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Cindy Cohen, KKC’s 
director of programming, 
who has been particularly 
adept at pivoting much of the 
organization’s programming 
online over the last two 
years, underscored the need 
to hold the ceremony in 
an open-air venue, which 
Cranbrook could not provide. 
“We’ve had a beautiful 
relationship with Cranbrook 
Institute of Science for more 
than a decade, but we aren’t 
quite ready to go back to an 
indoor setting yet,” Cohen 
said. “They have always been 
so generous, and we look 
forward to returning there as 
pandemic concerns ease.” 
Another milestone marked 
during the ceremony was 
the completion of a yearlong 
pilot project called the 
“AYA Teen Empowerment 
Program.” AYA, which stands 
for Adolescents and Young 
Adults, in medical parlance, 
was designed for those aged 
12 through their early 20s; 
the pilot project was funded 
by a grant from the Michigan 
Health Endowment Fund. 
“The goal of the AYA 
program is to really offer 
enhanced psychosocial and 
life skills to our teens and 
young adults and build upon 
the therapeutic martial 
arts skills learned from us 
throughout the years,” Cohen 
explains. The program, 
led by social workers and 
program specialists, focuses 
on “socialization, community 
building, reduced isolation, 
career exploration, life skill 
development and stress 
reduction,” she added. 

JEWISH FUND TEENS 
HELP UNDERWRITE EVENT
The 2022 belting ceremony 
was underwritten, in part, 
by a grant awarded from 

the Jewish Fund’s Teen 
Board division. The Jewish 
Fund is a grant-making 
organization established 
and endowed by proceeds 
from sale of Sinai Hospital 
to the Detroit Medical 
Center in 1997. In the early 
2010s, the organization’s 
board established a teen 
division, allowing high 
school students to learn how 
philanthropy and grant-
making decisions happen.
Laura Charnas, the 
Jewish Fund’s Teen Board 
coordinator, explains how 
the 58 high school-aged 
members, embodying 
broad swaths of the Jewish 
community, are selected 
out of a pool of candidates 
representing 12 different 
high schools and as many 
congregations.
“The process for 
selecting grant recipients 
is all teen-led,” Charnas 
explains. “The teens start 
their term by selecting a 
focus area and researching 
local organizations, then 
recommend selected 
organizations to send out 
RFPs [request for proposals]. 
After receiving the proposals, 
we set up site visits to learn 
about the organizations.”
She added that Teen Board 
members meet and discuss 
the various proposals, 
build consensus and then 
recommend allocations 
of varying amounts to 
the selected awardees. 
It then forwards those 
recommendations to the 
full Jewish Fund board for 
approval. For the two-year 
term that ended in May, the 
teens had 14 proposals to 
vet.
“We work alongside the 
‘adult’ board and participate 
in a full grant cycle,” Charnas 

TOP: Levi and Simcha Benjamin of Southfield, along with their 
daughters Ayelet, 6, and Heila, 4, participated in their first Belting 
Ceremony. Heila was diagnosed last year with nephroblastoma, a 
cancerous growth on the kidneys that primarily affects children before 
age 5. She is now in remission.
ABOVE: Haley Wallace, a rising senior at Madison High School 
in Adrian, Mich., and a member of KKC for 10 years running, was 
diagnosed at a young age with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of 
cancer that forms in soft tissue. RMS can occur at any age, but most 
often affects children. She is now fully recovered.

