2019 Community Investments
Core and Priority Outcome Investments support our Community Partners’ work that aligns with our Core Commitments and aim at achieving outcomes in our priority areas. Jewish Federation of St. Louis will focus its work on achieving the following Core Commitments:
- Expand and strengthen an engaged, vibrant, and flourishing St. Louis Jewish community
- Secure the well-being and safety of individuals within the Jewish community
- Strengthen our connection to Israel and the Jewish People worldwide
- Develop the financial and human resources, and infrastructure, needed by our community
Review 2019 Community Investments to date (as of July 1, 2019) here.
See who we support! Click on one of our Core Commitments in the bar below to search for investments by Core Commitment, or search by key words by typing in the search bar. For example, search by organization name like “Jewish Community Center,” search by a program name such as “Birthright Israel,” a demographic such as “children,” or by other topics like “food” and “travel”.
Engaged, Vibrant, and Flourishing Jewish Community
Financial & Human Resources and Infrastructure
Israel and the Jewish People
Well-being and Safety
70 Faces Media
General Support for 70 Faces Media: Deepening Jewish Digital Engagement to Build Community Online
$1,500
70 Faces Media is a not-for-profit digital media company that aspires to connect as many people as possible to all sides of the unfolding Jewish story.
A Business of One’s Own
Economic Empowerment for Women
$15,000
Economic Empowerment for Women (EEW) is dedicated to improving women’s lives through economic empowerment.
ADL Heartland
ADL Heartland
$17,000
ADL Heartland, headquartered in St. Louis, provides services to Southern Illinois, Missouri, and Eastern Kansas, and presents programs to almost 3000 students, teachers, police officers, and other individuals annually.
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
$19,000
AJC is the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, with unparalleled access to government officials, diplomats, and other world leaders.
Bat Melech – Safe Home for Domestic Violence Survivors
Bat Melech
$5,000
A safe home and rehabilitation program in the Jerusalem area for women and children escaping domestic violence.
BBYO St. Louis Council
BBYO International
$8,000
BBYO St. Louis Council is part of Mid-America Region which includes Kansas City, Omaha, and Minnesota. Through youth-led and staff-supported programs, BBYO St. Louis Council gives members opportunities to develop leadership skills and positively affect their communities, the world, and themselves.
Birthright Israel
Birthright Israel
$50,000
The funding is for St. Louis’ contribution to the national pool, which sends teens and young adults on free trips to Israel each year.
Center for Jewish Learning
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$560,000
The Center for Jewish Learning serves as a community resource to facilitate and convene the Jewish community around issues pertaining to Jewish education; to provide Jewish educational opportunities for individuals and institutional support for educational organizations; to enrich existing community educational programming; and to serve as a catalyst for new initiatives.
Center for Women’s Justice
Center for Women’s Justice
$20,000
The Center for Women’s Justice is a legal advocacy organization that leads in bringing about social change that improves the status of Jewish women in Israel through challenging the control of the rabbinate over personal status issues in Israel through challenges through the civil courts.
Community Engagement
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$886,000
The Community Engagement department of Federation provides a variety of Jewish engagement, Jewish education, and operational support services for individual and organizations in the St. Louis Jewish community. The mission is to build and strengthen community by connecting people to information, resources, services, and each other.
Community Guidance and Counseling Center for the Asylum Seekers Community
Elifelet – Citizens for Refugee Children
$5,000
The Hartman-Elifelet Day Care and Learning Center offers a warm, nurturing environment and education, treatment, and enrichment for African refugee children who are otherwise deprived of their most basic needs until their parents return from work.
Community Impact Committee Discretionary Fund
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$50,000
The Community Impact Committee’s Discretionary Fund provides the committee with the flexibility to fund one-off programs or events and provide support in the case of emergencies.
Community Security
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$105,005
The mission of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis is to “preserve and enhance the community.” It therefore follows that it is appropriate for Federation to take a leading role in assessing and developing a response around community security.
Covenant Place
Covenant Place
$83,000
Covenant Place is a diverse community with a mission of providing affordable housing where seniors and adults with mobility impairments can live independently in a vibrant, safe, and supportive community, guided by Jewish values.
Cracking the Glass Ceiling
Kol Israel Haverim-Alliance
$20,000
This program targets young girls from underprivileged areas of Israel who did not have the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
Creating Resilient Teams in the Bedouin Community
Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC)
$10,000
The Coalition Center works with 40 NGO’s and 12 Government Ministries. ITC provides direct care, team training and support to local residents and 45% of its budget goes to providing therapy.
Discovering Differences
Kol Rinah
$15,000
Kol Rinah, the ADL Heartland, PJ Library, and We Stories will collaborate to implement this project, which engages young Jewish families in discussions about differences, giving them a Jewish community of peers dedicated to this work and opportunities to continue the learning in their own homes.
