The New Year represents a moment in time to reflect on the past and to look forward. Directors and professionals at the Jim Joseph Foundation – despite being together “around the table” for less than a year – can appreciate the recent past and anticipate the future with great excitement.

The Jim Joseph Foundation has completed its Strategic Planning. In following the lead of its extraordinarily generous founder, the Foundation will focus its grant making on education of Jewish children, teens, and young adults. The Foundation will commit substantial resources to support what it deems to be compelling educational experiences. We will concentrate on the sometimes seemingly intractable challenge of recruiting, training and retaining high quality Jewish educators. The Foundation is oriented toward a vision of future generations of young Jews who in increasing numbers engage in continuous learning and choose to live vibrant Jewish lives.

The research we funded and the countless interviews we conducted reveal two critical features permeating the lives of contemporary young Jews: their pervasive autonomy and the frequency with which they self-organize into social networks. In essence, what this means is that Jewish young people place themselves at the center of their learning. They move in and out of engagement with Judaism of their own volition. They join multiple peer groups, many of which exist solely in cyberspace. Depending on the nature of the group, the learning experience can stimulate in young Jews intimate encounters with Judaism.

For young people, education simply cannot be centered exclusively in institutions. Jewish day schools are the bulwark against a vacuous future, and the Foundation will support day schools generously. However, camping and experimental congregational learning; Israel immersion, youth philanthropy; social action and community service – these are all legitimate educational venues where superlative educators can convey a Jewish relevance that resonates with the young and helps to create a crucible that fires youths’ Jewish identity.

The Foundation has determined it will focus approximately 60% of its initial grant making on teens and young adults ages 13-23 in a select number of geographic regions in the United States (specifically, those areas where the Foundation’s Directors reside, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington D.C.). The balance of approximately 40% of the Foundation’s annual grant making for Jewish learning is not limited to, but may include:

- Grants made in partnership with other funders enabling the Foundation to help realize its vision by leveraging its resources.

- Grants as investments in research and development that will inform the Foundation’s ongoing philanthropic practice and contribute to learning in the field.

- Grants for seed funding for other novel, innovative projects furthering the Foundation’s mission.

We have begun our work in earnest, conducting a series of exploratory conversations with potential grantee partners. I urge you to continue to refer to our website as your frontline source of information on our progress.