By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
It could be that the best way to a kid’s Jewish identity is through his print-making supplies at the Seattle Hebrew Academy. Or the best place to send a child to learn about Judaism is at Bet Alef Meditational Synagogue’s new B’Yachad Hebrew school. Or the best way to provide direct, instant hunger relief to a homeless person is by giving away a sandwich made by the Mitzvah Team at the Jewish Day School.
If there’s anything that can be said about the disbursements made to local Jewish organizations from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Small and Simple Grants program, it’s this: The projects that got funded came from “the ideas that [were] the best of the bunch that seemed to rise to the top,” said Dan Lowen, chair of the Federation’s Special Initiatives Fund.
The Federation’s Special Initiatives Fund came up with Small and Simple to fund projects costing $5,000 or less that don’t rise to the funding level or long-term goals of an annual campaign allocation. This year the Federation gave out a record $68,000, and what’s interesting about this year’s 21 grants is how interesting they are.
“We’re trying to provide those small seed fund for projects that are otherwise unproven and untested for agencies to be able to try something new and different,” Lowen said.
The Stroum Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington, for example, received $5,000 to launch its JewDub Talks, a series of short online videos similar to the popular TED Talks, featuring experts who give brief educational talks on their areas of knowledge.
“Our goal is to assemble UW faculty members and Jewish Studies faculty to present short but important talks that address issues that would be relevant to our members of the community,” said Jewish Studies Program chair Noam Pianko.
To generate community interest, Jewish studies programs at most universities use the standard model of lectures followed by a question-and-answer session.
“This is another format, and so I think it’s a new way of thinking about how Jewish Studies can contribute to the broader conversation about issues related to Jewish life,” Pianko said.
In addition, he said, by having these videos accessible to students, it can be a good recruitment tool for the program.
“These are great kinds of talks that we can share with students on Facebook and on our website, and students will recognize faculty and hopefully get engaged in a topic,” Pianko said.
The videos will be viewable on the program’s new Jewdub blog site, which will go live early next year.
If there’s one place where Sam Perlin, director of Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, felt his camp needed improvement, it was in the arts. That’s why he’s excited about the $3,750 the camp received to build an artist-in-residence program.
“It’s going to be a vehicle that’s going to kick-start a new direction that Schechter’s going to go, in that we are going to be more focused on the arts,” Perlin said. “I’m excited about the product that I’ll be able to put out there.”
This pilot year will bring in five artists from the Puget Sound region that will focus mainly on visual arts — in particular pottery, since the camp recently installed a kiln. Camp staff is looking at the possibility of including drama and performance as well.
“Hopefully some training occurs, not only to my campers, but to my staff, so we can keep it going in subsequent years,” Perlin said.
After camp, after college, and into the wider world, many Jews leave behind their Jewish identity. But as they choose a mate, they may reassess that decision, yet have no idea how to find a way back into Jewish life. That’s where the $3,480 to Temple De Hirsch Sinai for its JLife program comes in.
“We recognize that we do a great job about teaching lifecycle events: The wedding, the baby naming, the b’rit milah — in sixth and seventh grade,” said Rabbi Aaron Meyer of TDHS. But, he added, that’s the last place you want to be learning about weddings, the baby namings, and b’rit milah.
So come summer, Meyer and Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg of Temple B’nai Torah will teach four classes, two on the wedding traditions and two on the birth traditions.
“We’re really trying to hold these outside of traditional venues, in a place that there is no barrier to entry, whether it’s the local Starbucks or some exciting place in both Seattle and Bellevue,” Meyer said.
The money will be used in part to find non-conventional means to get the word out, since posting a notice in a synagogue bulletin is obviously not going to reach their target market.
“We’re not shooting for any one congregation, or affiliated or non-affiliated,” he said. “We’re really just going for whomever this information might be practical at this time of their lives.”
These agencies received grants as well:
| Hazon, a national environmental organization that will launch its cross-country bicycle ride in Seattle next September, received $5,000 for a one-day “pre-ride” that shows off the city on two wheels.
| The AJC Seattle Jewish Film Festival received $2,000 to continue its expansion to show a handful of films year-round beyond its traditional 10 days in spring.
| $2,500 for an afterschool program at the Stroum Jewish Community Center will engage kids in learning musical instruments and songwriting, in a Jewish context.
| The Washington State Jewish Historical Society received $4,700 to fund a researcher for “Instant Replay: Featuring Washington State Jews in Sports.”
| The Drash: Northwest Mosaic annual literary journal received $1,000 to expand its readings by Jewish poets and writers to all over the state.
| Temple Beth El received $5,000 to engage a “strengths-based” planning consultant to assist the Tacoma synagogue’s strategic planning committee.
| BBYO received $1,000 to help bring Jewish middle schoolers from North Seattle and Kitsap County to local youth group events.
| Also on the Kitsap Peninsula, Congregation Beth Hatikvah received $3,460 to enhance its religious school.
| The Friendship Circle received $5,000 for its B’nai Mitzvah program to help 6th and 7th graders volunteer within their communities.
| Hillel at the University of Washington will expand its Passover offerings with $1,500 to celebrate the Sephardic/North African Maimouna festival.
| Jewish Family Service will expand its Family Life Education with $3,000 for online offerings for people unable to come to events or sessions.
| The Kavana Cooperative’s Holiday Prep and Practice series received $3,100 to teach adults about holiday ritual.
| The Torah Day School of Seattle received $4,980 to launch a physical education program.
| The Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, in conjunction with Temple De Hirsch Sinai, received $3,530 to teach age-appropriate courses on the Holocaust for 6th graders.
| The Northwest Yeshiva High School received $5,000 for its production of Life in a Jar, a play about Irene Sandler, who saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto.