“Given that humans are hard-wired to respond reflexively to certain kinds of difference with fear, and given that human psychology is unlikely to change anytime soon, what can we do as citizens, teachers, parents, community leaders, board members, rabbis, trustees, and dialogue partners to turn sites of anti-social fear and confrontation into sites of pro-social encounter and conversation?”

“Without fundamental changes, the institutions that shape American Jewish life will not only fail to thrive – they may close their doors entirely. The future of Jewish life in America depends on our ability to confront the weakness of our system honestly and to invest in and incentivize organizational change in whatever ways we can.”

Related Grantee: SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations

“Jewish camps are one of the most effective ways of connecting kids to their Jewish heritage and Jewish identity,” Fingerman said. “So we had to find a way to get these camps reopened [in 2021] because camp shapes the community of today and it’s the glue that keeps it together tomorrow.”

Related Grantee: Foundation for Jewish Camp

“JERUSALEM — For years, ultra-Orthodox Jewish women in Israel have been on the leading edge of change inside their traditional, highly insular communities.

But they have recently been opening a new frontier, taking their quiet revolution to a nondescript building in a Jerusalem industrial area where, as students at an offshoot branch of a prominent art school, they are encountering both the secular world and fine arts in new ways.”

Related Grantee: Haredi Branch, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design

“We can no longer rely on silver-bullet trips to Auschwitz or Tel Aviv to emotionally shock people into feeling Jewish. For a culture to thrive, people need to truly know what that culture encompasses. To feel part of a historical continuum, people need to learn that history. To find comfort in rituals (regularly and at life’s key moments), people need to understand the ritual. To be guided by wisdom in ancient sources, people need to be able to navigate their structure and content beyond a handful of cherry-picked quotes. This requires sustained engagement with meaningful Jewish content.”

Related Grantee: SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations

“What would it look like for employees’ vacation days used in service of the Jewish communal good to be matched by their employers? In other words, employees choosing to devote their time off to summer camps, social services, staffing Israel trips (someday!), social services or similar work would effectively contribute half of the allotted paid time off (PTO), while their employers would match those days with additional PTO.”

“Twenty years ago, political identity did not demarcate our intellectual or social horizons. Today, however, in contrast to the Talmudic ideal of nurturing an intellectual world wider than one’s practice, our intellectual world has shrunk to fit the narrower dimensions of policy and practice. The books we read, the lectures we hear, and the videos we watch are all produced by people in our own camp. In short, we have sunk into an anti-Talmudic world.”

April 1, 2022 – The Digital Storytellers Lab of the Jewish Writers’ Initiative has formally opened the application process for digital media creators to join an eight-month fellowship to kickstart the development of digital audio/visual media exploring Jewish themes. A project of Maimonides Fund, The Lab empowers creators to tell Jewish stories in innovative, digital-first ways. Fellows will receive a generous stipend, mentorship, and technical and subject-matter expertise to support the development of their projects. Applications are due June 1, 2022.

The Lab will empower US-based digital artists, including social media creators, short-form screenwriters and podcast visionaries, to develop projects that explore Jewish culture, values, spirituality, or history on digital media platforms like Youtube, Instagram Reels, TikTok, Webtoon, and podcast networks. Proposals for animation, audio-only, live action, and mixed media projects are welcome.

The Digital Storytellers Lab will also offer artists opportunities to consult with experts on their projects’ unique subject matter. Utilizing first-hand sources, historians, Jewish educators and academics will help writers realize dynamic and authentic stories.

“We are excited to support a new cohort of storytellers in developing compelling and substantive Jewish stories for online audiences,” said Maimonides Fund President Mark Charendoff. “As new digital media platforms proliferate, we want to support creators in using these spaces to share content that reflects the rich heritage and dynamism of the Jewish people – our shared history, texts, and values as well as the diverse traditions, perspectives, and experiences we each bring to the tent.”

The Lab will select up to twelve storytellers for the first fellowship cohort. Each participant will work with program staff and mentors to create an individualized plan for project development. Writers will each receive a stipend of $20,000 to support them throughout the development of their creative venture.

The program is being directed by BimBam creator Sarah Lefton and arts educator Janine Okmin. It is guided by an Advisory Board including Rabbi David Wolpe, producer Jonathan Rubenstein, media acquisitions expert Jennifer Monier-Williams, Tippett Studios’ Corey Rosen, Sundance’s Director of Content Liz Nord, Sesame Workshop’s Senior Producer of International Social Impact Estee Bardanashvili, Emmy-winning writer Jay Bushman, and Jewish literature professor and author Jeremy Dauber of Columbia University.

