Association For Jewish Outreach Programs - AVI CHAI Foundation Founds AJOP

AVI CHAI Foundation Founds AJOP

With the passage of time there came the recognition that not only Chabad was doing this work but that many other rabbis and volunteers from all branches of the Orthodox, Haredi, and Hasidic world were involved in the same kind of "outreach" kiruv work. During the mid-1980s Sanford C. Bernstein the founder and director of the investment house Sanford C. Bernstein and Company had become a devoted follower of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and decided to establish the AVI CHAI Foundation to research and help all manner of Jewish education and particularly Jewish outreach ("kiruv") if it met the criteria of his foundation (no opposition to Zionism and to accept the value of secualr knowledge.)

The AVI CHAI Foundation granted several million dollars each to both AJOP and to what was meant to be a "sister" effort the National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) and their similar sounding names were chosen deliberately and were meant to reinforce each other's work. While AJOP was geared to the "Outreach Professional" doing the "outreach" at the same time NJOP was directed at the non-Orthodox Jewish public who were to be offered a variety of introduction to Judaism programs. The first president of both organizations was Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald a foremost Modern Orthodox outreach rabbi who is also the head of outreach efforts at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan.