I don't care how he spells the word "hustle," I appreciate Adam Rose's suggestion that we talk about Moishe House's sustainability. And for me, one of the pieces that I think is important is that we think of ourselves as part of a network of grassroots Jewish groups in our communities, and act accordingly.
So I recently joined the board of the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, a Boston-based progressive Jewish organization. They do great work activating our local Jewish community on public policy concerns, especially regarding civil liberties, and we have built a strong relationship with them over the past three years.
Now JALSA is going through tough financial times, and one of the ideas they discussed at their board meeting last week was jointly applying for a grant together with us, the local Moishe/Kavod House. To me, it was not just a sign of respect that their E.D. made such a suggestion -- although it was clearly a recognition that we have built our own Jewish social justice base here in Boston -- but it was also a strong signal that others agree such partnerships are critical to helping grassroots organizations like ours both weather the hard times and then thrive in days to come.
I think it's a model a worth pursuing around the country, and I know that we are going to follow up...
1 comment:
Ben,
Thanks for taking it easy on my awful spelling, and my spell check dependency.
I couldn't agree more with your testimonial and suggestion to pursue partnerships. Big organization and companies can survive through tough times because of their vast resources. But smaller organizations, like Moishe, do not have these same luxuries. However, small organizations working together can rely on each other, and their collective resources, to bring them through tough times.
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