Project Gesher

Launched in 2003, Project Gesher allows COJECO to enter the Russian Jewish community’s existing structure of day care centers and through informal Jewish education provide meaningful identity-building experiences to émigré children ages 3-5. The program functions in daycare centers in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and New Jersey.

We are thrilled to announce that in the beginning of 2011, Project Gesher was extended to Boston. The initiative effectively engages not only the young children who are receiving priceless Jewish education, but also a group of talented and enthusiastic Russian Jewish college students who go through training and start working as informal Jewish educators. We have observed that the college students who take an active role in Project Gesher are becoming empowered activists and educators within the Jewish community. In this way, all the affects of Gesher play a dual role.

Each year, the projects’ student educators worked with classes of 10-12 children, untimely serving over 300 kids in the N.Y. metropolitan area, northern New Jersey and Boston. In addition, over the course of the last 5 years, Gesher has served over 1350 children and employed approximately 150 student teachers.

Project Gesher is generously sponsored by Genesis Philanthropy Group, The Covenant Foundation, and an Anonymous donor.