The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life typically focuses on large-scale initiatives designed to revitalize the infrastructure of American Jewish life. JLN is an operating foundation, and thus we cannot accept unsolicited proposals.

Following is an overview of select programs supported by our Foundation. To learn more about a particular program, please click on its name.

Selected
ongoing
Sponsorships

birthright israel

B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO)

The Curriculum Initiative

The Foundation for Jewish Camping

The Grinspoon/Steinhardt Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education

Hillel Jewish Campus Service Corps

Hillel Rejewvenation

Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania

Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative (JECEI)

Jewish Heritage Programs

MyJewishLearning.com

Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE)

Professional Leaders Project

Spark: Partnership for Service

STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal)

Steinhardt Jewish Heritage Festival at BAM

The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University

Steinhardt Social Research Institute

Selected
Past
Sponsorships

The Abraham Joshua Heschel High School

AVODAH

Jewish Funders Network

New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival

Kivunim: Israel Summer Institute for Teachers in Jewish Day Schools

Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y

In 1999, in an effort to enhance Jewish identity and to restore the centrality of Israel to the lives of young Diaspora Jews, Michael H. Steinhardt joined several other philanthropists in creating birthright israel, the revolutionary program to enable every young Jewish person between the ages of 18 to 26 to have a living and learning experience in Israel. Birthright israel makes a profound affirmation of the unity of clal yisrael by establishing, for the first time in history, a birthright for every Jew in the world of a free round-trip ticket and ten days of intensive Jewish educational experiences in Israel.

Our goal is to change the framework of Jewish life so that travel and study in Israel ranks with the Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a universal life-passage experience for non-Orthodox Jews. Thus far, the response has been overwhelming. Over 48,000 young adults have traveled to Israel for the first time on birthright israel trips. The program has helped add a new dimension to the Diaspora experience by making a trip to Israel one of the transformative milestones of modern Jewish identity. Birthright israel trips spark a passion for Jewish life and Jewish education while strengthening the sense of solidarity between Israeli youth and Jewish communities around the world.

Birthright israel reflects the ethic of partnerships that drives the philanthropy of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life. The program was created by leading Jewish philanthropists, the government of Israel and the Federations of Jewish communities worldwide. Birthright Israel embodies an additional, cosmic partnership: the much-needed alliance between the State of Israel and the Diaspora. It affirms the essential Jewish teaching that all Jews are bound to one another. This is why an essential element of each birthright israel trip is the mifgashim between Diaspora Jews and their Israeli counterparts. Only through personal relationships can we reinforce the interconnectedness and mutual responsibility inherent in the concept of clal yisrael.

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life understands that the birthright israel experience should not end when the trip is over. Indeed, the program holds enormous potential to catalyze a lifetime of Jewish involvement and enrichment. The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life is involved in the creation of a continuum in which the trip itself is part of a broad, comprehensive framework of Jewish identity formation. We are chairing the committee that oversees post-trip programming for birthright israel alumni, including the birthright israel alumni association and the birthright Professionals program.

www.birthrightisrael.com

The period between Bar/Mat Mitzvah and college is sometimes described as a limbo of Jewish affiliation. Although each of the denominational movements supports youth programs, many Jewish teens do not identify themselves chiefly through a denominational lens. And yet, the teenage years represent an enormous opportunity for Jewish growth and enrichment. It is in high school that teenagers often make their first adult decisions and begin to carve out unique, independent identities that will shape their entire lives. On a practical level, without strong Jewish identification outlets during high school, it will be that much more difficult to engage young adults in college and beyond. Simply put, the teenage years are too precious to neglect.

Recognizing this, in 2001 Michael H. Steinhardt joined Lynn Schusterman along with Edgar Bronfman and Newton Becker to help strengthen the newly independent B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO) into the major international platform for engaging Jewish teens.

