New Jewish ‘Genuises’ To Be Tapped

Yossi Prager, Avi Chai North America’s executive director, said that by 2020 the new program could produce “60 innovators, thinkers.”

by Staff Report

Combining the mystique of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants and the impetus to spur out-of-the-box Jewish creativity, the Avi Chai Foundation is poised to announce the first winners of its new Avi Chai Fellowships on Tuesday.
The six winners — four individuals and one team of two — will be awarded $75,000 per fellow or team a year for up to three years for projects they either direct already or plan to launch. The projects are consistent with the foundation’s goals of promoting Jewish literacy, religious purposefulness and Jewish peoplehood, according to Avi Chai officials.
But the winners did not apply for the grants; they did not even know they were nominated by an anonymous group of 20 people (18 in the U.S. and two

in Israel) several months ago. A committee of seven narrowed the 40 nominations to seven before contacting the finalists and inviting them for interviews to discuss their work and goals. The winners were chosen in late April and will be introduced, and discuss their projects, at a press conference at Avi Chai headquarters in Manhattan Tuesday afternoon.
An Avi Chai spokesman would say of the winners only that they reflect a wide range in terms of geography, religious denominations and fields of interest.
A foundation statement said the program is “unique and constitutes the largest cash award to emerging communal and educational leaders within the North American Jewish community.” It adds up to $1.15 million over the next three years, and the program has been approved by the Avi Chai board for three award cycles.
Avi Chai chairman Arthur Fried said the creation of the fellowships is “intended to be a vehicle for investing in people with vision, creativity, courage, savvy and stamina to try new things, to think outside the conventional boxes or inside them in new ways, and to see opportunities where others see obstacles.”
He noted that with the foundation, endowed by the late Zalman Bernstein, scheduled to spend down its assets and cease making grants in 2020, it was important to foster the efforts of those who will continue its goals.
“It is our desire that the work not end,” Fried said. “Rather, that it be continued by others, who perhaps will be animated by what we have started, and by the standards we have tried to set.”
Yossi Prager, executive director of Avi Chai-North America, noted that by 2020 the new program could produce “60 innovators, thinkers and doers who will be carrying forward the mission.”
The air of secrecy about the fellowship, the nominators and the selection committee, was intended to preserve “the integrity of the nomination and selection process,” according to Avi Chai officials who pointed out that unlike the MacArthur grants, given for past accomplishments, the new grants are seen as an investment in the future — for the winners and for the community.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization