The Knoxville Jewish Alliance Campaign

What does your gift to the KJA Annual Campaign help support?  

Building Jewish Community.  

Summers at the pool. BBYO for our teens. Our monthly Ha'Kol newsletter. Family bowling days. Young Jewish Adults of Knoxville events and outings...and so much more! The Knoxville Jewish Alliance builds and promotes opportunities for Jews in the greater Knoxville metro to gather. It brings us closer together and allows us to feel connected to a community.  

Preserving Our History: 

KJA is home to the Jewish community of Knoxville’s historic Archives, which maintains the records of individuals, families, culture and events. The Archives is not only a repository of materials, it is the keeper of the story of who we are, and who we have been, as a Jewish community.   

Hillel at UTK: 

Hillel provides a “home away from home” for University of Tennessee at Knoxville's Jewish students. During the isolation created by Covid-19, this has been more important than ever. Students receive care packages to help them celebrate Shabbat, Passover and other holidays. They socialize through social media groups, zoom sessions, and safely distanced gatherings like Shabbat hot cocoa around a campfire, and tashlich by the river on Yom Kippur.    

Fighting Anti-Semitism. 

KJA has spearheaded many community initiatives in Knoxville to represent the Jewish voice in the fight against anti-semitism. We have hosted vigils, coordinated mass public media campaigns, represented Jewish students on campus when "The Rock" was defiled with antisemitic graffiti, and advocated in our public school system to support high school students.  

Ensuring Jewish Burial. 

KJA, in partnership with other area Jewish organizations, provides for Jewish burial rites and internment for Jews that cannot pay for end-of-life expenses.   

PJ Library

This program brings Jewish holidays, values and stories to our community's children. Each month, families receive a Jewish book, and can participate in programming for children and caregivers. With the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, PJ library virtual programming, story reading, and other activities helped our children feel connected and provided activities for children in their homes.   

Tikkun Olam in Our Community

KJA supports and coordinates support for many programs in our community to embrace the Jewish value of tikkun olam – repair of our world.  We participate in Family Promise, an interfaith program that provides temporary housing, meals, and assistance to situationally homeless families in order to help them become self- sufficient.  We collect food and other items for veterans, Second Harvest food bank, Susannah’s House, and other local organizations. This year the Arnstein Jewish Community Center was home to a community garden!  With garden beds spaced to allow for safe social distancing, gardeners helped grow food for donation at Susannah’s House and Family Promise.    

Sustaining Memory of the Holocaust

Not only does KJA coordinate an annual community Yom HaShoah observance, this year it was instrumental in installing a historical marker downtown near the East Tennessee History Center to honor local Holocaust rescuer Master Sergeant Roddrick Waring Edmonds, one of only five Americans to be honored by Yad Vashem in Israel as a Righteous Among the Nations.  

Providing Solutions for Families 

When Covid-19 gave parents a difficult choice of sending their children to school in person or keeping them at home, KJA provided an alternative: Learning pods. The learning pods allowed students to do their work virtually in small groups which minimized the risk of Covid-19 exposure, while providing supervised childcare so that parents could work.    

Preschool

The Preschool at the AJCC is one of the most highly-rated preschools in the area. It provides a caring environment with Jewish values and cultural content for our youngest community members. After closing for a few weeks during the pandemic, the AJCC Preschool reopened after extensive training on social distancing, sanitizing, and other measures to combat the spread of COVID-19. The reopening of the preschool allowed many families to continue important work in our communities.   

Israel

KJA supports Israel and teaches our community about Israeli culture, art, history and society through different events, programs and initiatives. We look forward to future community trips to Israel, but we provided a virtual tour of Jerusalem this year.  

Seniors

Members of our community visit seniors in independent living, assisted living, and nursing home facilities. They bring challah on shabbat and throw holiday parties for them. During Covid-19, Jewish Family Services has hosted virtual coffee klatch meet ups for our senior community.   

Combating Racism

The Jewish Community Relations Council supports the civil rights of minorities in Knoxville. We participate in Martin Luther King Jr. Day events and other community programs. We sponsored a workshop this fall on “Being an Anti-Racist Jew” in which participants examined the intricate power systems of race and privilege in the U.S., and our individual and communal roles as Jews in challenging the structures and ideologies that uphold racism and white supremacy.    

Promoting Jewish Culture and Identity

From in person lectures on Jewish history to Sunset in the Sukkah to exhibitions by Jewish artists to virtual meetings with Israeli authors, KJA programs help us engage in lifelong learning about Jewish life.    

Jewish Summer Camp

Knoxville Jewish Alliance’s Arnstein Jewish Community Center campus is home to a fun-filled Jewish Summer camp. Children create lifelong memories, learn to swim, and generally have a blast. Despite this summer's pandemic difficulties, Camp opened with social distancing measures and safety precautions and was able to give our community’s children a fun summer. 

See where your money goes:

Read our 2022 Annual Report

The KJA is that central meeting point where all members of the Jewish community can come together. A gift to the KJA campaign is an effective way to meet both personal and community goals for Tzedakah.

   Donate your used vehicle to KJA 

Charitable Auto Resources, Inc. (CARS™) will make all of the arrangements, tow your vehicle and dispose of it. Your tax deductible donation will benefit the KJA.  Call toll free (877) JFS-4CAR, (877) 537-4227 or visit the KJA landing page on the CARS website.