Featured Grants

Established in 1996 with a lead gift from Righteous Persons Foundation, the Fund for Jewish Documentary Filmmaking (housed at the National Foundation for Jewish Culture) has supported just under 60 films and given away over $1.3 million to support the creation of original documentary films and videos that promote thoughtful consideration of Jewish history, culture, identity, and contemporary issues among diverse public audiences. Many of these films have gone on to screen at film festivals around the world and have been broadcast on PBS, HBO, and other networks (with some having had limited theatrical releases). The number of applicants continues to grow, with films being screened and selected by a jury panel of filmmakers, critics, academics, and presenters. Past grantees of the Film Fund include Watermarks, Trembling Before G-d, along with the Academy Award-nominated films Promises and My Architect.

For more information, go to The National Foundation for Jewish Culture.

The ten-part series "Voices from the Past: Yiddish American Radio from 1925-1955," aired on National Public Radio in 2001. Based on 1500 hours of one-of-a-kind archival radio recordings rescued from attics, junk shops, and storage rooms over a twelve-year period, this series was heard by millions of listeners each week. The broadcast combined contemporary interviews about the impact and reach of Yiddish radio with airings of the original found footage including advice shows, variety shows, news programs, music and commercials. Most today are unaware that Yiddish radio flourished in the first half of the twentieth century, with thirty stations in New York alone airing Jewish programming during its heyday. By rescuing this programming from obscurity and re-airing it to a new audience, Sound Portraits brought to life the historic era of American Jewish life in the 1930s and 40s in which Yiddish and American cultures were colliding, immigrants were struggling to make new lives for themselves and their families, and the dawning reality of the genocide occurring across the ocean was taking a heavy toll. In addition to the broadcast, the producers developed a national lecture and performance series that toured the country, and an on-line web museum based on the Yiddish radio material.

For more information, go to The Yiddish Radio Project.

Founded in 2002, Reboot is an independent non-profit dedicated to sparking a national conversation about Jewish identity for a new generation of young Jews. The core of Reboot's growing network is comprised of some of the nation's most creative opinion leaders in their twenties to early forties. Once given the space and the tools through which to explore their identities, these individuals have been inspired to create ways for others of their generation to do the same. In just a few years, Reboot participants (the majority of whom were not involved in any formal Jewish community or institution) have gone on to launch a new magazine Guilt & Pleasure and a Jewish archival record label Reboot Stereophonic, undertake national research projects, produce films, start Jewish-related salons, found spiritual communities IKAR, Brooklyn Jews and RituaLab, write books, plan for a new targeted justice fund, recast Jewish ritual, employ new technologies, and more. All of these efforts are intended to engage their peers in an exploration of what it means to be Jewish today.

For more information, go to Reboot.

Established in 1996 with a grant from Righteous Persons Foundation, Genesis is a summer program which integrates the arts, humanities, Jewish studies, and social action in order to provide a living model of what it means to participate in a diverse community. Based at Brandeis University, the program brings together a geographically and Jewishly diverse group of 11th and 12th grade high school students (both the seriously involved Jewish teen as well as teens on the fringes of the community) who share in the responsibility for learning and building community. Genesis has quickly gained an international reputation for excellence in Jewish education and professional development for Jewish educators. Neither a summer camp nor an arts program nor a purely academic experience (but combining elements of all three), Genesis brings together the best of formal and informal education and has changed the discussion around what types of experiences are most rewarding and effective for teenagers. To date 700 students have participated in the program.

For more information, go to Genesis.

