Israel & Overseas: What We Fund
Food & Human Security Needs
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Humanitarian Assistance in Moldova
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh provides core funding to the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The JDC is the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization, impacting millions of lives in more than 70 countries today. In addition to the core funding, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh directly supports the provision of humanitarian assistance to Jews in Moldova, including hunger relief, homecare, medical services, and winter relief. Learn more...
ERAN
Emotional First Aid by Telephone & Internet
The mission of ERAN – Emotional First Aid by Telephone & Internet -- is to provide confidential, unconditional emotional support and crisis intervention for anyone in need in Israel. ERAN operates 10 hotline centers throughout Israel in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Netanya, Kfar Saba, Karmiel, Hadera, Rishon Le Zion and Nazareth, and an Internet service providing unconditional emotional support using e-mail correspondence and real-time chat. In 2016 more than 173,441 calls were taken and approximately 700 lives were saved by ERAN volunteers by “being there” for callers when they needed help most urgently. There are 72 Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian speaking volunteers operating in the Carmiel Branch at present. At its height, the Karmiel Branch compromised 90 volunteers and received approximately 12,500 calls each year. Due to declining numbers in volunteers, many callers need to wait until a professionally trained volunteer receives their call to provide emotional support in their native language. The grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is intended to be used to help recruit and train new volunteers from Karmiel/Misgav. Learn more...
Leket Israel
Project Leket
Leket Israel is the largest food bank in Israel, and has been a leader and an expert in food rescue nationwide since 2003. The organization sources, collects and redistributes fresh, perishable, quality food, which would otherwise be considered waste, from farms, hotels, military bases and catering halls. This is done in an effort to aid the quarter of the country’s population that lives below the poverty line. Leket works with 195 non-profits throughout the country to provide nutritious food to over 175,000 Israelis weekly. Last year alone, Leket collected and delivered over 30 million pounds of fresh, healthy food for the needy. Learn more...
Yad Sarah
Karmiel: Providing Help Where Needed, When Needed
Yad Sarah, the largest voluntary organization in Israel, provides a spectrum of free or nominal cost medical equipment designed to make life easier for sick, disabled and elderly people and their families. Today, more than four decades after it was founded, Yad Sarah has more than 100 branches throughout Israel run by more than 6,000 volunteers, and saves the Israeli economy several hundred million dollars per year in hospitalization and medical costs. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is proud to support Yad Sarah's Karmiel branch. Learn more...
At Risk Youth
Ayalim Association
Carmiel Student Village - Social Outreach for At-Risk Youth in Carmiel
The Ayalim Association was established in 2002 to undertake the critical challenge of community building and social development in the Negev and the Galilee. The organization was designed to revive the pioneering and Zionist model of settlement and development. The movement consists of young people, driven by Zionistic values, working together to revive the Zionist ideal in a way fit for the 21st century. The Association promotes educational values of Zionism, creating innovation in disadvantaged areas while fostering values of Judaism and social activism. These goals are implemented through the establishment of student villages and alumni compounds as a base for social involvement towards permanent communities in Israel’s periphery. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is proud to support the Karmiel Student village. Thirty-three students reside in the village and the volunteer in various social outreach projects throughout the city. The project's goals are: (1) To minimize gaps in education and access to educational resources between the country's center and its periphery; (2) To develop, enlarge and strengthen communities in the Negev and the Galilee, through its Student Villages and community groups; (3) To create social, educational and cultural empowerment in the region based on direct social involvement; and (4) To undertake projects designated as national missions, such as creating socio-demographic change in the Negev and the Galilee. Learn more...
Kibbutz Eshbal
Mechinat Yiftah
Kibbutz Eshbal's boarding school provides sanctuary for some of Israel’s most troubled youth. As an educational kibbutz, it takes at-risk teenagers and transforms them into individuals ready to make a positive contribution to Israeli society. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is proud to support Kibbutz Eshbal's Mechina - a pre-army program which promotes the personal growth and integration of at-risk youth into meaningful service in the IDF, Israeli society and the workforce. Approximately half of the participants in the Mechina program are Ethiopian-Israelis. In addition, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh supports the development of an educational campsite, which will host youth from all over the country during annual school trips. The campsite will be used for educational activities promoting values of Zionism, leadership and social justice. Learn more...
