Nine programs in Israel received $1.2 million in grants from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, primarily supporting educational programs to integrate disadvantaged populations into the economy.
The largest grant, $250,000, will fund 35 Ethiopian students to study law, health and business at the Ono Academic College in Kiryat-Ono. Unemployment among Ethiopian men in Israel ranges from 27 to 66 percent, and fewer than 25 percent of Ethiopian women are employed.
Other grants will fund professional, vocational and high-tech training for women on welfare and ultra-Orthodox women, with the ultimate aim of alleviating childhood poverty.
“While the Israeli economy is currently strong, there are several sectors in Israel that will greatly benefit from these grants to help ensure economic self-sufficiency through job training and placement,” Foundation President and CEO Marvin I. Schotland said.
Other grants aim at shoring up Jewish identity among Israelis. Be’eri Carmiel, a program of the Shalom Hartman Institute, received $240,000 to enable nonreligious schools to offer pluralistic Jewish education to 4,000 high school students in the city of Carmiel. $150,000 to Jewish Soul Overhaul will go toward training teachers in Tel Aviv and Jaffa elementary schools to incorporate Jewish education into their curricula. Limmud in Israel received $50,000 to support two major learning and arts festivals in the Negev and Modi’in.
The Jewish Community Foundation, which manages assets of $706 million, distributed $62 million in 2009 to a range of philanthropic causes.
