Joshua Venture Group names 8 fellows to receive $100,000 each

The Joshua Venture Group named eight fellows for its 2012-14 Dual Investment Program.

The North American social entrepreneurs announced Sept. 10 each will receive $80,000 in unrestricted funding for their Jewish ventures and more than $20,000 in personalized coaching, training and networking.

The new cohort includes Sarah Heitler Bamberger of Berkeley for the grass-roots Jewish learning program Kevah; Matt Bar, the Philadelphia-based founder of hip-hop Torah educational initiative Bible Raps; Sarah Bassin, who directs NewGround, a Muslim-Jewish relations partnership in Los Angeles; Risa Alyson Cooper, for her work with Bela Farm at Shoresh in Toronto; and Steve Eisenbach-Budner for the Portland-based Jewish social justice program Tivnu.

Two fellows will be co-supported by the Avi Chai Foundation as part of the Joshua Venture Group’s first Jewish Day School Fellowship. Hyim Brandes of Los Angeles will further his Online Jewish Academy and Sarah Blattner of Portland, Ore., will work on Tamritz, a national online learning network for Jewish day school educators.

The Ruderman Foundation will co-support Joshua fellow Elana Naftalin-Kelman of Berkeley for Rosh Pina, which supports Jewish institutions to become special-needs certified through a one-year program. The first cohort of Joshua Venture Group fellows was in 2001.