Looking to get an idea off the ground?
Want to help an organization create a new initiative?
There's still time to apply for an Alumni Venture Fund grant. Whether your project is large or small, new or established, or has received AVF funding in the past, our community is here to help! Applications are due Tuesday May 15, 2012.
October 19-21 in NYC
It is hard to believe, but BYFI’s silver anniversary has arrived! 25 years and 649 Fellows after Edgar Bronfman first took his “Bronfmanim” under his wing, the BYFI community is stronger and more richly diverse than ever before.
It is with great excitement that we invite you, your families and our beloved faculty and friends to come celebrate with us!
Additionally, we invite you to join our Anniversary Planning Committee, which will meet in the coming months to help us create a memorable weekend experience. Please note: you do not need to be based in New York to join! Please contact Naamah Paley at naamah@byfi.org to learn how you can get involved.
We are pleased to announce that eight projects were recently selected to receive BYFI Alumni Venture Fund (AVF) grants. Each grant was carefully vetted by the Alumni Advisory Board based on creativity, feasibility, and relevance to BYFI’s core values.
We're not the only ones excited about the projects our alumni take on! Our unique peer-to-peer network was recognized by Slingshot '11-'12 for the second year in a row as one of the 50 most innovative organizations in the Jewish community.
Click here to learn about the latest AVF projects...
Ohr HaLev - Institute for Jewish Spirituality (Israel and North America)
Danny Cohen '04
Ohr HaLev works to make the rich teachings of Jewish spirituality accessible for Jews who seek to deepen their Jewish practice and “to provide Jews with a rich, meaningful, transformative and relevant Jewish life and spiritual path.” Ohr HaLev accomplishes this by offering weekend and weeklong retreats as well as meditation and mindfulness workshops. The Institute welcomes Jews of all backgrounds and persuasions, operating with a non-judgmental and open philosophy.
CSESS Education Seminars (New York City)
Elisabeth Cohen '01
CSESS bring s Harvard undergraduates to teach enrichment classes in New York City high schools for two weeks. This year, with the help of an AVF grant, CSESS added a new element to their programming for instructors: seminars with education professionals (one of whom, Ariela Rothstein ’05 , is also a BYFI alumna) to contextualize the instructors’ work and experiences. These seminars “offered undergraduate instructors perspective into the education system within which they’re working in a way that both informed their work in the classroom and helped them get more out of it.”
Sulam - The Brookline Jewish Afterschool Program (Brookline, MA)
Yoni Engelhart '96
In response to the steep prices of Jewish day school tuition, a group of families in Brookline are taking matters into their own hands and creating a new model for afterschool Jewish education. Sulam will “provide children in kindergarten through 5th grade with carefully designed curriculum to develop strong Jewish knowledge, study skills, intuition, and identity, and to prepare students for success in 6th grade at any of Boston’s Jewish day schools.” Their doors will open in September 2012; the school will operate four days per week to offer the strongest and most comprehensive education possible.
Mobilizing Hillel Leaders for Inclusion and Equality (North America)
Idit Klein '89
Keshet has worked with a number of Jewish youth organizations including NFTY, BBYO, and USY to promote inclusion and open conversation around LGBTQ identity. This new initiative will extend training and resources to professional staff and lay leaders in campus Hillels, fostering development of LGBT-inclusive programming as well as safe, celebratory spaces for LGBT students.
The Kavana Cooperative: Holiday - Prep & Practice Series (for Adults!) (Seattle, WA) Rachel Nussbaum '93
The Kavana Cooperative, a model for innovative Jewish engagement and programming, is offering the opportunity for adults without children to explore possibilities for Jewish holiday practice within a pluralistic and nurturing framework. An AVF grant is funding a series of workshops, centered on text study and hands-on education about ritual, which encourage participants to grapple with the infinite options for Jewish practice while building community. A similar program for young families has been successful for the past five years and Kavana seeks to enrich the ritual practice of another demographic within the community.
Kevah Curricula Development (San Francisco, CA)
Noa Silver '04
Kevah (founded by Sara Bamberger YOZMA), is dedicated to grassroots Jewish learning and to facilitating pluralistic study of traditional Jewish texts. Kevah has grown tremendously since its inception and is now working to expand and support its network of educators. The AVF grant will allow for the development of curricular resources which can be shared and replicated among different Kevah groups.
Princeton Shechita Seminar (Princeton, NJ)
David Wolkenfeld '97
In January 2012, Princeton hosted 10 students and recent university graduates (including William Herlands ’06 and Mateo Aceves ’06 ) for an intensive, weeklong seminar on shechita (ritual slaughter). Participants delved into the principles of shechita law and were trained in how to prepare, slaughter, and clean a chicken according to Jewish law. In addition to teaching the participants about the process of shechita, one of the program’s goals was to empower young adults within the traditional community to maintain independence from industrial animal farming.
Cafe Olam (Philadelphia, PA)
Susan Pultman '99
Cafe Olam is a nonprofit organization that connects Jewish young adults to each other and to the community by providing a physical space where they can get together to engage in local food, drink, art, music, and cultural programs that are affordable, accessible and desirable. Through their locavore brewpub, offering Jewish arts and cultural programming, Cafe Olam works to increase Jewish engagement within the Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennial generations.
Conference call briefing about the Occupy Wall Street movement and American finance at 12pm EST on Wednesday November 2nd, 2011. We heard two perspectives from Bronfmanim with expertise in this area: Anya Kamenetz BYFI ‘97, author and Senior Writer for Fast Company magazine, and Josh Neuman BYFI ‘90, Managing Director at Irving Place Capital.
Our speakers explore questions like: What is Occupy Wall Street? What do the protestors want? How is this part of a global movement? What are the responses to Occupy by people working in the financial sector? How can the average American make sense of America’s economy and what changes, if any, might we seek?
Here is a recording of the call:
Occupy Wall StreetThis year's Fellowship is off to a great start!
Follow the 2011 Fellows' summer experience by visiting our blog at byfisummer.wordpress.com and following us on twitter. You can also see photos of our adventures on our flickr account. Enjoy!
