Our 2023 Gordon Lentzner Community Impact Grants

Our 2023 Gordon Lentzner Community Impact Grants

Dr. Vicki Scherwin | Grants Committee Chair

Jewish Long Beach is thrilled to be funding 16 grants this year, totaling $239,100 which will be distributed to 12 organizations and their collaborators. A critical element of Jewish Long Beach’s mission is to inspire community. One of the ways that Jewish Long Beach does this is through the grant making process. Applicant organizations demonstrated, through their grant applications, how they would address one of the following themes: Jewish Education, Community Engagement, Jewish Pluralism, Engaging with Israel and the World, and Organization Research. Organizations could apply for individual grants of up to $20,0000 or collaborative grants of up to $40,000. Jewish Long Beach seeks to encourage collaborations between organizations within Long Beach and West Orange County as well as between Jewish organizations in Long Beach and West Orange County and Jewish Organizations in Israel or other parts of the world. Collaborations on one project may be with another agency or synagogue or they may fund new Jewish networks for business, cultural, language, or economic ties in Greater Long Beach, the country, Israel, or the other parts of the world. This year’s grants will be supporting Jewish refugees, Jewish college students, and Jewish campers, developing future Jewish leaders, providing Holocaust education and programing, building connections between young Jewish professionals, providing mental health services to Jewish refugees and Jewish students, and much more.

Applications were submitted online and then reviewed by the Grants committee in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the 2023 Lentzner Community Impact Grants Request for Proposals (RFP). At the completion of the granting period, grant recipients will submit reports detailing the impact of their programs (i.e., how many community members served, new participants reached, new forms of engagement uncovered) and also lessons learned in terms of success and challenges. Through building the capacity of our partner organizations, Jewish Long Beach moves closer to achieving our vision of building and sustaining, now and for future generations, a vibrant Jewish community committed to fostering tikkun olam (repairing the world) and the well-being of all people.

If you are part of an organization, or are familiar with an organization whose goals, programs, or dreams align with mission and themes of Jewish Long Beach, please consider applying next year. The granting process will begin in the fall of 2023. Funding for these grants is made possible, in part, by your generous donations to Jewish Long Beach.

In 2022, Jewish Long Beach’s Impact Grants were renamed in honor of Gordon Lentzner, for a lifetime of dedication to communal leadership.