Click here for a list of UpStart Alumni.

Current UpStarters:

Bay Area Learning Initiative (BALI)

BALI provides a select group of dynamic, highly motivated, accomplished adults the opportunity to study classical Jewish sources. These adults, in turn, will lead engaging, high-level learning circles for a broad cross-section of the Jewish community in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Contact: Sara Heitler Bamberger, Founding Executive Director 

Fair Trade Judaica

FTJ seeks to increase the availability, diversity, and purchase of fair trade Judaica products by the U.S. Jewish community, helping to ensure that commerce in Judaica is informed by sacred principles of fairness and justice. 

Contact: Ilana Schatz, Founding Executive Director

G-dcast

G-dcast is a concrete, colorful step towards elevating Jewish literacy. In a weekly four minute cartoon, G-dcast encapsulates the entire Torah. 55 voices - teachers, storytellers, rabbis and musicians - tell each week's parsha, and G-dcast animates their voices in a vivid, fun style.

Contact: Sarah Lefton, Founding Executive Director

Mitzvah on the Rocks

MOTR creates entry-points into the Jewish community for young adults who are interested in building or developing their connection to Judaism in a social, non-denominational, welcoming environment.

Contact: Ronny Beer, Jake Hamlin and Ryan Cohen, Co-Founders 

Remember Us: The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project 

Remember Us offers an invitation to children preparing for bar/bat mitzvah to connect with the memory of children lost in the Holocaust.

Contact: Gesher Calmenson, Founding Director

Wilderness Torah

WT brings earth-based Jewish spirituality to the Bay Area to help individuals deepen their connection to Community, Earth, Spirit and Self through celebratory land-based festivals, rituals, and rites of passage.

Contact: Zelig Golden and Julie Wolk, Co-Founding Executive Directors

UpStart Alumni

American Jewish World Service fosters civil society, sustainable development and human rights for all people, while promoting the values and responsibilities of global citizenship within the Jewish community.  Contact: Elizabeth Friedman-Branoff, Regional Director of Development.

Feinsmith Quartet uses modern classical music to promote Torah principles and to honor the tradition of the great Jewish classical virtuosos. Contact: Josh Seidenfeld, Co-Founder and Artistic Director.

The Friendship Circle pairs South Bay Jewish teen volunteers with local Jewish children coping with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities. Contact: Ezzy Schusterman, Executive Director.

Institute for Jewish Spirituality nourishes the inner lives of Rabbis, cantors, educators, and lay leaders. IJS's programs weave text study, meditation, prayer, yoga, and spiritual direction. Contact: Rabbi Margie Jacobs, Bay Area Founder.

Jewish Community Youth Orchestra brings together young classical musicians to develop their skills through professional training, while building Jewish identity and community through the arts. Contact: Gary Sheldon, Founding Conductor & Artistic Director

Jewish Gateways welcomes wandering or wondering Jews and non-Jews, singles, couples, and families, those in interfaith and multiracial relationships, Jews-by-Choice, adult children of interfaith families, members of the LGBT community, and people of color to help you explore Jewish choices and discover those that work for you. Contact: Rabbi Bridget Wynne, Founding Director

Jewish Milestones supports Jews in creating lifecycle rituals that are authentically Jewish and personally meaningful. Contact: Rachel Brodie, Executive Director

Jewish Mosaic partners with Jewish organizations, communities, and individuals to include all Jews in communal life, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Contact: Karen Erlichman, Director & Program Coordinator of the Bay Area Office.

Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation develops and distributes effective educational materials about the Jewish partisans, bringing this celebration of heroic resistance against tyranny into educational and cultural organizations. Contact: Mitch Braff, Founder.

Progressive Jewish Alliance educates, advocates, and organizes on issues of peace, equality, diversity and justice, as a progressive voice in the Jewish community and a Jewish voice in the progressive community. Contact: Rachel Biale, Interim Executive Director.

The Curriculum Initiative (TCI) is the leading Jewish educational organization serving independent schools by strengthening Jewish identities and nurturing appreciation for the Jewish heritage. Contact: Adrian Schrek, Bay Area Regional Director.

The Forest Foundation Moishe House program provides a rent subsidy and a program budget for young Jews to live in and create their vision of an ideal Jewish communal space. Contact: contact@theforestfoundation.net.

The Jewish Webcasting Service organizes and disseminates quality Jewish webcasting resources to the public. Contact: Lawrence Grossman, Founder & Director. Currently not operating.

Tikshoret Jewish Youth Media Project provided Jewish educators and youth with the practical skills to change the way we teach and learn about Israel, making it relevant to the current and future generations of Jewish Youth. Contact: Gabe Salgado. Currently not operating.