New Roots awarded
Capstone Grant
New Roots is one of two groups recently awarded the Gendler Grapevine Capstone grant. The other group – Hazon – is a national organization which helped to implement the J’s JOFEE work.
Thirty groups applied for the grant.
New Roots will use the grant to spread “Jewish food justice” in two other cities with JCCs in the Ohio River Valley. The group will hold small food justice workshops, discussions with community leaders and develop a plan to spread food justice into the region’s Jewish communities.
“Our first trip to Dayton earlier this month was great,” said New Roots Founder and Director Karyn Moskowitz in a prepared statement. “I participated in a women’s food justice seder at the JCC and met with leaders from the Hall Health Initiative.”
She said a trip to Cincinnati is being planned.
New Roots is a local advocate organization for fresh food as a basic human right. It has helped to organize a network of Fresh Stop Markets – “pop up” farm-fresh food markets at local churches, community centers and businesses in neighborhoods facing barriers to accessing farm-fresh food.
One of those markets, the Gendler Market, operates each summer under the shelter at the J.
There will be nine Fresh Stop Market locations this growing season – six in Louisville, one in Hazard, one in Brandenburg, and one in southern Indiana. Visit newroots.org. or call 502-509-6770 for more information.
KeyBank invests $9M
in Israel Bonds
Christopher Gorman
Cleveland-based KeyBank just purchased $9 million in Israel bonds.
“KeyBank has invested in Israel bonds for 35 years and they have always been dependable securities with strong interest rates,” Christopher M. Gorman, chairman and CEO of KeyBank, said in a prepared statement. “We view our relationship as a partnership between KeyBank and Israel. I have travelled to Israel personally and was amazed by the culture and entrepreneurial spirit.”
Jay Luzar, KeyBank’s corporate treasurer, noted that Israel has never missed a payment of principle. “Israel bonds help diversify our portfolio while meeting our fiduciary requirements,” Luzar said in his prepared statement.
Thomas Lockshin, Israel Bonds executive director for Ohio and Kentucky, coordinated KeyBank’s Israel bond investment.
The sale of Israel bonds is global in scope with worldwide sales surpassing $42 billion since 1951.
Louisville native to be
ordained by HUC-JIR
David Bloom
David Bloom of Louisville, a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, will be ordained as a Reform rabbi during a June 1 ceremony at the Plum Street Temple.
The son of Drs. Steven and Karen Bloom, David, who grew up at Temple Shalom, plans to continue his studies this fall, starting a post-baccalaureate program at Bryn Mawr College. There, he hopes to get the basic sciences he needs to go on to medical school.
“I’m interested in medical ethics – Jewish medical ethics and what they teach at medical school,” Bloom said. “I’m interested in both those areas.”
He tripled-majored in Jewish studies, religious studies and French while at Indiana University at Bloomington
Bloom said he’s wanted to be a rabbi since his sophomore year in high school. He attended Camp Kutz and had a transformative experience with Torah teacher there.
“I think it was his teaching that made me interested in Judaism in a way I hadn’t been before,” Bloom said. “He just brought it to life and opened it for discussion.”
