October 7, 2022

Dear Friends:

Being in Jerusalem just before the start of the New Year was thrilling. Many of our Innovation Fund grantees were presenting programs and events that illustrated perfectly the Fund’s goals – building innovative models for navigating challenge and complexity while also nurturing exactly the kind of rising leadership that Teddy Kollek envisioned when he created the Foundation to advance his dream for a modern Jerusalem.

These organizations are breathing new life into the city and demonstrating success in ways that resonate with the goals of global philanthropy today. And they are all devoted to strengthening and celebrating the cross-cultural and cross-communal life that brings together the diverse communities for whom Jerusalem is home.

Here are several examples, reaching across the full breadth of the city’s socio-cultural, communal, and economic landscape:

Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival, hosting for the first time dancers from 12 countries on 4 continents in the context of Jerusalem’s own contemporary dance community and in the unique setting of the garden of historic Hansen House, serving to advance Jerusalem’s presence on the global stage for contemporary dance.

Jerusalem Summer Singing Camp, engaging the Jerusalem Youth Chorus with students from two Jerusalem high schools for the arts – Omanuyot in Talbiye in west Jerusalem and Ibdaa in Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem – enabling young people from Israeli and Palestinian communities to find a common ground for friendship through song.

Sinsila Urban Sustainability Center, transforming east Jerusalem’s barren rooftops into flourishing garden settings for training Palestinian women for microeconomic independence through beekeeping and honey production and sales, anticipating in the year ahead to engage 300 women to tend 600 beehives and produce 2.5 tons of honey.

Music Academy for Haredi Men, a collaboration between the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and Nefesh Yehudi/Jewish Soul, bringing vocational music training to men from Jerusalem’s Haredi community, so that they can use their musical skills to advance professionally.

Experiencing these initiatives first-hand could not have been a better demonstration of the expanding city-wide impact of the Foundation’s Innovation Fund. Just in these last two years, the Fund has invested $3.5 million in more than 100 new initiatives. And grantees across the city’s non-profit network have embraced our support in deeply gratifying ways, recognizing that investing in Jerusalem’s creative growth and nurturing its young population are key to the city’s future.

We have currently raised $2.025 million toward this year’s goal of $2.50 million for our next funding round, targeting incremental gifts of $100,000, and our own Board and inner circle are fully and gratefully committed. As we reach beyond our inner circle, gifts at this and other levels also carry significant meaning and could not offer a more timely endorsement.

Separately, our Leadership Giving initiative continues to demonstrate in a simple and straight-forward way that raising direct support for operating costs can eliminate the need for overhead, which is no longer embraced in the philanthropic world. Moreover, it represents direct investment in the Foundation’s value as an important convening and coordinating platform for Jerusalem. We raised $2.0 million for Leadership Giving in 2021, and we have already raised $1.850 million toward our goal of $2.250 million for this year, again targeting incremental gifts of $100,000/year. Gifts at other levels are equally important as we reach out more broadly beyond our own inner circle.

Each of these goals underscores the Foundation’s long-term agenda for Communal Strength, Creative Culture, and Future Leadership as priorities for the future vitality of our beloved Jerusalem. We remain deeply grateful for the endorsement and support of our own leadership and for the growing engagement of a widening circle of supporters and friends and grantees – all sharing our commitment to fulfilling Teddy’s vision for the Foundation as a catalyst for ensuring Jerusalem’s celebrated diversity and creative strength for a long time to come.

With every best wish for a sweet year ahead – much deserved by all of us after the challenges of these past few years – and for continuing vitality and strength for all,

James S. Snyder

Executive Chairman

cc: Alan G. Hassenfeld, Chairman of the Board

July 11, 2022

Dear Friends:

As we all know only too well, our world has not yet emerged from the unprecedented challenges we have been experiencing these past few years and which are now being compounded by today’s social, political, and economic complexities. Against this backdrop, I was fortunate to spend a good part of May and June in Jerusalem, where the resilience of the city and of those who live there continues to be a source of pride. This phenomenon only adds to the power and meaning of the Jerusalem Foundation’s mandate, and especially as expressed now through our Innovation Fund in support of exemplary models for navigating challenges, emerging with strength, and forging a confident future for the city.

My arrival in Jerusalem coincided with the premiere of Room Service, a collaboration between c.a.t.a.m.o.n. Dance Company and the Jerusalem Street Orchestra and one of this year’s Innovation Fund projects. Room Service showcased a celebratory night of music and dance in spaces open to the public at Brown Hotel sites throughout the city, bringing high culture to the community and now online where viewers worldwide can appreciate Jerusalem’s creative energy.

