Innovation and Impact

This grant will fund a part-time Director of Young Family Engagement. The Director will enhance families’ participation in Jewish home rituals and holiday programming, increase the number of families reached, and build connections between families throughout Alexandria/Arlington.

ADL will expand the Words to Action training program to synagogues, youth groups, and Jewish campus organizations in Northern Virginia. The ADL’s Words to Action program is designed to help participants strengthen their Jewish identity, learn skills to confront hate and bias, challenge anti-Semitic myths with facts, and explore the history of anti-Semitism.

Avodah will expand their Alumni Justice Ambassador (AJA) program in Northern Virginia communities. The AJA program pairs Avodah fellowship alumni with opportunities to become teachers for communities seeking to engage in meaningful social justice learning, strengthen their Jewish identity, learn skills to confront hate and bias, challenge anti-Semitic myths with facts, and explore the history of anti-Semitism.

NOVA Council BBYO serves the Northern Virginia community by meeting teens where they are, both geographically and thematically with programming and events. NOVA Council BBYO offers leadership development, Jewish identity building, and community building for Jewish teens in Northern Virginia. With this expansion, BBYO will be able to recruit more members, start new chapters, and provide more meaningful Jewish experiences to teens and families in Northern Virginia.

Based on the success of the first year of the JFamily Ambassador program in Montgomery County, the Bender JCC will continue to provide neighborhood-based JFamily ambassadors to connect new parents to each other and to the community through one-on-one meetings with parents of children ages 0-3. The ambassadors will welcome parents to the Jewish community and connect them to others and to Jewish life.

Based on the success of the first year of the JFamily Ambassador program in Montgomery County, the Bender JCC will continue to provide neighborhood-based JFamily ambassadors to connect new parents to each other and to the community through one-on-one meetings with parents of children ages 0-3. The ambassadors will welcome parents to the Jewish community and connect them to others and to Jewish life.

The Bender JCC will create a mobile space for building Jewish connections and a community environment beyond the Bender JCC campus. Through a branded vehicle, the JCC will expand service to areas with a lower density of PJ Library® subscribers, including Prince Georges’ and Upper Montgomery counties.

This grant will support the purchase of two modular cabins and allow Gan Israel to serve an additional 30 children every year beginning summer 2021. Camp Gan Israel (CGI) attracts youth from across all denominations and from all communities in Northern Virginia.

This grant will enable Chabad Lubavitch of Alexandria-Arlington to support young Jewish professionals to meet peers from the area in a warm, welcoming, and wholesome Jewish atmosphere. They will hold monthly Shabbat dinners, holiday events, adult learning, and educational programs weekly.

Through this grant, Chabad of Olney will bring young families together to share a Shabbat experience within the comfort of their own homes to enhance the Jewish identity of young families.

This grant will support an eight-week program taught by CESJDS teachers for moms and their new babies that provides information about how to teach Jewish social and ethical values to children. The project will allow these families opportunities to experience the comprehensive, innovative, and meaningful education of Jewish day school.

This funding will enable Olam Tikvah to expand its Young Families program to provide area Jewish families with opportunities to meet and socialize through playdates at Olam Tikvah and Fairfax county city parks. The expansion will allow additional programming for holiday celebrations and workshops for parents.

This grant will engage Jewish young professionals in Northern Virginia in social and creative Jewish spaces including hands-on crafting. The series will include cooking class and making Judaica for holidays.

Based on the success of the JFamily Ambassador program in DC, the Edlavitch DCJCC will continue to provide neighborhood-based JFamily Ambassadors to connect new parents to each other and to the community through one-on-one meetings with parents of children ages 0-3. The ambassadors welcome parents to the Jewish community and connect them to others and to Jewish life.

Edlavitch DCJCC will pilot Jewish Cooking Mastered, a joint project of EntryPointDC and NOVA Tribe Series, including a cooking class series and a peer-to-peer holiday meals program in Northern VA and DC. Jewish young professionals will learn from popular local and national chefs and bloggers how to craft traditional dishes with a modern twist (e.g., a farm-to-table Passover seder) and learn the Jewish history and rituals of each dish.

