News

As the longtime executive director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Koret President Dr. Anita Friedman calls the coronavirus pandemic “the deepest and most profound crisis we’ve had to deal with in the last generation. This combines both a health crisis with a mental-health crisis with an economic crisis, and it affects everyone.” (Photo credit: JFCS)

Inside Philanthropy examines why Israel support remains so important to most American Jews. According to Koret president Dr. Anita Friedman, a vibrant interactive relationship between American Jews and Israel makes the Jewish people worldwide stronger and better.

Coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, “The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Lodz Ghetto” made its US premiere at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee. The exhibition, which originated at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland, will travel to museums across the US in the coming years.

Ron E. Hassner, the Helen Diller Family Chair of Israel Studies at UC Berkeley, shares how Israel scholarship and Jewish life has progressed at the campus in recent years. Today, the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, Magnes Museum, and Center for Jewish Studies contribute to a campus environment where Israel and Judaism are studied rigorously, carefully, and enthusiastically. (Photo credit: Tikvah: Students for Israel)

The UCSF has announced that its patient care facilities at the Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision will be named the Koret Vision Clinics, in recognition of a $10 million grant to the department, which houses one of the top 10 eye centers in the country. The new clinics will open in summer of 2020 and will substantially increase the number of patients seen each year and increase accessible, innovative vision care for the Bay Area and the world.

Former US ambassador to Israel and the Israel Institute’s new board chair Daniel B. Shapiro promotes the importance of accessible, high-level courses about Israel to university campuses. In-depth academic engagement about Israel is a critical way to ensure that students are educated and well-prepared for sophisticated discourse on Israel. (Photo credit: The Israel Institute)

The Koret-supported film “The Remembered” was selected as the recipient of the Documentary Film Grant from the JDC Archives, which houses one of the most significant collections in the world for the study of modern Jewish history. The film by award-winning writer and filmmaker Yoav Potash explores Polish-Jewish relations in the small town of Gniewoszów, Poland, in the years immediately before, during, and after World War II.

Onward Israel was formed in 2012 to provide college students high-quality professional summer internships in Israel while strengthening their Jewish identity. This past summer, the program served 2,806 students and has reached close to 12,000 alumni. Koret grantee Israel21C shares about the Onward Israel’s inception and growth.

Touchdowns for Kids–a collaboration with the 49ers Foundation, Taube Philanthropies, and Koret– celebrated the end of a successful season that raised $200,000 in donations to local youth organizations from the 49ers success on the field.

Shalem College reflects on 2019, including its annual Peoplehood program in the Bay Area and the inaugural program to Washington DC to learn about the importance of the US Israel Relationship.

Organized by the California Legislative Jewish Caucus Leadership Foundation, members of the California State Legislature visited Jerusalem, Ramallah, Tel Aviv, and Northern Israel. Members met with top Israeli leaders, thinkers, and entrepreneurs to better understand the unique politics, history, geography, and economy of the modern state of Israel.

The Stanford ChEM-H Building and the Stanford Neurosciences Building are opening this month as part of a new research complex dedicated to improving human health. The interconnecting buildings will allow teams of scientists, engineers, and clinicians from across Stanford’s campus to join forces, share expertise, and work together in community labs, such as the Koret Human Neurosciences Community Laboratory. (Photo credit: Farrin Abbott)