TEACH COALITION/ADVOCACY CENTER

OU TEACH COALITION ADVOCATING FOR DAY SCHOOLS AND YESHIVOT

$2.3B

in state funding for all nonpublic schools across NY, NJ, FL, PA, and MD, which include Jewish day schools and yeshivot

2,000

student and lay leader attendees on our missions to Albany, Trenton, Tallahassee, and Harrisburg

68,000

voters reached through Get Out The Vote efforts

PAVING A PATH TO MORE AFFORDABLE JEWISH EDUCATION

As Teach Coalition’s advocacy continues to lead to bigger state investments in the education of yeshiva and day school students, we are drawing closer to our goal of lowering parents’ out-of-pocket costs. For the first time in U.S. history, general studies teachers, specifically STEM teachers, are being funded in nonpublic schools in New York and New Jersey, as a direct result of our advocacy. This year, we fought for the largest NY allocation of the STEM programs, with $58 million now going to nonpublic schools’ STEM teachers, a 45% increase from last year.

In our states with tax credit and state-sponsored scholarship programs, legislative wins expanded income eligibility requirements and eliminated wait lists. Now 50% of day school and yeshiva students in Florida and Pennsylvania will be receiving scholarships worth a total of around $70 million just this year.

LOOKING OUT FOR OUR CHILDREN YEAR-ROUND: TEACH LAUNCHES THE SUMMER CAMP NETWORK

With antisemitism on the rise, protecting our children is now a year-round priority. That’s why Teach Coalition and the newly formed Summer Camp Network advocated for government security funding and helped camps access it. The result was $1 million in Pennsylvania state funding that helped secure 4,000 campers at camps including Camps Stone, Nesher, Morasha, Ramah of the Poconos, Moshava, Dora Golding, and Mesivta Eitz Chaim, among others.

Campers at Camp Moshava, one of the many camps receiving security funding as a result of the Summer Camp Network’s advocacy with coalition partners.

All the professional security steps we have taken required a serious input of funds. Teach Coalition guided us every step of the way from the required advocacy to making sure we filled out the applications properly, and finally to making sure that we were in fact awarded.”

– ALAN SILVERMAN, director of Camp

Moshava in Honesdale, PA

#GRATITUDE4GUARDS SPEARHEADED BY TEACH COALITION

From New York and New Jersey to Pennsylvania, Florida, and beyond, Jewish day school and yeshiva children, parents, and school staff ended the school year by participating in Teach Coalition’s firstever #Gratitude4Guards campaign. Scores of security guards were surprised and appreciative of the children’s handmade cards, donuts, coffee, and abundance of high-fives.

Teach Coalition’s 2022 advocacy to increase security funding across our states has led to more than a $90 million investment in security funding for Jewish day schools,

yeshivas, camps, and other nonprofits. As antisemitism and violence toward our community continues to rise, Teach Coalition’s commitment to making sure our children and communities are secure and protected will be strengthened as we work on innovative solutions to funding and security. Protecting our children in school continues to be a top advocacy priority that resulted in a $30 million increase in New York security funding for a total of $70 million for schools and communities, and a $4.5 million increase for schools in New Jersey.

Students at Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley, PA, gathered to thank their security guard.

A Yeshiva of Central Queens student delivered donuts and coffee to the school’s guards.

RECORD-SIZED MISSIONS TO OUR STATE CAPITALS PAVE THE WAY FOR BIG WINS

Teach Coalition knows that the more people who show up to talk about our issues, the more likely elected officials will pay attention and act on our behalf. This year, every one of our Teach states achieved record attendance during their missions to our state capitals. Whether virtual or in person, over 2,000 day school and yeshiva students, joined by lay leaders, asked scores of state senators and legislators for increased security, STEM teacher funding, expanded services, and scholarships for students with unique abilities.

Our legislative missions are not just about leveraging our numbers for policy wins. They are an important step in showing students they can impact their education, their families, and communities by speaking up, taking responsibility, and hopefully becoming leaders in the years to come.

