The St. Louis Jewish Community Study recently received a grant from The Morton J. and Morton D. May Fund. This study of the St. Louis area’s Jewish community to determine its size, geographic distribution, socioeconomic, religious and cultural attributes will help inform community planning, allocations and programming efforts for Jewish agencies and organizations for the next decade.
The Morton J. and Morton D. May Fund was established at the St. Louis Community Foundation in 1989 from the termination of the Morton J. May Foundation, a private foundation originally established in 1959 with gifts of stock of The May Department Stores Company. While the fund was established by the trustees to support nonprofits at the discretion of the Community Foundation, the original trust document includes the May family’s goal that a portion of the contributions each year should go to “qualified organization(s) Jewish or predominantly Jewish in character.”
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to help the Jewish Federation understand the needs of this segment of our community,” said Ameila Bond, president and CEO of the Greater St. Louis Community Foundation. “It will help us target meaningful support of the Jewish community in years to come, in keeping with the goals of the trustees of the 1959 foundation.”
The Greater St. Louis Community Foundation will make a similar grant recommendation for the same purpose next March.