Locally-focused Jewish Life and Learning grants total $833,300
Early childhood education received the largest grants from the Helen Bader Foundation’s Jewish Life and Learning program recently, with the Mequon Jewish Preschool receiving a five-year, $250,000 grant to increase staff and strengthen its programming.
That was one of 22 grants totaling $833,300 in that program area. Total grants, including local, national and international recipients, exceed $5 million.
According to Tobey Libber, program officer for Jewish Life and Learning at the foundation, “It was the board [of director]’s feeling that Jewish preschool education serves as an important factor in whether an individual and a family will be involved Jewishly as children grow up.”
Though Jewish Life and Learning grants “focus primarily on the Milwaukee area,” he said, in rare cases, the foundation will allocate funds to national efforts that will likely eventually benefit the Milwaukee area.
This was the case in the board’s decision to give the Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative, located in New York, a three-year $150,000 grant to develop a process “to transform Jewish preschools throughout North America into centers of Jewish educational excellence,” according to a release from the foundation.
In addition, the Children’s Lubavitch Living and Learning Center, Inc., another local early childhood education institution, will receive a $7,500 grant to upgrade its computer network.
Another focus of the board, according to Libber, was on organizations in the area of Jewish outreach.
Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center — Two grants totaling $50,000: a two-year, $30,000 grant to provide outreach services to interfaith families; and a two-year, $20,000 grant to enhance its public space Judaic programming for the marginally-involved or unaffiliated.
The School District of Shorewood received $20,000 for its International Cultural Club, an educational vehicle for Russian and other immigrant students.
This program is different than in the past, Libber said, because where the focus used to be on how to help Jewish students from the former Soviet Union “become more American,” the club “will showcase the culture and history of the Russian Jewish community,” and “help Americans understand Russians.”
Libber also noted a “really interesting project” taking place at Congregation Beth Jehudah. The congregation received a $20,000 grant to develop an after-school music, choir and instrument instruction program for youth.
Though the project will start on the west side of Milwaukee, Libber said eventually the program “will be made available to Jews across the city.”
Eventually the program will spread to include art appreciation as well. Libber called the new program a “very exciting opportunity for Jews to experience arts of all kinds.”
Other local grants include:
• Yeshiva Elementary School of Milwaukee — Two grants totaling $63,500: a three-year, $51,000 grant to hire a part-time counselor to help students; and a three-year, $12,500 grant to upgrade its computer network.
• Milwaukee Jewish Federation — Two grants totaling $57,300: a $50,000 grant for the Annual Community Campaign in support of social and religious services in Milwaukee and overseas; and $7,300 to help the federation’s education program, the Coalition for Jewish Learning, explore ways to create and market educational Jewish materials through its Creativity Center program.
• Jewish Family Services received a two-year $50,000 grant for an education and training initiative for staff of Jewish agencies, synagogues, schools and youth groups to recognize and address mental health issues in greater Milwaukee.
• Hillel Academy — $40,000 to continue its curriculum coordinator position.
• Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations — Two-year, $35,000 grant to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Nostre Aetat, a Vatican II document that established a new era in Catholic-Jewish relations.
• Milwaukee Kollel-Center for Jewish Studies — $22,500 to add staff to expand community-wide Judaic programs that address issues facing Jewish women.
• Jewish Youth Foundation, Inc. — $15,000 to purchase mobile equipment for its annual summer camp.
• Lake Park Synagogue — $10,000 to host a two-day conference in Milwaukee for professional and lay leadership of small Orthodox synagogues.
• Foundation for Documentary Projects (Los Angeles) — $10,000 to produce a film on the efforts to free Soviet Jews and to help Milwaukee-area schools and institutions use the film as a teaching tool.
• Tikkun Ha-Ir — $10,000 to conduct a strategic planning process as the organization enters its fifth year of programming.
• The Wisconsin Institute of Torah Study — $7,500 to develop a video and brochure as recruitment and development tools.
• Milwaukee Jewish Day School — $5,000 for board training.
Grants in other areas include:
• Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia grants — 11 grants, primarily local, totaling $800,000.
• Early childhood development in Israel — 24 grants totaling $1,260,000.
• Economic development — 14 grants totaling $1,010,000.
• Sankofa-Youth Development — 26 grants totaling $322,000.
• Three grants totaling $50,276 for Homework First, an educational enrichment program in 42 Milwaukee Public Schools.
• Community Initiatives — eight grants totaling $570,000.
• Nine directed grants totaling $183,100 were awarded for programs of interest to members of the Bader family.
The foundation has awarded more than $129 million since it was established in 1992.
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