Early Childhood Education and Engagement Collaborative Initiative
Early Childhood Directors Council
$65,000
The Director’s Council is enacting a comprehensive professional development plan with the major outcomes of increasing Jewish early childhood staff qualifications, including increasing the competency and ability of staff to deliver high-quality and in-depth Jewish content.
ECC Jewish Family Engagement Initiative
Jewish Community Center
$10,000
The J’s Family Center will provided Jewish cultural, Israel, and holiday enrichment activities within the classrooms of secular preschools where Jewish families are enrolled.
Education for Tolerance: Program in Memory of Shira Banki (in Hebrew: “Moreh LeHaym”)
Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance
$10,000
The allocation supports an educational program around homophobia for students and educators from 8th-12th grades within the secular and modern Orthodox public school system in Jerusalem.
Elderly Jews in the Former Soviet Union
Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
$50,000
This investment supports JDC’s welfare assistance program that targets the thousands of Jewish elderly in the former Soviet Union who live below minimum subsistence levels.
Gil Or-Megiddo Elderly Services
Megiddo Regional Council
$10,000
This investment provides visits to homebound elderly, home repairs, an emergency call center, a wide variety of physical and intellectual activities and programs and congregate meals.
Hand in Hand
Hand in Hand
$12,000
Hand in Hand brings together thousands of Jews and Arabs in six schools and communities throughout Israel.
Haredi Job Placement
Jerusalem College of Technology
$10,000
The Jerusalem College of Technology is an Orthodox institution that provides a comprehensive program of religious classes together with a rigorous academic program. This investment supports their efforts to assist members of the Haredi community with job training and placement.
Hillel at WashU
Hillel at Washington University in St. Louis
$107,000
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is a public affairs organization working on behalf of the St. Louis Jewish community. They represent synagogues and Jewish organizations on critical issues affecting Jews as individuals and as a community.
Hillel Engagement Staff
Hillel at Washington University in St. Louis
$37,500
This investment supports the expansion of staff at WashU Hillel to include a Director of Programming and Engagement position, which created capacity to launch the BEAR Fellowship, a peer-to-peer engagement internship.
Hillel International
Hillel International
$24,000
Hillel International connects with students at more than 550 colleges and universities across North America and around the world. They create lasting connections with students, inspiring and training them to become leaders and build their own communities.
Holocaust Museum & Learning Center
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$220,000
The Holocaust Museum & Learning Center is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Holocaust, educating about its causes and illustrating how what happened during this tragic period relates to our lives today. While learning Holocaust history is the key to understanding its roots, we have another duty: to empower visitors to make the world a kinder, safer, more tolerant place by rejecting all forms of hate, intolerance, racism, and bigotry.
Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues
Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
$1,000
The Task Force is committed to the welfare of Israel and proud of the democratic nature of the State of Israel’s Declaration of Independence that includes the article that promises social and political equality to all it is inhabitants, Jews and Arabs alike.
iRep
Israel Religious Expression Platform
$5,000
Through the Israel Religious Expression Platform (iRep), Federations are working with the Jewish Religious Equality Coalition to promote religious freedom in Israel.
Israel Action Network
Jewish Federations of North America
$12,000
The Israel Action Network builds a strong base of support for Israel and counters delegitimization in the context of two states for two peoples. Their work is grounded in creating meaningful one-on-one relationships with people of faith, human rights advocates, campus and civic leaders, and friends and neighbors in our communities.
Israel and Jewish Identity Engagement Staff
Hillel-University of Missouri
$10,000
This grant allows Mizzou Hillel and Hillel staff to look at the ways that students connect to Jewish identity, using Israel as one measure of this, and to more fully engage Jewish students on campus and challenge those students to build a broader connection to their Jewish Identity.
Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (IMRJ)
Maggid HaRuach Initiative for Jewish Renewal in Meggido
$30,000
This investment assists IMRJ to maintain a new Progressive presence in the Megiddo-Yokneam region.
ITIM – Advocacy Center
ITIM Legal & Public Policy Centers
$20,000
This investment supports the work of the organization to address the problems that individual Israelis and foreigners encounter in navigating and overcoming barriers presented by civil and religious laws, regulations and ad hoc practices pertaining to Jewish life cycle and status issues in Israel.
JCPA
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
$9,500
JCPA is the national hub of the community relations network made up of 125 community relations councils and 17 national Jewish agencies. Its mission is to inspire, support, coordinate, convene, build consensus, and mobilize the network while serving as the national representative of the network’s public policy platform.
Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance
Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance
$10,000
The allocation supports an educational program around homophobia for students and educators from 8th – 12th grades within the secular and modern Orthodox public school system in Jerusalem.
