Slingshot present’s the eighth annual edition of Slingshot: A Resource Guide for Jewish Innovation, featuring 50 inspirational organizations, in Jewish life in North America. Fourteen additional organizations have been identified as the Standard Bearers, having been previously listed in at least five editions of Slingshot. These Standard Bearers continue to exemplify Slingshot’s core criteria of innovation, impact, leadership and organizational efficacy.
Slingshot organizations grapple with concerns in Jewish life such as identity, community, social justice and tradition, each with different missions, perspectives and strategies. The Slingshot resource guide is distributed to 7,500 funders, foundation professionals and organizational leaders annually, in addition to tens of thousands of online downloads. Readers use Slingshot to identify the most inspiring projects,and programs in the North American Jewish community today. Since its inception, Slingshot has highlighted 173 innovative Jewish organizations in North America.
Slingshot organizations are selected from among hundreds of nominees based on their strength in four areas: innovation, impact, leadership and organizational efficiency.
Selected Trends and Stats
- Since 2007, women have headed approximately 50% of the organizations and projects listed in Slingshot; this year that figure has increased to 64%.
- Since 2009, the number of Slingshot organizations or projects headed by ordained rabbis has been on the rise. This year’s figure is 18%.
- The five most frequently self-selected program areas in Slingshot ’12-’13 are Jewish Education, Community Building, Leadership Development, Social Justice and Arts and Culture.
- There are 19 organizations or projects listed in this year’s Slingshot guide that have not been recognized in prior editions; the average inception year is (approximately) 2008 and average budget size is around $308,000. Half are either initiatives of larger organizations or independent projects supported by local Federations.
Here are this year’s 14 Standard Bearers followed by the Slingshot 50 (all in alphabetical order):
- Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community
- Bend the Arc
- Encounter
- Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
- Hazon
- IKAR
- InterfaithFamily
- Keshet
- Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center
- Mechon Hadar
- Moishe House
- Moving Traditions
- Reboot
- Sharsheret: Your Jewish Community Facing Breast Cancer
- A Wider Bridge
- ACCESS, AJC’s new generation program
- Amir
- Ask Big 1__ uestions, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
- BBYO Panim Institute
- Be’chol Lashon
- Bible Raps
- Challah for Hunger
- CommunityNEXT
- Council of Jewish Émigré Community organizations (COJECO)
- Eden Village Camp
- Footsteps, Inc.
- Gateways: Access to Jewish Education
- G-dcast
- Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation
- GLOE – Kurlander Program for GLBT Outreach and Engagement
- Hagadot.com
- Havuraj Summer Program/Camp Tel Yehudah
- Hebrew Senior Life Chaplaincy Institute
- Hidden Sparks
- Innovation: Africa
- J’Burgh
- Jewcology
- Jewish Community Action
- Jewish Education Project, The
- Jewish Farm School
- Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn
- Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
- Kavana Cooperative, The
- Kevah: Making Space for Jewish Learning
- Matan
- MazelTot, an initiative of Rose Community Foundation
- MyJewishLearning, Inc.
- National Yiddish Book Center
- Or Tzedek: Teen Institute for Social Justice
- OurJewishCommunity.org
- Pearlstone Center
- Rabbis for Human Rights – North America
- Rabbis Without Borders
- Ramah Service Corps, The
- Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council
- Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists
- Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
- Tarbuton, Israeli Cultural Center
- Tribe, The
- Urban Adamah
- Uri L’Tzedek
- Wilderness Torah
- Wise Aging, a project of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality
- Women’s Jewish Learning Center, The
