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We are a family foundation dedicated to advancing the economic, cultural, and civic vitality of Southeast Michigan, the State of Israel, and the Jewish community.

In The News

Hillel Early Childhood Center Expansion

Hillel Day School hosted a ground breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of its expansion of its early childhood center; the larger facility will make it possible to increase enrollment of children ages 18 months to five years.

Detroit Jewish News
10 Jan 2019

Plan would grow walkable campus linking Detroit cultural institutions

The Detroit Institute of Arts and Midtown Detroit, Inc., together with 11 major institutions, have joined forces to create a shared outdoor community space, uniting the surrounding neighborhoods with area organizatons.

The Detroit News
10 Jan 2019

Power and Vulnerability in Jewish Education

A graduate of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars program writes that teaching with “new power” can improve instruction and can make learning safer and more equitable for all learners.

eJewish Philanthropy
8 Jan 2019

Striving for Shlemut: An Emerging Approach to Jewish Education Striving for Shlemut: An Emerging Approach to Jewish Education

The dean of the William Davidson Graduate School at Jewish Theological Seminary discusses the work of the Fellowship in Educating for Applied Jewish Wisdom, an effort to educate Jews for “shlemut” or wholeness.

eJewish Philanthropy
19 Dec 2018

A New Approach for Diversifying Israel’s Tech Sector (and Why I’m so Excited About It)

The Russell Barrie Foundation together with Start-Up Nation Center announce a new initiative to address Israel’s shortage of high-tech workers and lessen the educational and economic disparities that  exist between the various sectors of its society.

eJewish Philanthropy
12 Dec 2018

Mem Bernstein: “Passing the Baton”

More than 100 philanthropists attended Prizmah‘s Day School Investor Summit; the chairwoman of The AVI CHAI Foundation gave the keynote and described the foundation’s decision to focus on building and supporting the field of Jewish day schools.

eJewish Philanthropy
20 Nov 2018

SCORE, which helps small businesses, lands a big grant

The Detroit chapter of SCORE, the nation’s largest nonprofit business mentoring network, receives the largest grant ever awarded to a network chapter to support its Ann Arbor and Macomb County offices and open a new office in Flint, Michigan.

Detroit Free Press
17 Nov 2018

Artspace celebrates Connector development, new Arts and Technology Learning Lab

Funders, city officials, civic leaders and others gathered with artists, young and old, to celebrate a milestone moment in the development of the City Hall Artspace Lofts in Dearborn, a project of Artspace, the national nonprofit developer of artist-oriented real estate.

Press & Guide
16 Nov 2018

Detroit Jewish News Foundation’s William Davidson Archive finds a permanent home at U-M Bentley Historical Library.

The University of Michigan‘s Bentley Historical Library has become the permanent home of the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History, the archive of the Detroit Jewish News and its predecessor, the Detroit Jewish Chronicle, which began in 1916.

Detroit Jewish News
15 Nov 2018

The mysterious journey of a suitcase of magical amulets from Moscow to Jerusalem

A small leather suitcase belonging to a Russian Rabbi in 1959 eventually makes its way to Jerusalem and to scholars at the National Library of Israel, where they are now identifying its contents, including precious items from the past.

The Times of Israel
9 Nov 2018

$6 million Atwater Beach project to transform former industrial site on Detroit’s east riverfront

With the glistening Detroit River as the backdrop, the public gathered with representatives of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, city officials, and local and regional funders to break ground on the region’s newest family-friendly destination: Atwater Beach.

Crain's Detroit Business
27 Aug 2018

Slingshot introduces the Class of 2018

This annual list of “ground-breaking organizations in Jewish life” includes seven grantees: Hazon, Israel & Co., Moishe House, OneTable, PJ Library, Sefaria and Shalom Learning; four others are affiliated through the Jewish Emergent Network, also a grantee: IKAR, Mishkan Chicago and Lab/Shul.

eJewish Philanthropy
11 Jun 2018

(Re)Visioning Jewish Prayer, Ritual and Inclusivity

The organizations comprising the Jewish Emergent Network, a grantee, hosted a recent conference to mark the conclusion of its first cohort of rabbinic fellows and the start of the second; 150 rabbis, synagogue board members and lay leaders and others from across the country attended.

Jewish Journal
7 Jun 2018

Mackinac Moment: Salvador Salort-Pons

At the Mackinac Policy Conference, the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, a grantee, discusses, in this 11-minute segment, how museums of all kinds cultivate societal trust by creating safe spaces for people to learn about the past in unbiased settings.

Detroit Public TV
31 May 2018

Entering Paradise: Going Deeper into Covenantal Community

Rabbi David Baum, who was ordained by Jewish Theological Seminary and is an alumnus of the Clergy Leadership Incubator, both grantees, describes his initial inability to create a true covenantal community and how he is now succeeding using the PARDES approach to studying the Torah along with adaptive leadership techniques.

eJewish Philanthropy
29 May 2018