Campus

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Campus

Our goal was to empower students to be change-makers and to provide them with a toolbox for engaged, open, and civil discourse.

Community

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Community

Our strength was in the ability to create safe places in which hard issues can be addressed in collaboration with a wide spectrum of organizational partners.

News Archive

New Avi Shabbat Resource

The Avi Schaefer Fund is delighted to continue to partner with Hillel International and Ask Big Questions. Many of the campuses who participate in Avi Shabbat utilize ABQ in different ways, some have the ABQ fellows facilitate on their Shabbat conversations and others put their conversation guides into practice around the table, on the couch, and with communities on their campuses.

2nd Annual North American Symposium

A successful 2nd Annual North American Symposium was delivered on January 11, 2015, in New York City. Over 230 participants honored Avi’s memory with a day of study and enrichment on the topic: Judaism, Human Equality and the Quest for Justice. For this timely and critical topic, we brought together important scholars such as Professor Randall Kennedy, Rabbis David Ellenson, Susan Talve, Jill Jacobs and Shai Held.

2015 Avi Shabbat and Innovation Grants Program

lmu-ig-2014_99520c190c4a3070ca836dcd21d6307f L’shanah tova! We hope your school year is off to a great start! We are excited to announce the 2015 Avi Shabbat and Innovation Grants Program.

We are in our fifth year of our Avi Shabbat program, with campuses across the US and Canada hosting and celebrating together. For those campuses that have participated with us in the past, thank you for your participation and feedback. Apply today and stay tuned for new online resources.

Celebrate Our Growth Open House 2014

Thank you to everyone who joined us in Santa Barbara at the Gross Schaefer home for our annual “Celebrate Our Growth Open House”. The crowd of about 250 people enjoyed a beautiful day of community, support, and conversation. In the midst of the ongoing heartbreak and violence in the Middle East, the work of ASF and the opportunity to gather as a community are now more important than ever. Thank you to all our supporters who help make our work possible. Sunday’s gathering was an important way to share time together and bring more healing energy into the world.

A letter from Laurie Gross-Schaefer reflecting on four years of Avi’s absence

Dear Friends of the Avi Schaefer Fund,

Memories of loss are most present during times of celebration, and tragedy is even more deeply felt in the absence of those whose joy was so often interwoven with our own. We approach the summer months knowing that each time we pass the date of Avi’s birthday, June 11th, we will be reminded anew of the pain of loss. But every year we also celebrate Avi’s life and the legacy of his continued presence in the world through the work of the Avi Schaefer Fund. As in years past, we have been blessed with the opportunity to match your donations in honor of Avi’s birthday. Whether you are a long-time supporter of the Fund or you have not yet chosen to offer your financial support, I hope you will honor Avi’s upcoming birthday with a donation.

Bringing Communities Together

Forget, for a second, the struggle for land and power that dates beyond your honored grandparents. Forget the blows you delivered your neighbor, and your neighbor to you. Forget the stories you were taught that the person you’re laughing and breaking bread with is supposed to be your enemy, that you’re supposed to hate them, and that, in this lifetime, either you will win the struggle, or they will.