If you are like us, you probably believe in ensuring the strength of our Jewish communities here and around the world. We all want to help, but how do you multiply your impact? One way is to make loans instead of grants—strengthening Jewish life while enabling the money to cycle back to make more loans.

This is the idea behind the Pittsburgh Loan Fund, one of the ways Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh makes your support go further.

In our Partnership2Gether region of Karmiel/Misgav in Israel, your support recently helped a carpentry business in Bar Lev that manufactures custom-made kitchens for businesses. A 400,000 NIS loan (about US$115,000) helped them to purchase a wood-cutting machine that makes their work much more efficient, saving them money and enabling them to grow their business tremendously in just a few months since the purchase.

These kinds of loans help many different types of Israeli businesses, from high-tech ones like Accuera, a 2021 start-up in Misgav’s Tariadon area that produces microchips, to low-tech ones like Misgav’s Lotem Winery, recovering from the economic damage they suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Multiplying the value of your impact happens in various ways all over the world. Our global partner World ORT leverages government funding to provide Jewish education. Our Federation grant writers recently helped Pittsburgh-area Jewish agencies and synagogues to receive more than $700,000 in Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency security grants to help make their organizations safe. Working together in this way helps us all reach the ultimate goal—making everyone feel included, supported and inspired.