This grant helps establish and maintain an eruv to geographically unite contiguous portions of the NOVA Jewish community in Fairfax, thereby providing a necessary unique and foundational element of Jewish communal life. An eruv especially affects the lives of Jews with limited mobility and caretakers of babies and young children.

Federation’s Young Leadership program will revive the Israel Leadership Mission (ILM), formerly the Alumni Leadership Mission. ILM will bring together local leaders, encouraging development of relationships with each other and Israel, and will develop a cohort of connected Jewish leaders who care about the larger Jewish community.

GatherDC will expand their program to connect individuals in their 30s with their peers and Jewish communal partner organizations. The project also funds dedicated learning and leadership experiences for this population, including comprehensive follow-up and evaluation.

This grant enables GatherDC to support a NOVA Engagement staff person to maintain and form relationships among hundreds of Jewish young adults in Northern Virginia and develop a grassroots network of thousands of young adults as a pipeline to existing programmatic offerings.

This grant supports GatherDC in holding a training series for local lay-leaders and Jewish institution staff to introduce methodologies to engage peripherally involved Jewish young adults. The series will reach a large group of young adult lay-leaders and intensively serve a select group of professionals serving Jewish institutions.

This grant allows Gesher Jewish Day School to provide bus service to cut ride time and improve service. Improved transportation allows more families in Northern Virginia the opportunity to access the school’s secular and Jewish education.

The grant to Haberman Institute for Jewish Studies (formerly the Foundation for Jewish Studies) will support the hiring of a part-time staff person located in Northern Virginia to continue building partnerships in NOVA with Gesher Jewish Day School, Pozez JCC of Northern Virginia, synagogues, and others. The goal is to provide quality learning opportunities to the community including Melton classes, a day of learning, field trip and cultural events, and lectures for during the academic year 2020-2021.

Hadar will create a series of classes including holidays through a peer engagement cohort. The classes provide interaction with ancient Jewish texts, in English translation, making Torah study relevant and meaningful to young adults.

The grant will support Hill Havurah’s Young Family Engagement professional in expanding programming with the growing population of young Jewish families on Capitol Hill and connect Jewish and interfaith families to one another through their children, Jewish learning, and ritual.

This grant supports a pilot collaboration among The George Washington University, University of Maryland, and Virginia Tech to build a more interconnected DMV Jewish community and support young Jewish adults to keep Jewish values present as they navigate their personal and professional lives. The project helps young adults plug into relational Jewish spaces beyond their college years through a mentorship model at each campus.

This grant will fund follow-up programming in the local community after young married couples participate in Honeymoon Israel’s 10-day Israel experience. The programming is designed to keep couples connected to one another and help each family find meaningful connections to the broader Greater Washington Jewish community.

The grant will support the continuation of L’Chaim events, which increase participants’ involvement and role in the Jewish and Israeli American community. IAC will also work to open an Eitanim group, a teen engagement program. IAC will also continue the Keshet group, a program for kids 2-6 years to connect them and their families through Hebrew, Israeli culture, and Jewish heritage.

The L’Chaim (Shishi Israeli) program brings together Israeli and Jewish American families into a communal experience that combines Jewish traditions and Israeli culture through a series of celebratory events. Each event is led by a committee of community leaders and volunteers, and includes Shabbat dinners, holiday gatherings, and children’s activities in a multi-generational environment.

Israeli American Council (IAC) DC will create a Limmud group in Northern Virginia, providing a platform for Israeli and American Jews to connect and strengthen the community. Gvanim Limmud is modeled after the traditional Beit Midrash – a dynamic place of engaging with traditional Jewish text to debate the most significant questions.

This grant will ensure that the PJ Library program has the necessary funds to serve the entire Greater Washington community. The program provides families raising Jewish children from 6 months to 8 years old with free Jewish books and music and co-produces events for families across the region.

The grant will support a five-part series leading to a well-rounded financial education for the young women’s cohort. Sessions will be led by established Jewish women in the field, to foster an environment of intergenerational learning.

Kesher Israel will gather Jewish young adults in the downtown Washington, DC area for pluralistic Torah study and discussion in local bars. Jewish young professionals will find Jewish history, thought, and tradition relevant in a way they never thought possible, connecting them to the Jewish community and leading them to value Judaism in a new and surprising way.

