Jewish Funders Network

06/17/2026

What keeps a synagogue, a JCC, or a day school safe? Our latest episode takes on that question. JFN President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny sits down with Mitch Silber, CEO of the Community Security Initiative and former Director of Intelligence Analysis for the NYPD.

Take a listen: https://www.jfunders.org/news/729472/Mitch-Silber---What-It-Takes-to-Keep-Jewish-Communities-Safe.htm

Mitch recounts how 9/11 redirected his career out of corporate finance and into counterterrorism, what he learned helping build the NYPD’s intelligence and counterterrorism capacity, and why the American Jewish community’s approach to security changed so dramatically after the attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City, and Monsey. He and Andrés map the threats facing Jewish institutions today, including white supremacists, Islamist extremists, and violent anti-Israel actors, then turn to the hard practical questions. What can volunteers do and not do? When is armed security necessary? How do local and national organizations coordinate, and where can philanthropy make the most concrete difference?

06/10/2026

Many funders reach for one-year grants out of caution, keeping multi-year support as a special case. In his latest Foundations in Focus column, Yossi Prager, Senior Managing Director of JFN Consulting, argues that the default should run the other way. Longer commitments give nonprofits the runway to plan strategically, make good-faith staffing decisions, and take the healthy risks that meaningful impact tends to require. Yossi explains how a well-built grant agreement, with clear benchmarks and the right to reconsider, lets a funder extend that confidence while still protecting against a program that loses its way or a leadership change that warrants a second look.

Read more: https://www.jfunders.org/news/729040/Best-Practices-in-Multi-Year-Funding.htm

06/04/2026

On the latest episode of What Gives?, JFN President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny speaks with Naomi Firestone-Teeter and Elisa Spungen Bildner of the Jewish Book Council, an organization that has spent a century championing Jewish books, Jewish writers, and the readers who find themselves through Jewish stories.

Take a listen: https://www.jfunders.org/news/news.asp?id=728478

Naomi, Elisa, and Andrés talk about why books remain such a powerful entry point into Jewish life, especially at a time when Jewish identity, Jewish culture, and Jewish authorship all feel newly urgent. They explore the history of the Jewish Book Council, from its beginnings as Jewish Book Week in 1925 to its current role as a convener, advocate, and ecosystem-builder for Jewish literature. And they discuss the challenges facing Jewish writers and publishers after October 7, the need to make room for Israeli voices and a wider range of Jewish stories, and why funders should see culture as central to Jewish continuity rather than peripheral to it.

06/03/2026

JFN members and non-members alike are invited to join us Tuesday, June 16 at 11:00am ET for a conversation with the research team behind "A Quest for Justice: October 7 and Beyond," a work of rigorous scholarship and a practical tool for pursuing accountability.

Click here to register: https://www.jfunders.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=2062108&group=

This research compiles comprehensive analysis of the sexual atrocities committed on October 7 and in captivity, with findings that may also inform broader global efforts to build a robust and credible factual foundation of the atrocities, and strengthen mechanisms for accountability. In this session, the research team will discuss their methodology, key findings, and the real-world legal and policy applications of their work.

Co-authored by Justice (Ret.) Nava Ben-Or, Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, and Att. Col (Res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, with visual editor Nurit Jacobs-Yinon, the research was developed as part of The Dinah Project at the Rackman Center, Bar-Ilan University.

05/26/2026

What does it look like when a major Jewish foundation goes all-in on one city and starts to see results?

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has been rooted in Baltimore for generations, and today 25% of its $140 million in annual giving goes toward combating poverty there. JFN co-founded TEN: Together Ending Need with the Foundation, an effort that has helped shine a light on economically vulnerable Jews and strengthen the social services infrastructure supporting them in Baltimore and beyond.

In a new interview with EJewish Philanthropy, Managing Director Sarah Manekin discusses the city's dramatic drop in homicides, the lessons learned from decades of place-based philanthropy, and why listening to communities (not just funding them) is the real work.

The Baltimore-based Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is one of many large Jewish foundations with local footprints. Last month, the foundation participated in “Big Bets for America: Baltimore,” a conference hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation that rallied 250 changemakers from the city to...

05/19/2026

Gal Gadot has dedicated her $1 million Genesis Prize award to helping Israel heal. The Jerusalem Post spoke with The Genesis Prize Foundation Chairman Stan Polovets about the philanthropic initiative taking shape around that commitment: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-896012

In partnership with JFN, the Genesis Prize Foundation has built a $2 million matching grant program focused on Israel's "human infrastructure": the therapists, educators, social workers, and frontline professionals sustaining communities since October 7. Israeli nonprofits can apply for matching grants until June 15: https://www.jfunders.org/mpage/genesis-grant

Genesis Prize Foundation Chairman Stan Polovets reflects on matching gift initiative in honor of 2026 laureate Gal Gadot

05/14/2026

In the latest episode of What Gives? The Jewish Philanthropy Podcast, JFN President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny speaks with Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Senior Rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue and a leading voice in American Jewish life. Through his writing and public leadership, Elliot has been deeply engaged in some of the most contentious debates shaping the Jewish community right now. Andrés and Elliot take a close look at the questions raised about the role of rabbis in political life that arose during last fall's New York City mayoral campaign, and explore how Jewish leaders decide when to speak out, where the boundaries of communal discourse should be drawn, and how questions around Zionism, anti-Zionism, and internal disagreement are playing out across synagogues and campuses.

Take a listen: https://www.jfunders.org/news/727200/Rabbi-Elliot-Cosgrove---Rabbis-Red-Lines-and-the-Future-of-Jewish-Leadership.htm

05/12/2026

What if Jewish teen programming wasn’t another item on an over-scheduled resume, but a respite from the pressure to constantly achieve?

In a new eJewishPhilanthropy piece, JFN's Dr. Beth Cooper Benjamin and Honeycomb's Laura Hemlock-Schaeffer explore how “achievement culture” affects Jewish teens and how youth programs can create space for messiness, failure, growth, and genuine connection.

Read more: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/getting-messy-on-purpose-how-jewish-teen-programming-can-serve-as-a-respite-from-achievement-culture/

05/06/2026

We're pleased to share a message from Ronny Douek of the Douek Family Foundation:

It was an honor to serve as the Israeli Chair of the 2026 JFN International Conference, especially during such challenging times in Israel and for Jewish communities worldwide. It was inspiring to be in community with you in San Diego, look forward to continuing build and grow our shared work. Hope to see you at JFN’s International Conference in Israel in 2027.

The Douek Family Foundation is proud to have supported the 2026 JFN International Conference.

04/30/2026

On the latest episode of What Gives?—the Jewish Philanthropy Podcast from Jewish Funders Network, JFN President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny speaks with Mijal Bitton, spiritual leader of the Downtown Minyan in New York City and scholar in residence at Maimonides Fund, and Yehuda Kurtzer, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute. This episode takes on one of the hardest questions facing Jewish communities right now: how we think about boundaries, belonging, and the obligations we owe one another.

Take a listen: https://www.jfunders.org/news/726302/Mijal-Bitton--Yehuda-Kurtzer---Boundaries-Belonging-and-Our-Obligations-to-One-Another.htm

Using their two recent essays as a point of departure, Andrés, Mijal, and Yehuda explore the tension between kinship and consent in Jewish life, the legacy of radical inclusion in liberal Jewish institutions, and the ways October 7 forced many American Jews to reconsider what peoplehood actually asks of them.