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Jumpstart is a Los Angeles-based non-profit that helps support, develop and enhance the effectiveness of projects and organizations initiating from within the Jewish Community.
The organization was formed by Shawn Landres and Joshua Avedon (son of Barbara Avedon) in 2008 with a mission "to develop, strengthen, and learn from emerging nonprofit organizations that build community at the nexus of spirituality, learning, social activism, and culture, in order to transform the broader Jewish community and the world." [1] [2]
Jumpstart has drawn academic, [3] [4] communal, [5] [6] [7] [8] philanthropic, [9] [10] [11] [12] and media attention [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] to the organizations and people in the loosely organized sector of Jewish nonprofit startups founded independently of communal institutions, sometimes known as the Jewish innovation ecosystem, [3] a term given to that sector in Jumpstart's first report [19] by that name. [20] [21] [22] These include organizations and people in Europe as well as North America. [23] [24]
The Jerusalem Post said that Jumpstart "has changed the global conversation about Jewish innovation primarily through research and advocacy." [25] Crediting both Avedon and Landres for Jumpstart's work, Jewish Daily Forward named Landres to its annual list of the 50 most influential American Jews in 2009, calling him "an essential thinker in explaining the new Jewish spirituality and culture to the Jewish establishment." [26]
Jumpstart co-sponsored the first meeting of Jewish startup leaders and social entrepreneurs at the White House [27] and subsequently was one of a small number of grassroots Jewish organizations to be represented at the White House's first Jewish American Heritage Month reception in 2010. [28] [29] [30] In July 2012, Jumpstart was invited by the Obama Administration to participate in the White House's Faith-Based Social Innovators Conference, [31] jointly organized by the Obama Administration's Offices of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. [32] Jumpstart co-founder Shawn Landres was a featured "spotlght innovator" and addressed the conference. [33] [34] [35] Jumpstart subsequently co-organized a Southern California Faith-Based Innovation Forum modeled on the White House conference. [36]
Jumpstart was named one of ten "Maccabim" in 2011 by AbbaNibi. [37]
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a far-right religious and political organization in the United States and Canada. Its stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"; it has been classified as "right-wing terrorist group" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2001, and is also designated as hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting and executing acts of terrorism within the United States. Most terrorist watch groups classify the group as inactive as of 2015.
Edgar Miles Bronfman was a Canadian-American businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish Congress, Bronfman is especially remembered for initiating diplomacy with the Soviet Union, which resulted in legitimizing the Hebrew language in the USSR, and contributed to Soviet Jews being legally able to practice their religion, as well as immigrate to Israel.
Taglit-Birthright Israel, also known as Birthright Israel or simply Birthright, is a free ten-day heritage trip to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights for young adults of Jewish heritage between the ages of 18 and 26. The program is sponsored by the Birthright Israel Foundation, whose donors subsidize participation.
The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), formerly the United Jewish Communities (UJC), is an American Jewish umbrella organization for the Jewish Federations system, representing over 350 independent Jewish communities across North America that raise and distribute over $2 billion annually, including through planned giving and endowment programs, to support social welfare, social services and educational needs. Jewish Federations also provides fundraising, organization assistance, training, and overall leadership to the Jewish Federations and communities throughout the United States and Canada. The Federation movement protects and enhances the well-being of Jews worldwide through the values of tikkun olam, tzedakah and Torah.
Daniel Jonathan Sieradski is an American writer and activist. He was the founding publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewschool, a left-wing Jewish weblog. He has been identified as an Orthodox Jew and an anarchist.
Michael Berenbaum is an American scholar, professor, rabbi, writer, and filmmaker, who specializes in the study of the Holocaust. He served as deputy director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust (1979–1980), Project Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) (1988–1993), and Director of the USHMM's Holocaust Research Institute (1993–1997).
Jonathan Greenblatt is an American entrepreneur, corporate executive, and the sixth national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Prior to heading the ADL, Greenblatt served in the White House as Special Assistant to Barack Obama and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
The Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) was an American charity based in New York. In 2005, Simon Greer became its President and CEO. In 2011, Progressive Jewish Alliance merged with Jewish Funds for Justice and became a new organization, Bend the Arc.
The Kavana Cooperative is a non-denominational Jewish congregation located in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Formed in 2006, the pluralistic community is based on a cooperative model, where partners and participants take on the responsibility for actively creating a Jewish life for the group. It hosts educational, religious, and social programs for adults and families.
Moishe House is an international non-profit organization and Jewish outreach initiative. It is made up of a collection of homes throughout the world that serve as hubs for young adult Jewish community founded by David Cygielman. It provides a rent subsidy and program budget to residents who then use their home to create Jewish communal space. It is pluralistic and open to Jews of all backgrounds and affiliations.
The White House staff position of liaison to the American Jewish community is a role charged with serving as a presidential administration's voice to the community and gathering the community's consensus viewpoint on issues affecting it for the benefit of White House policymakers. It has existed at least as early as the Carter Administration.
The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation was an office new to the Obama Administration, created within the White House, to catalyze new and innovative ways of encouraging government to do business differently. Its first director was the economist Sonal Shah. The final director was David Wilkinson.
Rabbi Steve Gutow is an American rabbi, lawyer, community activist, and Jewish leader. He is a visiting scholar at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and co-director of the Religious Leadership and Civic Engagement initiative. He formerly served as the president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA).
Steven M. Cohen is an American sociologist whose work focuses on the American Jewish Community. He served as a Research Professor of Jewish Social Policy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and as Director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at Stanford University before his July 2018 resignation stemming from allegations of sexual harassment.
Shmuly Yanklowitz is an American rabbi and activist. In March 2012 and March 2013, Newsweek listed Yanklowitz as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America.
J. Shawn Landres is a social entrepreneur and independent scholar, and local civic leader, known for applied research related to charitable giving and faith-based social innovation and community development, as well as for innovation in government and civic engagement.
Aytzim, formerly the Green Zionist Alliance (GZA), is a New York–based Jewish environmental organization that is a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity. A grassroots all-volunteer organization, Aytzim is active in the United States, Canada and Israel. The organization is a former member of the American Zionist Movement and has worked in partnership with Ameinu, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), Hazon, Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, Interfaith Oceans, GreenFaith, Mercaz/Masorti, the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care, and the Jewish National Fund (JNF)—although Aytzim has long criticized JNF for not prioritizing sustainability and environmental justice in its actions. Aytzim's work at the nexus of Judaism, environmentalism and Zionism has courted controversy from both Jewish and non-Jewish groups.
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies is an organisation formed in 1912 from the merger of the Board for the Transvaal and the Board for the Cape. It serves as the central representative institution of most of the country's Hebrew congregations, Jewish societies, and institutions.
The Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) is a global family of foundations, co-founded by Mikhail Fridman, an international businessman and philanthropist, and his business partners. In 2022 after Russian invasion in Ukraine the EU imposed sanctions on Fridman, who said the EU's allegations were false and defamatory. After that the Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into and frozen the bank account. An interim manager was subsequently appointed.
Nigel Savage is a British environmental activist and founder of Jewish environmental nonprofit organisation Hazon. Beginning his career working in finance, in 2000 he founded Hazon and was CEO until its merger with the Pearlstone Retreat Center in 2021. He has been named twice as one of the Forward 50, and was a founder of Limmud NY. One of Savage's initiatives to help Jews live more sustainably include the Seal of Sustainability for Jewish institutions. He also named and catalysed the JOFEE movement, including the JOFEE Fellows program.