Jewish Agency For Israel
Jewish Agency for Israel
$505,000
The Jewish Agency for Israel is the largest Jewish nonprofit organization in the world. Its mission is to “inspire Jews throughout the world to connect with their people, heritage, and land, and empower them to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel.”
Jewish Community Center
Jewish Community Center - St. Louis
$1,040,000
Jewish values and identity are explored through educational, cultural, and social programs that are open to anyone in the St. Louis community. They offer a unique, pluralistic environment and Jewish programming that attracts people from all backgrounds, observance levels, and experiences.
Jewish Community Centers Association
Jewish Community Centers Association of North America
$19,000
JCC Association offers services and resources to increase the effectiveness of JCCs as they provide community engagement and educational, cultural, social, recreational, and Jewish identity building programs to enhance Jewish life throughout North America. By supporting the 25,000 Jewish communal professionals who connect with two million JCC participants each year, the JCC Association encourages engaged lives of purpose and meaning.
Jewish Community Employment Services
MERS/Goodwill Industries
$55,000
The Career Navigator provides a wide range of employment services to members of the Jewish community, including career counseling, interview skills training, resume assistance, job search coaching, referrals to appropriate community resources, job development and job retention assistance.
Jewish Community Relations Council
Jewish Community Relations Council
$285,005
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is a public affairs organization working on behalf of the St. Louis Jewish community. They represent synagogues and Jewish organizations on critical issues affecting Jews as individuals and as a community.
Jewish Federations of North America (Dues)
Jewish Federations of North America
$352,000
The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) represents 147 Jewish Federations and over 300 Network communities, which raise and distribute more than $3 billion annually and through planned giving and endowment programs to support social welfare, social services, and educational needs.
Jewish Student Union (JSU)
Jewish Student Union (JSU)
$38,500
JSU facilitates club meetings in high schools, which include speakers, discussions on topics of interest to the teens, and interactive activities.
JF&CS
Jewish Family & Children’s Service
$759,000
Jewish Family & Children’s Service offers compassionate support and practical solutions to help people in our community navigate life’s challenges. JF&CS and its licensed professional staff assist the elderly, protect children at risk, provide food and services for the needy, resolve family problems, and enhance Jewish connections.
JGrads – Jewish Graduate Program of St. Louis
Chabad on Campus
$45,000
JGrads builds community among Jewish graduate students to all area graduate schools and programs, which aims to keep Jewish graduate students in St. Louis after completion of their program.
Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
$505,000
JDC is the leading Jewish humanitarian organization, working in 70 countries to lift lives and strengthen communities. They rescue Jews in danger, provide aid to vulnerable Jews, develop innovative solutions to Israel’s most complex social challenges, cultivate a Jewish future, and lead the Jewish community’s response to crises.
JPRO Network (Dues)
JPRO Network
$1,500
JPRO Network connects, educates, inspires, and empowers professionals working in the Jewish nonprofit sector by providing networking opportunities across fields strengthening the continental and local Jewish communities.
MaTovu
MaTovu
$30,000
MaTovu is an inclusive Jewish space in St. Louis City that fosters connection through enriching the community’s spiritual, cultural, and social life.
Meals on Wheels
Jewish Community Center
$85,000
The Kitchen J Department Meals on Wheels program at the J provides kosher home delivered meals to home bound seniors and others in need in our community.
Mizzou Hillel
Hillel-University of Missouri/Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
$60,000
Mizzou Hillel is a place where Jewish students come to meet each other and get involved in Jewish life in Mid-Missouri. They are committed to creating a pluralistic, welcoming, and inclusive environment; fostering student growth and the balance in being distinctively Jewish and universally human; advancing social justice, Jewish learning, and spirituality; embracing Israel and global Jewish peoplehood; and creating a close-knit community of people with one thing in common: being Jewish.
Moishe House
Moishe House
$2,500
Moishe House is a place where young adults in their 20s come together and create vibrant Jewish communities. There are more than 100 communities in over 25 countries around the world. Each Moishe House community is uniquely shaped by a group of residents who live together and host programs for their peers.
Multi-Year Program
Megiddo Regional Council/Yokneam Municipality/JAFI
$241,502
For the past eleven years, the Jewish Federations of Greater Atlanta and St. Louis have supported a multi-year project in Yokneam and Megiddo to serve families in distress with children and youth in need.
Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC)
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$200,000
St. Louis NORC is a non-sectarian program coordinated by the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. It supports the healthy aging of adults 60+ in their own homes by providing opportunities for meaningful community involvement and increased access to support services. St. Louis NORC operates within a three-mile service neighborhood in the Creve Coeur area.
Next Dor STL
Next Dor STL
$10,000
Next Dor STL is a pluralistic place to have innovative, meaningful experiences based in community building, empowering young Jewish leaders, tikkun olam and nurturing personal growth.
President and CEO Discretionary Fund
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$25,000
The President and CEO’s Discretionary Fund provides the Board Chair and CEO with the flexibility to fund one-off programs or events and provide support in the case of emergencies.
