We’re delighted to announce the recipients of the 2022 Community Impact Grant (CIG) funds. We hope to support these organizations as they continue to enhance the lives of those in the Great Boston Jewish community.
Campus
| Organization | Grant Purpose | Grantee Location |
| Boston University Hillel | First-time ever Alternative Service Spring Break immersive experiences: Environmental Action (Honolulu, Hawaii), and Civil Rights and Urban Community Development (Jackson, Mississippi). These two experiences leverage the ideals of tikkun olam (repairing the world) to build strong and diverse Jewish identities on a weeklong trip focused on volunteerism, Jewish learning, group bonding, and touring. | Boston, MA |
| Northeastern University Hillel Advisory Committee Inc. | Seven-part series of teachings for our Jewish students on campus on antisemitism, how to identify it, its intricate history, manifestations, and proper responses. | Boston, MA |
| Evan Joblin (DBA Yoga Otzma) | Building a welcoming portal into the Yoga Otzma world via an online platform/community hub and social media presence. | Birchrunville, PA |
| Wellesley Weston Chabad | Shabbat Dinners for 10-15 Babson students. | Wellesley Hills, MA |
| itrek inc. | The organization of the Israel trek for Sloan MIT students from both MBA and Sloan Fellows programs. | Broadway, NY |
| MEOR, Inc. | MEOR is serving over 150 students weekly Shabbat meals. Shabbat is an important time for the students to relax, learn, and see how people live Jewishly, not just from learning texts but from seeing the beauty of Judaism and Shabbat, often their first-ever experience in such a setting. | Silver Spring, MD |
| Brandeis Hillel | Retention of the IACT Coordinator and support an expanded portfolio to include "Jewish Life on campus" management, and integrate Israel programming and Jewish identity/connection work. | Waltham, MA |
| Chabad Fenway - Huntington Avenue, Inc. (DBA Chabad at Northeastern University) | The Student Support and Leadership Initiative serving students at Northeastern. | Boston, MA |
| Israel Lacrosse | The sustaining and improvement of the gap-year programming. | Broadway, NY |
| Chabad of Medford Inc | Weekly gatherings for Torah discussion and/or mitzvah experience. | Somerville, MA |
Teens
| Organization | Grant Purpose | Grantee Location |
| Jookender Community Initiatives, Inc. | Our organization helps Youth and Families define their Jewish Identity and learn more about the culture, history, and traditions of Jewish People around the world. | Framingham, MA |
| Teen JUST-US | In the coming year, we would like to continue to identify a broad group of participants, be more visible in the community, and recruit from cities and towns where we have not had prior representation. We'll continue to build community with alumni events, hiring a past participant as a Program Assistant, and invite past participants to design and lead workshops, linking with other Jewish teen events. | Belmont, MA |
| Temple Beth Israel | TBI is an independent synagogue that seeks to provide spiritual, social, and physical access and inclusion in meaningful Jewish life. We hope to enhance our ability to deepen connections between teens, the temple community, and deepen the teen’s understanding of and appreciation for their Jewish heritage. | Waltham, MA |
| Yachad New England & The National Jewish Council for Disabilities | Together with other 384 Harvard Campus partners, Yachad New England will open The Teen Lounge. The Teen Lounge is a comfortable, dynamic, and flexible space in the heart of Brookline's Jewish community. Teens helped design and manage the Lounge, bringing together teens of all abilities for good times. | Brookline, MA |
| Action for Post-Soviet Jewry | Action for PSJ will initiate projects through teen leadership and innovation. Developed in partnership with teens to meet their interests, the projects are rooted in the Jewish history of Eastern Europe, allowing teens to be active bystanders to this history. | Waltham, MA |
| Temple Shir Tikva | Temple Shir Tikva and Temple Israel of Natick are partnering to bring a relevant, dynamic, peer-led social action and giving group to the Metrowest area. | Wayland, MA |
| Newton Jewish Community After School Program Inc. (DBA: Kesher Newton) | Enhance the overall quality of our current Middle School/High School programming to support our Kesher Middle School, our Teen Ulpan, and the Tiyulim program. | Newton, MA |
| Temple Beth Zion & Gann Academy the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston | Temple Beth Zion, a spiritual community, and Gann Academy, a pluralistic high school, are collaborating on a teen summer farm internship program. Bringing together teens from our communities and beyond, this program empowers participants to build a vibrant, climate-resilient Jewish community. | Brookline, MA |
| TribeTalk | We're hiring a social media consultant to help us develop a strategic plan on how to best reach our target audiences of students and parents on the social media platforms that these constituencies participate. Over the next 12 months, we'll work with the social media strategist to implement the social media campaign and assist with developing and posting our content and programming to our target audiences. | Newton, MA |
| Hazon (Jewish Youth Climate Movement) | We are currently planning our second annual Leadership Board Retreat this August 8-14th. The program will have two components: a Climate Activism Institute in Baltimore and Washington D.C., and a Shabbaton at the Pearlstone Center. Importantly, the program will equip our teen leaders with resources, education, program ideas, Jewish learning, and leadership skills to take back to their communities and create meaningful change at home, with the support of the national JYCM network. | New York City, NY |
| Volunteer Ventures MA Inc. | VVMA and collaborating Jewish communal partners – Temple Shir Tikvah, Winchester and JLOFT – will re-invigorate service trips as a powerful and enriching program opportunity for teens. Service trips are a unique opportunity for teens to deepen their Jewish connections to other Jewish teens, build new skills and depositions, and live tikkun olam – repairing the world. | Lexington, MA |
| Temple Sinai | "Wrestling with Zion Teen Israel Study Fellowship," an 8-week study and reflection curriculum that provides students with a strong background in the history, issues, dilemmas, and personal challenges around confronting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The fellowship engages students to be teachers, as well as learners, in the program, tasking them with researching and presenting to their peers on the essential topics of the conflict. Through this, they will better understand the narratives of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples, as well as how the conflict affects the lives of American Jews and American politics, and, ultimately, they will develop their own well-founded opinions and viewpoints on the conflict. | Brookline, MA |
| Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley | Participation in the RAC seminar in Washington D.C., including preparatory sessions. Service trip to NOLA. A variety of 2-4 academic tracks, such as Jewish Sci-Fi and Green Activism through a Jewish Lens, including guest speakers. Offer monthly program-wide gatherings. |
Sudbury, MA |
| BaMidbar | The current interest in and momentum around mental health represents an incredible opportunity to reimagine the Jewish community’s response to this important issue. BaMidbar will use funds from CJP’s Capacity Building Grant to engage a strategic planning consultant who will help BaMidbar build a roadmap for programmatic growth and expansion in Boston. | Denver, CO |
| Moving Traditions | This year, Moving Traditions is piloting a new program, Kulam, for teens of all genders to engage in dynamic and authentic conversations, think reflectively, act courageously, and develop healthy, honest relationships. Kulam (meaning “everyone”) is a series of fifteen, 1-hour, experiential, and curricular sessions designed for Jewish educators to use in a Hebrew High setting. Each hour features dialogue prompts, games, Jewish texts, and other activities that focus on a specific area that resonates with teens and helps them learn to relate to – and communicate with – one another. | Elkins Park, PA |
| Rimon Club dba Club Z | Club Z plans to expand a Club Z Community Program in Boston. The grant will be used to hire staff to facilitate and in support of academic sessions, experiential learning and social gatherings, to grow the community of participants, and create partnerships with local organizations to implement Club Z’s multi-faceted program and proprietary curriculum, which consist of intensive Jewish identity building, leadership skills development, and in-depth education on Jewish and Israel history and peoplehood. | Santa Carlos, CA |
Young Adults
| Organization | Grant Purpose | Grantee Location |
| Israel Emergency Alliance DBA Alums for Campus Fairness | Networking and job fair initiative connecting graduating students and post-campus professionals with young and established professionals across the Jewish and pro-Israel community. | New York, NY |
| Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Inc. | Our vision is to create a space for young people who find social justice and public policy a core component of how they relate to Judaism. In doing so, we’re investing in staff to fill a gap, and create a comfortable environment for young Jews with shared values to gather, deepen connection to Judaism, and further their commitment to social justice. | Boston, MA |
| Jookender Community Initiatives, Inc. | To support YA during the On-Off COVID times through four major YA projects: 1. Missing Links program, will support recent college graduates who want to continue their involvement in RSJ community. 2. Parenting workshops: health, wellness, family relationships, and children 3. Israel - on the map of America: 2-3 overnight Shabbaton to explore local outdoors, and learn more about various regions of Israel in terms of culture, traditions, cuisine, history, and innovations, and compare them to our destination - Jewish community impact. 4. Adult Club Chaverim |
Framingham, MA |
| Modern JewISH Couples | We are seeking $15,000 to continue building and scaling Modern JewISH Couples in three ways: Programmatic, Staffing, and PR. This grant will support an increase in staff salary capacity, the expansion of program materials, and expand how we market the project. Our goal is to shift the conversation from planning for an event to planning for your life and by focusing on critical conversations that all humans face along their paths. | Roxbury, MA |
| Temple Beth Elohim | The proposed initiative is a 20s/30s pilot cohort. Our vision is to create a committed, chavurah-like community grounded in authentic connections to TBE, including connections to TBE youth alumni in the Greater Boston Metro area. | Wellesley, MA |
| Temple Beth Israel | TBI Next Generation aims to provide opportunities for the target population to engage in Jewish learning and leadership opportunities, thereby strengthening the bonds within the group and the broader TBI community, and deepening the group’s connection to their Jewish identity and heritage. These opportunities would be available to temple members, prospective members, and other non-members of the demographic within the Greater Waltham-area Jewish population. Through this initiative we hope to build and maintain a vibrant and resilient community, steeped in Jewish history, traditions, and values. | Wellesley, MA |
| Limmud FSU International Foundation | An October 2022 conference of Jewish learning for 150-200 of the 15,000 Russian-speaking Jews (RSJs) living in the Boston area on the campus of Harvard University. | New York, NY |
| Chabad of Brookline | A Purim event in Boston that caters to the young adult scene for the Boston Jewish community ages 21-40. | Brookline, MA |
| Trybal Gatherings, Inc. | The building of a foundation for a strong Jewish future by reimagining immersive experiences for Jewish young adults hosted at summer camps and beyond. | Brookline, MA |
| Cambridge Jewish Center of the Arts | To scale our Family Holiday Enrichment Series. | Cambridge, MA |
| Center for Jewish Life Arlington Belmont Inc. | Our project will be geared toward young adults and families with young children with weekly programming. This includes: Havdalah Under the Stars, Musical Kabbalat Shabbat, Friday night dinners, and Tots Shabbat programming. This will be geared towards families and young adults who, at the current moment, are unaffiliated or who do not have much social Jewish connection. | Arlington, MA |
| Community Tikkun Leil Shavuot | Each year, Shavout allows us to re-receive Torah as a Jewish community. This year CTLS will convene congregations and organizations in Brookline, Brighton, Chestnut Hill, and surrounding areas to create a creative, multifaceted night of learning. The Tikkun will include short study sessions running from 10:45 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., with outside and inside options. We hope to offer two to five concurrent sessions in each time slot (a total of about 12 sessions). | Brookline, MA |
| Temple B'nai Abraham | This grant will fund community building and spiritual nourishment for North Shore Jewish and interfaith young adults. We are in a “Yavneh Moment” for American synagogues as we innovate and navigate these times. The riches of the Jewish mystical tradition, music, and a spiritual community can help build well-being and resilience. The program will also include a focus on building our growing LGBTQIA+ community as a subgroup. | Beverly, MA |
| Temple Emanuel of Newton | The purpose of this grant is to create progressive intergenerational Jewish community which plants the seeds of transformation for the future. Our goal is to create a space in Cambridge where Jews of all ages and stages can experience meaningful Jewish practice, discover the joys of Jewish music and the ways that secular and contemporary music can enhance prayer services, and find their way to Jewish community. | Newton, MA |
| Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America | Yavneh supports young professional community development in three distinct ways: (1) a network of Yavneh Bayit houses for young couples and groups of roommates to build communal programming spaces, (2) fellowships for community builders to focus on community needs beyond residential limitations, and (3) regional leadership councils for residents and fellows to engage in larger-scale community visioning processes. At the core are Yavneh Bayit houses, led by individuals who are passionate about making hands-on contributions to their community. | New York, NY |
General
| Organization | Grant Purpose | Grantee Location |
| Asiyah Jewish Community | A year of programming oriented around the biblical Sabbatical tradition of shmita, the year of rest in a seven-year cycle of Jewish life. Asiyah’s Shmita Year program will be a dynamic series of events that weave these shmita-year themes into the overarching vision of our community: People from all backgrounds, bringing their whole selves into a loving community of Jewish spiritual practice to weave together the work of tikkun ha-nefesh (realigning the self/soul) and tikkun ha-olam (realigning the world). |
Somerville, MA |
| BJEP, Inc. | Funding from the CJP Capacity Building Grant will formalize the Learning Lab by providing advisory, mentorship, and professional development for our leaders, and will embed stronger marketing and recruiting capability to expand our reach to new families. | Waltham, MA |
| Brookline IL Peretz School of the Workmens Circle Inc. dba Boston Workers Circle | Despite the challenges of the pandemic, this period has been one of growth for BWC. To support the growth of these targeted groups and support ongoing community health and safety across generations, this grant will be used to build capacity to offer virtual and hybrid programming. | Brookline, MA |
| Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury Valley | The MetroWest Leyl Shavuot collaboration is a pluralistic, joyful celebration of receiving Torah in every generation, engaging the MetroWest Jewish community beyond what any one institution can do alone. This Celebration allows the MetroWest Jewish community to come together for one communal holiday, Erev Shavuot, as one large community beyond our individual congregations that are spread out across the region and builds connections and a sense of cohesiveness in the MetroWest Jewish community. | Sudbury, MA |
| Congregation Klal Yisrael | This grant would help fund our “Tikvah Teens” organization that is now again thriving after a two-year hiatus. This successful program keeps a large percentage of our teens engaged with a mixture of social/team building events, including events to provide service to the temple and to the local community at large. | Sharon, MA |
| CONGREGTION SHA'ARAY SHALOM | Simchat Shalom – Reimagining and Celebrating our community. A series of events throughout the 2021-2022 year to help Congregation Sha’aray Shalom rebuild our community after the devastating impact from the ongoing pandemic, sustain our community through coming together in appropriate and safe ways, and look ahead as we prepare to transition to the future with new leadership. |
Hingham, MA |
| Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Inc. | While pursuing justice and equity, JALSA recognizes that a critical piece of our mission must ensure that our multigenerational network of volunteers, members, and leaders reflects the diversity of identities and experiences present within the broader Jewish community. We must create space for and center the voices of Jews of Color (JoC), who are estimated to make up to 12-15% of the American Jewish community and who have historically faced numerous barriers to equitable inclusion and leadership – including within those spaces dedicated to Jewish social justice activism. Consequently, we have committed ourselves to addressing these disparities through a series of initiatives that will intentionally seek out the involvement, highlight the unique voices, and actively support emergent leadership of JoC in the Jewish social justice field. We believe that this commitment to ensuring an equitable seat at the table for JoC in Jewish social justice work is essential to building an explicit antiracist ethic within Jewish communities and nourishing the strength and diversity of our Jewish people. | Boston, MA |
| Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Paula Brody & Family Education Center, Inc. | With support from CJP, Mayyim Hayyim will double its current capacity to welcome members of the community by training a new group of 20-30 volunteer Mikveh Guides in Boston. | Newton, MA |
| Salem State University (SSU) Foundation, Inc. | Documenting the Russian-Speaking Jewish Community in the North Shore Project Summary: The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) plans to research and curate a three-part exhibit focusing on the history of the Russian-speaking Jewish community in the North Shore. It is thus more important than ever to document this community before the older generation passes away and their stories disappear with them. |
Salem, MA |
| Temple Hillel B'nai Torah | The CJP grant will cover the cost of a part-time Inclusion Coordinator who will work with the education team and religious school teachers to oversee inclusion and support of students with special needs in the Chaverim religious school, including assisting throughout the b’nai mitzvah process. The Inclusion Coordinator will collaborate with students, teachers, and parents to better meet the needs of students (and teachers) with disabilities in the religious school, as well as supporting children with special needs during Shabbat and other religious services. | West Roxbury, MA |
| Temple Tiferet Shalom of the North Shore, Inc. | Temple Tiferet Shalom Preschool, operating under Temple Tiferet Shalom of the North Shore Inc., will offer a two-week Jewish Day Camp for preschoolers/young children ages 3-6. We hope that with this camp offering, we will be able to enhance the Jewish programming provided through the preschool/temple, which will in turn preserve and grow our community of families at the temple and beyond. | Peabody, MA |
| The Boston Synagogue | This grant will help support community building and engagement efforts to substantially broaden our scope, becoming a more central place/venue and platform (whether in-person or digital) that remixes and reimagines Jewish experiences, thought, ritual, and traditions for our times in our Downtown (DT) community. | Boston, MA |
| Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at New England Historic Genealogical Society | This grant will support a pilot oral history project capturing firsthand accounts of formerly Jewish immigrant communities in the Greater Boston area. The project will produce oral history interviews with narrators who are first- and second-generation members of Jewish families that immigrated to Boston in the early- to mid-20th century focusing initially on four communities — Dorchester, Roxbury, Chelsea, and Lynn. | Boston, MA |
| Yachad New England | An integral part of Yachad’s growth as a healthy organization lay in the initiation of a formalized lay leadership program. This grant will enable Yachad to hire a consultant to work with the Executive Director, national Yachad Institutional Advancement Director, and the Advisory Board to reimagine the governance structure and chart a new strategic direction for lay leaders. | Brookline, MA |