For eight decades, BBYO has sought to engage young Jews all over the world through educational, recreational and community service activities inspired by pluralism and youth empowerment. BBYO provides Jewish youth with the opportunities to develop their leadership potential, encourages service and Tzeddakah as salient Jewish values, and nurtures a commitment to the State of Israel and clal yisrael. In North America alone, 20,000 teens are currently involved in BBYO, where they enrich their knowledge and appreciation of Jewish religion and culture. BBYO youth participate in small, democratically functioning groups under the guidance of adult advisors and professional staff. BBYO has recently been restructured as an independent organization to guarantee its long-term ability to engage Jewish youth across North America and the world.

www.bbyo.org

In an effort to galvanize Jewish explorations and enrichment in all areas of American Jewish life, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life supports The Curriculum Initiative (TCI).

TCI supports teaching and learning about Judaism in independent schools. It is the only organization in the United States that helps high schools integrate Jewish perspectives and that supports Jewish life on their campuses. TCI’s programs are pluralistic, open, and accessible to all students.

TCI programs on Judaism focus on Jewish holidays and culture, and use a combination of creative activities and Jewish texts to make Judaism meaningful and relevant to students’ lives. TCI also provides schools with educators and curricula for character education. Its programs address real-life moral issues that schools face, including the ethics of language, relationships between teachers, students and parents, and the creation of a moral community. TCI Faculty members include professors, rabbis, graduate students, and teachers from renowned institutions across the country.

www.thecurriculum.org

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life recognizes the importance of summer camp, a quintessentially American institution, in shaping a lifelong attachment to Judaism. We support the Foundation for Jewish Camping (FJC), the central voice for non-profit Jewish overnight camps in North America.

The FJC provides a clearinghouse for information about Jewish camping, advocates for camp in the Jewish community, and provides financial and programmatic resources for camps without regard to denomination or sponsorship. As the only national organization dedicated solely to the Jewish camp movement, the FJC is the central address, advocacy voice and champion for more than 120 Jewish content camps, 50,000 campers and 12,000 counselors in North America.

The FJC is working to create new professional training for management and staff across the field of Jewish camping. It is also working to expand capacity within camps and to establish new camps throughout North America.

jewishcamping.org

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life understands that the scope and breadth of an American Jewish renaissance is inextricably linked to the quality of our educators. In an effort to celebrate excellence among teachers, Michael H. Steinhardt joined Harold Grinspoon when he created the annual Grinspoon Steinhardt Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education.

Designed to recognize, honor and support outstanding Jewish educators in day schools and other formal Jewish educational settings on the local level, the Grinspoon Steinhardt Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education have been presented to 139 professionals in 36 communities across the United States and Canada over the past four years.

The Grinspoon-Steinhardt Awards are a partnership of The Jewish Education Service of North America, The Harold Grinspoon Foundation and The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life.

www.grinspoonsteinhardt.org

Hillel’s Steinhardt Jewish Campus Service Corps was developed to create a culture of awareness and action in the effort to connect under-affiliated Jewish students to Jewish life on their campuses. As recent college graduates, JCSC fellows spend 1-2 years in full time service employed by local Hillels to develop innovative programs that speak to college students who are not naturally drawn to Jewish activities on campus. In 10 years, the JCSC program has not only succeeded in connecting students from various Jewish experiences to Jewish life, but has also been significant in affecting the culture of engagement throughout Hillel’s work. In a typical year, between 80 and 90 JCSC fellows serve on Hillel campuses. Over the life of the program, over 800 young people have been JCSC fellows.

www.jcsc.hillel.org

Hillel’s Rejewvenation is a new partnership between The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life focused on creating a new approach to Shabbat celebration on campus that is uniquely modern, American and Jewish. The goal of this program is to inspire the vast majority of underinvolved Jews on college campuses, who do not participate in any form of meaningful Jewish community, by expanding the way Shabbat is celebrated on campus. Still in development, Rejewvenation aims to convene regularly on campuses across North America in order to significantly increase the number of college students engaged in joyful Jewish life and community.

