SAN FRANCISCO (Press Release)– Jim Joseph Foundation based here recently announced grant awards from its Fall 2014 Board meeting, totaling more than $5 million to a variety of Jewish education organizations. Grants were awarded to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, American Institutes for Research, Birthright Israel Foundation, and Kevah.The Foundation focuses on creating effective and compelling Jewish learning experiences for youth and young adults (primarily ages 13-30) in the United States.
Many of these new grants build on the previous determined work of grantees to create more Jewish learning opportunities,” notes Al Levitt, President of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “We are excited to help successful initiatives expand and evolve to engage even more Jewish youth and young adults in vibrant Jewish life.
Details of Major Grants from Fall 2014 Board Meeting:
Contemporary Jewish Museum: Innovation Fund 2.0 (2014-2018)
Total Awarded: Up to $1,200,000
Purpose: Innovation Fund 2.0 will support creative, cultural exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area to engage youth and young adults, and further educate museum curators and Jewish educational practitioners from museums across the country (this is the second grant for the Innovation Fund).
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American Institutes for Research: Cross Community Evaluation of the Community-based Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative (2014-2018)
Total Awarded: Up to $800,000
Purpose: Conduct the Cross Community Evaluation of the Community-based Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative; Funds will be used to execute on a cross-grant evaluation of initiatives operating in up to ten communities; Rosov Consulting and Professor Steven M. Cohen will serve as sub-contractors. Key objectives will include:
• Assess the success of the collective initiative based on achievement of shared goals
• Ensure that findings from ongoing local evaluations are comparable across communities
• Identify and make accessible key learnings that emerge from evaluations of the local initiatives and additional data that will be collected as part of this evaluation
• Provide actionable feedback to strengthen national support structures
• Ensure ongoing shared learning over a four year period beginning in October of 2014.
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Birthright Israel Foundation: Birthright Israel Trip Support (2014)
Total Awarded: Up to $2,500,000
Purpose: To provide trip support for Birthright participants from the United States.
Kevah: Support Growth in the Number of Kevah Groups and Kevah Educators in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and Denver (2014-2017)
Total Awarded: Up to $750,000
Purpose: To support Kevah’s educators and growth in the number of Kevah groups for young adults in the Bay Area, Boston and Denver.
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Preceding provided by the Jim Joseph Foundatioon