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Do you have an innovative idea? Of course you do! Do you have an emerging NYC-based, Jewish, non-profit? Do you know someone who does? An announcement from our friends at Bikkurim:

Bikkurim: An Incubator for New Jewish Ideas is accepting applications for 2008. Bikkurim seeks innovative, NYC-based, Jewish, non-profit projects that are in early stages of formation and organizational growth. We provide free office space, free and subsidized capacity-building consulting, small stipends, and a peer community with other Jewish start-up initiatives.

Pre-applications can be downloaded from www.bikkurim.org and are due February 1, 2008. Full applications, by invitation only, will be due April 11, 2008. Finalists will be interviewed and selected in mid-June. Residency begins in July, 2008. For more information, contact Nina Bruder at nina@bikkurim.org or 212-284-6892.

Please help spread the word!
Bikkurim: An Incubator for New Jewish Ideas
111 Eighth Ave. 11th Floor
New York, NY 10011
(212) 284-6892

Congratulations to the educators who were recently awarded Avi Chai’s Educational Technology Experimentation Grants and to their schools! The projects represent a range of multimedia resources including podcasts, webcasts, websites, software, interactive curriculum, and SMARTBoard materials for Jewish learning.

Below is a listing of the recipients. Please see the Avi Chai Technology site for more details and to follow the grantees’ progress.

Avi Chai Educational Technology Experimentation Grant Recipients

Mr. Joseph Sonnenblick, North Shore Hebrew Academy - High School, Great Neck, NY
Dr. Yaakova Sacerdoti, The Jean and Samuel Frankel Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit, West Bloomfield, MI
Ms. Evi Reznick, Yeshiva Atlanta High School, Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Don Pacht, Vancouver Hebrew Academy, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Rabbi Dov Nimchinsky, Robert M. Beren Academy, Houston, TX
Ms. Carrie Moaty, Katherine & Jacob Greenfield Hebrew Academy of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Judd Kruger Levingston, Perelman Jewish Day School - Saligman Middle School, Melrose Park, PA
Ms. Davida Levin, Torah Day School of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Mrs. Elky Langer, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Rabbi Daniel Kohn, Contra Costa Jewish Day School, Lafeyette, CA
Rabbi Avraham Ismach, HANC - Hornstein Middle School / Brookdale High School, Uniondale, NY
Ms. Deborah Harris, Solomon Schechter Day Schools of Metropolitan Chicago - Sager Solomon Schechter, Northbrook, IL
Ms. Tzivia Garfinkel, Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, Chicago, IL
Dr. Joseph Fima, Herzliah High School – Snowdon, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Ms. Ghilly Einhorn, South Area Solomon Schechter Day School, Stoughton, MA

According to the Avi Chai Tech blog, the Foundation received around 180 proposals for their new Educational Technology Experimentation grants. Avi Chai is in the process of selecting winning proposals and will announce the grantees shortly.

In the meantime, the Foundation took note of the types of tools and projects that schools were interested in developing. These included: SMARTboards, video conferencing equipment, original teacher-devised curricula, websites, and software. For further information, check out the Avi Chai Tech blog directly.

The Covenant Foundation recently announced a new Jewish education grant program in addition to their signature Covenant Grants: one-year Ignition Grants of up to $20,000 for ideas that are not yet ready for a multi-year Covenant Grant.

The grants, which are awarded to institutions, agencies, or organizations, are intended to help explore new, untested ideas or determine how established practices can become even more effective. Additional information about both grants can be found on the Covenant Foundation’s website: www.covenantfn.org. The deadline for submitting letters of inquiry for either grant is March 1, 2007.

The Foundation has supported a number of technology-based initiatives for Jewish education; most recently a 2006 Covenant Grant to the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, New York, New York, to pilot a series of Jewish education webcasts, “There’s No Place Like Home,” for parents in the congregation.

The Avi Chai Foundation is offering up to $10,000 to support new and innovative ways to apply technology to enhancing the teaching of Judaic studies in day schools. The deadline for proposals is Thursday, November 30, 2006. For more information, see Avi Chai Educational Technology.