Grants

Join JMF’s effort to help families in war-torn Yemen

August 11, 2017 Billy Grants, What's Happening? No comments

Far away and out of mind, but the Republic of Yemen, in the Arabian Peninsula, is contending with violence and famine and disease as a result of six years of internal and external conflicts. 7 million people are at risk of famine, with more than a million children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition. The nation has been struck by a cholera epidemic and the national blood bank may close due to lack of funds.

We’re preparing to forward grants from The Jonah Maccabee Foundation to help kids who are caught in this disaster. We hope you will join us by making a generous donation that we will send to folks who are working in the trenches there.

Please DONATE FOR YEMEN RELIEF HERE. We’ll be working with the International Rescue Committee as they deploy emergency response teams to provide clean water, medicine, nutrition services and other urgent aid to as many people as possible.

We are so grateful to have you join us in this effort. All unspecified donations between now and the end of August will go directly to relief projects in Yemen.

Most sincerely,
Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, Inc.

Donate at The Jonah Maccabee Foundation.

Know What We’ve Been Up To?

June 1, 2017 Billy Grants, What's Happening? No comments

As we begin this summer’s campaign (throughout the month of June), here’s an update on what we’ve been doing lately.

When we created The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, we began inviting you to donate to one of three “buckets” — areas of communal importance that we thought were also important to Jonah. Since then, we’ve committed ourselves to raising funds and to help finance projects in these three areas:

The Arts Fund – offering young people dynamic learning experiences in visual and/or performance arts
The Social Justice Fund – making the world a better home for young people in need
The Jewish Life Fund – offering young people compelling opportunities to deepen their passion for living lives that are steeped in Jewish ideas of kindness and compassion

Through your incredible generosity, in the past six months we’ve supported the following projects which we feel not only fit into Jonah’s “buckets,” but inspire us as well. Through the foundation’s work, we can lend them a helping hand and maybe inspire you to nurture your own friendship with one of them.

JMF Awards Grant to HUC Soup Kitchen

February 14, 2017 Billy Grants 1 comment

“I will never forget the sight of Jonah leading a group of tenth graders into the Manhattan subway system to find where the homeless were and to offer them food and a kind word” (Billy Dreskin, Jonah Maccabee Foundation).

That’s why we feel especially good about making this grant. For nearly 30 years, the common room of Hebrew Union College (Reform Judaism’s rabbinical/cantorial seminary in New York City’s Greenwich Village) has been transformed each Monday evening into a dining room where students prepare and serve dinner to 100 people who might not otherwise get a meal that evening. NYU law students offer free legal aid, and there are clothes and supplies available to help these folks get by. There’s live music by professional jazz musicians and free flu shots at the Duane Reade down the street.

JMF Brings Palestinians and Israelis a Tiny Bit Closer

January 24, 2017 Billy Grants, Thank You, What's Happening? No comments

We recently learned about a beautiful Israeli project called “The Road to Recovery” in which more than 750 volunteers drive critically ill Palestinians (mostly children) to receive medical treatment in Israel. 10,000 recovery trips now happen each year!

There are so many ways that we see Israelis and Palestinians coming together. We’re touched by them all. This one, saving lives one at a time by making sure patients can get from the West Bank and Gaza to hospitals throughout Israel for treatment, is simply fantastic.

We are touched and honored to support this worthy program.

Learn more about “The Road to Recover” — watch a 6-minute video here. You can learn more about “The Road to Recovery” at roadtorecovery.org.il.

What We Accomplished In 2016

January 3, 2017 Billy Grants, Thank You, What's Happening? 1 comment

Dear friends,

Happy new year! Our winter campaign has ended and we thought you might like to know how we spent your money in 2016. Here’s the rundown of the grants we made:

1) IsraAID is an Israeli-based humanitarian aid agency that responds to emergency crises and engages in international development around the world. Our grant supported their work with Syrian refugees.

2) Treehouse Shakers provides teacher trainings and residencies for students that focus on the art of dance and storytelling.

3) The American Indian College Fund supports Native student access to higher education. The Jonah Maccabee Foundation believes that every American has a profound responsibility to assist our nation’s indigenous peoples in building whole, healthy lives for themselves and their children.