Orr-Shalom
Orr Shalom Educational Intervention Program
Orr Shalom rescues Israel’s children who have been removed from their homes by the social welfare services following severe abuse, neglect and tragedy. By providing safe, loving homes and educational, psychological and material support, Orr Shalom enables the children in its care to break the cycle of abuse, overcome their pasts and prepare for life as independent adults. In recent years, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh supported an emergency foster home for children aged 0 - 5, who have been removed from their homes in a crisis situation, oftentimes in the middle of the night. Each Orr Shalom foster family cares for up to five children, giving them love and stability, until a permanent foster family is found. In 2017-18, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will be supporting a foster home for adolesent girls who have been removed from their homes. Learn more...
Yemin Orde
CONNECTIONS: Immigrant Youth and Jewish Identity
Yemin Orde Youth Village (Boarding School) is home, school and safe haven to 440 at-risk and immigrant youth from around the world. Today, Yemin Orde's youth are from Ethiopia, Former Soviet Union, France, Brazil and Israel-born. Youth at Yemin Orde face many challenges. Like their peers around the world, they are working to figure out who they are, where they fit in and who they want to become. As immigrants, they are struggling to find their place in a new country, with a new language and culture; connecting to their Jewish identity is directly related to finding their place in Israeli society. Yemin Orde works to fill this enormous void. By deepening their understanding of Judaism and Israel, Yemin Orde is helping them to craft their own Jewish and Israeli identities from a place of knowledge, and strengthening their connection to the country and its people. The CONNECTIONS program, supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, works to provide children with a foundation in Jewish tradition, history, and values and in doing so connecting them to modern Israeli culture and society. Learn more...
Special Needs
Beit Issie Shapiro
Economic Empowerment for Women with Complex Learning Disabilities
Beit Issie Shapiro is Israel’s leading developer and provider of innovative therapies and state-of-the-art services for children and adults across the entire range of disabilities impacting on over half a million people annually. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh supports the Economic Empowerment Program, which enables women with complex learning disabilities to overcome obstacles and learn critical skills for the first time, empowering them and teaching them how to manage their own finances. The program also aims to help them establish an identity of occupational competence and build a personal employment vision, helping them to establish and achieve short-term and long-term economic goals. Learn more...
ELI- Israel Association for Child Protection
Awareness, Prevention, and Treatment of Abused Children with Special Needs
The Israel Association for Child Protection (ELI) is recognized by the Government of Israel and other human service agencies as the only organization in Israel that deals specifically and exclusively with all of the various aspects of child abuse. The organization works tirelessly to increase awareness by educating the public at large, by training professionals, by lobbying policy decision makers, and by providing vital information to potential victims and parents. WIth the support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, ELI has successfully integrated their therapy program into schools for children with special needs, who are at much greater risk of being the victims of all forms of abuse than the general population. Learn more...
Israel Elwyn
Helping People Turn Challenge Into Success
The mission of Israel Elwyn is to develop and provide a wide array of support and tools for people with disabilities. Israel Elwyn provides direct services annually to more than 4,000 children and adults throughout the State of Israel. Israel Elwyn opened the Early Intervention Center (EIC) in Karmiel in 2008 with a primary mission to serve toddlers with autism from the Karmiel/Misgav region and the north of Israel. Israel Elwyn's EIC is the only facility of its kind in the Galilee with the capacity to serve toddlers with autism, and originally accommodated a total of 20 children. Israel Elwyn's Early Intervention Centers (EIC) in northern Israel are unique in their integrated treatment of the child and his family. The child's treatment is through a personal work program prepared by the multi-disciplinary professional staff from the fields of occupational, communication and other therapies as well as psychology. These programs constitute the buildings blocks necessary for the child's cognitive, motor and language development and relate to his needs and abilities throughout the day. The parents are full partners and fully involved in the child's treatment program at the EIC and receive intensive guidance from the staff. Learn more...
