The Covenant Foundation

"Immersive theater brings story and ritual to life in a way that it feels lived and experienced rather than just received. That’s why we feel it is the perfect vehicle to introduce Jewish learning and engagement to young children and their families."
-- Jonathan Schmidt Chapman, K'ilu's Project Director of Ark Adventures, discusses the theatrical modality of their education program for children and families. He explains how teaching Shabbat and Torah stories through sensory, hands-on engagement creates a long-lasting impact and a closer relationship to their community.

Read more about their project coming to life in our latest issue of Sight Line:

Vol. 34: Meet the New Grantees | The Covenant Foundation "This year’s grants span a wide range of topic areas—including family education, social-emotional learning, teen engagement and education, diversity initiatives, Israel education and tools for responding to antisemitism. While these areas often overlap, each on its own is an essential...

"JLE participants are better able to articulate their Jewish identity because their learning is based on deep, factual content... As part of their developing maturity, our students encounter ideas that are counter to their beliefs or understanding."
-- Dr. Jay Greenlinger, AJU's Project Director, talks about how their learning program for high school students prepares them for college and beyond. They provide opportunities for their students to consider their Jewish identities alongside modern Jewish issues through learning and conversations.

Read more about AJU's Learning Experience and how they equip high schoolers for their next steps in our latest issue of Sight Line:

Vol. 34: Meet the New Grantees | The Covenant Foundation "This year’s grants span a wide range of topic areas—including family education, social-emotional learning, teen engagement and education, diversity initiatives, Israel education and tools for responding to antisemitism. While these areas often overlap, each on its own is an essential...

"Young people are struggling to feel a sense of hope, lacking strong social connections, and feeling generally burnt out... Our goal is to support folks in leading more connected, hopeful and meaningful lives- and to help make each gathering an opportunity to deepen connections and resilience."
-- Tribe 12's Project Director, Rabbi Megan GoldMarche talks about the inspiration for their project, More Than Treading Water: Jewish Wisdom for Finding Joy, Hope, and Resilience in Times Like These, that creates a space for young people to connect amid an increasingly isolating world.

Read more about Tribe 12's community building work for the next generation in our latest issue of Sight Line here:

Vol. 34: Meet the New Grantees | The Covenant Foundation "This year’s grants span a wide range of topic areas—including family education, social-emotional learning, teen engagement and education, diversity initiatives, Israel education and tools for responding to antisemitism. While these areas often overlap, each on its own is an essential...

👥 Join us for our next Covenant Salon Series event on June 8th with Howard Blas and Ilana Trachtman in conversation with Sandee Brawarsky!
Howard and Ilana will discuss their newest book, A Different Spirit: Creating Meaningful B’nai Mitzvah for Children with Disabilities.

The event will be held on Zoom

📖 To learn more about Howard and Ilana's book visit: https://tinyurl.com/2z9dw7dd

🔗 RSVP by June 5th here: https://tinyurl.com/yd69kn6t

Illustration by Jessica Tamar Deutsch

"For this program, our approach builds Jewish learning spaces where Jews of Color use our cultural wisdom and experience as assets for understanding Torah and for bringing it into contemporary Jewish life."
-- Rabbi Sass Brown, Program Director of Ammud's Ruach JOC Torah Cohort Program, discusses how Ammud works to create a space for Jews of Color working at nonprofits to learn with and from one other.

Read more about Ammud's cohort of collaborative learners and in-depth Torah study in our latest Sight Line issue here:

Sight Line | The Covenant Foundation Sight Line is a digital journal brought to you by The Covenant Foundation. It offers information for and about the field of Jewish education in its broadest definition and is intended to evoke conversation and create an opportunity for action.

"By using disability wisdom to understand Torah and justice work, we hope to undo the ways in which Jews with disabilities continue to be on the fringes and instead help integrate this population and their distinct voices."
-- Rabbi David Jaffe, Project Director of Kirva's Disability Wisdom as Soul Care, on how their training program for Jewish educators with disabilities can make a significant impact on the Jewish community as a whole.

Read more about Kirva's work to create inclusive environments of Torah study and community building in our latest issue of Sight Line here:

Sight Line | The Covenant Foundation Sight Line is a digital journal brought to you by The Covenant Foundation. It offers information for and about the field of Jewish education in its broadest definition and is intended to evoke conversation and create an opportunity for action.

🔔 Sight Line Volume 34: Meet the Grantees is out now!

In this annual issue of Sight Line, we interview the project directors from our newest cohort of Covenant grantees and ask them generative questions to uncover their inspirations, their passions, and their visions for the field of Jewish education.

🔗 Read more: https://hubs.li/Q04fFn4k0

🖌️ Designed by Esti Merkin

We are thrilled to announce Erin Beser as our 2026 Jewish Family Education Fellow!

Erin is the Founder and CEO of Adoughma Dough Play Events. We're looking forward to supporting her mission of developing accessible and sensory-friendly Jewish education materials.

🔗 Read more about Erin and the Fellowship here: https://hubs.li/Q04fg-7q0

As we pass the halfway point of our counting and Shavuot approaches, we hope to continue to find meaning in the ritual of the Omer. Let My People Sing's Co-Founder, Batya Levine, shared their appreciation for Micah Shapiro's rendition of "Hod V'hadar" during this time of year.

🎼 Listen here:

Hod V'hadar (Psalms 96:6) Micah Shapiro · Ta'ir Eretz: Light up the Earth · Song · 2019

Coming soon!

Our next issue of Sight Line includes Daniel Kraft, Project Director of Yetzirah's Regional Chapters Program, talking about Yetzirah's mission to utilize poetry as a medium for communication and connection with one another in the global Jewish community.

"Where politics threatens to divide us, harden us, and alienate us from each other, poetry—even when expressly political—invites conversation, attention to nuance, the ability to entertain and hold seemingly opposite viewpoints."

Stay tuned for our upcoming issue to read more from our latest grantees!

🖌️Designed by Esti Merkin