For the first time, the grants committee of the Jewish Community Foundation, the endowment development program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, has approved grants for Israel-related programs and projects at its meeting Sept. 12.
Seven grants, totaling $60,893 were awarded for these programs, while local agencies received $87,993 in grants.
“This is a win-win process,” said Louise Stein, chairman of the JCF grants committee. “We feel support of our local community as well as the Jewish community at large is our way of directly connecting to all Jews. A number of the grants will strengthen linkages with our Partnership 2000 Region in Israel. In these especially troubling times, it’s fitting and appropriate for this community to continue supporting the Jewish people here and in Israel.”
Stein credited Jerry Benjamin for doing the research to find worthwhile projects and programs to fund and for “ensuring accountability in Israel.”
Benjamin, chair of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel & Overseas Committee, said, “Through Partnership 2000, our community has enjoyed an increasingly strong partnership with the people in the Sovev Kinneret region in Israel.
“Since the dark days of the intifada, the average Israeli has had to deal with his own sense of isolation. I feel these grants speak loud and clear that we are not just partners in good times, but at all times.”
He added, “I know every penny in Israel will be well spent. I’m very pleased with the grants process and think Milwaukee donors should be proud.”
P2K, a joint effort of the North American federation system and the Jewish Agency for Israel, pairs North American cities with regions in Israel.
Milwaukee (together with Minneapolis, St. Paul and Tulsa) is paired with the Sovev Kinneret region, encompassing the Jordan Valley, Lower Galilee, Tiberias and five smaller communities around Lake Kinneret. In Milwaukee, P2K efforts are coordinated by the federation and receive support from the annual Community Campaign.
The seven grants for Israel-related projects are:
• ACHVA — $10,000 for Student Collaboration Kadoori/Dier Hanna Partnership, a pilot program that aims to increase contact between Arab and Jewish teenagers. Students from the regional Kadoori High School will partner with Dier Hanna High School students to promote understanding through reciprocal visits, common education, programs and trips.
• Jordan Valley College — $7,500 for Highlearn/web-based distant learning program. The Jordan Valley College was established in 1965 to provide advanced studies for the peripheral communities of the Jordan Valley and now offers courses under the auspices of Bar Ilan University. This project is designed to meet the needs of students who wish to maintain their studies when, owing to various reasons (most commonly military reserve service), they are not able to attend classes. The project will also help to develop a dialogue between learning communities in Israel and abroad.
• Society for the Aged/Tiberias — $5,573 for a contact center for the 100 elderly without families in Tiberias. The center will operate during the morning hours to make contact with some 20 elderly people per day, reaching 100 per week.
• Poriya Medical Center — $12,000 for ACLS Training System. Poriya Hospital serves a population of 100,000 from Tiberias and the surrounding area. An advanced training system for treatment of emergency and trauma patients will be purchased that includes an interactive manikin for simulated procedures such as CPR.
• Israel Center — Engliyada — $1,500 for expenses related to sending English teachers to the absorption center in Tiberias.
• Coalition for Jewish Learning — $4,320 for the Education Bridge coordinator, who will be responsible for some 18 projects that partner Milwaukee Jewish day schools and supplemental synagogue schools with their peers in Israel as part of the P2K Education Bridge program.
• Milwaukee P2K Committee — $20,000 for local expenses for hosting Israeli guests and subsidies to Milwaukee participants.
The following grants were awarded to local agencies:
• Yeshiva Elementary School — $6,000 for Reading Enrichment Program to provide classroom books and resource room books.
• Milwaukee Jewish Day School — $11,642 for lunchroom tables to be used by students from MJDS and Hillel Academy.
• Hillel Academy — $4,000 for technology support.
• Children’s Lubavitch Living and Learning Center — $2,850 for tables for Jewish Family Education Enhancement programming.
• Torah Academy of Milwaukee — $1,951 for video cameras and monitors for building security.
• Coalition for Jewish Learning (CJL) — $2,750 for Jewish Awareness Through Music, a program presented by Samuel Thomas, a 25-year-old musician who uses music to inspire a love of Judaism in youth.
• Coalition for Jewish Learning and Israel Center — $14,000 for Maintaining Linkages with Israel During Troubled Times and Beyond. CJL and the Israel Center will purchase video conferencing equipment to forge links with schools in the P2K region and Israel-based educational and cultural sources.
• Israel Center — $4,500 for Israel Center Fall 2002, to support the annual Concert B’Gan.
• Jewish Family Services – $10,500 for Golda Meir House to provide social services.
• Jewish Family Services — $4,300 for Kosher Mobile Meals Coordinator. The Kosher Mobile Meal Program is designed to be part of a continuum of services that allows seniors to remain in their own homes.
• B’nai B’rith Youth Organization — $5,000 for a part-time worker to help Teen Connection, AZA athletics and leadershop overnights.
• B’nai B’rith Youth Organization — $1,500 for a scholar-in-residence to speak at its two annual conventions.
• Hillel Foundation-Milwaukee — $2,500 for office infrastructure upgrade, including printers, website and desktop publishing.
• Hillel Foundation-Milwaukee — $3,000 for Jewish culture fairs. The group plans to add a ‘Lunch and Learn’ component to the Jewish culture fairs put on at local universities and colleges. These will give the events more substance and provide for more meaningful interaction with students.
• University of Wisconsin Hillel (Madison) – $2,500 for a video projector to create a video projection and multi-media projection space.
• Jewish Chaplaincy Program — $11,000 for its Special Needs Holiday Program, a collaboration with Milwaukee’s synagogues and Jewish Family Services. Eight annual programs welcome participants from skilled nursing and assisted living, as well as group and individual homes.
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