Israel Venture Network
At the forefront of the social business arena in Israel
Established in in 2001, IVN is a venture philanthropy network of high-tech entrepreneurs, business executives, venture capitalists, corporations and philanthropists from Israel and the US. IVN’s network of members, along with its team of professionals, recruits and leverages its resources, contacts and experience from the business world in the social arena to develop this fourth sector. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is supporting IVN's E-community, a social business located in Misgav that provides employment opportunities for adults with special needs by recycling raw materials from end-of-life electronics. Learn more...
Kishorit
Organic Fruit Orchard in Kishorit
Kishorit is a kibbutz in Misgav Regional Council and a home for life for adults with special needs. It is a supportive community that provides a continuum of residential, social and vocational services. Kishorit members live full, independent lives, and mature and grow old with dignity. In recent years, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh supported an organic fruit orchard, which provided employment for Kishorit's members, fruit for the Kishorit kibbutz kitchen, andand revenue for the kibbutz. In 2017-18, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will be supporting an equine therapy program for the residents of Kishorit. Learn more...
Krembo Wings
Support of Karmiel branch
Krembo Wings is the only inclusive youth movement in Israel for children and youth with and without disabilities, providing weekly social activities for young people with all types of mental and physical disabilities together with their able-bodied peers. Members with disabilities are paired with two able-bodied youth counselors for the duration of the activity year; these interactions increase the self-confidence of the disabled children, and fosters a sense of belonging for all the participants. Through a comprehensive training program and hands-on volunteer-work at the branch, counselors develop leadership skills and gain a sense of social responsibility. Krembo Wings provides specialized transportation to and from the branch activities for every member with disabilities, and a professional caregiver is present at all activity sessions to perform hygienic tasks. Established in 2002, Krembo Wings operates tens of branches across Israel, and welcomes thousands of young people aged 7 to 21 from all cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is proud to support Krembo Wings' Karmiel branch. Learn more...
Jordan River Village
A Serious Fun Camp
Jordan River Village is the only year-round, overnight camp and retreat center in the Middle East where children (ages 9-18) living with serious illnesses of all backgrounds can just be kids. By creating free, fun-filled, memorable, empowering, medically sound and safe camping experiences, the Jordan River Village enriches the lives of children of all ethnic and religious backgrounds in Israel, who suffer from a chronic or life-threatening illness. Open year-round, the Village can accommodate up to 64 campers during each session. Jordan River Village has everything expected at a children’s camp: 12 bright and comfortable camper cabins, a communal dining hall, theater, sports center, arts & crafts building, a specially heated and treated pool, library, petting zoo, adventure tower, and more. The Village also has a state-of-the-art, yet unobtrusive 24-hour medical center. Children who visit the Village have the experience of a lifetime. They leave their illnesses at the door, and participate in the broad range of camp activities enabling them to have fun, succeed, come together, and discover new things. In addition, campers meet other children who face challenges similar to their own, and make life-long friends, and circles of support. Learn more...
Jewish Identity/Education
HaShomer HaChadash
To safeguard the land of Israel in the Galilee and Negev through education and social action
HaShomer HaChadash is a Zionist organization focused on our collective obligation to the Land of Israel. In 2007, one young man in the Galilee stood up to aggressors from surrounding villages who for years had tried to exhaust his family into abandoning their farm land, barraging them with a constant stream of thefts, arson and vandalism. With his family on the verge of bankruptcy, the young man felt the need to act. Refusing to leave or bend to criminal pressure, he pitched a lookout tent on a hilltop, and, armed only with a flag of Israel and a passion for his homeland, stood watch, declared a presence and a claim to his land. Joined at first by friends, and then by strangers, Yoel succeeded in thwarting the aggressors and defending the land which had been in his family for generations. What began as a mission of one became a movement of thousands. realizing that their struggle was the struggle of so many farmers in the Galilee and the Negev, HaShomer HaChadash was founded. Thousands of acres of land, both historically and strategically significant to Israel, had already been abandoned, and thousands more were on the verge of abandonment by farmers and ranchers who could no longer withstand the theft and vandalism. Less than a decade later, HaShomer HaChadash is now a leading Zionist movement of thousands of volunteers, empowering people of all ages to make a change in the physical and moral landscape of our homeland. HaShomer HaChadash is inspiring social change, creating leaders, and ensuring a better and safer tomorrow for all the people of Israel. Learn more...
