Snunit Baraban (Amitei Bronfman ’04): Artown
The Artown festival is a multidisciplinary initiative held in Mitzpe Ramon, where master artists from various fields will lead in-depth workshops, connecting central and local Israeli artists. This four-day festival offers immersive workshops in dance, music, theater, visual arts, and more. Evenings come alive with collaborative jam sessions and performances open to the local community. As an artistic haven in the Negev periphery, Mitzpe Ramon fosters creativity and connection, bringing together central and local Israeli artists to showcase work and build community. The grant will enable us to promote the festival through website development and graphic design.
Uriya Bin Nun (Amitei Bronfman ‘19): A Firm Action of Understanding – The Broken and Mended Good of War
This book attempts to speak about the war and the professional, spiritual, moral, and existential challenges it presents, from the perspective of a soldier who is also a man of the written word, of dialogue. On October 7, surrounded by destruction, I was thrust into the role of commander—without experience or preparation—after all higher ranks were killed or injured. Written during and after combat, this journal reflects on the brutality of war and the question of what it means to be good in such a time, seeking to open a complex discourse, bridge perspectives, and offer a path to understanding and healing in a broken reality. The grant will be used for editing, including linguistic consulting, and for printing the book.
Sofia Freudenstein ‘15: Off The Derech: A Halakhic Travelling Guide
I will create a blog that will serve as a guide to traveling as a halakhically-oriented Jew regarding kashrut, shabbat observance, etc., in select European cities. I will bring my experience and unique perspective as a newly-minted rabbi to observant Jews who have always wanted to travel, but never knew how to navigate halakhic stresses outside of their communities of origin. Halakhah is a system that means “to walk,” and I believe that as Jews, we should take it on the road and walk everywhere. My produced content about these experiences will show hopeful travelers the way. This grant will be used to fund travel to European cities including Vilnius, Lithuania; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Mainz, Germany.
Judah Guggenheim ‘19: Shalshelet Shivyoni
Shalshelet Shivyoni is an intercollegiate community committed to halacha and inclusion. Our goal is to create a sustainable network that provides opportunities for students to explore and engage with traditional Jewish practice in a welcoming and egalitarian environment. We will use this grant to fully fund our microgrant program, allowing us to directly distribute targeted resources to participating campuses. This means we can swiftly respond to the unique needs of each community, empowering student-led projects with precisely the support they require. Grants will be awarded on a rolling basis, ensuring timely support for Shabbat programming, inclusive prayer spaces, learning opportunities, and other campus-specific needs. We will maintain oversight, provide mentorship to recipients, and track the impact of each initiative to refine and expand the program moving forward. This grant will be used to fully fund our microgrant program.
Yuval Kadari (Amitei Bronfman ‘13): InfoMixed
InfoMixed is a social initiative helping junior tech professionals from disadvantaged backgrounds gain practical experience and secure their first industry positions, developing socially valuable products while being mentored by senior industry professionals. After returning from reserve duty, I launched InfoMixed to help qualified junior developers—especially fellow reservists—overcome barriers to entering tech. The pilot produced a tool tackling fake news and has already propelled alumni into industry roles. We now seek to scale the program to serve more underrepresented communities. This grant would fund technological systems, marketing, and operational expenses.
Shachar Kramer (Amitei Bronfman ‘22): Moon Connection
Moon Connection is a community-driven musical initiative dedicated to commemorating the fallen and murdered residents of Mazkeret Batya, through a memorial album featuring cover versions of songs chosen by bereaved families. Inspired by performing at a classmate’s memorial, I founded this project to harness music’s power to comfort and preserve memory. Each song honors an individual, often incorporating personal elements and recordings of their voice. Now in production, Moon Connection brings local musicians together to create a lasting musical tribute to those lost in the war. The grant will fund production—recording, mixing, and mastering—as well as digital distribution across multiple platforms.
Shiri Kuban (Amitei Bronfman ‘10): Yetzurei Ruach (Creatures of Spirit/Wind) — An Independent Film
The film focuses on that moment in adolescence when we need to separate from loved ones to find ourselves, to be true to who we really are. Its goal is to expand the range of stories that Israeli cinema tells and to talk about LGBT friendship. Yetzurei Ruach, my first fully independent film, takes place in the social and geographic periphery of Israel’s desert. Centered on two outcast teenagers in the early stages of self-discovery, the film explores themes of identity, loyalty, and belonging, while aiming to spark conversations about LGBT issues among young audiences in Israel and around the world. The grant will fund film editing, subtitling, storage, and distribution.
Amos Oren (Amitei Bronfman ’02): King
King is an original play inspired by Babel’s Odessa Stories, which depict the colorful lives of Jewish gangsters in early 20th-century Odessa, and the story of Babel’s own interrogation and arrest, documented in NKVD protocols. This tragicomedy, written and directed by me, explores the power of creativity in dark times and the intersection of art and life. After premiering at the Acre Festival for Alternative Theater. The grant will support documenting the show and using the materials to promote future performances on social media.
Assaf Shachar (Amitei Bronfman ‘99): Leadership Program for Youth at Kaduri Boarding School
The Kaduri Boarding School Leadership Program aims to foster values-driven leadership among youth, guiding students to discover and develop their unique leadership voices while strengthening critical thinking and ethical decision-making capabilities.Located in northern Israel, this program empowers students to lead projects within the school and local community. Students from diverse backgrounds, including Bedouin Druze, Ukrainian refugees, and others, collaborate, building leadership skills through hands-on experience. The program creates a self-sustaining leadership cycle, with graduates returning as mentors. It is now evolving into a pre-military academy. The grant will enable the continuity of this year’s project and the implementation of a significant closing few days seminar.
Daniela Woldenberg ‘22: From Kochi to New Delhi: Jewish Life in India
Along with two other Yale Students, I will be visiting Kochi and New Delhi to learn about historic and contemporary Jewish life in India. Through firsthand experiences, visits to key Jewish historical sites, and dialogue with community members and leaders, we seek to understand different manifestations of Jewish practice, connect with a Jewish community outside America and Israel, and ultimately capture the stories of those we encounter through a documentary film. We also hope to capture the vastly different accounts of the arrival of Jews in Kochi through written history and oral tradition. This is particularly important given the many disparate accounts of when Jews settled in Kochi; to this day, historians remain puzzled over their origin story. The research we conduct will incorporate interviews with historians, but just as importantly, we will highlight the folk myths and legends of the community, with its intimate links to both Indian and Jewish traditions. This grant will be used to purchase documentary film equipment and to cover travel expenses.