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PROGRAMS, PROJECTS AND GRANTS
The Environment
Tolerance and Religious Pluralism
Program The Green Environment Fund — $1,211,017 The New Israel Fund’s partnership with the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and an anonymous foundation, aims to protect and preserve Israel’s environment, promote environmental justice and strengthen the country’s environmental movement. In 2007, this consortium awarded grants in the amount of $1.27 million to dozens of local and national organizations that help vulnerable populations participate in environmental decision-making and implement projects that improve the environment. Major grants went to the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership, Coalition for Public Health, Green Network, Green Course, Citizens for the Environment in the Galilee, Life and Environment, Link to the Environment, Eretz Carmel and more. GEF also funds community initiatives through the SHELI Fund.
SHATIL Project Environmental Justice — $187,000 This project trains Israelis from disadvantaged groups, which often bear the brunt of environmental hazards, to become effective advocates for their communities. The project establishes coalitions to advance regional and national issues, SHATIL networks among environmental groups to establish priorities and strategies for Israel’s environmental movement at large.
SHATIL Project Pluralism Initiative — $131,000 Established in 1998 to encourage diverse expressions of Jewish identity, strengthen liberal elements within Orthodox Judaism and facilitate religious freedom through policy change. The project provides capacity building services to organizations, identifies and develops new leaders, and helps diverse organizations coordinate activities for maximum impact. Special efforts target progressive Orthodox women’s groups, cultivating alternative expression of Jewish rituals, establishing secular spiritual communities and establishing joint initiatives with organizations active in other issue areas, such as immigrants from the FSU.
Grants Bina: Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture — $99,816 Implements a secular yeshiva and other educational and community activities that promote pluralistic Jewish culture among the secular public, with an emphasis on young people.
Center for Women’s Justice — $108,980 Litigation and advocacy to advance the status of Jewish women whose rights have been violated as a result of the legal system’s adoption of religious laws.
Esh David — $30,000 An independent Jewish pluralistic congregation established and led by FSU immigrants in Ashdod.
Gvanim Olim — Shiluv — $25,000 Developing youth leadership that will implement pluralistic Jewish identity community projects among FSU immigrants.
Havaya — $25,000 Promoting secular Jewish identity with a focus on developing alternative ceremonies for secular Jewish weddings in Israel.
“There is only one Kinneret,” says a banner unfurled by protestors from Green Course.