Jewish Life Grants

Our goal is to help Jews create communities that are vibrant, pluralistic, socially conscious and spiritually dynamic. We believe that if Jewish life presents meaningful responses to their needs, the majority of Jews will choose to remain full ranfe of Jewish affiliated, or will seek connection. If it does not, they will look for significance elsewhere in the vast market place of ideas in which we live.

Modern American Jews seek a Judaism that provides wisdom and comfort as they try to understand the deeper meaning of their lives. They will be proud to give their children a Jewish education that is stimulating and embracing. Their tradition calls them to an active commitment to social justice; their communal organizations must help them live harmoniously with their neighbors. Affirming the core Jewish notion that all Jews are bound one to another, we make our commitment to Jews overseas an organic part of our work as American Jews, supporting projects in Israel, Russia, and Ukraine.

JEWISH RENEWAL AND SPIRITUALITY

A cornerstone of our efforts to stimulate a more vibrant Jewish life is the Spirituality and Jewish Renewal focus area. To deepen the spiritual dimension of American Judaism we looked first for ways to make synagogues more spiritually profound; places where people can feel renewed in prayer, strengthened by the support of community, and comforted by their counselors. We have sought to achieve that goal by focusing on the synagogue worship experience and on the education of rabbis. Until recently, rabbinic education has been regarded primarily as an intellectual enterprise, with some attention to practical skills like sermon delivery, conducting funerals, and counseling the ill and bereaved. New efforts focus on the development of rabbis as spiritual leaders.

One of our major grants for the training of rabbis as spiritual leaders was to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The New York campus will devote a year to planning a thorough revision of its approach to educating rabbis and cantors. It will change its curriculum in order to create an integrated learning environment--intellectual, experiential and personal--for rabbinic and cantorial students. A major goal of this process is to develop a more effective means to educate the heart as well as the head.

As central as synagogues are to the continuity of American Judaism, they will never serve all Jews. We think it is also important to create centers of learning outside the synagogue-for people who don't like synagogues, who don't consider themselves religious or don't consider the synagogues to be religious We look for a variety of ways to bring Jews with spiritual needs into the Jewish community. Helping them to learn, to develop their voices, and to gain access to the mainstream will enliven and enrich the Jewish discourse in important ways. At the School for Traditional Jewish Meditation in Los Angeles, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man has taught more then 1,500 students that Judaism has authentic traditions of meditation that are linked to texts, laws, and service. Some take these practices back to their synagogue life. For countless others, Rabbi Omer-Man has opened a door to Jewish community.

For similar reasons, we made a grant to The Jewish Outreach Institute, directed by Dr. Egon Mayer, one of the country's leading experts on intermarriage. In order to respond to the growing demand for ideas, strategies, and effective outreach programs, the JOI will expand from a one-man research center to a full-fledged training, research and dissemination institute. Its goal is to raise consciousness and provide the skills necessary for the organized Jewish community to plan and carry out an integrated, strategic approach for including the intermarried in Jewish life. It aims to place issues of outreach to the intermarried on community planning and Federation funding agendas; and, to open Jewish doors for interfaith couples when they are open to exploring the religious and cultural issues raised by their marriage.

We have also worked in support of the renewal of Jewish life in Russia and Ukraine. There are at least two million Jews in these countries, many of whom will decide not to leave. They are the third largest Jewish population in the world. Hundreds of thousands of them have sought a connection with Jewish community, tradition, and history. We support their efforts to connect with their heritage and build their own institutions. We support two high-quality university Jewish studies programs: one at the Russian State University for the Humanities, Project Judaica, sponsored by Jewish Theological Seminary and YIVO; and the other at the Jewish University of Moscow, an independent college.

JEWISH EDUCATION

While Jewish education is integral to many of our grants, we have established a separate category for those projects which relate to congregational religious schools, rabbinical schools, or institutes of adult education.

One of our major concerns is innovation in the educational experience of young people. Gesher L'Kesher is a Jewish model of the innovative peer leadership program which the Princeton Center for Leadership Training developed for both private and inner city schools. Initiated in five congregations in the New York area, Gesher L'Kesher involves high school seniors as madrichim (guides) for junior high talmidim (students) in the religious school. The madrichim focus discussions about the moral issues that the younger students are facing in their daily lives, and employ Jewish tradition and teaching to help them develop ethical responses. The program will soon be replicated in Baltimore.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

We have sought to strengthen Jewish institutions working on social justice in the United States, the former Soviet Union, and Israel. We have funded programs to help people in need; to educate the Jewish community about the value Judaism places on social justice; to strengthen that commitment; and to create opportunities for Jews to work, as Jews, alongside other groups committed to social change. We support organizations that work in the name of the Jewish community as an expression of Jewish values. Our goal has been to enable these organizations to grow, to reach out to under-affiliated young Jews, and to influence mainstream organizations to make social justice a higher priority on the Jewish communal agenda.

The New Leaders Project of UJA-Federation in Los Angeles was created to recruit, nurture and sustain a new generation of young lewish leaders The goal is to broaden their perspectives on leadership-deepening their commitment to the Jewish world and their understanding of the issues that concern leaders of other ethnic groups in the metropolitan area. The program introduces participants to people who influence public policy in Los Angeles-prominent journalists, business people, and elected and appointed officials, as well as community leaders from the African-American, Asian and Hispanic communities. Last year the project recruited and trained their first class of young leaders, this grant will support the program's second class, as well as develop the materials that will allow the project to be replicated in other cities.

IMPROVING RELATIONS BETWEEN JEWS AND NON-JEWS

We feel that the best way to foster understanding between Jews and other minority communities is to build working relationships. One such venue for joint action is the museum. Last year, we supported the Jewish Museum to mount the Bridges and Boundaries exhibit on African-Americans and Jews. Our 1993 grant to the Brooklyn Historical Society assisted its work with two other Brooklyn Museums to develop exhibits and school programs on the Jewish, African-American, and Caribbean cultures of racially-troubled Crown Heights. Another grant supports Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University to assemble a working group of African-American and Jewish academics and activists to study racism and anti-Semitism in America, with the goal of understanding the dynamics underlying current tensions and devising creative responses.

We believe that a segment of our Jewish life funds should be shared with Jews outside the United States. Because of our concern for social justice and relations between Jews and non-Jews, we have supported projects involving Israeli Arabs, the most underserved group in Israel. We have found partners working to train Arabs to do the skilled community planning that will make them eligible for the new funds the government is investing in the Arab sector. We have also supported advocacy projects serving all Israelis in the area of women's health, children's rights, and human rights. wish institutions working on social justice in the United States, the former Soviet Union, and Israel. We have funded programs to help people in need; to educate the Jewish community about the value Judaism places on social justice; to strengthen that commitment; and to create opportunities for Jews to work, as Jews, alongside other groups committed to social change. We support organizations that work in the name of the Jewish community as an expression of Jewish values. Our goal has been to enable these organizations to grow, to reach out to under-affiliated young Jews, and to influence mainstream organizations to make social justice a higher priorit y on the Jewish communal agenda.

The New Leaders Project of UJA-Federation in Los Angeles was created to recruit, nurture and sustain a new generation of young lewish leaders The goal is to broaden their perspectives on leadership-deepening their commitment to the Jewish world and their understanding of the issues that concern leaders of other ethnic groups in the metropolitan area. The program introduces participants to people who influence public policy in Los Angeles-prominent journalists, business people, and elected and appointed officials, as well as community leaders from the African-American, Asian and Hispanic communities. Last year the project recruited and trained their first class of young leaders, this grant will support the program's second class, as well as develop the materials that will allow the project to be replicated in other cities.