July 24, 2024 — SRE Network (Safety, Respect, Equity) announced $575,000 in field building grants to twelve Jewish organizations to support their work in creating safe, respectful, and equitable ecosystems across Jewish nonprofit workplaces. SRE’s dedication to investing in Jewish community organizations stems from a vision of a Jewish communal landscape rooted in kavod (respect) and b’tzelem Elokim (seeing each person as made in the image of the Divine), where communities are strong, cohesive, and trusting of one another, their institutions, and their leadership.

“These twelve outstanding grantees and the projects they are undertaking fill me with immense hope for the future,” says Rachel Gildiner, SRE Network’s Executive Director, “These organizations’ innovative efforts to advance safety, respect, and equity reflect a deep, communal commitment to fostering environments where every individual is valued and respected. I am optimistic that their work will create wide ripples of positive impact, inspiring systemic change and strengthening the fabric of the Jewish nonprofit sector.”

For this round of competitive grants, SRE Network received 31 applications from SRE member organizations and affiliates. SRE’s Grants Review Committee was charged with selecting opportunities where an investment has the potential to create a transformative impact on propelling gender equity and culture change efforts across North America’s Jewish communal landscape. The selected grantees’ gender-focused and broader culture change efforts are guided by a multi-dimensional, intersectional understanding of identity, structural bias, and inequity. Grant recipients reflect a range of geographic diversity, organizational mission, and size. 

“Shalom Bayit is so grateful for this grant from SRE, which will help us empower Jewish women and girls to be safe in the places that matter most: where we live, work, learn, play, and pray. Thank you to SRE for your investment in centering women's safety as a key driver of building a more just and equitable Jewish community! " says Naomi Tucker, founding Executive Director of Shalom Bayit.

Over the past six years, SRE has invested over $6.5M across 108 projects and 52 organizations through its grantmaking, technical assistance, and partnerships. SRE will begin accepting applications for its 2024 fall grants cycle from its members and affiliates for internal capacity building grants in the coming weeks.

SRE Network’s spring 2024 grant recipients and their work are:

Eshel

Eshel creates LGBTQ+ inclusive Orthodox Jewish communities by building community, supporting LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jewish individuals and families, providing education to Orthodox religious leaders and educators, and advocating for LGBTQ+ individuals within the Orthodox community.

Through a two-year grant, Eshel will further the safety, equity, and respect of LGBTQ+ Jews in Orthodox spaces by launching the “Welcoming Communities Project.” This initiative will educate LGBTQ+ allies in Orthodox Jewish communities about the unique issues facing Orthodox LGBTQ+ individuals and their families and what they can do to make their communities more LGBTQ+ inclusive.

Footsteps

Footsteps provides comprehensive services to people who have chosen to leave their ultra-Orthodox communities, including social and emotional support, educational and career guidance, workshops and social activities, and access to individualized resources.

With a one-year grant, Footsteps will deepen, codify and proliferate its learning about how to keep the "OTD" population safe, conducting workshops for the key individuals and institutions in our ecosystem.

JCC Association of North America

JCC Association of North America leads and connects the JCC Movement, advancing and enriching North American Jewish life. With more than 35,000 full- and part-time and 20,000 seasonal staff, the JCC Movement is the largest employer of Jewish communal professionals across North America.

With a two-year grant, JCC Association will create and implement a JCulture Intensive program that will provide education and support to individual JCCs that are committed to beginning or continuing to ensure safe, respectful, and equitable workspaces. This program will offer foundational training to senior-level professionals who will make up each JCC’s Task Force Team (TFT), elevating their awareness and understanding across a diverse workforce at their JCC.

Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA)

JWA documents Jewish women’s stories, elevates their voices, and inspires them to be agents of change. Today, JWA is the world’s largest collection of information on Jewish women.

With a two-year grant, JWA will launch a writing Fellowship for Jewish women of color that supports the development of their talents, provides a platform that amplifies their voices, and builds the field of Jewish women of color thought leaders.

