BUILDING
JEWISH COMMUNITY

By ensuring that JCCs, synagogues, and Hillels — the places where Jews of all ages access Jewish life — have financial stability and with it, the freedom to launch innovative programming. Investing in Jewish education and leadership training to prepare the next generation to carry us forward. Fostering civility and mutual understanding by strengthening connections among the full diversity of New York’s Jewish community and also between Jews worldwide.

We’re not only building Jewish community, we’re working toward a better future — for all of us. 

OUR IMPACT

Building community often starts with creating personal connections. So we’re helping people gather in both traditional and non-traditional Jewish settings to break down barriers. Often they discover that what they have in common is far more powerful than what sets them apart.

Some examples:

Reaching College Students

• We provide over 8,000 Jewish students on campus meaningful Jewish experiences through our 11 partner Hillels. 
  
  

Connecting to Community

• To help synagogue members experience greater connection to their local Jewish community, we started a Small Groups initiative on Long Island and in Manhattan, bringing small groups of congregants together to meet, get to know each other, become more engaged in synagogue life, and feel less isolated.
  
  
• In Westchester, we helped create spiritual small group communities for Jews who are looking for an alternative to a traditional synagogue model for connecting with Jewish life.
  
  

Sharing Israel in New York

• In partnership with the Jewish Agency, we support a delegation of 23 Israeli emissaries (shlichim) who work with 114 New York organizations to bring Israel education to community members of all ages. These emissaries ran more than 2,688 programs and engaged over 17,000 people last year.
  
  

Sharing New York in Israel

• To help Israelis better understand American Jewry, UJA has been working hand-in-hand with our overseas partner, the Jewish Agency for Israel, to make the experience of diaspora Jewry part of the curriculum in Israeli schools. 
  
  
• On a parallel track, we’re bringing Israeli influentials to visit New York to help Israelis develop a greater understanding of and sensitivity to Jewish life in North America. 
  
  
• Through funding to the Jewish Agency, we supported development of The New Jew, a four-episode miniseries that followed well-known Israeli host Guri Alfi as he traveled the United States, introducing contemporary American Jewish life to Israelis.