Jewish Agency for Israel
Summer Camp in Kishinev/Afterschool Jewish EducationPrograms in Moldova
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh provides core funding to the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). JAFI was founded in 1929 in order to take the lead in building the Jewish State. For more than 80 years, JAFI has built infrastructure, harnessed the support of world Jewry on behalf of Israel’s people and land, and brought more than three million Jews to live in Israel. Today, JAFI continues to work to strengthen Israel, reinforce Jewish identity around the world, and connect the Jewish people to Israel, Israelis, and one another. JAFI's 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. In addition to its core funding, the Jewish Agency for Greater Pittsburgh is proud to supprt a summer camp for Jewish children living in Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe. This summer camp helps to build a sense of Jewish identity and community for 300 Jewish children and youth ages 8 to 25. Learn more...
World ORT
Ensuring the long term sustainability of Jewish education in Kishinev, Moldova
World ORT’s mission is to work for the advancement of Jewish and other people through training and education; to provide communities, wherever they are, with the skills and knowledge they need to cope with the complexities and uncertainties of their environment; and to foster economic self-sufficiency, mobility and a sense of identity through the use of the most up-to-date educational technologies and methodologies available. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is proud to support the ORT Herzl Jewish School in Kishinev, Moldova. Many of the 15,000 Jews of Moldova are on the brink of assimilation. For the 670 students and their families, the ORT Herzl school is the place where they come together as a community and where they learn and actively participate in Jewish heritage, Jewish culture and Jewish learning. Learn more...
World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ)
Machon in the FSU
The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), established in London in 1926, is the international umbrella organization of the Reform, Liberal, Progressive and Reconstructionist movements, serving 1,200 congregations with 1.8 million members in more than 50 countries. It is the World Union's goal to ensure that all Jews have access to a vibrant and personally meaningful Jewish life that can best inspire them spiritually and ensure the future of the Jewish People, whether in the State of Israel or throughout the Diaspora. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is proud to support the Machon program, a program intended to address the lack of Rabbinic leadership in the Former Soviet Union. The Machon program encourages participating students to study Jewish education and thereafter pursue a graduate degree in Rabbinic studies. Learn more...
Shared Society
Economic Empowerment for Women (EEW)
Business of One's Own program
Economic Empowerment for women (EEW is dedicated to improving women’s lives through economic empowerment. Its mission is to supply low-income women in Israel with the knowledge and tools to create their own small businesses as a means for gaining financial self-sufficiency and alleviating the cycle of poverty in which they live. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is proud to support the business incubator, which includes joint Jewish and Arab group meetings, one-on-one consultations, professional seminars and workshops, all intended to improve the survival rate for the small businesses launched with the help of EEW. Learn more...
Hand in Hand
Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel
The Hand in Hand Galilee Bilingual School brings together Jewish and Arab students from a young age in a bilingual setting that promotes vital principles of shared society: inclusion, respect, and recognition of the other. Hand in Hand schools were created by a group of Arab and Jewish parents who instinctively understood how segregation leads to growing alienation, division, and hate, and decided to create an alternative. The schools have become a proven model to combat this trend. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh's support for the Hand in Hand school in the Galilee is intended to increase the number of Jewish and Arab students attending the school. There they interact daily on a basis of equality and mutual respect. In addition, the support will be used to continue advancing the school’s pedagogical style – focusing specifically on project based learning, and to broaden the impact beyond the walls of the school to members of the wider community. Learn more...
