“You Belong in Birmingham” and PJ Library joined together to bring back the 90’s with an adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah party at Temple Emanu-El.

This community-building evening was underwritten by The Foundation’s Unrestricted Fund. PJ Library is funded by The Foundation’s Andrew David Abroms Fund. Over 100 were in attendance, where they could check out their Torah portion or Haftorah and dance the Hora, chair lifting and all. Attendees were able to learn about three Jewish organizations that would receive proceeds from the evening: Leket, which is a food rescue and relief organization in Israel; IsraAid, which helps out in disasters and crisis spots across the globe on behalf of the state of Israel; and You Belong in Birmingham which is the Federation/LJCC’s young adult outreach.

For more on Leket and IsraAid see https://www.leket.org/en/# and http://www.israaid.org/

The Federation’s Israel/World Jewry Bureau (IWJB) has funded one of Israel’s most successful youth programs—the Ethiopian National Project’s (ENP) SPACE (School Performance and Community Empowerment) program.

Sadly, a large percentage of the Israeli Ethiopian community lives below the poverty line. SPACE helps with academics by providing after school tutoring to small groups of middle school students. The program also works to strengthen self-esteem and develop leadership skills to help with integration into Israeli society. This year ENP reported: “The results are in and SPACE is better than ever! An astronomical 82% of SPACE participants are reaching matriculation (Israel’s high school graduation exam), versus the 71% of other students. SPACE is making an incredible difference and the results are hard to refute.” The Foundation is proud to make a major grant each year to IWJB to support great programs like SPACE.

ENP Director Roni Akele is coming to Birmingham on May 29th at noon, LJCC Senior Lounge, to talk about the great work of ENP. To RSVP contact Florinan@bjf.org

Bama Hillel is reaching out to young Jewish women on campus with a three-part speaker series entitled "Through the Lens of a Jewish Woman: Creating Meaning for Self, Culture, and Community."

Two of the three sessions have taken place with the third scheduled for the Fall 2019 semester. These programs are underwritten by The Foundation’s Unrestricted Fund. According to Hillel Director Lisa Besnoy, “As we can often get lost in day to day activity, we wanted to provide a special opportunity for our students to reflect on how Judaism affects their daily lives.”

For more on Bama Hillel see http://hillel.ua.edu/

Our many successes...

Jennifer Lee, a graduate of our Teen Tzedakah program, completed her Masters in Security and Diplomacy from Tel Aviv University last year. This year, Jennifer started working for Zipline International, a California based company which delivers critical medical products such as blood and medicine by drone to places that may be unreachable by road or rail for various reasons. Zipline is currently operating nationally in Ghana and Rwanda. Jennifer is working on a project to expand the program into Israel.

"My time in Israel and all that I learned in my degree program has been instrumental in helping me understand the health-supply chain in Israel and the security risks associated with attempting to create an emergency delivery drone network." Jennifer was able to study in Israel thanks to The Foundation’s Dream of Israel and Beyond and Aliyah funds.

For more information on Zipline International see https://flyzipline.com/impact/

Check out our “redo’s”

—the LJCC’s Hess Library and Art room have received a facelift and are available for rentals, thanks to a grant from The Foundation’s Unrestricted Fund. In addition, the LJCC Board room got new conference tables and chairs which will lend themselves to more flexible meeting possibilities.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE   

http://birminghamjewishfoundation.org/