500 Jewish day school and yeshiva students showed off their STEM knowledge at the Teach Coalition and CIJE 2022 Robotics Competition.

Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson addresses a record 650 people at the annual Teach Legislative Breakfast.

BACK IN ACTION: TEACH LAY LEADERS AND ACTIVISTS FLOCK TO LEGISLATIVE EVENTS

Legislative dinners and breakfasts in New York, New Jersey, and Florida attracted record crowds this year, as more than 1,000 lay leaders, supporters, activists, and school communities turned out in force to meet elected officials and show their support for the policies championed by Teach Coalition. From state senate presidents and committee chairs to local mayors, more than 170 elected officials came to our events to show their friendship with the Jewish community and their support for innovative educational and security programs to benefit all children.

TEACH COALITION FINANCIALS

13%

FUNDING SOURCES TOTAL FUNDING: $4,861,000

87%

Donations / Grant Revenue

$4,211,000

OU Contribution $650,000

1%

5%

14%

17%

EXPENSES TOTAL SPEND: $4,861,000

22%

NY $1,988,000

HQ $1,082,000

NJ $843,000

FL $660,000

PA $236,000

MD $52,000

The financial information (unaudited) here includes the total communal impact of OU programs worldwide. In addition, the OU provides significant support for all of its programs through facilities, management, and administrative services—e.g., IT, Finance, HR, and Communications. Those expenses are not reflected in the program’s financials.

ADVOCATING FOR OUR COMMUNITY

IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL

The OU Advocacy Center is the nonpartisan public policy arm of the OU that advocates on behalf of the Orthodox community nationwide. Through its engagement with Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., the OU Advocacy Center advances the values and interests of our community and ensures that Klal Yisrael thrives.

$250M

in security funding for day schools, synagogues, and other nonprofits— a 100% increase from 2020

$849M

since 2004, to protect synagogues, day schools, and other nonprofits through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program that OU Advocacy helped create

KEEPING OUR COMMUNITY SAFE FROM ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS

Of prime importance to OU Advocacy (OUA) is protecting our synagogues, schools, and other gathering places from antisemitic attacks. In 2022, OUA successfully worked with elected officials and coalition partners to dramatically increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) to $250 million. NSGP grants, administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, fund security upgrades and the hiring of contract security guards across our communities. OUA is currently working with allies including DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Senator Chuck Schumer to increase NSGP funding to $360 million for 2023.

As attacks against Jews rose nationwide, OU Advocacy helped double FY 2021 funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). In 2022, the American Jewish community saw another assault on a synagogue – this time in Colleyville, Texas. As part of our response, OUA convened an emergency virtual national meeting for rabbis and other Jewish community leaders with the most senior U.S. officials including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of DHS Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Wray, as well as key White House officials.

Finally, OUA worked with bipartisan members of Congress and coalition partners to craft the Pray Safe Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in April and is pending in the House of Representatives. This legislation will establish a new office at DHS specifically dedicated to the security of houses of worship and other religious institutions.

OU Advocacy’s Nathan Diament joined U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other community leaders at a press conference to call for increased funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

SUPPORTING THE SECURITY AND WELFARE OF ISRAEL

OU Advocacy works to support the security and welfare of the State of Israel and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. In February, OUA facilitated a visit by the newly installed U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, to OU Israel’s Zula Center. This was an important opportunity for Amb. Nides to see and engage with the work of the OU in Israel.

Ahead of President Biden’s historic trip to Israel in July 2022, OUA leaders engaged with senior members of the president’s National Security Council team to advocate for key pronouncements and policies that were ultimately made by Mr. Biden during his visit.

