JHHS Announces Next Round of Jewish Community Excellence Grants

[by Phyllis Shaikun]

Jewish Hospital HealthCare Services (JHHS) is the parent company and majority owner of Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare. The organization is committed to stewarding its resources to support the health care mission of JHSMH and to continuing its support of the Louisville Jewish community, which founded Jewish Hospital and nurtured its growth and development into a premier center for medical excellence.

To that end, the organization stepped forward last February to create the “JHHS Louisville Jewish Community Excellence Grants,” a permanent funding vehicle designed to issue monetary awards to many local charitable organizations that offer programs focused on Jewish culture/identity; health; human services and/or education. Grant applications can be submitted year ‘round and are reviewed quarterly on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1, for consideration for the following quarter.

The JHHS organization is pleased to announce the names of agency grant recipients for the first quarter of 2010.

 

According to Melissa Loyd, director of Congregation Adath Jeshurun’s Preschool, the school is thrilled to be a recipient of a JHHS Excellence Grant. “This award,” she said, “will allow us to host a first-class teacher in-service training and family event for our students as well as for families of children attending preschool at Keneseth Israel and The Temple. We would not be able to afford this event without funding support from JHHS and look forward to utilizing what we learn in our classrooms.”

Jewish Family & Career Services received a grant for a program to support Jewish clients who are unemployed or underemployed. “The number of people requesting help with their job search and related processes has grown by over 70 percent with more 600 new requests received during the past 18 months,” says JFCS Executive Director Judy Freundlich Tiell. We are grateful to JHHS for this grant, which will help us to better serve this population. The bequest will provide additional staff time to meet the increased need and allow for the purchase of resources and a system to match job seekers with jobs and track outcomes.

Thanks to their JHHS grant, The Temple’s Religious School will be creating an Israeli Independence Day program to which the entire community is invited. School Principal Joyce Eiseman says up to 500 people could attend the event, which would include showing several films, doing arts and crafts projects and enjoying Israeli foods.

Temple Shalom will be using its Excellence Grant to support the temple’s Second Annual KlezmerFest in May. More than 450 people attended last year’s Fest, which showcased different types and styles of Klezmer music. “Because of JHHS’ generosity,” says event chairperson Bruce Holzman, “we can now finalize arrangements with our headline band and have more music, more dancing and more fun at the Fest.” This community event has been moved to the 2400-seat Iroquois Amphitheatre to accommodate the expected crowd.

An Excellence Grant will bring Meredith Jacobs, author of The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat, to Louisville to host a Mock Shabbat Dinner for Parents and Children at the kickoff of the Jewish Community of Louisville’s “Celebrate Shabbat Series” for children in kindergarten through grade two. “We feel this unique opportunity will be a wonderful addition to the program we already offer,” said JCL Development Director Kim Hales. She expects 100-150 to attend this unique program.

The JCL/Jewish Community Center was pleased to receive a grant to allow local fresh food activist Karen Moskowitz, who has been working with the local Jewish community on programs to develop a healthy and sustainable food system in the Jewish world and beyond, to attend the Hazon Educational Food Conference in California in December. Moskowitz  has partnered with the JCC on two joint projects recently at the Westport TAPP School and will be exploring the possibility of starting a “Fresh Stop” on the JCL property to help provide healthy fruits and vegetables to members and neighbors. She will also be teaching nutrition classes at the JCC.

Since the Louisville Jewish Community Excellence Grants program began, 19 grants have been made to a variety of Jewish agencies and religious institutions to further their activities.

The Jewish Community of Louisville/JCC received several grants to support: the Jewish Community Garden for campers at the JCC, the Jewish Festival of the Book Series, Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing!, the Young Adult Division of the JCL Annual Campaign, The PJ Library program, a Mock Shabbat Dinner and for staff to attend an educational conference.

Program funding to JFCS has been used to support a Health and Wellness Fair, expand counseling services for Jewish children and families and provide employment/job development services for displaced Jewish workers.

The Louisville Jewish Day School used its grant to hold a citywide Lag B’Omer Parade and Family Fun Day.

The Temple’s Hebrew School was able to hire a Hebrew tutor for students in need of extra study help, purchase books and study materials for adult students and enable them to visit the Hebrew Union College Library in Cincinnati, support the Chavurat Shalom senior adult program and hold a Jewish Independence Day celebration for all Sunday school classes.

The Adath Jeshurun Preschool received funding for an educational program and Temple Shalom will use its grant to support the second annual KlezmerFest in May.

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