“The digital creator world is huge and growing – it’s a new avocation for so many talented people telling so many essential stories. There’s a huge amount of support for creators out there on the platforms – Youtube, TikTok, podcasts and so on – and in different niche communities. We are proud to be nurturing creators with Jewish stories to tell across all these platforms,” said Creative Director Sarah Lefton.

Applications to the Jewish Writers’ Initiative Digital Storytellers Lab can be submitted here:
https://www.jwinitiative.com/digitalstorytellers

About The Jewish Writers’ Initiative:
The Jewish Writers’ Initiative was founded in 2019 by Maimonides Fund and Crystal City
Entertainment as a year-long fellowship supporting the development of film and television
scripts that tell diverse Jewish stories, with the ultimate goal of launching these projects into
the mainstream media marketplace. With the Digital Storytellers Lab, the Initiative expands its
reach to digital media platforms, bringing innovative Jewish stories to new audiences in new
ways.

About Maimonides Fund:
Maimonides Fund is a private grantmaking organization that funds in North America and Israel.
The Fund is passionate about supporting projects that help the Jewish people grasp their
common past and play a role in shaping their shared future.

“Jews have a long and rich history in Ukraine going back more than a millennium. It was once one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities, and has had a major influence on the development of Ashkenazi Jewish culture. But Ukraine is also the site of some of the most brutal scenes of anti-Jewish violence in history.

This email series will guide you through this complicated history and the ways it sheds light on the battles unfolding in the present.”

Related Grantee: My Jewish Learning

Rabbi David Wolpe Will Serve as Senior Advisor

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(June 15, 2022) Maimonides Fund, a private grantmaking organization that funds in North America and Israel, today announced a new strategic program area focused on Viewpoint Diversity in Jewish communal spaces. Rabbi David Wolpe will serve as Senior Advisor to the Viewpoint Diversity portfolio, which will include grantmaking and operating initiatives.

“The Jewish community is and always has been strengthened by a multiplicity of views,” said Maimonides Fund president Mark Charendoff. “Yet trends in American society are sadly finding an echo in the Jewish community. It has become safer to avoid debate than engage in it.” The new Viewpoint Diversity portfolio will encourage Jewish communal organizations and leadership to create forums for sharing differing perspectives in open and respectful dialogue with each other.

Starting in mid-June as Senior Advisor, Viewpoint Diversity, Rabbi Wolpe will provide general counsel to Maimonides Fund program staff in this area, serve as a thought leader on the intersection of viewpoint diversity and Jewish wisdom, and facilitate periodic discussions and convenings on this topic and related themes. He will continue serving in his current position as Max Webb Senior Rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.

“I am excited to join Maimonides Fund in this important work,” said Rabbi Wolpe. “As the world gets ever more polarized, it is incumbent upon us as Jews to channel the spirit of Talmudic debate and not shy away from hearing views that differ from and challenge our own thinking.”

Considered one of the “most influential Jews in the world” by The Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Wolpe and his writing have been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and others. He appears regularly on television news, public affairs and documentary programming and has engaged in public debates about religion with prominent atheists including Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker. Rabbi Wolpe is the author of eight books, including the national bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times and the National Jewish Book Award finalist David, the Divided Heart. He writes weekly Torah columns for The Jerusalem Post and the NY Jewish Week.

“As a longtime congregational rabbi, and a prolific author and speaker, Rabbi Wolpe brings to bear decades of experience sharing Torah and Jewish ideas with a wide and diverse swath of Jews and non-Jews alike,” said Maimonides Fund Senior Program Officer Ariella Saperstein, who will oversee this portfolio. “And, crucial to our efforts in this area, in his public debates he has modeled respectful, civil discourse even on divisive topics. We are very fortunate to have him leading this work.”

For more on Maimonides Fund’s portfolio areas, visit www.maimonidesfund.org.

“Unlike every nation of antiquity that lived by our side, we did not disappear when our national sovereignty was dissolved. … But at no time was separation from the Land of Israel considered permanent. . . .At no time did the rabbis sever Torah from Israel, or God from the people. At no time was tikkun olam — the universal demand to do what is just and right — ripped from the moorings of klal yisrael — the centrality of Jewish peoplehood. It was never one or the other. One without the other diminished both. It was all part of a unified whole.”

Related Grantee: SAPIR: A Journal of Jewish Conversations

“When antisemitic conspiracy theories flooded Spanish-language media in Florida ahead of the 2020 U.S. election, some mainstream news outlets joined in amplifying them — then apologized for doing so.

A new effort initiated by Fuente Latina, a pro-Israel Spanish-language media group launched in 2012, aims to combat those ideas and prevent them from seeping into community discourse.”

Related Grantee: Fuente Latina