand their offerings this summer in response to camper requests.

Isaac Mamaysky of Camp Zeke said the camp will offer more frequent cooking classes and longer fitness electives.

“At a new camp, nothing ‘just kind of happens,’” Mamaysky said. “You have to make it happen.”

Source: “With launch of 4 new camps, specialty sector is booming,” Gabe Friedman, JTA, January 16, 2015

For the first time in decades, Jewish farmers from all over North America and Israel will be convening at the Leichtag Foundation property in Encinitas today through Tuesday to share best practices and discuss emerging opportunities in the growing field of Jewish community farming.

“The Jewish people are historically farmers” said Leichtag Foundation CEO Jim Farley. “This gathering demonstrates that a new Jewish farming movement is thriving.”

Farmers prepare a ‘soil sock’ farm at the Leichtag Foundation farm; photo courtesy of Joshua Sherman.

This convening, known as the Jewish Community Farmer Advisory Committee, comes on the heels of the Jewish Outdoor, Food, and Environmental Education (JOFEE) report, released in March 2014, which indicated a growing movement of Jewish experiences centered around outdoor, food, and environmental education.

Nearly 30 individuals representing 15 organizations will be in attendance. Notable organizations include Hazon (CT), Eden Village (NY), Ekar (CO), Boulder JCC (CO), Pearlstone Center (MD), Jewish Farm School (PA), Urban Adamah (Berkeley, CA), Netiya (Los Angeles, CA), Shoresh (Canada), and Kaima Farm (Israel).

One of the featured presenters of the convening is the Jim Joseph Foundation, which is supportive of several organizations represented in the JOFEE report.

“Bringing together leaders of key organizations to share knowledge and to learn from experts is an important step in advancing and beginning to professionalize this emerging field,” said Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “Our mission is to create new and dynamic Jewish learning opportunities, and JOFEE has evidenced significant potential in this area. Young adults in particular, as detailed in the JOFEE report, are attracted to these experiences as a way to engage in Jewish life and learning.”

There is a deep history of Jewish farming in North America. From 1880-1920, Jewish immigrants came to America and began farming. During this time, Jewish farming communities were developed with the support of the Baron de Hirsch Fund. The Jewish Agricultural Society in America formed in 1900 to support this movement. After World War II, agriculture changed and organized Jewish farming began to dissipate. This convening marks the rebirth of Jewish community farming.

“We see this as the beginning of many gatherings” said Daron “Farmer D” Joffe, Director of Agricultural Innovation for the Leichtag Foundation. “We want to help advance the field by being a place to gather and learn.”

The Leichtag Foundation purchased the former Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, CA in December 2012; it is a 67.5 acre property that amplifies the strategic focus areas of the Foundation and is a nexus to bring them all together.

Source: Jewish Farmers Gather to Advance Field of Jewish Community Farming, eJewishPhilanthropy, January 25, 2015

In his op-ed, Rabbi Ari Segal portrays the quandary that most Jewish day schools, and especially Jewish high schools, find themselves in today in regard to their middle-income families (“The 1% Solution,” January 2). Tuition increases have well exceeded rises in wages, cost of living has increased greatly and middle-income families with multiple children in day school are simply not able to keep up.

Six years ago, with generous funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation, BJE and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles embarked on a unique project that targeted five Jewish high schools focused on the building of endowments. (After all, non-Jewish private schools have, for decades, been building endowments; why shouldn’t Jewish schools do the same?)

To date, the five schools have collectively raised more than $16 million (on their way to a goal of $17 million) for endowment; a foundation, the Simha & Sara Lainer Day School Endowment Fund, provided a 25% match, adding $4.25 million. Bottom line: By June, $21.25 million will have been raised, and more important, each school now has a growing endowment fund that will generate distributions for tuition assistance in perpetuity. Are the schools done? Of course not: Endowments must continue to expand and grow to meet the needs of the future.

While Segal’s proposal is an interesting one, Jewish day schools still need a reliable and predictable income stream each year in order to balance their yearly budget. This is a model for other communities to consider (New York in fact recently launched its own Day School Challenge Fund). An additional proposal to Segal’s might also be that families receiving subsidies are asked or encouraged to leave 1% of their estate to the day school’s endowment fund in their will — expressing their gratitude to the school by providing a legacy for future generations.

Arlene Agress
Director, Los Angeles High School Affordability Initiative

Itamar Harari
Director, Center for Excellence in Day School Education
Los Angeles

Source: “Endowing Day Schools,” The Forward, January 20, 2015