In the days following, the Jerusalem Foundation’s Shared Living Seminar 2022 brought together 50 members of its international leadership to engage in deep dialogue with civic leaders across the city – from the Palestinian community in east Jerusalem to the Haredi community in the west – exploring successes to date and challenges ahead in unifying all of Jerusalem’s populations. The days thereafter also offered an opportunity to visit a number of this year’s Innovation Fund grantees, among them:

• Ibdaa, the first Arab high school for the arts in Israel, located in Sheik Jarrah in east Jerusalem, preparing Arab students with an Israeli curriculum for study in universities and art schools in Israel

• Temech in central Jerusalem, providing leadership training, capacity building, and shared working space for Haredi women entrepreneurs

• Inar Young Adult Center in Shuafat, counseling Arab high school students for a smooth transition to Israel’s higher education system

• Vertigo Dance Company on the new Jerusalem Arts Campus, integrating students with disabilities into its studio program for aspiring professional dancers

• Sinsila in Sheik Jarrah in east Jerusalem, using east Jerusalem rooftops to train Palestinian women for microeconomic opportunity through beekeeping and honey production and sales

The end of my stay in Jerusalem coincided with the finale of Muslala’s second annual Gag Eden festival, celebrating urban sustainability across Jerusalem’s ramshackle rooftops and engaging with emerging NGOs across the city, bringing together 4,000 participants for this year’s festivities.

This range of experiences could not have been more expressive of the unique mix of social, cultural, and communal enterprise that is Jerusalem’s trademark – catalyzing culture and community in ways that continue to stimulate the city’s creative growth. This too remains a key goal of our Innovation Fund – having raised $1.25 million in its inaugural year and $2.15 million for the current year in support of more than 100 projects and with every hope of growing in each of the years ahead.

Concurrently, our Leadership Giving initiative, begun last year, now provides direct support for the Foundation’s operating costs in lieu of overhead, so that all funds raised can be applied in-full to programming, grant-making, and capital development. Eliminating this added expense enables donors and partners to realize the full value of their support directly for Jerusalem’s good and in a resoundingly beneficial way. We raised $2.0 million for Leadership Giving in 2021, and we look forward to surpassing that benchmark this year.

These goals continue to support our long-range agenda for Communal Strength, Creative Culture, and Future Leadership as priorities for our beloved Jerusalem. And we remain deeply grateful for the growing engagement of our own leadership and of a widening circle of supporters, friends, and grantees – all sharing our commitment to Teddy Kollek’s vision for the Jerusalem Foundation as a catalyst for promoting Jerusalem’s diversity and strength now and in the future.

With continuing gratitude for your part in this picture and with every best wish for continuing vitality and strength for all,

James S. Snyder

Executive Chair

cc: Alan Hassenfeld, Chair of the Board

April 7, 2022

Dear Friends:

As 2022 continues to unfold, we know that the challenges of these past few years are not yet behind us and have been compounded now by the invasion of Ukraine, a part of the landscape of eastern Europe that resonates with memory and history for many of us. Again, and as always, these challenges only add to the significance of what the Jerusalem Foundation continues to see as its mandate – especially and now through our Innovation Fund – supporting exemplary models for navigating challenges and emerging with leadership and strength.

During these past few months, we have been grateful for opportunities to hear from many of our 2021 grantees in Jerusalem and to learn from their experiences during the Innovation Fund’s first year. For 2022, we have been able to grow the Fund from $1.25 million to $2.15 million, recently announcing 60 grants to organizations across the city. (View our press announcement here.) Given today’s ongoing uncertainties, the news of these grants could not have been received with greater embrace. And this response endorses resoundingly our goals for ensuring Jerusalem’s social and cultural resilience and its pioneering creativity going forward.

We continue to be profoundly grateful for the growing engagement of our own leadership and of a widening circle of supporters, friends, and grantees. And this resonant engagement – with donors and beneficiaries alike – affirms our appreciation for the power of philanthropy as a means for energizing our hopes for Jerusalem’s future.

With deepest gratitude for your part in this picture and for your continuing endorsement and support and with every best wish for a sweet and meaningful holiday time ahead,

Alan G. Hassenfeld

Chair of the Board

James S. Snyder

Executive Chair

February 28, 2022

Dear Friends:

With our focus now on the year ahead, we want to take a moment simply to thank all of those who helped support our progress throughout this past year.