Q School – Interfaith Model United Youth Program
Q School
$15,000
Situated in the Arab-Israeli town of Tira, the school is the first of its kind in the Arab sector of Israel. This investment supports their participation in a model UN program for Jewish and Arab children, ages 16-18 from the adjacent communities.
Rabbinic Chesed Fund
Congregations
$45,000
This investment provides investments of $2,000 to senior rabbis of each local congregation to give to congregants who are experiencing financial emergencies, in recognition of the fact that some individuals are more comfortable contacting their rabbi than going to a social service agency.
Reform Teen Initiative
Shaare Emeth and United Hebrew
$50,000
The Reform Teen Initiative will combine the resources of the Reform Jewish community to develop new entry points to Judaism and strategically invest to strengthen existing opportunities, recognizing that different approaches are required to best meet teens’ diverse needs. So far, the other congregations involved in this initiative include Temple Israel and Temple Emanuel.
Research Fund
Jewish Federation of St. Louis
$40,000
Each year, we make an investment in a Community Study fund that will allow for more regular Community Study’s to be implemented about every 7-10 years.
Road to Recovery
Road to Recovery
$10,000
Road to Recovery is an organization of volunteers who drive Palestinians undergoing medical treatment in Israeli hospitals to and from the crossings into Israel.
Russian Case Manager
Crown Center for Senior Living
$5,000
This investment provides assistance for Russian-speaking residents of Crown Center to help them access needed resources such as health care, transportation, and nutrition.
Sababa
Jewish Community Center
$62,504
Sababa is St. Louis’ first Jewish Arts & Culture Festival. Sababa is an outdoor festival showcasing the vibrancy of contemporary Jewish culture.
Shaharit
Shaharit
$25,000
Shaharit works to engage people from diverse parts of Israeli society to train them to work for the common good through leadership training and development.
Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research
Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research
$20,000
The Shoresh Institution informs Israel’s leading policymakers and the general public through briefings and accessible publications on the source, nature and scope of core issues facing the country, providing policy options that ensure and improve the well-being of all segments of Israeli society.
Social Nutrition
Covenant Place
$155,000
The Social Nutrition Program provides a kosher meal five days a week to Covenant Place constituents with limited income, to ensure access to adequate nutrition and opportunities for social engagement to combat isolation.
Social Nutrition and Meals on Wheels
Crown Center for Senior Living
$63,000
The Social Nutrition Program provides fresh, nutritious, kosher meals five times a week to those age 60 and over in a congregate setting (Crown Center dining room); and also has a “meals on wheels” component.
St. Louis Jewish Light
St. Louis Jewish Light
$77,000
The St. Louis Jewish Light informs, connects, and inspires the St. Louis Jewish community through the objective coverage of topics of interest to Jews. Through news stories, a weekly calendar, and paid advertising, the Light provides an easy venue for St. Louis’ Jewish institutions to reach a wide audience of readers in the Jewish community.
Summer Camps in Former Soviet Union
Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI)
$60,000
The Jewish Agency’s seven to ten day summer camp programs in Riga and throughout the Former Soviet Union (FSU) ignite and nurture vibrant Jewish identity in young people at a critical time in their development.
The NETWORK
Chabad on Campus
$24,000
The NETWORK is a city-wide collaborative designed to serve the Jewish students at SLU, UMSL, Webster and St. Louis Community Colleges.
Torah & Turf
St. Louis Kollel
$15,000
This program is an opportunity for young Jewish men to play football after a text study session, and has participants from the full spectrum of Jewish practice.
Victims of Terror Fund
Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI)
$15,000
The fund was started in 2006, after the second Lebanon War, for soldiers and civilian victims of terrorism. The program assists those identified by the Government and provides supplementary assistance, such as additional counseling, horse therapy, housing subsidies, college scholarships and home modification that are not covered by government funds.
Yokneam Food Support
Leket Israel
$18,000
Leket Israel is the national food bank of Israel. The program provides vital nutrition to 170,000 needy people each week. Through a partnership with a Yokneam foodbank, Leket supports a total of 61,520 lbs of perishable food for people in the Yokneam region.
Yokneam Municipality – Association for the Elderly
Yokneam Ilit
$10,000
This investment supports the Senior Center for the elderly inhabitants of Yokneam. The Center serves 70 people daily and provides a variety of activities and programs as well as congregate meals.
Youth Futures – Yokneam-Megiddo
Jewish Agency for Israel
$28,000
The Jewish Agency’s Youth Futures program empowers disadvantaged Israeli youth, providing them with an equal opportunity to develop their academic and social skills. Youth Futures is operated in Partnership with overseas Jewish Federations and Keren Hayesod/UIA communities, with Israeli philanthropists, and with the Government of Israel.