Greater MetroWest Day School Community Fund
Kim Hirsh
Executive Director, JCF
(973) 929-3026
khirsh@jfedgmw.org
Rebecca Hindin
Director, Greater MetroWest Day School Initiative
(973) 929-2962
rhindin@jfedgmw.org
Established in 2007, the Greater MetroWest Day School Community Fund promotes academic excellence, affordability, collaboration, and long-term sustainability in day school education. The fund supports the Golda Och Academy, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, Gottesman RTW Academy, and Jewish Educational Center.
Overseen by JCF’s Day School Advisory Council, this Community Fund is part of the Greater MetroWest Day School Initiative, which works to enhance and secure Jewish day school education by building significant endowments for the future while investing in affordability and excellence today.
Greater MetroWest Jewish Camp Fund
Kim Hirsh
Executive Director, JCF
(973) 929-3026
khirsh@jfedgmw.org
Tracy Levine
Director, Greater MetroWest Jewish Camp Enterprise
(973) 929-2970
tlevine@jfedgmw.org
The Jewish Camp Fund supports the Greater MetroWest Jewish Camp Enterprise, a nationally renowned initiative that provides incentive grants and scholarships that enables hundreds of local children and teens to attend Jewish camp each summer, while broadening support and awareness of the benefits of Jewish camp.
Our signature event is the Tour De Summer Camps NJ, a fundraising bike ride and community celebration that raises vital funds to help local youngsters attend Jewish overnight and day camps.
Since the start of the Enterprise in 2009, the number of Greater MetroWest children and teens attending Jewish overnight camp each summer has jumped close to 40 percent—roughly double the national average during the same period. The fund supports a full-time professional who helps families find the best Jewish camp for their children, as well as a growing Jewish Camp Scholarship Program. Over the past decade, our community has provided more than 2,200 one-time incentive grants of $500-$1,000 to families new to Jewish overnight camping, as well as hundreds of scholarships enabling children from lower income families to experience the joy of Jewish camp. In addition, our community has developed a robust marketing campaign, elevating the profile of Jewish camp in synagogues, schools and public spaces throughout the community.
The Jewish Camp Advisory Council works in conjunction with the Foundation for Jewish Camp and has partnered with the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy to educate Jewish camps on fundraising and outreach strategies.
Grotta Fund for Older Adults
Renie Carniol
Director
(973) 929-3097
rcarniol@jfedgmw.org
The Grotta Fund for Older Adults funds programs that strengthen older adults’ ability age in place independently, safely, and with dignity. Created at JCF in 2003 with the proceeds from the sale of the Theresa Grotta Center for Rehabilitative Services, the Grotta Fund honors the legacy of Theresa Grotta, a dearly loved friendly “connector”, who helped Jewish community members connect to needed services and supports.
Grotta is a recognized funder and catalyst of new and innovative aging-related programs, ranging from age friendly community development and food insecurity to addressing those at risk for homelessness and enhancing home and community-based services. Its grants bring nationally recognized models of care to agencies and communities in our region. Grotta collaborates with our Federation and other foundations to leverage its efforts, raise awareness of emerging issues and the broad range of aging-related services, and engage and empower older adults, their families, and caregivers.
Since 2003, the Grotta Fund has awarded more than $6 million in grants to more than 100 local agencies serving older adults living in Essex, Union, Morris, Sussex, and eastern Somerset counties. Along with JCF professionals, the Grotta Fund Advisory Council, comprised of dedicated Jewish community volunteers, provide outstanding Grotta Fund stewardship and guidance to grantees.
Herb and Milly Iris Youth and Family Philanthropy Endowment (Iris Teen Tzedakah)
Kim Hirsh
Executive Director, JCF
(973) 929-3026
khirsh@jfedgmw.org
Yoni Glatt
Director, Teen Initiatives
(973) 929-2975
yglatt@jfedgmw.org
The Herb and Milly Iris Youth and Family Philanthropy Endowment perpetuates the legacy of Herb z’l and Milly z’l Iris and their extraordinary devotion to our Jewish community and to nurturing future generations of leaders. Herb Iris was a builder—not only as a real estate developer, but also as a legendary fundraiser and Jewish community leader. Following his passing in 2006, Milly Iris along with family, friends, and community supporters created the Fund in Herb’s memory. Milly worked with our community to design programs that would nurture teenagers’ passions and connect them to Jewish life. Following her passing in 2014, the fund was renamed to honor both of them.
The fund supports programs that promote Jewish philanthropy, activism, and involvement by Jewish teens and their families. Its signature initiative is Iris Teen Tzedakah, in which high school students pool their own donations—matched by the Herb and Milly Iris Endowment—and collaboratively allocate grants to Jewish organizations. Since 2006, Iris Teen advisors have allocated more than $200,000 to Jewish organizations locally, in Israel, and around the world.