Our new Innovation Fund and Leadership Giving initiatives exceeded their goals in meaningful ways. The Innovation Fund generated $1.25 million in 2021 and supported 45 projects - benefiting Jerusalem’s diverse communities and reaching across the breadth of the city’s social and cultural landscape - and we are about to announce 60 grants for 2022, after growing the Fund to $2.150 million for this year. And our Leadership Giving initiative, inaugurated in 2021, raised $2.0 million in direct operating support for the Foundation, thereby enabling our donors and partners to see and appreciate the full value of their support applied to our work throughout the city.

Our goal through these initiatives is to foster Communal Strength, Creative Culture, and Future Leadership as priorities for the future of our beloved Jerusalem. We are profoundly grateful for your endorsement of this agenda, together with that of our Board members, foundation partners, and friends listed below.  And this generosity stands as a resounding affirmation of our commitment to realizing Teddy Kollek’s seminal vision for the Jerusalem Foundation as a catalyst for emboldening Jerusalem’s social and cultural diversity and strength.

With deepest gratitude and every best wish for continuing strength and growing success in the year ahead,

Alan G. Hassenfeld
Chair of the Board

James S. Snyder
Executive Chair

December 16, 2021

Dear Friends:

Spending time in Jerusalem last month was both intense and exhilarating with so many of our Innovation Fund grantees demonstrating the city’s potential for creative growth and leadership among its rising young population. And, as 2021 draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the complexities of this past year with all of its ongoing challenges – and also on its moments of optimism, anticipating a brighter and better future.

The 5th Jerusalem Biennale opened in early November in venues across the city, drawing over 1,000 guests to its inaugural event. The crowd that night mirrored the incredible social and cultural diversity which is Jerusalem’s trademark, and it was truly remarkable to experience a cultural event of this scale and vitality there. Moments like these only underscore the unique ways in which Jerusalem today embodies a blend of the social, cultural, and communal goals that will shape its future.

The Jerusalem Foundation’s Innovation Fund catalyzes and supports exactly these kinds of community-building initiatives, and I am happy to share a few recent and moving examples:

Oman, Bezalel Academy’s Center for the Visual Arts for the Haredi Community, and the Romema Community Council worked throughout the year with art students, women, children, and elderly members of the Haredi communities of Romema and Givat Sha’ul to create artworks using light to illuminate the Ramot neighborhood’s outdoor mall during Chanukah. More than 2,000 guests participated in the opening celebration for Light It Up, featuring more than 1,200 lightworks and illustrating Jerusalem’s potential as a model for truly integrated social, cultural, and communal engagement.

Psik Theater produced its Sensitive Security Project, which provides training for people with special needs to navigate tense situations involving police and security forces. With heightened concerns precipitated by COVID-19, the need for this training has become all the more critical and the Sensitive Security Project is helping to address this undercurrent of anxiety and reinforce a sense of communal embrace throughout the city.

Our inaugural Innovation Fund, totaling $1.25 million, supported 45 projects this year, and we have already raised $2.150 million to support next year’s Fund. Our Call for Proposals for 2022 has generated over 200 submissions from organizations across the city, and applications from each of the Arab and Haredi communities have increased more than three-fold – all demonstrating the Fund’s growing capacity to help define Jerusalem’s future.

Concurrently, our Leadership Giving initiative, also launched this year, aims to provide direct support for the Foundation’s operating costs so that all funds raised can be applied fully to programming, grant-making, and capital development. Overhead is no longer considered an appropriate means for funding operating costs and eliminating this barrier will enable current and future donors and partners to appreciate the full value of their support for Jerusalem’s good. As we conclude 2021, we have raised $2.0 million for Leadership Giving, meeting our target for this inaugural year in a resounding way.

These current goals support our long-range vision to grow Communal Strength, Creative Culture, and Future Leadership as priorities for our beloved Jerusalem and this year’s success clearly demonstrates the power of this agenda. We are profoundly grateful for the support of our Board members, inner circle friends, and foundation partners who share our commitment to affirming Teddy Kollek’s vision for the Jerusalem Foundation as a cornerstone and catalyst for nurturing Jerusalem’s social and cultural diversity and strength.

The growing engagement of our own leadership and of a widening circle of supporters, friends, and grantees – together with the deep commitment of the Foundation’s professional team – is a blessing. And this resonant engagement with donors and beneficiaries alike further affirms the power of philanthropy as a means for energizing our hopes for Jerusalem’s vibrant future.

With every best wish for a brighter and better New Year and with heartfelt thanks for your continuing engagement, endorsement, and support,

James S. Snyder

Executive Chair

cc: Alan G. Hassenfeld, Chair of the Board

To view videos about featured Innovation Fund grantees and their projects, click here.