(JTA) — Four Jewish community projects in the United States, Mexico and Uruguay will receive grants from the Natan Fund and the ROI Community.
The Natan Grants for ROI Entrepreneurs announced the grants, totaling $37,000, on Monday to support innovative ideas for diversifying Jewish life.
The grants are going to:
* Amy Beth Oppenheimer’s Faces of Israel program, which uses an educational film to focus on questions of Jewish identity, religious pluralism and civil liberties.
* Fabian Schamis’ Nefesh, a new school in Uruguay’s Punta del Este Jewish community that is addressing children’s needs and strengthening ties within the local community.
* Isidoro Hamui’s Mexican Merkaba Fest, which aims to create, promote and explore local and foreign artists and share Jewish culture and music with the greater Mexican society;
* And Robert Saferstein’s Friday Night Lights project, a series of Shabbat dinners for gay Jewish professionals highlighting charitable organizations assisting the LGBTQ community.
The new partnership between Natan and the ROI Community, a member of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropic Network, was initiated as a way of integrating Natan’s young philanthropists with ROI’s global network of emerging entrepreneurs and innovators, the groups said in a statement issued Monday.
The Natan Fund provides early-stage funding for creative approaches to challenges facing the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The ROI Community provides tools, support and space for Jewish innovators.