The fund also supports a Jewish teen newspaper, Fresh Ink, written by and for Jewish teens; Jewish service learning initiatives; and programs that connect young people to Israel.
Jack Ferber Memorial Fund
Michal Werner
Assistant Executive Director
Jewish Community Foundation
(973) 929-2987
mwerner@jfedgmw.org
Jack Ferber, z”l, was a loving husband and father who believed in the power of a strong and inclusive Jewish community. Jack devoted over a quarter-century to serving on various boards and committees in his town of Haworth, NJ, and was an active member of his synagogue, Temple Emanu-El in Closter. He believed that all people should have access to work and supportive social services in order to be fully participating members of a community.
Together, Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest and Jack’s wife, Susan, and his children, Cara, Isabelle and Henry, have created the Jack Ferber Memorial Fund that will support, in perpetuity, the ideals of creating a vibrant Jewish community where all members have access throughout their lives.
Each year Jack’s family will work with Federation to identify and support a community program that honors the memory of Jack and his desire for creating an accessible community.
Click here to contribute to this fund in memory of Jack Ferber
Innovations Fund
Yaffa Karp
Associate Director
Center for Strategic Philanthropy
(973) 929-2982
ykarp@jfedgmw.org
The Innovations Fund was established in 2018 by a group of Wexner alumni, who make meaningful contributions and determine priorities and grants that will better the Jewish community. Their contributions are supplemented by dollars from endowment funds established by donors who placed their trust in JCF to identify emerging community needs and opportunities.
Jewish Women's Foundation of New Jersey
Pam Greenwood
(973) 929-3005
pgreenwood@jfedgmw.org
The Jewish Women’s Foundation of New Jersey (JWF) transforms the lives of individual women and girls through hands-on philanthropy and collective grant making. Through its giving, it invites women to be agents for change in New Jersey and beyond.
Membership dues create a funding pool from which members make innovative and evidence-based grants to qualified non-profit organizations, Jewish or secular, each year. Recent funding cycles have addressed violence against women, supportive services for developmentally challenged women and girls, and healthcare for vulnerable women.
The Mack Ness Fund
Odelia Karutchi
Director
+972 54 6112275
odelia@jfedgmw.org.il
Renie Carniol
Director
(973) 929-3097
rcarniol@jfedgmw.org
The Mack Ness Fund has helped to revitalize the Negev by supporting innovative projects from a wide range of partner agencies, including non-profit and government agencies, cultural organizations, and businesses. The fund was established in 2005 through a significant bequest from the estate of Mack Ness, a farmer in Somerset County. In keeping with his desire to help the people of Israel, the fund focuses its strategic grantmaking on economic development in the Negev region, with an emphasis on attracting and maintaining a strong young adult population. See the guidelines for applying to the Ness Fund.
The Ness Business Loan Fund of the Negev, a separate entity operated in partnership with The Jewish Agency for Israel, makes low-interest loans to small business owners.
Morris Rubell Holocaust Remembrance Journeys Fund
Yaffa Karp
Senior Development Officer,
Center for Strategic Philanthropy
(973) 929-2982
ykarp@jfedgmw.org
Established in 1997, this fund honors the memory of Morris Rubell, a Holocaust survivor. The fund fosters tolerance and other lessons of the Holocaust by producing Remembrance Journeys, which bring New Jersey high school students and teachers of all races and religions to the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for a one-day intensive learning experience with Holocaust survivors. Donors can help to identify schools to be invited to participate in this meaningful experience. Since 1997, more than 4,700 children and teachers from 65 schools have participated in 120 journeys and 15 leadership seminars.
Seminar on Antisemitism and Racism in Memory of Eva Nelson (SOAR Fund)
Yaffa Karp
Associate Director,
Center for Strategic Philanthropy
(973) 929-2982
ykarp@jfedgmw.org
SOAR was created with the goal of supporting seminars and other programs for teens and young adults which in turn have the goals of Holocaust education and combating antisemitism and racism. Established in 2020 as a partnership between the family and friends of Eva Nelson z”l and the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School (“RKYHS”) the program seeks to expand to additional high schools throughout the nation. SOAR targets teens in their junior or senior years of high school with the intention of building relationships and increasing empathy and advocacy between the black and Jewish communities.
Click here to contribute to this fund.
South Orange/Maplewood Interfaith Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Service Committee Fund
Yaffa Karp
Senior Development Officer,
Center for Strategic Philanthropy
(973) 929-2982
ykarp@jfedgmw.org
A large volunteer committee produces an annual South Orange/Maplewood Holocaust Remembrance Walk and Service. These community-wide, intergenerational events honor Holocaust survivors, second- and third-generation family members, and righteous Gentiles, strengthening interfaith understanding of the atrocities of the Holocaust. For more than 37 years, this community service has been held at local houses of worship and is attended by hundreds of residents, including clergy of many faiths and community and state dignitaries.
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Jewish Responsibility, and Keeping an Eye on the Future
