The Atlanta-based Marcus Foundation will award $60 million to RootOne in support of programs that enable American Jewish teenagers to travel to Israel, e-Jewish Philanthropy reports.

Launched in 2020 as an initiative of the Jewish Education Project with a $20 million gift from the foundation, RootOne is partnering with five youth-serving organizations that coordinate summer trips to Israel — BBYO, USY, Ramah, Union for Reform Judaism, and NCSY — as well as some local programs to increase participation and enhance pre- and post-trip engagement opportunities. By subsidizing trips, RootOne aims to boost the number of participants from forty-five hundred this summer to seven thousand in the summer of 2022 and nine thousand by the summer of 2024, RootOne executive director Simon Amiel told e-Jewish Philanthropy.

RootOne also will explore additional channels to reach teens who are not affiliated with a Jewish youth group, and the organization has designated a significant portion of the commitment to its educational arm, which engages trip participants in learning about Israel both before and after the trip. RootOne plans to triple the size of its educational staff, said Amiel, in addition to hiring in the areas of grants management, marketing and communications, and administration.

"This grant is our direct response to the studies saying teens' connection to Israel is waning, or that Jewish identity among youth has declined," said Home Depot and Marcus Foundation co-founder Bernie Marcus in a statement. "Especially as antisemitism on campuses and across the globe increases, we must develop a generation of proud Jews connected to Israel and the Jewish people."