Shavei Israel receives Natan grant for 2015
Shavei Israel has once again been awarded a grant from the Natan Fund, a community of young philanthropists based in New York City, dedicated to promoting Jewish and Israeli social innovation.
Founded in 2002, the Natan Fund has provided more than $10.8 million in grants to 190 Jewish organizations and “social entrepreneurs” around the world. The latter refers to Natan’s emphasis on emerging organizations that “demonstrate an innovative approach to addressing the challenges facing Jews around the world.” Natan also supports a select number of longer standing organizations; Shavei Israel is included in this category.
The 2015 awards included $1.2 million to 46 different organizations out of 300 that applied. Applicants this year came from North America, Israel, Argentina, Austria, Sweden and the U.K. The Natan Fund says that most grantees “seek to create new access points to Jewish life for people around the world, including through arts and culture, food and outdoor education, emerging spiritual communities, cutting-edge uses of new media, and efforts to ensure that Jewish communities and institutions are broadly inclusive and welcoming.”
Shavei Israel is joined this year by the Kahal organization, which provides American Jewish college students studying abroad with the resources and connections they need to be part of the Jewish communities in which they are temporarily living; Israel Story, a Hebrew and English language radio program and podcast that highlights the intricacies of Israeli society; Innovation: Africa, which brings sustainable Israeli technologies to African villages; the Sefaria Project, which is building a free and universally accessible “living library” of sacred Jewish texts via the web and mobile platforms; and Tor HaMidbar, an NGO helping to develop the Negev though social and business entrepreneurship.
Shavei Israel is grateful to be included among such an impressive group. We wish the Natan Fund and all the organizations it supports continued growth and success.