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life supports various programs to strengthen and enhance Jewish life at Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Center for Jewish Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania engages Jewish college students through a variety of outlets within the context of campus life. In order to involve students at all points of their college experience, programs are implemented in non-parochial campus facilities such as dormitories, fraternities and sororities, as well as through overtly Jewish structures such as the Jewish Activities Center. In partnership with Hillel, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life is positioning the Center for Jewish Engagement at Penn as a premier venue for training Hillel professionals nationwide in the work of engagement.
 

In order to support and augment Penn’s burgeoning Jewish culture, Judy and Michael Steinhardt gave the naming gift for Steinhardt Hall of Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania. Opened in October 2003, Steinhardt Hall is a 36,000 square foot facility that includes a large auditorium, kosher dining facilities, places of worship, lounges and meeting rooms. It is designed to be the nexus of Jewish life at Penn.

dolphin.upenn.edu/~hillel

At The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, we recognize the power of early childhood education in inculcating Jewish identity and beginning a life-long commitment to Jewish learning and life. Moreover, outstanding Jewish preschools have the capacity to not only enrich a child’s identity, but to inspire an entire family to choose Jewish living. Simply put, an excellent Jewish preschool experience is a gateway for the whole family to increased Jewish education and involvement in the synagogue and community.

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, in partnership with The S. Daniel Abraham Foundation, The Helen Bader Foundation, The Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation, The Schultz Family Foundation, UJA-Federation of New York and Combined Jewish Philanthropies/JCCs of Greater Boston, has begun a national initiative designed to create models of excellence in Jewish early childhood education, increase the number of families with children attending quality Jewish early childhood centers, and raise the number of families continuing to engage in Jewish learning and living after pre-school. To accomplish this, granting, mentoring, accreditation, co-branding, and marketing processes will be developed and implemented with the aim of transforming Jewish pre-schools into centers of Jewish educational excellence.

www.jecei.org

Jewish Heritage Programs (JHP) is a unique Campus Outreach program that seeks to form and strengthen social networks between Jewish college students. By training and working with a network of student leaders, the program develops peer-to-peer based Jewish identity programming geared towards unaffiliated students. JHP programming is designed to inspire students to celebrate their heritage and instill a sense of identity and pride in their religion. JHP offers leadership training and mentoring opportunities with Jewish professionals from a variety of fields. Other activities include Shabbat dinners, historical programs, and holiday celebrations. The program also offers a number of retreats and trips, including an annual Israel excursion. Since its inception in 1993, JHP has succeeded in reaching over 120,000 students.

www.jhp.org

As part of our continuing efforts to create points of engagement for unaffiliated Jews, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life joined the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and the Abramson Family Foundation in supporting MyJewishLearning.com.

MyJewishLearning.com is a comprehensive, pluralistic website of Jewish information and education geared towards learners of all ages and educational backgrounds. As the central Internet site for learning about Judaism, it offers more than 2,000 articles covering such topics as history, culture, holidays and texts. One of the distinguishing features of the site is its guided learning feature, which allows users of widely varying background to find information suited to their needs. Content on the site is packaged to invite and facilitate ever-deepening levels of learning. Its learning materials are representative of the wide range of trans-denominational perspectives within Judaism.

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life believes that MyJewishLearning.com has tremendous potential in using the Internet to engage and educate Jews on the margins of Jewish life.

www.myjewishlearning.com

Jewish renaissance will not be possible unless our community is Jewishly literate. With this in mind, the philanthropy of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life aims to shore up both informal and formal outlets of American Jewish education. Day schools in particular have the capacity to become the cornerstone of a campaign to revitalize American Jewish life. With their rigorous transmission of Jewish knowledge, identity and experience in total-immersion environments, day schools are arguably the community’s most valuable resource in inspiring lifelong Jewish commitment among their students.

To help advance the goal of a flourishing day school movement, Michael H. Steinhardt founded the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE). PEJE is a collaborative initiative of philanthropic partners committed to strengthening Jewish day school education in North America. Through grant making, expertise delivery, and advocacy, PEJE works to strengthen individual schools, promote excellence in the field at large, enable the creation of new schools, and increase awareness and support of day schools in the broader Jewish community. PEJE schools are committed to transmitting Jewish identity and values to the next generation, and to achieving a level of academic excellence that equals that of the best private schools in the nation.

In its first six years of operation, PEJE has established over 60 new schools. Over the next six years, PEJE will continue its pioneering work by assisting schools in developing educational excellence, enhancing financial and volunteer resources, and deepening their communal connections in order to increase the number of children receiving the treasured gift of a day school education.

www.peje.org

Together with William M. Davidson, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Eugene and Marcia Applebaum and Robert P. Aronson, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life created the Professional Leaders Project (PLP), a national initiative to improve the field of Jewish professional life. PLP is devoted to inspiring and enriching a talent pool of outstanding 20- and 30-somethings that will produce a next generation of Jewish community leaders. Our goal is to recruit and nurture a new generation of Jewish leaders from across the Jewish spectrum who will be inspired by a sense of the meaning and value of their roles, and who will share a common willingness to take responsibility for reaching out to the entire Jewish people.

www.jewishleaders.net

Spark: The Center for Jewish Service Learning at the Jewish Funds for Justice seeks to inspire commitment to service as an ongoing part of each person’s life and an important expression of Jewish identity. Spark works in partnerships with Federations, organizations, synagogues, and schools to enhance and expand high quality Jewish service. Spark develops programs, learning materials, workshops and training seminars for Jewish organizations to create new service programs and to enhance the quality of existing programs.

HeartAction, Spark's flagship service learning initiative, focuses on intergenerational service to the elderly and/or the ill. Spark is collaborating with other Jewish organizations in the replication of HeartAction, providing learning resources, training, financial support, and ongoing coaching and consultation. In addition, Spark collaborates with other organizations to develop innovative Jewish service programs, such as BBYO’s Nitzotz summer service program and Tzedek Hillel’s National Alternative Spring Break.

Spark is part of a growing national dialogue about the role service and volunteering play in meeting community needs and helping Americans find meaning and connection. It is also part of a growing community of Jews committed to renewing our understanding of volunteering as an expression of a Jewish value system, a means of connecting with Judaism, and a vehicle for creating a meaningful sense of community.

www.sparkpfs.org

Synagogues once served as the cornerstone of Jewish religious, political and social life. Among today’s non-Orthodox Jews, however, synagogues have largely relinquished their central role in the community. The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life is committed to finding ways of revitalizing the synagogue, making it relevant and resonant to Jews today.

In partnership with The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and The Samuel Bronfman Foundation, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life helped create STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) to transform and strengthen synagogue life in the 21st Century. STAR has developed initiatives to foster innovation among synagogues in reaching out to Jews. The Synaplex Initiative supports congregations around the country in creating a variety of educational, social and cultural experiences on Shabbat. The initiative enables contemporary Jewish individuals and families to celebrate Jewish life through a menu of innovative options in the realms of prayer, study and social and cultural programs during Shabbat in the synagogue. Through Synaplex, STAR hopes to help synagogues play a more vital role in the renaissance of the Jewish community. Another STAR initiative, PEER: Professional Education for Excellence in Rabbis, focuses on spiritual vision, communication and practical skills among recently-ordained rabbis to develop their non-profit management skills.

www.starsynagogue.org

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life believes that Jewish identity should be strengthened through a wide variety of cultural and artistic offerings. With this in mind, we support Steinhardt Jewish Heritage Festival at BAM. Now entering its third year, Steinhardt Jewish Heritage Festival is a multi-faceted celebration of Jewish culture. Throughout the month, BAMcinematek plays host to the annual Brooklyn Jewish Film Festival; a live series of Jewish music at the BAMcafe; and a series of BAMtalks focusing on major cultural issues of significance to the Jewish community. The goal is to infuse contemporary and traditional Jewish arts and culture in a major secular venue to attract and inspire Jews who ordinarily do not participate in Jewish community events.

www.bam.org

In order to revitalize Jewish life, we must train our future educators in a wide variety of skills and disciplines. The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life has taken an important step in this direction through its support of the The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. As part of Michael H. Steinhardt’s naming gift, the The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and the NYU Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies have created a joint Ph.D. program in Education and Jewish Studies. Designed to develop leaders for a wide range of settings, this new program combines course work at the School of Education, course work at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, and a two-year seminar on issues in Jewish education. Tracks are available in administration, curriculum, and academics/research. A competitive fellowship is available to selected students, providing up to three years of full-time tuition support and a living stipend.

www.nyu.edu/education/humsocsci/jewish

As part of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life’s ongoing efforts to understand the full dimensions of American Jewish life, Michael Steinhardt has established the Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI) at Brandeis University. The SSRI will collect, analyze and disseminate unbiased data that can be used in myriad ways, most notably to help the Jewish community better plan for its future and to bolster the understanding of religion and ethnicity in the United States.

In addition to collecting and organizing existing population data and statistics from private, communal and government sources, the SSRI will also launch its own local and national studies of the character of American Jewry and Jewish organizations. The information will be made widely available to scholars, communal organizations and philanthropic organizations. The SSRI will also conduct methodological studies designed to create new paradigms for studying the Jewish community.

The Institute’s work will be carried out by a multi-disciplinary resident faculty, which will be augmented by visiting scholars and consultants. The research staff will include experts in demography, economics, psychology, sociology and statistics. Public opinion research firms will develop state-of-the-art data collection systems. An advisory board of distinguished community leaders and scholars will guide the institute’s work, which will be supported by a technical advisory panel.

The SSRI will expand upon the work of The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, which has been a partner with The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life in producing quality research that supports the work of the Jewish community. Previous studies commissioned by The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life include:

Recruitment and Retention

Along with the Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Foundation, William M. Davidson, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life funded a research project to assess both the individual and organizational factors that impact upon the Jewish community’s ability to recruit and retain professional talent. Conducted by Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and Fisher-Bernstein Institute for Leadership Development in Jewish Philanthropy, the research project began with a detailed review of the existing knowledge base in the business, not-for-profit, public and Jewish communal sectors. The second phase consisted of community studies in six large and small communities nationwide. In each community, the researchers conducted a census of Jewish institutions and surveyed a sample of professionals via the internet about their training, motivations, job satisfaction, and other relevant issues.

The Lives of Jewish College Students:
Realities and Possibilities

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life helped fund a study of Jewish life on campus initiated by the AVI CHAI Foundation and conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University. The study had two purposes: to learn about the college-aged population and to determine how Jewish opportunities for college students might be expanded or enhanced. The study took place on 20 college campuses around the United States. One component of the study entailed interviews and focus groups with members of the campus community (Jewishly-engaged and -unengaged students, Jewish professional staff, faculty, administrators, and representatives of various campus ministries). A second component included interviews and focus groups with students at these 20 institutions. In addition, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life’s support enabled the Cohen Center to field surveys to a random sample of Jewish and non-Jewish students at some of the campuses in the study. These surveys provided valuable contextual information about the college experience and about general attitudes toward religion and ethnicity on campus. They focused attention on the unengaged students and thereby helped in the assessment of current efforts to reach these individuals. Finally, the surveys made possible by The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life funding may produce better estimates of the number of Jews currently attending American colleges and universities.

www.cmjs.org/ssri/

PAST SPONSORSHIPS

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life seeks to cultivate an infrastructure of freedom that will enable all Jews to grow enriched by Jewish values and committed to life in the open society. The Abraham Joshua Heschel School, founded in 1983 by Peter Geffen, shares this vision. It has endeavored diligently to educate Jewish children with the preeminent Jewish ideals of study, justice, shared humanity and mutual respect.