We are all familiar with the expression "Don't judge a book by its cover," but how many of us know that this same sentiment is a cornerstone of one of the great works of Jewish ethics? Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, is a tractate of the Mishna that has been guiding the Jewish people for two thousand years. Called by one scholar "more than a book . . . [rather] a journey of ethical self transformation," Pirkei Avot includes sections on how to treat others, the importance of learning, and the necessity of being involved with one's community. While traditionally studied by teenagers and adults, a team of educators, led by Dr. Ruth Pinkenson Feldman, from the Jewish Community Centers Association came up with the concept of utilizing these ethical teachings within early childhood education. In 1999, the Righteous Persons Foundation funded the piloting of the new curriculum An Ethical Start ® within a handful of JCC preschools. Based upon the latest research in child development, this innovative program utilizes a multi-media Jewish text curriculum to engage parents, teachers, and young children in a fun and authentic encounter with a classical Jewish text. It represents a landmark shift in teaching these young children, from a curriculum focused on memorization of Jewish holidays and rituals, to one based upon exploration of values and ethics. Key to the success of the program is the fact that teachers, parents and students all grapple with the same text, thus bringing lessons out of the classroom and into the home environment. Anchored with an engaging character named Peer K. Explorer, colorful books, and a CD of original songs, An Ethical Start ® has now been implemented in over 50 JCCs across the country, with more JCCs asking to bring the program to their community.

For more information, go to An Ethical Start ®.

Over the years, the Foundation has supported numerous local efforts to bring the model of Operation Understanding to communities across the country. Launched in Philadelphia in 1985 by former Congressman William H. Gray III and George M. Ross (Managing Partner of Goldman, Sachs and Company) in response to concerns about the increasing tension and waning communication between African-Americans and Jews, the program brings Jewish and African American high school students together for an intensive year-long experience. During that time, students interact with each other and various community leaders in order to learn about African-American culture, Jewish culture, and the history of African-American/Jewish relations. A highlight and key component of the program is a summer study journey wherein participants travel together to cities and towns in the U.S. of significance to both the African American and Jewish communities. In addition, students are provided with training in group dynamics, public speaking and interpersonal communication, as they are required to speak about their experiences, lead workshops and educate others after the conclusion of the program. The Righteous Persons Foundation has provided grants to "Operation Understanding" programs in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Charleston, Philadelphia, San Diego, St. Louis and Norfolk.

For more information, go to Operation Understanding Philadelphia and Operation Understanding D.C

For 30 years, Facing History has been engaging students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. In 1976, Margot Stern Strom, an eighth grade social studies teacher was troubled by the lack of attention paid in textbooks to the Holocaust. Margot understood that in studying the historical development and lessons of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the choices they confront in their own lives. To that end, she established Facing History and Ourselves which aims to enhance teachers' capacity to infuse themes of tolerance, social justice, and civic participation into their curricula throughout the year in classes such as history, social studies, civics, English, art, philosophy, and electives. In training thousands of teachers, offering dozens of study guides for films and television broadcasts, and coordinating special initiatives designed to get students to think critically about the consequences of their actions, Facing History estimates that they have reached over 1.6 million students worldwide. The Righteous Persons Foundation first funded Facing History in 1995 for its work to produce and distribute the Schindler's List Study Guide, and has since provided support for its Los Angeles office as well as for special projects.

For more information, go to Facing History and Ourselves

"The Family" by Samuel Bak, courtesy of Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA

Begun as a way to connect young people to the Jewish imperative of helping those in need, AJWS Volunteer Summer (previously the International Jewish College Corps) takes students to volunteer in a developing country and then has them participate in a domestic follow up program upon their return. Each summer, approximately sixty students and recent college graduates spend seven weeks working in countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, Ghana or Thailand. In the past, volunteer projects have included building a new community center for a village in Ghana and building a water system in rural Honduras. While the students make a difference in the communities in which they volunteer (both by building needed infrastructure and serving as goodwill ambassadors for the Jewish community), they themselves are impacted as well. After the summer, participants return home and attend retreats, study Jewish texts, meet with Jewish scholars, volunteer in their local communities, and speak about their experience to school groups and synagogues. To date, close to 350 college students have participated in the program.

For more information, look at volunteer opportunities at American Jewish World Service.

Photo: Courtesy of American Jewish World Servce

For over two decades, Mazon has been allocating donations from the Jewish community to prevent and alleviate hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds. Founded by Leonard Fein on the heels of the Ethiopian famine of 1985, Mazon was conceived as a bridge between the abundance in the Jewish community and the desperate need felt by millions of hungry people around the world. Via Mazon, synagogues, Jewish institutions, children, adults and families contribute to a fund that allocates resources to emergency food providers, food banks, multi-service organizations, and advocacy groups which seek long-term solutions to the issue of hunger. Believing in the importance of capacity-building, the Righteous Persons Foundation has provided grants to Mazon to support the development of their website and the development and implementation of a fundraising strategy.

