Amanda Maddahi, a 30-year-old, second-generation Iranian-American Jew, has made it her mission to address LGBT issues in Los Angeles’ Persian-Jewish community.
A year ago, she helped establish the Persian Pride Program at JQ International, a Los Angeles-based LGBT advocacy nonprofit. As its director of operations, Maddahi has helped develop and run an array of programming, including support groups, counseling, a panel series called “Out of Iran, Out of the Closet,” and a help line available six days a week for LGBT Persian Jews.
“What’s really innovative about this is that it didn’t exist,” Maddahi said. “It’s really addressing something that’s taboo in the community head on.”
If Maddahi had her way, the next phase would be expansion. vBut the funds simply aren’t there yet.
“We get messages all the time from Persians in Boston and New York, saying, ‘When is it coming here?’ ” she said.
Help might be on the way.
Slingshot, a New York-based nonprofit organization, has published its 12th annual list of 50 innovative organizations, projects and programs aimed at making an impact in the American-Jewish community. The guide is a popular resource for volunteers, activists and donors searching for ways to get involved with Jewish philanthropic causes. The group also released its first Los Angeles guide, spotlighting 26 of the city’s high-impact Jewish organizations. The Persian Pride program made it onto both lists.
“This is one of the highest honors to date for us,” Maddahi, said. “We know the Slingshot guide features the most innovative nonprofits. To be included with all these amazing organizations is not only a dream but a beautiful reality.”
The complete national and Los Angeles guides can be found on Slingshot’s website, slingshotfund.org.
The Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center (SIJCC) was featured for the third consecutive year. Its hip slate of programs for Eastsiders includes downtown pastrami walking tours, hootenanny community jam sessions and a cultural discussion series that recently featured Matthew Weiner, creator of the television drama “Mad Men.”
SIJCC’s development manager, Shannon Rubenstone, said that inclusion on the list helps validate the community-oriented approach to SIJCC’s programs and operations.
“Being named one of the nation’s most innovative Jewish organizations reaffirms for us that we’re doing good work,” she said. “We work closely with our community members to brainstorm programs, classes, workshops and events and will continue to involve the community in our programming decisions.”
With more than half of last year’s national guide featuring organizations either based or operating in California, Slingshot’s Executive Director Stefanie Rhodes figured it was time to publish regional guides for Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
“There are so many innovative things happening in Los Angeles’ Jewish community,” Rhodes said. “What’s happening with Jewish life in the Bay Area and Los Angeles is setting the pace for a lot of us right now. It’s a trend we’ve been noticing for years. The intersection of all of that made this year the right year to do California guides.”
Since its inception in 2005, Slingshot has highlighted more than 250 Jewish organizations through its guides. Rhodes estimated that each year, through the mailing of hard copies and online outreach, the guides reach up to 30,000 people across the country.
“We’ve heard tons of stories of people who learned about an organization from the guide and gave a gift or got involved because they saw them in Slingshot,” Rhodes said.
Slingshot’s pool of philanthropy foundation professionals, trustees and Jewish nonprofit experts judge applicant organizations based on innovation, impact and potential to grow in a community. A new wrinkle in this year’s evaluation, Rhodes said, was weighing life cycle — how long an organization has been in existence — and budget specifics, in an effort to level the playing field.
“When an organization is featured, it’s a sign that other funders have looked at it next to the criteria we’ve laid out and scored it highly in those areas,” Rhodes said. “For an organization, especially ones that are new to Jewish innovation and just starting out, it’s an excellent opportunity to get pooled in and gain exposure.”
Maddahi, whose program is entering its second year, said she is confident that inclusion in the guide offers more than just validation. It can also lead to new opportunities for the Persian Pride program.
“For us, being featured sheds light on the fact that this is a need within our community to address and we’re addressing it in a very innovative way,” she said. “This not only gives legitimacy to the work, it grants us exposure to potential opportunities to take this cause across the nation, even global.”
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