By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
The Avi Chai Foundation has announced that Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum, founder and executive director of the Kavana Cooperative, is one of five winners of its 2009 Avi Chai Fellowships. Fellows will receive grants of $75,000 each year for the next three years to be used for the fulfillment of specific projects within their respective organizations.
According to Nussbaum, Kavana will use its grants primarily to expand its Hebrew language programs for Kavana youngsters.
Currently, Kavana is home to a Hebrew immersion playgroup for children ages 0-3 years old, which meets once a week, as well as an afterschool Hebrew class for older kids. In the fall, Kavana will welcome its first class to its own Hebrew immersion preschool, with help from the Avi Chai grants.
“It was a real a surprise, and a very fortunate one,” Nussbaum said of winning the Avi Chai Fellowship. “This is a good time to feel like money is falling from the sky.”
Nussbaum said she had no idea she was even in the running for the fellowship until two months ago, when she received a call from a foundation representative saying she was a finalist and asking if she would be able to come to New York for an interview.
“I didn’t know about it at all,” she said. “That’s one of the things that’s quirky about it. They’re very into secrecy.”
According to a press release by the Avi Chai Foundation, the five winning fellows were selected out of an initial pool of 43 nominees. The awards were given to individuals whose organizations were seen to be actively furthering the Avi Chai Foundation’s goals of “fostering high levels of Jewish literacy; deepening religious purposefulness and promoting Jewish peoplehood; and deeper connections to the state of Israel.”
Other 2009 fellowship recipients include Dr. Erica Brown, director for adult education at the Partnership for Jewish Life in New York; David Cygielman, executive director of Moishe House, which helps finance Jewish communal homes in various cities around the country, including Seattle; Aliza Kline, founding executive director of Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and the Paula Brody & Family Education Center in Newton, Massachusetts; and Daniel Libenson, executive director of the Newberger Hillel Center at the University of Chicago.
In addition to expanding Kavana’s Hebrew language programs, Nussbaum added that some of the grant money may go toward creating multiple “neighborhood pods” that would be convenient for Kavana participants living throughout Seattle.
Kavana is currently based in the Queen Anne neighborhood, with much of its programming taking place at the Queen Anne Christian Church.
“As the community grows, we are looking into doing programming in other neighborhoods as well,” Nussbaum said.
Nussbaum added that she does not yet know which neighborhoods Kavana would choose to expand into, however.
Currently, Kavana has 60 partner households, as well as an additional 100-150 families who aren’t members, but still participate in Kavana programs from time to time.
“We’ve grown pretty quickly,” Nussbaum said.
The Kavana model, whereby lay members, or “partners,” share in the task of leading and organizing community events, has also piqued the interest of Jewish leaders outside of the Seattle area. Nussbaum noted that part of the grant money may be put toward creating a written guide that could serve as a model for other communities looking to replicate Kavana’s cooperative format.
In addition to receiving the Avi Chai Fellowship, Kavana was also recently recognized by Newsweek magazine as one of “America’s 25 Most Vibrant Congregations.” This is not the first time Kavana has gained kudos from Newsweek. Last year, the publication named Nussbaum in their “Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis” list.
What is it about the Kavana Cooperative that garners so much outside attention? Nussbaum claimed she could only speculate on that matter, but her guess is that it has to do with the uniqueness of Kavana’s cooperative structure.
“We’re offering a really different model where we’re actually asking anyone who is involved to take an active role,” she said. “It’s a more participatory and empowering approach. I think there’s a groundswell of this sort of thing happening across country, not just in the Jewish world.”