“As in the United States, where a coalition of donors quickly pulled together an $80 million emergency fund as the pandemic gained ground this spring, the JDC has led an emergency program to provide relief to 1,600 Jewish families in 16 countries, including 11 in Europe.”
“…an innovative, interactive, voice-led, online experience, enabling people to converse directly and enjoy virtual time with [Rabbi Sacks], one-on-one.”
“I’m not sure that everyday, individual givers—who account for 68% of giving to American nonprofits, and who interact with and benefit from institutions that are the bedrock of our communities and that enrich all of our lives—understand that we’re currently at risk for losing much of what we hold near and dear in our communal lives…”
“As COVID-19 drastically affects the world, our country and our community, we know that many of our grantee partners and other organizations face unprecedented challenges and concerns. We want you to know that we, your philanthropic partners, are in this together with you.”
“Whether you are guiding staff about travel or remote work arrangements, wondering what other groups are doing in response to Covid-19, fielding donors’ questions about your nonprofit’s response or the impact on planned events, or worrying that the virus will dampen your fundraising, it’s a lot to handle.
To help you cope, here are a few online resources we’ve collected…”
“I returned from the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C., and as a result, I’ve had to cancel two weeks of meetings, am carb loading, working in my pajamas and missing fresh air desperately. Was it worth it?
It was life changing.”
“But what do we actually mean by Jewish literacy and illiteracy in Jewish communal discourse? Unless we are clear about the problem that we are trying to solve, it seems hard to imagine that we will succeed in solving it.”
“Somehow, in 1995, these young, devout, idealistic Jewish superheroes – deeply pious, theologically rigorous, yet outward-looking, too – zeroed in on one of the greatest clashes between those within the rabbinic mind-set and those beyond it: the wedding.”
“The central aim of text study is to learn how to read a text, that is, that the text must induce the student to think, to make comparisons with the associations that occur to him, to ask and question. The point is that it is not the teacher but rather the text itself that stimulates the student; the text itself should bring the student to pose questions and to seek the answers.”
“If donors could close the aspiration gap, billions of additional big-bet dollars would flow to the world’s most challenging problems, and millions of lives could change for the better for generations to come.”
“Without broader avenues to share the lessons learned, failures are wasted. As foundations continue to embrace risk-taking, they would be well advised to commit to evaluating and sharing the outcomes in practical and public ways.”