Our Focus
Jewish Life
Helping successive generations discover the meaning and significance of Judaism and Jewish culture, and contributing to the vibrancy of Jewish communities.
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Jewish education and culture are vital mechanisms for transmitting the richness of Jewish tradition across generations.
The Mandel brothers cared deeply about the future of the Jewish people and the vibrancy of Jewish communities, and they had a long history of supporting Jewish life in Cleveland, North America, and Israel.
We are committed to expanding access to high-quality Jewish educational experiences that meet the needs of today’s families. To spur innovation, we invest in leadership development, new learning platforms and curricula, educator pipelines, and day school sustainability.
In the area of Jewish arts and culture, we aim to cultivate a stronger, more connected ecosystem through leadership development, field building initiatives and support of visionary organizations. We also recognize the power of arts and culture as a pathway for Jewish learning, and as such, have a special interest in programs that link artists, cultural organizations, and educational institutions.
Featured Grants
$30M in Grants to Strengthen Jewish Pre-K through Eighth Grade Education in Cleveland
To help future generations discover the meaning and significance of Judaism and Jewish culture, the Foundation made a $17M gift to The Agnon School, Cleveland’s first Jewish day school, in 2015. Founded in 1969, this gift supported highly skilled educators and programming investments for the newly named Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School (Mandel JDS). In 2022, an additional gift of $12.75 million launched the final phase of building renovations to elevate the institution from a shared space to a state-of-the-art educational facility. Improvements included a new kosher kitchen and dining hall, a cutting-edge Makerspace, a remodeled Beit Tefillah, a greenhouse, an upgraded science lab, a sensory room, and a significantly expanded Early Childhood Center to accommodate growing demand. The project also modernized existing hallways, restrooms, and classrooms, adding 8,000 square feet to the building, helping secure the future of Jewish education at Mandel JDS for decades to come and contributing to a vibrant Jewish community in Greater Cleveland.
$1.8M for Mandel Myers Fellowship Rewards and Empowers Summer Camp Counselors
Jewish overnight camp is an enduring rite of passage for 180,000+ youth, teens and young adults each summer – but with recent changes in the workforce and competing demands for college students’ summer school breaks, overnight camps have struggled to recruit enough camp counselors to keep the tradition going for the next generation. In response to this challenge, the Mandel Foundation partnered with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and the David and Inez Myers Foundation to provide substantial college scholarships and professional development opportunities to incentivize college students considering the camp counselor role. Funded in part by a $1.8 million Foundation grant over four years, the Mandel/Myers Fellowship has provided support for approximately 225 counselors since its inaugural year in 2022 . Beyond meeting a current need and keeping Jewish summer camps vibrant, the funding also helps to position camp counselors to have greater impact personally and professionally in their chosen career paths and develops their leadership skills
The hallmark of our philanthropy is our commitment to invest in people with the values, ability and passion to change the world
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel
