In For Of, Inc. (IFO), a nonprofit organization created by Beth Am Synagogue in Baltimore, Maryland, strives to build relationships between members of the synagogue and the residents of Reservoir Hill, the urban neighborhood where the synagogue has stood since 1921. IFO was awarded a Gendler Grapevine Project grant to develop a “coming-of-age” education initiative [...]
Every year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’m reminded not only of the civil rights movement, of the sacrifices so many people have made to work toward equal rights, and of the work that people are still doing to ensure that everyone is treated equally, but also of my uncle. My daughter at [...]
With the goal of addressing the important issues of food insecurity, poverty, struggling schools, stressed communities, and lack of access to adequate medical care and valuable social services, Rodeph Shalom's Gendler Grapevine Project initiative is building on their Common Ground Marketplace project to create the Farmer’s Market Youth Initiative. The students' contributions to the Marketplace will be grown at [...]
Temple Sinai DC’s program, The Open Door: Supporting Refugees, has already engaged hundreds of community members in learning about today’s refugee crises in Syria and on the US-Mexico border. On Yom Kippur, Senior Rabbi Jonathan Roos offered a sermon about refugees and the Jewish responsibility to help them. You can hear a podcast of the [...]
New Roots, Inc. is bringing together communities to address the real issues of food insecurity and social justice. "Knowing part of his share cost goes to subsidize a family who cannot afford to purchase fresh food otherwise, plus understanding that both his family and the other family are eating the same exact food over [...]
Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, also known as Song of the Mountains Synagogue, is located on 12 acres of field, forest, and stream. With the help of their grant from the Gendler Grapevine Fund, they set out to make the land more integral to the synagogue. Since receiving their grant, they have built steps into the hillside, created field [...]
Shir Tikvah, located in Minneapolis, MN, has a big goal: to create a beautiful, sustainable landscape around their synagogue replete with rain gardens, a vegetable garden, a native plants garden, beehives, a walking trail with benches at strategic spots, and an orchard. Phase I of their Gendler Grapevine Project initiative has included the installation of four rain gardens. They worked with [...]
Congregation B'nai Israel's (CBI) Gendler Grapevine Project initiative centers on the development of a full calendar of Earth-based rituals, classes, and festivals that will position their on-site community farm (Abundance Farm) in new ways and will change the way that their congregation thinks, teaches, and prays by reestablishing the central place of the natural world within [...]
New Roots executive director Karyn Moscowitz celebrates Rosh Hashanah at a Fresh Stop with a bounty of local apples. The Gendler Grapevine Project extends our congratulations to one of our 2015 grantees New Roots Inc. Representatives of the Louisville, Kentucky-based organization have been invited to the White House to meet with First Lady Michelle Obama [...]
Congregation B'nai Israel, located in Northampton, MA, has a long history of integrating environmental and social justice theories and activities into their programming and observances. One example of this commitment is their development of Abundance Farm. Over the last 3 years, the Farm has become an important part of not only the congregation, but also the [...]
