PresenTense Group Receives AVI CHAI Fellowship

The AVI CHAI Foundation has announced that it is allocating up to $1.15 million over the course of the next three years to four individuals and one team of two whom it has selected as the first recipients of The AVI CHAI Fellowship. It won't surprise any of you who follow the Jewish innovation beat to learn that the "team of two" is that of Beery and Horwitz--Ariel and Aharon are sharing the fellowship, with the goal of "expanding PresenTense Magazine and the PresenTense Institute for Creative Zionism to form a corps of forward-thinking social and communal pioneers, specially trained for the Information Age."

The other fellows and their projects are:

Dr. Betsy Dolgin Katz, writing a book about the development of adult Jewish learning against the backdrop of contemporary America society; Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, who is working on the expansion of Yeshivat Hadar beyond its present parameters, allowing the institution to have a national and potentially global influence; Rabbi Dov Linzer, who is creating a rabbinical school curriculum for educators, allowing the Orthodox rabbinate to gain enhanced pedagogical training, so that they are better trained to be Day School educators; and Rabbi Menachem Schmidt, who is expanding innovative Jewish programming in the Philadelphia area.

This program constitutes the largest cash award -- $75K per fellow or team per year -- to emerging communal and educational leaders within the North American Jewish community. The award will go towards their proposed activities, the purpose of The AVI CHAI Fellowship is to advance and promote the individual winners as important forces in building a vital American Jewish future built upon these values.

More than 40 nominations were submitted by twenty nominators (18 located in the United States and 2 in Israel) and the seven members of the selection committee met privately over the course of four months. The AVI CHAI Fellowship was kept under wraps and the nominators and selections committee remained anonymous so that the integrity of the nomination and selection process not be compromised. Winners were informed of their achievement in late April.

More info below, from an AVI CHAI FOUNDATION release:

The AVI CHAI Foundation occupies a singular spot in North American Jewish life, defining its goals as fostering high levels of Jewish Literacy; deepening Religious Purposefulness and promoting Jewish Peoplehood and deeper connections to the State of Israel. AVI CHAI works toward achieving these goals via (1) supporting programs in the Jewish day school and camping fields, (2) strengthening key institutions in these fields, and (3) engaging partners and successors.

“By engaging partners and successors,” explains Yossi Prager, AVI CHAI’s Executive Director in North America, “we mean identifying and cultivating philanthropists, thought leaders and practitioners who advance our core goals, within and beyond the fields of our programmatic activities.”

“Although the Foundation will cease making grants in 2020,” explains Arthur Fried, AVI CHAI’s Chairman, “its work will be far from completed, for the challenges that confront the Jewish communities where we work are perpetual.  It is our desire that the work not end -- rather that it be continued by others, who perhaps will be animated by what we have started, and by the standards we have tried to set.”  

“The AVI CHAI Fellowship is intended to be a vehicle for investing in people with vision, creativity, courage, savvy and stamina to try new things, to think outside the conventional boxes or inside them in new ways, and to see opportunities where others see obstacles,” he added.

Comments

[VJ]

Congrats all around Esther. We can only hope for more good fortune coming you way. Cheers & Good Luck! 'VJ'