Foundation News —Chip Edelsberg

Foundation News
—Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director

September 2006

The Jim Joseph Foundation was recently privileged to host a two day Retreat with distinguished madrichm (guides) Rabbi David Ellenson, Arthur Fried, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, Alan Hoffmann, Richard Joel, Rachel Levin, Ruth Messinger, Jehuda Reinharz, and Jeff Solomon. (Invited guest Arnold Eisen unfortunately was unable to attend.)

Each of these experienced, thoughtful Jewish leaders submitted a paper to the Foundation prior to the Retreat. Individually, the madrichim responded to a single question that is of great import and urgency to the Foundation: given the Foundation’s anticipated availability of 20 million dollars to grant, annually, on a perpetual basis, what strategic grant making opportunities in support of education of Jewish youth in the United States evidence greatest promise for making an indelible impact on the lives of young Jews?

Foundation Directors and professional staff benefited from listening to madrichim report on the paper each had submitted and talk intently with one another about their ideas. These Jewish leaders see a feast of potential strategic grant making opportunities. They also repeatedly reminded the Foundation that achieving impact in a field where expenditures are estimated to exceed 3 billion dollars annually requires philanthropic focus, "fealty to mission," discipline, risk taking, patience and perseverance, transparency and accountability.

We encourage you to read the papers made available to us (which we will post as permission is granted to us to do so). You will be enlightened—and the field enriched—with the exceptional contributions of these passionate Jewish leaders.

Yet another source of deeply informed guidance for the Foundation as it studies the field of education of Jewish youth is research we have commissioned Brandeis University’s Fisher Bernstein Institute to conduct. Dr. Amy Sales is leading a team that is mapping the field nationally and also examining in depth eight communities around the country. We are pleased to make the Interim Report available to you.

Please continue to follow our planning progress as we move to formalize the Jim Joseph Foundation’s philanthropic goals and grant making strategies in an intensive planning process that we anticipate will conclude by year’s end.

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