Search results for: Philanthropy

At Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC), we believe camp must also reflect the diversity of today’s Jewish community and be accessible for everyone. After our study conducted in 2012-13 found that children with disabilities are significantly underserved by Jewish camp, FJC issued a vision statement for a major disabilities initiative. The overarching goal is to ensure that campers with disabilities and their families experience camp as fully and completely as their typical peers. In 2014, we began securing funding to enhance services at nonprofit Jewish camps across North America for campers with disabilities. One of the major areas identified by the study was the need for trained inclusion specialists and for counselor training focused on serving children with a variety of needs.

After meeting to discuss the need for a collective Jewish educational catalyst, the 28 federations that make up the National Federation/Agency Alliance recommended the formation of a new Jewish Education and Engagement Planning Unit within the Jewish Federations system. That unit was approved recently by JFNA’s Executive Committee. The unit will foster relationships and partnerships between federations, as well as with key outside organizations that are devoted to fostering Jewish education. Additionally, it will commission studies and convene experts to examine issues that are important and common to local federations, and it will inspire and mediate collective attention and action.

Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit is leading the way to implement affordability models for Jewish day school education. In partnership with a major local foundation, the Hillel Tuition Grant program not only insures that tuition will never be higher than the first year a child enters Hillel, but will actually decrease in each subsequent year. This grant is directed to parents who pay full tuition because they are not eligible for tuition assistance. The grant program is for students in grades 1 – 8. Each year, through eighth grade, the value of the grant goes up by $1,000.

It’s a simple recipe: get together with friends on campus, bake and sell challah, and donate the proceeds to a meaningful cause. Through Challah for Hunger (CfH), thousands of student volunteers gather to continue the centuries-old tradition of baking challah and engaging in social justice work. Launched in 2004 as a small initiative on one college campus,today, leaders at CfH’s 68 university chapters worldwide provide fellow students with low-barrierto-entry service opportunities that deepen their connections with the Jewish community.