This grant to MesorahDC’s Café Nite Extra program will enable it to continue to expand the breadth and depth of its program among millennials in our community. Café Nite Extra programs provide Jewish enrichment experiences including classes, workshops, “get a ways,” and service projects and new in-home programming.

This funding will support the Moishe House in Fairfax. The residents (3-5 Jewish 20-somethings) will receive extensive training and resources to turn their rented home into a communal focal point through dynamic and relevant programming such as Shabbat dinners, Jewish holiday celebrations, and more.

The NOVA Field Fellow will work to engage the approximately 36,000 Northern Virginia based Jewish young adults in Shabbat practice through OneTable’s program for singles in their 20s and 30s.

This grant will fund programming by both organizations to foster Jewish community in the broader DMV. OneTable’s program promotes Shabbat practice among those in their 20s and 30s. This funding will allow Sixth & I to nurture and grow their reach among this group, including through co-branded Noshpitality events, and will allow OneTable more successfully focus on participants in their 30s.

This grant will continue the JFamily Ambassadors Program in Northern Virginia supporting new parents to connect with other young families raising Jewish children. The JFamily Ambassadors foster connections and relationships by providing access to communal experiences and institutions.

This program will serve young families in areas without Jewish life infrastructure, including Clarskburg and Damascus. The project will allow the synagogue to grow partnerships with JPlay and PJ Library® of Greater Washington to help fill a void in service and provide families in those areas with relationships, community, and programming.

Sixth & Wee connects young, unaffiliated families with low-cost, content-rich Jewish programming, and to local synagogue clergy, in a welcoming, inclusive environment. The grant supports monthly Shabbat morning services, High Holiday services, and an annual Chanukah party. Through these events, families form bonds with other families, take advantage of meaningful Jewish experiences for parents and children, and get connected to the vast resources available throughout the Jewish community.

Temple B’nai Shalom will expand Torah Tykes, a pre-K family program that provides parent-child learning and socialization. This program serves unaffiliated Jews in Northern Virginia and will be offered outside the Temple walls to under-served parts of southern Fairfax County and adjacent areas.

The Micah Storefront Project provides communal Jewish experiences in spaces of the everyday, including in coffee shops, on rooftops, and around open tables. The project incorporates prayer, study, conversation, and action, bringing people together for relevant, highly accessible Jewish learning.

Temple Rodef Shalom will expand its interfaith Mother’s Circle to include four additional circles in communities of Northern Virginia, as well as to refresh the Mother’s Circle curriculum. Mother’s Circle programs include a licensed clinical social worker to facilitate conversations among non-Jewish participants who are dealing with complex issues and concerns around raising Jewish children.

This grant will seek funding for a programmatic space in Northern Virginia empowering Next Gen Jews to curate experiences, build community, and define their Jewish sense of self. The space will bring together the best of traditional and non-traditional entities to empower Next Gen Jews to embody living Judaism through the seamless integration of work and social life.

the Den is a collective of people creating a Judaism that is relevant, accessible, and deeply rooted in tradition throughout the greater DC area. Through this project, Rabbi Aderet Drucker and Rabbi Rami Schwartzer seek to build spaces of meaning that invite people to deepen their connection to Judaism, feel part of a community, and enrich their lives. This funding will provide support for the Den to increase its work in Northern Virginia. and to develop a strategic communication plan and infrastructure for long-term sustainability.

This grant will enable the Den’s Rabbis to lead the Next Gen community in a practice of mind, body, and spirit, which helps people discover themselves, to be seen by others, and to exercise their heart as much as they exercise their mind. The initiative includes intimate learning cohorts that join study and soul-exploration; opportunities to explore prayer through collective singing; and meditation that coalesces with Jewish heritage, ancestral, or chosen.

Next Gen Lawyers Division is a collaboration between the Network and Tzedek DC, a Jewish community-organized nonprofit providing support of local families of all faiths and backgrounds with lower incomes. The grant supports opportunities to engage in pro bono work through Jewish lens and framework at Tzedek DC and allied organizations serving vulnerable families. The program also supports mentorship of Next Gen lawyers by other lawyers in the Greater Washington Jewish community.