Jewish Community Foundation Announces Cutting Edge Grants to Fund Latino Programs

The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles (The Foundation) today announced it has awarded $1.6 million through its Cutting Edge Grants Initiative, including $400,000 earmarked specifically for two programs targeting Hispanics.

American Jewish Committee was awarded $150,000 for Esencia de Judaismo, a groundbreaking three-year program to train 500 Los Angeles-area Latino pastors about Judaism as a religion, culture and civilization. The program seeks to develop partnerships between the Jewish community and the pastors to facilitate communication, foster understanding and build relationships.

An award of $250,000 went to the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance for Jewish Student Leadership in a Diverse World, a program for Jewish high school and college youth that aims to build cross-cultural skills, reinforce Jewish values, and prepare students for living in a diverse world through a two-semester course that focuses on outreach to Los Angeles’ Latino communities.

The Cutting Edge Grants program—through which grant-seekers can receive a maximum of $250,000 over three years—is designed to launch innovative efforts that break new ground and positively impact the greater Los Angeles Jewish community. Created in 2006, this category of grants also provides funding for local replications of high-impact programs successfully implemented in other geographic markets.

“We were very impressed with the quality of this year’s applicants for our Cutting Edge Grants, which aim to inspire social entrepreneurs and creative thinkers to explore fresh approaches to societal problems and to enriching our community,” said Marvin I. Schotland, The Foundation’s president and chief executive officer. “In particular, the importance of achieving greater linkage and cross-cultural understanding between Jewish and Latino constituencies cannot be overstated in a city like Los Angeles. Establishing dialogue and dispelling misconceptions is central to building communities. There’s very exciting work currently being conducted, and we applaud these and other efforts.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC), the nation’s oldest human relations organization, traditionally reaches out to other religious and ethnic communities to advance mutual understanding. AJC’s Esencia de Judaismo course, taught by AJC scholars and rabbis from Latino-Jewish communities in North and Central America, will serve as a model for engagement with the Latino religious community.

“Latino Pentecostals are the fastest-growing religious group within the Hispanic community, and have emerged as a major force in the religious and political landscape,” said AJC Los Angeles Executive Director Seth Brysk. “The Jewish Community Foundation grant astutely recognizes this trend. Its invaluable support will substantially amplify the efficacy and impact of our program, far exceeding the dollar value of the award. AJC is grateful for the Jewish Community Foundation’s partnership and support.”

The Jewish Student Leadership initiative represents a new model for engaging youth in social understanding. Implemented by the Simon Wiesenthal Center—an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to preserving the lessons of the Holocaust and fostering tolerance in today’s world—the effort will focus on cross-cultural competency and facilitation skills training for Jewish and Latino youth. Formal coursework will conclude with a special outreach project centered in the Latino community.

According to Rabbi Meyer H. May, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s executive director, “The grant allows the [Wiesenthal Center’s] Museum of Tolerance to develop outreach and communication strategies targeting relationship-building between Jewish and Latino youth. We are looking to this program to serve as the incubator for long term and sustained activity well beyond the period of the grant.”

Other Cutting Edge Grant recipients include:

• The Jewish Artists Initiative (JAI): The Quest for Transformational Jewish Art. By expanding the scope of artistic dialogue to include communal, institutional and civic leadership, JAI aims to reinforce Jewish identity and continuity, and foster a strong connection with Israel. The program builds on activities of the Tel Aviv-Los Angeles Partnership, enriching opportunities for cross cultural exchange of artists-in-residence; $250,000.
• JDub Music, Inc., JDub-Los Angeles initiative. Organization will hire staff and produce several local musical events designed to provide opportunities for young Jews to engage with Jewish culture and one another through music; $250,000.
• Vista Del Mar: Nes Gadol (Hebrew for Great Miracle) A community-wide implementation of an expressive arts therapy based bar and bat mitzvah preparation program for children with special needs, including autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and other conditions; $250,000.
• Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles: NextGen Engagement Initiative (NEI). NEI engages young adults with a range of opportunities to connect to the greater Jewish community and their own Jewish identities. The program will partner with and strengthen existing NextGen organizations, and encourage new ones. Plans include launch of a Web portal geared toward the NextGen population; $250,000.

• 30 Years After: The Iranian-Jewish Community at a Crossroads. A new program established by young professionals to increase the participation of Iranian Jews in civic and political affairs and in the Jewish community, including quarterly events, voter registration drives and mentoring activities; $200,000.

About The Foundation

Established in 1954, the Jewish Community Foundation is the largest manager of charitable assets and the leader in planned giving solutions for Greater Los Angeles Jewish philanthropists. The Foundation currently manages assets of nearly $800 million and ranks among the ten largest Los Angeles foundations (based on assets). In 2007, The Foundation and its 1,200-plus donors distributed $78 million in grants to more than 1,850 organizations with programs that span the range of philanthropic giving. For more information, please visit www.jewishfoundationla.org.

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