Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston 2019-20

Founded in 2015, the Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston (JTFGB) is a unique program that gives Jewish high school students the opportunity to engage in and learn the responsibility of collective philanthropy. Now in its fifth year, this elite program encourages teens across the greater Boston area and parts of southern New Hampshire to engage in hands-on and strategic philanthropy as they spend the year working through an entire grant-making cycle. This year, a total of 74 teens make up four different boards located at Hebrew College in Newton, MA. Each board came to a consensus to focus on an issue area—and this year they are particularly passionate to be supporting the issues of education inequity, substance use, environmental justice, and gun violence/control.

JTFGB provides teens within the greater Boston area the opportunity to put Jewish values into practice in a group setting, and instills within its participants the skills that may set a life-long pattern of activism and philanthropy. JTFGB participants engage in an in-depth examination of social justice issues, profound discussions of a myriad of Jewish values such as tikkun olam and tzedakah (repairing the world and charitable giving), and gain practical skills in fundraising, grant-making, and group process. Funding decisions and grant allocations will all be made by the teens of the three boards.