The Covenant Foundation Announces New Grants for 2014

Source: Covenant Foundation Grants

The Covenant Foundation announced $1.6 million in new grants today as part of its mission to support and advance excellence and impact in Jewish education. From schools to synagogues and beyond, the new round of grants underscores a commitment to initiatives across the landscape of Jewish educational settings, experiences and audiences. Innovative work in technology, new media, the arts, youth and family engagement, and community building are each part of a re-imagined toolkit propelling the field of Jewish education forward.

Foundation grants are divided into two categories: Signature Grants, which provide funding for up to $250,000 for up to five years, and Ignition Grants, of up to $20,000 for one year to support new and untested approaches.

The grants announced today are part of approximately $1.8 million to be distributed this year.

Signature Grantees include:

• Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, Conover, WI: $28,000 for one year to plan future direction of its theater arts program and its integration into wider camp programming.
• Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn, NY: $125,000 over two years to expand and enhance a Hebrew language immersion and Israeli cultural after-school program.
• ConverJent, New York: $33,000 for one year to train educators to use Jewish Time Jump: New York, a geolocative interactive educational game, and to develop a curriculum that can be integrated into its play.
• Girls in Trouble, Portland, OR: $50,000 for one year for development and distribution of The Complicated Lives of Biblical Women, a formal curriculum complementing a popular collection of songs by musician, composer and Jewish educator Alicia Jo Rabins focused on women in the Torah.
• Institute for Jewish Spirituality, New York: $50,000 for one year to distribute Wise Aging: A Leader’s Jewish Resource Guide and train facilitators across the country to use and incorporate it in Wise Aging groups and settings.
• Kavod v’Nichum, Columbia, MD: $102,500 over three years for the Gamliel Institute’s development of a fifth and final course in a curriculum examining the customs, liturgy and rituals surrounding end-of-life practices.
• MoEd: A Jewish Afterschool Community, Chevy Chase, MD: $120,000 over three years to expand school-year curricula emphasizing Hebrew language and Jewish engagement for elementary school-aged children, and development of summer camp programming.
• Moving Traditions, Jenkintown, PA: $47,300 for one year to select, train and deploy the Shevet Achim Fellows to coach and mentor new and continuing leaders and role models for teenage Jewish boys and strengthen the Shevet Achim program.
• Nitzan Network, San Francisco: $100,000 over two years to support professional, organizational, and technological development, as well as advocacy efforts, for a growing national network of innovators, leaders and educators in after-school Jewish education programs.
• The Paradigm Project, Miami: $59,000 for one year to greatly expand the network of Jewish Early Childhood Education professionals.
• RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network, New York: $157,500 over three years to support the growth and enhancement of Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT), a web-based role-playing simulation project for middle school students based on significant historical and contemporary Jewish figures, issues and events.
  • Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, New York: $150,000 over three years to support the creation and launch of Jewish Arts and Music (JAM), a Jewish arts education program and curriculum geared at Jews at key points of engagement in Jewish life.
  • Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Far Rockaway, NY: $30,000 for one year to plan a pilot curriculum combining traditional classroom learning with a blended learning model that includes online delivery of content and instruction.

The new round of Ignition Grantees include:

• Central Agency for Jewish Education, St. Louis: $20,000 for one year to research, develop and design an interactive, online community focused on Jewish learning and communal activities for Jewish children and their families.
• Congregation Shearith Israel, Dallas: $20,000 for one year to expand and enhance Makom, an initiative designed to inspire and engage the next generation of Jewish adults and leaders in the Dallas metropolitan area.
• Graduate Center for Education at American Jewish University, Bel-Air, CA: $20,000 for one year to develop and establish Dream Lab, an initiative to engage the Jewish arts community in Jewish learning and education and advance the place of arts and culture in Jewish educational settings.
• The Jewish Theological Seminary of America – Center for Pastoral Education, New York: $20,000 for one year to support creation of an introductory-level multi-media resource guide to pastoral care and counseling for rabbis, cantors, and congregational lay leaders and volunteers.
• The Shefa School, New York: $20,000 for one year to support development of arts curricula and programming for children with learning differences.
• Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, New Milford, NJ: $20,000 for one year to retool its Holocaust education curriculum to include documentary filmmaking elements, audio-visual and editing technology, and cross-curricular applications.
• Temple Beth Shalom, Mahopac, NY: $20,000 for one year to leverage the synagogue’s rural, exurban location to create formalized Jewish educational programs and opportunities for members and the community.
• Tiferes Bnos, Brooklyn, NY: $20,000 for one year to enhance and expand a teacher training and professional development program.
  The Covenant Foundation is currently inviting 2014 Signature and Ignition Grant applications. Applicants should visit the grants page for information and guidelines. The deadline for submitting an initial Letter of Inquiry is February 27, 2014.