JMF Gives Shakespeare an Encore

December 29, 2016 Billy Grants, What's Happening? No comments

Once again, The Jonah Maccabee Foundation is thrilled to provide a grant to Mainestage Shakespeare of Kennebunk, Maine. MaineStage Shakespeare is a nonprofit theater company made up of young, passionate theater artists from around the country who believe in the benefits of the resident repertory theater company, actors who can develop their craft together to produce a creative nucleus that enriches their community-at-large. Also, through the MaineStage ShakeSTARS, MSS offers summertime training that combines actor training, theatre fun, and personal growth development that’s so important to for children growing healthy and whole.

Twelfth Night (2015)

The JMF believes passionately in the arts and their potential to help minds and spirits grow. We’re delighted to partner with Mainestage Shakespeare in bringing repertory theatre and arts education to the 23rd state.

Visit Mainestage Shakespeare to learn more. Watch their new video here.

JMF Helps Reduce Stigma Surrounding Suicide

December 28, 2016 Billy Grants No comments

We just donated to Rethink The Conversation’s end-of-year appeal. Won’t you help reframe conversations about mental health and suicide?

Click here for more info or, better yet, click here and make your donation right now!

Thanks!

Thank you for helping us help in Louisiana!

September 6, 2016 Billy Grants No comments

2016.08.LouisianaReliefProject.WebNote Through your generosity, The Jonah Maccabee Foundation was able to forward an incredibly generous grant to Save the Children’s “Gulf Coast Floods Children’s Relief Fund.”

Save the Children has deployed an emergency response team to Baton Rouge to establish Child-Friendly Spaces in emergency shelters and assess children’s most urgent needs in the wake of the severe flooding there and in southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi.

Children, being the most vulnerable when disaster strikes, must have their unique needs be addressed from the outset during emergencies. Save the Children has been working closely with long-term local partners to make sure children are protected and cared for amidst the turmoil they and their families are experiencing.

Thank you for your caring hearts and open wallets. If you’d like to see you name in lights (well, as close to “in lights” as we get around these parts, click here).

With humble gratitude,
Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation

JMF Awards Grant to Save Syrian Refugee Children

September 1, 2016 Billy Grants No comments

A dinghy arrives in Lesvos, Greece, on 30th November, with more than 60 Syrian refugees, most of them children.

A dinghy arrives in Lesvos, Greece, on this past November, with more than 60 Syrian refugees, most of them children.

While we continue raising money to help those kids and families whose lives were disrupted by the flooding in Louisiana, so many more families continue to flee terror in Syria. Save the Children has launched a search-and-rescue vessel to provide lifesaving assistance to children and others left adrift — or worse — as they attempt to make the treacherous Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Italy. The ship hopes to reach up to 20,000 people at risk of drowning over the next fifteen months. On board, a specially-trained team will provide dedicated services (including emotional support) for children (more than 90% of whom arrive in Italy without their parents) and offer medical assistance, food, water and warm clothing for as many as three hundred people.

Thank you for empowering The Jonah Maccabee Foundation to be able to support this life-saving venture.

Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation

JMF Responds to Black Shootings

July 26, 2016 Billy Grants, What's Happening? No comments

We’re all horrified by the unnecessary shootings and deaths of African-Americans who did not present a threat to law enforcement officials. And while we love and support our police departments nationwide, we hope they will do the much-needed work to ensure that the officers who protect us don’t unjustifiably kill us.

Since the Jonah Maccabee Foundation’s mission is to reach out to children, we recently chose to make donations to the Harlem Children’s Zone and the National Black Child Development Institute in response to the recent shootings. These two organizations work every day to train and prepare young African-Americans for future success. Our hope is that their work will help advance for all of us an America where blacks are accepted and respected by all.

Pres. Obama shakes hands with New York City 9th-grader Kiara Molina of the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy (Jan 2014)

Hatred, of course, can never fully be eradicated. But so many good people are doing their part to lessen the scourge of skin-based prejudice — of all prejudice — and we want to be on their team!

We think Jonah would be proud.