The OU’s Rabbi Moshe Hauer met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

A HISTORIC WIN FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND SCHOOL CHOICE IN THE SUPREME COURT

After decades of determined advocacy, there are no longer any constitutional barriers to governments providing funding support to religious schools, houses of worship, and other faith-based institutions. That is the essence of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Carson v. Makin. The 6-3 ruling held that it was unconstitutional for Maine to provide tuition support for families in rural areas to send their children to private schools but prohibit them from using the funds to attend religious private schools. Ahead of the ruling, OUA filed a “friend of the court” brief and published an essay in the Wall Street Journal urging this result.

CREATING TWO NEW FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO SUPPORT SHULS, SCHOOLS…AND THE ENVIRONMENT

OUA worked with bipartisan allies in Congress—Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Hoeven (R-ND)— to have new legislation crafted by OUA, the Nonprofit Energy Efficiency Act, incorporated into the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden last November. This creates a new Department of Energy program—funded with $50 million in its first year—that will award grants to nonprofits to support making their buildings more energy efficient via the installation of new HVAC systems and the like. The grant funds are specifically available to subsidize the purchase of the new energy system materials. OUA is working aggressively to have the Energy Department implement the new program this year.

TOP: Meeting with Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) – (Left to right) OU Advocacy Chairman Jerry Wolasky, OU Advocacy’s Nathan Diament, Sen. Menendez, OU Exec. Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer.

BOTTOM: Screenshot of the national Zoom meeting convened by OU Advocacy in the wake of the hostage-taking at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. Featuring, among others: FBI Director Wray (top second from left), Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas (third row), White House senior aide Melissa Rogers (bottom left), and Attorney General Garland (bottom right).

OU ADVOCACY CENTER

The OU Advocacy Center was the heart and soul of this bill. It’s not right that houses of worship and nonprofits don’t have the resources to both pursue their missions and seek energy efficiency.”

– AMY KLOBUCHAR, U.S. Senator

OUA also worked with key Democratic allies—including Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Joe Manchin (D-WV)—to amend an existing federal tax deduction supporting energy efficiency building upgrades (known as 179D deductions) so that it can be used by nonprofit entities, such as shuls and schools, when they upgrade their buildings. The law’s revision was included in the “Inflation Reduction Act” enacted in August and will enable nonprofits to use the deduction by making its value transferable to the contractor designing and installing the building upgrades.

The combination of the new grant program and newly available tax deduction will be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to individual schools and shuls in the short term—as they implement energy-efficiency renovations and, in the long term, will reduce the operating costs borne by shuls, schools, and other entities and reduce emissions that harm the environment.

TOP: Meeting with U.S. Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee for Homeland Security (left to right): OU Advocacy Chairman Jerry Wolasky, Sen. Capito, OU Exec. Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer, OU Advocacy’s Nathan Diament.

BOTTOM: OU Advocacy director of congressional affairs, Lindsay Barsky, second from right, addressed a meeting of the Congressional Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, co-chaired by Sen. Jacky Rosen and Rep. Ted Deutch.

Left to right: OU EVP Rabbi Moshe Hauer; OU President Moishe Bane; Consul General of Israel in New York, Asaf Zamir; OU EVP and COO Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph; OU Chairman of the Board Mitchel Aeder

The OU Advocacy Center had a profoundly positive impact on our community this past year. OUA delivered record resources for our community’s security in grants from the Department of Homeland Security and served as the convener for the top federal officials to speak with our community leaders about the fight against antisemitism. OUA also saw the result of decades of determined advocacy with a historic Supreme Court ruling that ensures support for our shuls and schools in government programs. OU Advocacy makes a difference in the most important ways.”

– JERRY WOLASKY, OU Advocacy Chairman

OU ADVOCACY CENTER FINANCIALS

16%

FUNDING SOURCES TOTAL FUNDING: $861,000

84%

OU Contribution $726,000

Donations $135,000

6%

EXPENSES TOTAL SPEND: $861,000

94%

Operating Expenses $813,000

Other $48,000

The financial information (unaudited) here includes the total communal impact of OU programs worldwide. In addition, the OU provides significant support for all of its programs through facilities, management, and administrative services—e.g., IT, Finance, HR, and Communications. Those expenses are not reflected in the program’s financials.