The initiative expands education and enhances outreach by sharing expertise and financial resources among organizations and institutions, and by offering Jewish individuals and families multiple and affordable entry points into the community. The Kehillah Partnership was presented during a GA panel, “You Had Me at Shalom,” exploring new methods of Jewish community engagement.

“The Partnership is a place where local community agencies and institutions … work together to foster innovation and connectedness, doing together what no agency can do alone,” Rabbi Noam Marans, director of Contemporary Jewish Life at the American Jewish Committee, said at the panel discussion. “Institutions maintain individual identities and allegiances but embrace the benefit of working together with others.”

A Covenant Foundation grant totaling $141,600, announced earlier this year, will support a new phase to build an educational platform for the Kehillah Partnership. This will include a shared curriculum and informal educational model to engage students, individuals and families in building Jewish community and increasing knowledge about Jewish life and Israel.

The Kehillah Partnership was launched in 2007, spearheaded by the Bergen County YJCC in collaboration with northern New Jersey Jewish community centers, UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey and area synagogues.  For more information, visit www.kehillahpartnership.org.