[by Phyllis Shaikun]
Jewish Hospital HealthCare Services (JHHS), parent company and majority owner of Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare, has remained committed to supporting the organization’s health care mission and to strengthening the Louisville Jewish community, which founded Jewish Hospital and contributed to its development as a premier center dedicated medical excellence.
To that end, the organization created the JHHS Louisville Jewish Community Excellence Grants program in February to function as a permanent funding source for local charitable organizations that develop programs focused on Jewish culture/identity; health; human services and education. Grant requests in any amount may be submitted, but the amount of funding might vary from what is requested.
The JHHS Louisville Jewish Community Excellence Grants Committee, which is chaired by Debra Friedman and Dr. Gerald Temes, is pleased to announce the names of grant recipients for the second quarter of 2010.*
Jewish Family & Career Services received a grant to help support children’s services. “We appreciate the support provided by the JHHS Grants Committee,” said JFCS Executive Director Judy Freundlich Tiell. “The funding will help Jewish children and families find strength and healing through counseling. We see many families and children dealing with economic, emotional, physical and psychological stressors and building additional capacity in this area is critical. The monies will be used to purchase additional supplies for the play therapy room at JFCS and to provide training for staff to further enhance their skills.”
“Chavurat Shalom is so proud and thankful to once again be the recipient of a Jewish Community Excellence Grant,” said Cindy Hytken, who helps facilitate the program for Jewish community seniors that meets weekly The Temple. “The funding will help further the success of our program, which benefits Jewish seniors communitywide. Through Chavurat Shalom, they meet every Thursday for friendship and to enjoy healthful and affordable lunches and stimulating programs.”
Members of the Young Adult Division (YAD) of the Jewish Community of Louisville’s (JCL) Annual Campaign will have the chance to hear a dynamic speaker thanks to a Jewish Community Excellence Grant. “We are very grateful to JHHS for their generosity and commitment to Jewish life in Louisville,” said Tzivia Levin, JCL campaign associate. “These funds will be used to bring a high caliber speaker to our community with a strong Jewish message for our young adult community. I am confident this grant will contribute to building a strong cohort of young Jewish adults in Louisville that are committed to the values of tzedakah (charitable giving) and community involvement.”
“We are so thankful to have received a generous grant from JHHS,” said JCL Program Director at the Jewish Community Center, Andrea Melendez. This funding will enable us to bring a new program, “Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing!” to young women in our community. It promises great activities to bring girls together and help them become confident young women with strong Jewish values and identities. “This is exciting to me as a member of the JCL staff and as the mother of a middle school-aged daughter”
Allison Schwartz, coordinator of the Jewish Community of Louisville’s PJ Library program for children from ages six months to six years, says she was “thrilled” that the program received a JHHS grant. She explains that the JCL wanted to extend the program to seven- and eight-year-olds, but lacked the funding to do so. “We hope to be a pilot city for the expanded program,” she said, “and this funding will help ensure that our families can continue to deepen their special moments of reading Jewish stories and listening to Jewish music into very special memories.”
Each year in November, the Jewish Community of Louisville sponsors the Jewish Festival of the Book series. Well-known Jewish authors come to our community to appear in the festival line-up and address an appreciative, citywide audience. Funding is always limited. “Thanks to the JHHS grant,” says JCL Development Director for the Jewish Community Center, Kim Hales, “we will be able to expand programming for our annual festival. Visiting authors introducing their Jewish works promote awareness and generate appreciation and pride in the diversity of the Jewish people.”
“The JHHS board began this grant program in an effort to support the Jewish community, which is part of our mission” said Temes. “This first year is going well, and we hope to expand the program in the future. We are pleased that funding has already helped in the development of new programs that strengthen Jewish identity, health, human services and education, which has been our primary goal.”
*Applications for JHHS Louisville Jewish Community Excellence grants may be submitted year ‘round by local Jewish not-for-profit entities and will be reviewed quarterly on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1, for consideration for the following quarter. For more information, please contact Lisa Jennings at 587-4230 or email lisa.jennings@jhsmh.org.
