Given the unprecedented weather conditions and their resulting effects, the Foundation is providing support to those affected. Within days of millions losing power and water, Chaim Goldfeder, owner of Kosher Palate, offered free hot kosher meals at two locations for anyone in need. To ensure he was able to continue this generous offering, the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas made the swift decision to fund the next 48 hours of dinners. As of Feb. 17, with Federation/Foundation funding in tow, Kosher Palate was on target to distribute 1,000 meals through the shul distribution centers. With his own fundraising dollars, Chaim now plans to provide meals, including prepackaged Family Packs for Sh…

The Dallas Jewish community share a profound sense of loss and grief as we grapple with the brutality and senselessness of George Floyd’s death. The Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, its Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Dallas area Jewish community share a profound sense of loss and grief as we grapple with the brutality and senselessness of George Floyd’s death. Judaism teaches that every individual is created B’tzelem Elohim, in G-d’s image. With this notion, we affirm that every life is precious and has value. We honor the voices, emotion, and pain of the peaceful protests taking place in the wake of recent tragedies targeting African Americans, and strongly condemn those who take advantage of th…

THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER DALLAS AND DALLAS JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION UNITE TO SUSTAIN COMMUNITY DURING TIME OF CRISIS $500,000 GRANT FUNDED TO JUMP START EMERGENCY CRISIS CAMPAIGN The Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas and the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation are pleased to announce a collaborative effort with the launch of the Emergency Crisis Fund, providing a combined initial contribution of $500,000. The partnership between these two organizations demonstrates their united commitment to meet the urgent needs of our Dallas area Jewish agencies, schools, shuls, and organizations who will serve and sustain our most vulnerable population during this unprecedented time. This emergency campaign is designed to provide …

Dear Fundholders: “These are the times that try men’s souls,” said Thomas Paine and "These are times in which our character is being tested; our wisdom, our empathy, our compassion, and our selflessness are being tried," said Andres Spokoiny.  And certainly, these are trying ours. Today, we are facing an emergency as a community. Many of our neighbors have lost jobs. Our elderly are shut in. Families are struggling together as they shelter in place. Our agencies – agencies created by our community to care for us, to educate us, to provide a safe place to come together – are being tested as never before. While each agency is trying to innovate to continue their vital work, their …

We often are told people do not understand what the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation is or does. Please watch this short video from our recent College Scholarship Reception and you will understand.  

Each month the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation writes checks for grants to wonderful non-profit organizations, both Jewish and secular, here in Dallas and around the world. Many of the organizations I’m sure you know and would expect to see on a list of our grants. But, I think the scope and variety of our grant recipients may surprise you. Every few weeks we will update this list so you get a true feel of the power of our philanthropic work which is fueled by the passions of our fundholders. A Sampling: NAMI Dallas St. Phillips School North Texas Food Bank JCC Dallas My TreeHouse LeukemiaTexas Hockaday School Southern Poverty Law Center World Jewish Congress Ovaria…

Recently we were honored to hold our 2017-2018 annual meeting. On behalf of the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation’s Leadership, Board of Trustees, and staff, for those of you who attended, THANK YOU for joining us. With a crowd of over 200, we were honored to share our passions and highlights. We take pride in serving our community by providing our expertise, hard work, and resources to support organizations, and the community at large, to thrive now, and into the future. As we mentioned during the program, our success would not have been possible without the vision and generosity of our Fundholders.  We publicly announced for the first time, the nine grant recipients that received partial or full funding from the Sylvan …

It would seem unusual for someone of the Jewish faith to find joy and inspiration on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Well, for the leadership and volunteers of the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation it’s not unusual at all due to the First Responders Fund of the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation. This year 17 families and individuals delivered holiday trays to fire and police stations and emergency call centers, representing hundreds of men and women on duty during Christmas. It was our small way of saying thank you to first responders who gave up their holiday. A holiday which should be spent with family and friends but instead they went on duty to protect and serve each of us. As a community of faith, we are humbled over t…

  What an incredible two weeks we have just witnessed. It began with that disgraceful march in Charlottesville. Neo Nazis, KKK members, and white supremacists marching with their hateful language and racist messages. Who would have thought that could happen in America today? But it did! Some people were shocked into inaction. But not the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation. We reacted immediately. Foundation leadership immediately approved a grant of $25,000 to be shared with five organizations that we are proud to stand with, side by side, in our effort to combat hate. We called our effort the “We Will Not Be Silent” campaign. We granted $5,000 to each of the following organizations; Dallas Holocaust Museum, Cathedr…

Mona Allen (left) is joined by Alan Alspaugh of Eagle Strategies and Lynne Candler, Vice President at Frost Wealth Advisors. Alan and Lynne serve on the advisory committee of the Protect the Protector Fund. In my role I am often asked to describe what the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation does. It's a question that I love to answer, although the answer can be complicated. The foundation has so many doorways to philanthropy it's just not a simple answer. But my perspective has changed. Today, I think the answer has become simple. It started with our Director of Scholarships and Programs, Mona Allen, who came to my office to discuss a site visit she made. I could tell something special had taken place; Mona's face was almost…

There is a line from the famous work “Man of la Mancha”, that goes “If life itself seems lunatic who knows where madness really lies.” That quote keeps running through my head as I read the news. According to the latest FBI tracking, there were more Jewish hate crime victims than victims of all other religious groups combined. “...On college campuses, anti-Semitism is spiking at an alarming rate coast to coast,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law. We are watching a fifth wave of bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers across the country along with Jewish schools and institutions. At least seventy bomb threats have been received i…

It should come as no surprise that we often find ourselves talking to potential new fundholders or organizational accounts. It is also no surprise that the first thing we hear is how much more inexpensive the national discount brokerage firms philanthropic options are, and that they are going to use that low fee as their yardstick in making a decision. That may be a factor but I would urge extreme caution in making that the key factor. So what are the reasons for choosing the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation(DJCF) over a low cost brokerage’s foundation? 1. The Dallas Jewish Community Foundation is the financial and fiduciary backbone of the Dallas Jewish community. By creating a fund with DJCF you are investing in the Jewish commu…

It is an interesting time on our calendars.  The Foundation has just held its first Annual Meeting and as a nation we watched the results of a hotly contested election, remembered Veterans’ Day, and are about to celebrate Thanksgiving. Now I know these four events are not equal in historical relevance, but they are related.  One word ties them all together:  appreciation. The guest speaker at our Annual Meeting reminded us to be thankful and to appreciate our ability to be generous. Our generosity serves as a legacy to those who came before us. We appreciate our nation.  The day after the most hotly contested election in anyone’s memory, there were no armed troops in the streets, just a peaceful transit…

Charity, charite, caridad, nachsten liebe, carity. These are the words for charity in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. An important word, charity, important in any language. But I think you may have noticed that I did not include the Hebrew word for charity. And that is because there is none. In the Hebrew language there is simply no word for charity. Instead we have and use the word TZEDAKAH which translates as justice. The Jewish faith simply does not allow us to consider charity as an option.  Jewish teaching demands it. It is an obligation of faith to seek out justice, to aid the poor, to comfort the neglected, to care for the ill, and to support education. For the betterment of a quality of life for our community…

Three words that are not usually strung together in the same thought. Numbers. Have you ever noticed that our world is made up of three kinds of people? Those who understand math and those who don’t. But you don’t need to be a math wizard to understand some basic numbers. 1,705,244 - the dollar amount of college scholarships that the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation has awarded this year. 536 - the number of students who have attained their degrees through the assistance of our scholarship program. 117,480 - the dollar amount of this year’s college scholarship awards. 33 - the number of college scholarships we awarded this year. 12 - the number of scholarships we awarded in Israel to Ethiopian st…

Normally, this time of year, I like to join the tradition of Purim and write a Purim shpeil. You’ve all read them, making silly things sound real, making the impossible possible. It’s something I enjoy.  But this year is different. This year when I sat down to write my spoof of reality I realized that I couldn’t make up anything as strange as the actual events and times we live in. There is a line from the book The Man of LaMancha that goes. “When life itself seems lunatic who knows where madness really lies.” It really doesn’t matter if you are young or old, religious or secular, democrat or republican, conservative or liberal,…we are looking at crazy times. Times when passions are buildi…

The Dallas Jewish Community Foundation will be closed on Martin Luther King’s Birthday, this year remembered on January 18th. I must be honest and say I considered not closing our offices. Not because I didn’t want to honor his memory, but rather I didn’t want his birthday to be just another excuse to miss work. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy…Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” These words transcend the decades and are as relevant today as the day he spoke them. Our country is not perfect. We have not yet been to the mountain top. But we are gettin…

Chanukah is upon us. You can already see the smiles on the faces of kids and grandparents, my two gauges of the holiday. But we all know that Chanukah is more than eight nights of presents, it’s more than potato latkes and jelly donuts. It’s a time to step back and reflect on the joys of living in a free society, the beauty of religious freedom. The power of moral conviction over evil forces. Today I learned a story I never knew. The story of Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds. Sgt. Edmonds was in a German prisoner of war camp during WW2. The German officer demanded that the sergeant identify and turn over any Jewish prisoners for “special relocation”.  Sgt. Edmonds said “no, we are all Jews.” He refused t…

I seem to be on overload from all of the sale ads I heard on Veterans Day. It seems like everything was on sale, cars and furniture, fashion and jewelry, technology and toys. There was only one item not on sale, in fact it has never been on sale, and that is the possession we hold dearest…our freedom. That is the one asset we paid for in full price with the blood and treasure of America's finest young men and women. It’s time we stopped looking at Veterans Day as a shopping experience and remember what really counts. It is a day to honor, a day to pay our respects, and a day to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for those who serve in harm’s way. A day to proudly say G-d Bless America. I remember a story I heard about G…

A recent study found that 1 in 5 philanthropic people believe their charitable gifts make a difference. If this is true, that means 80% of donors question whether they are accomplishing something with their generosity. I was thinking about this study when we held the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation’s (DJCF) Scholarship reception in May. What an evening; 38 students received awards from 26 scholarship endowment funds. During the reception, as well as before and after the event, not even one of our scholarship funders wondered whether their generosity made a difference. Not only were they committed to the Foundation’s programs; they were able to shake hands with the young person whose future they helped secure. Making …