One of the core tenets of the Jews of Color Initiative’s mission is to deepen and expand grantmaking investments in leadership, research, and policy. We had an incredibly important year of growth in these areas. In fiscal year 2022–2023, the JoCI granted $735,825 to 45 projects across 36 unique organizations, including, for the first time, multi-year grants for three organizations. We also varied our grant sizes to meet grantees’ needs: In addition to our small grants of up to $5,000 and our large grants of $10,000 and more, we introduced a midsize grant between $5,000 and $10,000. We also established a Philanthropy Fellowship and hired three fellows: Santy Barrera, Ilana Ybgi, and Maya Katz-Ali. Over the year-long program, they will become trained and highly skilled grantmakers, beginning to grow a pipeline of Jewish philanthropic professionals that ultimately will help create a more equitable and representative Jewish community.
Last year, our grants supported the following tremendous, visionary organizations and projects.
Ammud JoC Torah Academy
Supporting the building of JoC community, advancing and providing access to Jewish education and learning by and for JoCs, and empowering JoC to be leaders of the broader Jewish community.
Jewtina y Co.
Supporting the nurturing og Latin-Jewish community and leadership in the United States through cohort experiences, community storytelling, and culturally-sustaining learning resources.
The LUNAR Collective
Supporting the cultivation, connections, and increased visibility for Asian-American Jews through intersectional community programming and authentic storytelling.
The Forward, in partnership with the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Supporting a media-based Jews of Color Fellowship focused on developing JoC in two pathways: editorial and reporting or media business.
Shades of Belonging: Religious Identity and Belonging Among Jewish Adoptees of Color
Supporting qualitative and quantitative research on the experiences of JoC Adoptees and their racialized Jewish identity formation through the lens of Critical Race Theory.
Jewpanese Project
Supporting research and data aggregation of 40 interviews from the Jewpanese Project, the first project of its kind focusing on experiences and stories of Jewish-Japanese people.
Mitsui Collective
Supporting the continuation of the Jewish Somatic Antiracism Collaborative’s research on how racism and antisemitism are physically embodied by JoC.
The Workshop
Supporting North America’s first arts fellowship centering the work of JoCSM (Jews of Color, Serphardi and Mizrahi) artists and culture-makers; This grant also supported the hiring of a JoC Production Intern, executive coaching for The Workshop’s Director, and support for an annual artists’ retreat.
The Kirva Institute, a fiscally sponsored project of FJC, to support Inside Out Wisdom + Action (IOWA) Project
Supporting a JoC rabbinical intern who will help lead the Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out (DRIO) program for JoC and multiracial communities, as well as increase the project’s capacity to facilitate BIPOC-led mussar va’ads.
Edot Midwest
Supporting the establishment of a network of partnerships affirming racial and ethnic diversity across Midwestern Jewish communities.
Shalom Curriculum Project
Supporting mixed methods research on JoC-centered early childhood educational materials that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the Jewish community through a community-centered and engaged approach.
Jewish Social Justice Roundtable
Supporting the third year of the JoC Mentorship cohort program, which provides quality mentorship to 12–15 JoC staff members at affiliated organizations and training for JoC mentees’ supervisors.
The Braid
Supporting three in-person and virtual Asian-Jewish storytelling workshops in partnership with the LUNAR Collective, to empower Asian-Jewish creatives to adapt their stories into the development of a planned center stage theater production exploring what it means to be Asian and Jewish in our contemporary world.
Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
Supporting the cultivation and leadership of Dayenu and its JoC Caucus, which is invested in mobilizing Jewish support for climate solutions rooted in Jewish values, experience, and spirit.
Jews of Color Mishpacha Project
Supporting the third JoC Shabbaton for intergenerational Jewish learning and celebration for JoC, their families, and allies.
Mosaic Visions
Supporting Mosaic Visions, which seeks to create a more tolerant, just society through the arts, education, and alliance building that promotes equity for JoC and communities of color.
Rising Tide Open Water Mikveh Network
Supporting the organization’s Online Mikveh Guide Training, the first national program that trains 31 JoC to help make the Jewish mikv’aot ritual immersions welcoming and accessible for everyone in the Jewish community.
Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network
Supporting the Network in providing opportunities for queer Jews of Mizrahi and Sephardic backgrounds to build community and practice Jewish rituals, as well as to gain more knowledge about the experiences of JoCSM in the American Sephardic and Mizrahi community.
Camp Tawonga
Supporting professional development for the camp’s inaugural DEI Director in implementing systems-level change and policies to make Jewish camp more actively anti-racist.
JOIN for Justice
Sustaining their capacity building support and coaching for JoC Co-Directors of JOIN’s JoC Organizing Fellowship.
Moving Traditions
Supporting JoC staff development of Kumi: An Anti-Oppression Teen Leadership Experience’s JoC track for 10th through 12th graders.
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal
Providing technical assistance and capacity building support for ALEPH’s JoC Executive Director.
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Executive Leadership Grants
Along with supporting the organizations above, in their missions to empower the JoC community, the Jews of Color Initiative built on our inaugural JoC Leadership Convening to establish our Executive Leadership Grant. We provided grants to leaders at 15 organizations to support their senior leadership development through executive coaching, Jewish education, and professional development courses. Some programs in which leaders will participate include the Spertus Jewish Leadership Program, Stanford Black Leaders Program, and Harvard Business School’s Women of Color Leadership Program.
Small Town and New Localities RPFs
In order to expand the scope of organizations we reach and support, the JoCI established a “JoC in Small Towns and New Localities Request for Proposals.” The projects we partnered with are creating more inclusive, welcoming Jewish communities across the country. As you see below , our Small Town and New Localities RPF covers a wide range of intersectional topics catered to the geographic location in which they foster community.
Jews of Color: Cleveland, a project of Mitsui Collective
Supporting increased programming, JoC leadership, and research about JoC community experiences in Greater Cleveland.
Ahava ’Aina
Supporting a new Jewish learning series to engage and empower JoC community and identify emerging JoC leaders on the Big Island of Hawai‘i.
Uri L’Tzedek
Promoting increased JoC programming in Phoenix and the surrounding small towns to cultivate and engage a more robust JoC community, as well as gathering survey data on the needs and demographics of JoC in the region.
New Synagogue Project
Supporting the JoC Coordinator in conducting a needs assessment, cultivating relationships with JoC community members, and providing a Jewish spiritual and communal home for those who may not easily be able to find one in the DMV area.
TischPDX, a fiscally sponsored project of Jumpstart Labs Project Purpose
Supporting a survey of JoC in the Pacific Northwest to inform future JoC-centered programming.