For more information, go to Mazon.

In 1994, inspired by the process of filming Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg established Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to document the experience of survivors and other witnesses to the Holocaust, including those who aided, rescued, and liberated the survivors, before it was too late. In January 2006, the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation joined the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences to establish the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. With a collection of nearly 52,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses in 32 languages and from 56 countries, the Institute oversees the largest visual history archive in the world. With the testimonies now collected, and nearly all of them indexed, catalogued, and digitized, the Institute has now turned its attention to preservation of the archive, and to making use of this visual history for educational and scholarly efforts in many countries and languages. The Institute partners with libraries, schools, universities, museums, and other academic institutions to provide public access to the archive and advance scholarship in many fields of inquiry.

For more information, go to USC Shoah Foundation Institute website.

While working as a researcher at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Alexandra Zapruder came across a handful of diaries kept by young people during the Holocaust. Living in hiding, in ghettos, and as refugees, these writers recorded their experiences and impressions in any way they could: they smuggled paper and pencils and wrote in ledgers, address books, on the back of leaflets, and in the margins of published books. Inspired by their courage and determination, Zapruder spent the next ten years tracking down over sixty of these diaries and published a volume containing excerpts from 15 of them. Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust received much acclaim and won the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category for 2001-2002. Lauren Lazin, a Vice President at MTV and an Academy-Award nominated documentary filmmaker, heard about the book, and decided that the material would make a powerful documentary for her network. With funding from the Righteous Persons Foundation, in May 2005 I'm Still Here premiered on MTV to an audience of more than one million viewers utilizing voiceover narration from actors such as Elijah Wood, Kate Hudson and Joaquin Phoenix and archival photographic images from the Holocaust. Supporting materials posted online at the thinkMTV portion of the website offered important historical perspective, with Facing History and Ourselves creating a study guide to accompany the film. I'm Still Here continues to be shown in educational settings and will be aired again by the Sundance Channel.

For more information, go to MTV or Facing History and Ourselves or here for an interview with Alexandra Zapruder.

With the Righteous Persons Foundation as one of three original lead funders, Synagogue 2000 (S2K) was launched in 1995 with the mission of revitalizing and re-energizing synagogue life in North America. Through conferences, curricula, and consultant services, Synagogue 2000 worked with 100 congregations around the country to build sacred communities through the blending of prayer, study and social justice combined with the best practices of modern organizational development. Having helped develop the field of synagogue change, Synagogue 2000 has recently retooled and re-visioned itself as Synagogue 3000. Its Synagogue Studies research initiative is utilizing the latest scholarship from fields as diverse as anthropology, congregational studies, ethnomusicology, Jewish studies, religious studies, sociology, and theology to help guide thinking on both a macro- and micro-level. Recognizing that new models and forms of worship are taking root within the Jewish community, S3K has recently convened working groups within its Leadership Network on Spiritual Leadership and Emergent Sacred Communities. By bringing together these groups of innovators, S3K is helping to lead the discussion surrounding the modern synagogue and the challenging and promising alternatives to its traditional model.

For more information, go to Synagogue 3000.

The Institute of Jewish Spirituality was founded on the notion that in order to help others experience Judaism as deeply meaningful and relevant, rabbis and educators need opportunities to cultivate their own sense and understanding of Jewish spirituality. To this end, the Institute runs intensive two-year programs for rabbis, cantors, educators and lay people—teaching them a range of Jewish spiritual practices, texts, and ideas as a way to deepen their own lives, and in turn, the lives of those they are serving. The tools provided by the Institute (retreats, an on-line resource bank of best practices, mentorships, and weekly text study) give spiritual leaders the skills and support necessary to preach, teach, counsel and govern organizations with wisdom, courage, empathy and faith. Since their founding seven years ago, the Institute has intensively trained over 200 Jewish professionals who in turn have impacted the lives of an estimated 300,000 congregants and students. In addition, they have now expanded to work with lay leaders who engage in serious study over the course of a year.

For more information, go to Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

Photo © Edwin Bernbaum