Jewish Connections Grants

Natan’s Jewish Connection grants support innovative models for connecting people to Jewish practices and experiences, Jewish culture and ideas, and Jewish networks and communities in North America. These grants are intended to shine a spotlight on new approaches or methodologies that are profoundly innovative.

This year, the Jewish Connections committee was fortunate to have a strategic partner in the William Davidson Foundation. This collaboration amplified, deepened and emboldened the committee’s grantmaking and allowed them to fund more grantees at significant levels.

*Starred grantees are new to Natan in 2023-2024

  • Active Aging Resource Network (a project of B3) re-engages Baby Boomers in Jewish life through intergenerational connections, increased collaboration, and effective communication. This is the first national network to develop programs and to share insights, data, and resources for active aging adults. The network will also advocate in the Jewish community for broader investment in this emerging life stage - the time between mid-life careers and eventual retirement or the onset of frailty.

  • Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College cultivates transformational learning and a vibrant Jewish community rooted in Maine. CSTJL envisions a socially equitable, multigenerational, and geographically diverse Jewish world sustained by intentional collaboration. Based on its successful model in Maine, the Natan Fund supports CSTJL's Makom Fellowship, a national program that provides outstanding training, mentorship, and peer support to emerging professionals who serve select small Jewish communities.

  • Hava NaBaby* trains, certifies, and supports a cadre of Jewish childbirth educators and doulas who offer hyper-localized services on a national scale. Hava NaBaby guides expectant parents in the process of creating, nurturing, growing, and sustaining vibrant and joyful Jewish life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

  • Jewish Farmer Network* mobilizes Jewish agricultural wisdom to build a more just and regenerative food system for all. The network connects Jewish farmers to each other and to the surprisingly relevant technologies, rhythms, and ethics of Jewish agriculture. The Jewish Farmer Network is building community and a grounded sense of identity among Jewish farmers through vibrant celebrations of shared heritage and meaningful explorations of Jewish agricultural traditions.

  • Jewish Fertility Foundation (JFF) provides financial assistance, educational programming, and emotional support to Jewish people with medical fertility challenges. JFF also aims to help any person experiencing infertility feel supported and less isolated throughout their fertility journey regardless of religious background. The Natan Fund was the first funder to support their national expansion. JFF is now in seven communities across the United States.

  • Judaism Unbound is a digitally driven, radically open center for education, experimentation, and connection serving as a catalyst for an entirely new era of Judaism. Natan’s grant supports its UnYeshiva, a virtual center for Jewish learning and unlearning that offers asynchronous courses and workshops on a variety of Jewish topics.

  • Lech Lecha* facilitates empowering outdoor adventures and wilderness journeys that catalyze personal development and spiritual growth, connection with the wonder of Hashem’s creation, meaningful interpersonal relationships, and joyful community deeply rooted in Torah and a holistic approach to Jewish life and practice.

  • Modern JewISH Couples is a Jewish learning and immersive retreat project that supports committed couples on the pathway to partnership, marriage, and beyond. This work occurs at the intersection of pastoral care and adult learning, animated by the mission to continually lift up the relevance, beauty, and accessibility of Judaism as a blueprint for building and strengthening loving, enduring relationships and Jewish communal connection.

  • Our Jewish Recovery supports Jews in recovery and their loved ones, helping those impacted by addiction in the Jewish community find experience, strength, and hope. Our Jewish Recovery trains and partners with Jewish educators and institutions looking to understand addiction and bring additional recovery resources to their communities.

  • Sephardic American Mizrahi Initiative (SAMi)* is the first national movement for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish students on college campuses, a community that has been historically underrepresented in or ignored by mainstream Jewish organizations. SAMi cultivates and advances Sephardic and Mizrahi American college students and young professionals to create and develop a pipeline of diverse leaders for the future of the American Jewish people.

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