Jewish Women International (JWI)

JWI is the leading Jewish organization championing women and girls by preventing domestic violence and sexual abuse; addressing the intersection of domestic violence and gun violence; building pathways to long-term economic security, and strengthening access to every level of leadership in our communities, workplaces, and country.

With a two-year grant, JWI will continue its Here for You program, which offers trauma-informed, survivor-centered trainings for Jewish organizational staff, administration, and security teams, focusing on policies and procedures that support survivors of domestic violence and their children. Currently, JWI supports 50 organizations across 19 states with the Here for You program. This year, JWI will focus on launching additional Here for You Communities, aimed at fostering collaboration between local Jewish organizations and domestic violence agencies to create supportive environments for survivors and their families.

Keshet

Keshet works for the full equality of all LGBTQ Jews and families in Jewish life. Keshet strengthens Jewish communities; equips Jewish organizations with the skills and knowledge to build LGBTQ-affirming communities; creates spaces in which all queer Jewish youth feel seen and valued; and advances LGBTQ rights nationwide.

With a two-year grant, Keshet will expand and deepen its Education & Training (E&T) programs to advance LGBTQ+ equality and belonging in Jewish communal institutions nationwide, including geographically targeted efforts in Florida and the Southwest. This work will address anti-LGBTQ+ bias with an intersectional lens, giving Jewish organizations the tools to create policies, programs, and cultures of safety, respect, and equity. 

Moving Traditions

Moving Traditions emboldens Jewish youth to thrive through the pursuit of personal well-being (shleimut), caring relationships (hesed), and a Jewish and feminist vision of equity and justice (tzedek). Combining positive psychology with Jewish values, we partner with Jewish institutions across North America to engage Jewish teens, families, and communities.

With a one-year grant, Moving Traditions will expand its CultureShift program, focused on supporting teens in building healthy relationships in the overnight camp environment, Jewish Youth Serving Organization programming, and travel programs.

Shalom Bayit

Shalom Bayit is the leading change agent on gender-based violence in the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish community, and the only organization in Northern California focused on violence against Jewish women. 

With a two-year grant, Shalom Bayit will continue its We Commit project to address sexual harassment in congregations and Jewish organizations, making women’s safety a priority in Jewish communal life, and helping Jewish institutions align their actions with their Jewish values to create respectful Jewish workplaces.

Shalom Task Force

Shalom Task Force works to combat and prevent domestic violence and foster healthy and safe relationships and families. Shalom Task Force focuses its work in the Jewish community, to help those who may not have access to traditional services and need culturally sensitive programming.

With a two-year grant, Shalom Task Force will update and expand its guide for communal leadership to collaborate with Orthodox leadership around responding to intimate partner violence.

Ta'amod

Ta’amod: Stand Up! transforms Jewish life by equipping institutions and individuals with the resources they need to build healthy, safe, equitable, and accountable workplaces and communal spaces. 

With a one-year, grant, Ta’amod will continue its important work of applying frameworks of Jewish wisdom and accountability to help communities live in alignment with their values, and create Jewish cultural shifts.

Women’s Rabbinic Network (WRN)

WRN is the organization of Reform female-identified, nonbinary, genderfluid rabbis, supporting members and advocating for the physical, emotional, and financial health for all in the Jewish community.

With a one-year grant, WRN will work to advance paid family and medical leave rights, and therefore pay equity, for all employees within Reform Jewish institutions by conducting and disseminating research, developing educational resources, and engaging in ongoing advocacy efforts to promote equity and systemic change.

Yeshivat Maharat

Yeshivat Maharat educates, ordains, and invests in passionate and committed Orthodox women who model a dynamic Judaism to inspire and support individuals and communities.

With a two-year grant, Yeshivat Maharat will develop a network for female Orthodox rabbis and those who are not ordained but serve in rabbinic capacities to elevate and expand the arena for Orthodox Jewish women in rabbinic roles.