Last year, Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona launched a new microgrant program, “Share the Light,” to help Jewish families invite their children’s friends, classmates, and neighbors to Hanukkah parties to celebrate Jewish joy.
The program is back this year. Party hosts will receive a Hanukkah party pack from JPSA’s Center for Jewish Resilience to help their event shine and a $100 grant to offset party expenses.
Katie Cohen was one of more than a dozen hosts who participated in the program last year.
“Every year in our neighborhood, we have a Winter Wonderland event and tons of neighbors drop by,” says Cohen, explaining that hers was the only house celebrating Hanukkah rather than Christmas.
Cohen had taken part in the previous year’s Winter Wonderland but ran out of latkes. The grant from JPSA helped ensure that last year, she had plenty of homemade latkes and sufganiyot.
She also had Chanukah music playing throughout the night and gave out dreidels and gelt along with an information sheet about the holiday and how to play dreidel.
Cohen, who grew up in a large Jewish community in Pennsylvania, said the first year, she was surprised how many of her neighbors were unfamiliar with Hanukkah.
But after tasting her latkes at the 2023 neighborhood event, many were asking her to make them again for last year’s block party.
Carina Bien-Willner, JPSA Director of Public Affairs, also used a microgrant to fund a massive latke-making session.
“My husband, Matt, and I made 150 latkes for our party, which were all consumed in about 15 minutes,” recalls Bien-Willner, who invited her then 10-year-old son’s public school classmates to her family’s Hanukkah party, along with other family and friends.
“There was a moment when my older son’s non-Jewish friend — who knew nothing about Hanukkah let alone had ever been to a Hanukkah party — said they were the most delicious things he’d ever eaten, and my son beamed with so much pride. That moment was worth all the work!”
Bien-Willner encourages members of the Southern Arizona Jewish community to apply for a “Share the Light” microgrant.
“The Share the Light program is a beautiful way for Jewish children and their families to share the joy of our Hanukkah traditions with our non-Jewish friends and neighbors. It simultaneously provides a space for our friends to learn more about who we are as a tribe, and for our Jewish children to feel pride in doing so,” Bien-Willner says. “Hanukkah is the perfect vehicle for building bridges and allyship,”
Register your party here before Dec. 3, 2025.
To be eligible for microgrant funding, hosts are asked to share party photos with JPSA. Details will be provided in a confirmation email.
