SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — The Jim Joseph Foundation made a $3 million challenge grant to the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School — the 5-year-old foundation’s first direct grant to a rabbinical school.
The money will be disbursed over a five-year period. The yeshiva will commit to matching $2.5 million of the grant on a one-to-one basis.
Founded in 2001 by Rabbi Avi Weiss, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah has carved out a niche on the left wing of Modern Orthodoxy, ordaining rabbis committed to a more open, pluralistic approach to Orthodox Judaism.
The Jim Joseph grant is designed to permit the school to produce more pulpit and campus rabbis and Jewish educators, and to create a separate track for Jewish educators that will carry the same prestige as the pulpit track.
"I am deeply grateful to the JJF for their belief and trust in YCT," Weiss said in a news release. "This important gift reflects their respect for the extraordinary impact that we believe our graduates are having in synagogues, universities, schools, camps and campuses all over the country."
The foundation, established in 2006, manages assets of nearly $725 million that are used to promote Jewish learning for young people.
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