Moona - A Space for Change
Moona's Implementation Lab
Launched in mid-2014 in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh under the auspices of Partnership2Gether, Moona was created to serve as a platform for regional growth. The proposed project is for Moona’s Implementing Laboratory, a unique technology oriented space in Israel’s North which offers STEM/engineering students from across the region a framework for developing products and prototypes under the supervision of experienced professional mentors. Situated in the central Galilee, the laboratory is at the center of a network of local partnerships between regional development programs, academic institutions and local tech businesses and STEM enterprises. The goals of this project are to provide students in the Galilee Region with unique, hands-on experience in the development process; to prepare students for commensurate engagement in local tech and engineering industries; to provide students with a framework for direct knowledge transfer from industry professionals; to bring students from diverse backgrounds and polarized communities together around collaborative innovations efforts; and to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the Galilee. Learn more...
Akko Center for Arts & Technology
Establishing Center of Arts and Technology (CAT) in Israel
A-CAT, the new Arts & Technology center in Akko, is based on the Manchester Bidwell Corporation (MBC) model for education and career training through an affiliate network of community and culture centers, a model which has been successfully implemented in the US in over 10 big cities. The model is being replicated worldwide with Israel chosen as its first destination, and A-CAT being its first facility overseas. Based on the model, A-CAT is a cultural center providing learning, career training - focusing on the field of hospitality - and growth opportunities to the Jewish and Arab community in Akko and the Western Galilee. Learn more...
Tsofen
To substantially increase the number of Arab software engineers in the Israeli hi tech industry
Tsofen High Technology centers is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the integration of Israel’s Arab Citizens into the hi-tech industry as a means of promoting economic development, reducing poverty, high value job creation in Arab urban centers and integration of Arab citizens into Israel’s civil society. Tsofen’s vision is the full integration of Israel’s Arab citizens into Israel’s prosperous hi-tech and start-up sector. Tsofen’s actions have and will result in sustainable economic development that will benefit Israel’s Arab towns and their people and make Israel a more just and equitable society. Tsofen’s goals are to work with the Arab community and stakeholders from the local, governmental and private sectors to (1) add thousands of Arabs into Israel’s hi tech sector and (2) assist in the creation of hi-tech centers as anchors in Arab towns. Learn more...
Ethiopian Community
Ethiopian National Project
SPACE Scholastic Assistance Program in the city of Karmiel
The Ethiopian National Project (ENP) unites global Jewry, the Government of Israel and the Ethiopian-Israeli community in its mission to advance the integration of Ethiopian-Israelis into Israeli society. ENP is a partnership between the Jewish Federations of North America, the Government of Israel, representatives of Ethiopian Jewish community organizations, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Israel (JDC-Israel) and Keren Hayesod-UIA. ENP works in true partnership with the Ethiopian-Israeli community, involving them at local and national levels at every stage of the creation, implementation and evaluation of ENP programs. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is a proud supporter of the SPACE (Scholastic Assistance) program in Karmiel, an after-school program which aims to ensure the full and successful integration of Ethiopian-Israeli children by enabling them to perform well in school, while increasing self-confidence and addressing social and emotional barriers to their success. Learn more...
Israel Aids Task Force
Social Activism
The Israel AIDS Task Force was founded in 1985 by a group of social activists to promote the general public’s health in relation to AIDS. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh supports their “Community Mediators Program,” which places Amharic speaking social workers as mediators between Ethiopian olim and support systems. In this way, the Israel Aids Task Force is able to combat the wall of silence around HIV and the lack of health education in the Ethiopian community – a community in which cases of HIV are rising due to population influx. The Task Force focuses their efforts on de-stigmatizing the HIV diagnosis in the Ethiopian community through community outreach via mediator-training, medical programming, and open discussion, as well as preventing further transmission within the community through awareness raising activities. Learn more...
JobKatif: Achotenu
Ethiopian-Israeli Nurse Training Program
JobKatif, founded in 2005, provides rehabilitative employment services to different populations in Israel, including Ethiopian-Israelis. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh supports their Achotenu program, which was launched in 2013 in order to assist Ethiopian young adults to gain acceptance into nursing studies on the basis of culturally compatible criteria, so that they can find stable employment, break out of poverty and integrate into Israeli society. Their current program consists of a preparatory year and four years of academic studies, through a partnership with Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital. Learn more...