Understanding the need to expand the opportunity for a pluralistic Jewish education into the high school years, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life joined with other friends of the school to found The Abraham Joshua Heschel High School. The high school, located in a new building on the Upper West Side of New York City, opened its doors in September of 2002 to its first class.

www.heschel.org/high

In an effort to facilitate opportunities for service, learning and connections among young adult Jews, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life supported AVODAH: the Jewish Service Corps. AVODAH is a year-long program that combines anti-poverty work, Jewish study, and community building. Located in New York City and Washington, DC, AVODAH participants live together in a single home, where they study, eat and celebrate together. During the year of service and beyond, the AVODAH experience builds skills in social activism while nurturing Jewish identity and community.

www.avodah.net

A core tenet of the philanthropy of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life is that the community must substantially upgrade its levels of philanthropic giving and engage in philanthropic partnerships in order to strengthen Jewish life. As part of our efforts to facilitate partnerships, synergy and optimum funding practices, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life supports Jewish Funders Network (JFN).

JFN was created to provide leadership, programs and services to help Jewish grantmakers be more effective and strategic in their philanthropy. JFN members explore various issues, including personal and family relations, the responsibilities of business and philanthropy, as well as the transition of assets, tradition, values and priorities between generations. Together, they build partnerships and assist one another so that their philanthropic giving can effectively change the world. The basis for all JFN programs is the textured world of Jewish values and identity that grant makers apply to whatever funding decisions they make.

www.jfunders.org

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life understands the importance of day school education and the centrality of Israel in Jewish identity formation. Kivunim works to synthesize the two concepts by integrating Israel experience into the professional development of day school teachers.

Created in 1999, the Kivunim Summer Institute is an intensive two-week educational experience in Israel aimed at enhancing the intellectual and creative discourse in North American Jewish day schools. It has become the largest in-service training program that brings teachers from North America to Israel. Using Israel as a laboratory of Jewish education and critical inquiry, Kivunim serves to broaden the Jewish identity of our day school teachers while helping them to develop a more open approach to the education of children. Program participants receive a full fellowship and are eligible for up to six graduate credits through the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies. For more information on Kivunim, please contact Peter Geffen, Director, at PG1946@aol.com.

www.kivunim.org

The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life seeks to reach and inspire Jews on their own terms, through programming that can compete with the most sophisticated cultural, artistic and intellectual offerings of the secular world. Makor is a stellar example of this philosophy in action.

Recognizing that Jewish New Yorkers have come to expect the best in arts, intellectual discourse and music, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life conducted research to find ways of weaving Jewish content into a secular cultural venue in order to educate, inspire and entertain young Jews. We then opened Makor in 1999 as an arts, cultural and educational center that reaches out to Jewish New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s and gives them opportunities for Jewish exploration and connection.

The five story facility includes a live-music café and bar, state-of-the-art film center, lecture hall, art gallery, seminar rooms, and more. Thousands of young Jewish New Yorkers participate in Makor’s programming each month seeking spiritual growth, intellectual edification, opportunities for service, social and entertainment possibilities as well as the many synergies between popular culture, Jewish meaning and artistic expression afforded by the Makor program. Since June of 2001, Makor has been a program of the 92nd Street Y.

www.makor.org

As part of our ongoing efforts to support a thriving Jewish culture in the secular world, The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life is a proud sponsor of the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival.

Launched in 2004 as part of the 350th anniversary celebration of the arrival of the first Jews in America, the annual New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival assembles dozens of music groups in venues throughout the boroughs of New York. The Festival aims to capture and celebrate the development, diversity, innovation and prolific nature of Jewish music. Over ten days, the Festival brings together eclectic communities to explore their shared identity and celebrate the diverse cultural contributions of the Jewish people. Inspired by the fusion of various distinct cultures in the melting pot of New York City, the Festival’s musical cues range from classic Russian folk to Ladino jazz to Yiddish hip hop. From Klez for Kids to Jewsapalooza, in venues as diverse as synagogues, museums and concert halls, the Festival brings together young and old, affiliated and unaffiliated, from each of the denominations and beyond. The Festival culminates in a large outdoor all-day free event for several thous and people, making it one of the world’s largest and most important celebrations of Jewish culture. By leveraging the universal power of music, the New York Jewish Music and Heritage Festival is able to reach and inspire a large secular Jewish audience that might not otherwise recognize artistic connections to Jewish culture.

www.oyhoo.com