Slingshot names J’Burgh named one of 50 top innovative Jewish NPOs

By Staff and Wire Reports November 2, 2012, 1:30 pm 0 Edit

(Editor’s note: A more extensive story will appear in the Nov. 8 Chronicle.)
J’Burgh, an initiative of The Hillel Jewish University Center that serves the more than 2,500 young adults and graduate students, has been named one of the 50 most innovative non-profit organizations in Jewish life by Slingshot, an annual guide to the most innovative Jewish organizations in North America.
Slingshot cites J’Burgh’s combination of “best practices from the Jewish innovation community,” such as putting value in constituent feedback, with “best practices from the establishment”, such as inter-organization partnerships.
Slingshot received about 180 applications, from which 50 were chosen, and J’Burgh is one of Slingshot’s 19 new honorees.
J’Burgh’s aim is to bring these young adults and graduate students together and to help them build a Jewish community, as well as to facilitate a professional network for opportunities and development.
J’Burgh has already inspired a similar organization in Cleveland, called J’Cle.
The Slingshot resource guide is distributed to 7,500 funders, foundation professionals, and organizational leaders annually, in addition to tens of thousands of online downloads. Readers use Slingshot to identify the most inspiring and trail blazing organizations, projects, and programs in the North American Jewish community today. Since its inception, Slingshot has highlighted 173 innovative Jewish organizations in North America.
“It is an enormous honor to be selected by Slingshot as one of the 50 most innovative Jewish organizations in the country,” David Katz, Director of J’Burgh and Assistant Director of the Hillel JUC, said in a prepared statement. “Appearing in the Slingshot Guide really shows how much the Pittsburgh Jewish community cares and invests in our young adults and graduate students.”
Slingshot celebrates Jewish organizations and projects that are “successfully breathing new energy into Jewish life,” its program director, Julie Finkelstein, said in a prepared statement.
J’Burgh’s inclusion in the Slingshot guide was announced at a happy hour celebration, at the Porch at Schenley on Thursday, Oct. 25, celebrating the first annual J’Burgh Day in Pittsburgh, as proclaimed by Mayor Ravenstahl in 2011.