Solomon Olshin: Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards Instagram Live Interview Series Welcome to the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards Instagram Live Interview Series! In this inaugural interview, Solomon Olshin, founder of Shine, shares howhis project has evolved and expanded since he won the award, his plans for the future, and his views on tikkun olam […]

Jacob Gardenswartz, 2014 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recipient, launched his project Theatre of Peace (TOP) to address bullying. Through live performances, audience interaction, and post-performance curricula, Jacob’s organization raised over $10,000 and reached 4,000 students across San Diego county.  Fast forward six years, Jacob is a writer and multimedia journalist who focuses on the […]

Each year, Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recipients lead extraordinary acts of service, but their journeys to repair the world rarely stop after they receive the Award. The Awards were founded to recognize excellence in teen leadership, but recipients also join a new community and work alongside other Jewish teens to continue repairing the world […]

Hanukkah is a magical time of year, often celebrated by receiving small presents, songs, and, lighting the menorah. For families and individuals who want to give back, Hanukkah also provides an opportunity to practice tzedakah, giving to those in need.  The Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recipients are all teen leaders who practice tzedakah in […]

In the United States alone, billions of dollars’ worth of grant and scholarship opportunities are provided each year by a combination of government and private offerings.  Below, we list the grants and scholarships guides that are specifically for Jewish students and also guides which include filters for Jewish students. There is a wide variety of […]

Many Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recipients use their $36,000 Awards to support the cost of college. Each teen is asked to thoughtfully consider the wide variety of ways to practice tikkun olam and allocate the Award as they prefer, by giving to various charities, nonprofits, and to their own organizations.  Teens Thoughtfully Choose How […]

Each year in August the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards host a shabbaton, or retreat. The shabbaton brings Award recipients together to build a national network of young leaders and deepen their understanding of tikkun olam and tzedakah – giving Jewishly.  Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards Recipients Update Located on a farm, the shabbaton is […]

Many of the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recipients feel a deep connection and calling to tikkun olam. They are dedicated to repairing the world and through their projects they have each discovered and enriched their personal definitions of tikkun olam. We asked the 2019 recipients what tikkun olam means to them and were blown […]

College can be very expensive with private school tuition costing, on average, $34,000 a year and public schools costing anywhere from $9,000-$25,000 (www.studentdebtrelief.us). Past Diller Teen Tikkun Olam awardees have shared how daunting those numbers can be for both teens and their parents. While the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards are not explicitly college scholarships […]

Sabina London is a 2017 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam awardee. Shocked by how few other girls were in her high school Honors Chemistry class, she launched a youth-led non-profit STEM You Can!. Sabina turned one middle school and high school girls’ science camp into over twenty free STEM summer programs across fourteen states. STEM You Can! has developed […]

It’s been almost a year now since I received the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award for Game Changers New York (GCNY), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that I founded in 2016. Game Changers’ mission is to collect and distribute sports equipment to children in need in the US and globally. As of now, we have nearly […]

Three years ago, I started TILE in the basement of a theater in Portland, Oregon. I grew up desperately wanting to learn from the local innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs I looked up to. Near the end of my sophomore year of high school, with the help of some truly extraordinary teachers and mentors, I came to a […]

I was thrilled to receive support from the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards in hosting a Passover seder for my first time this year. Although I was far away from my immediate family, and from the town where I am living, I was able to bring together a community while traveling in New York. Fellow Diller Teen Tikkun […]

2013 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam awardee Jordan Elist has a vision: community gardens that provide opportunities for hands-on learning. Thanks to Jordan’s efforts, an under-served Los Angeles elementary school now benefits from just such a garden, located on school grounds, next to the playground that serves the school’s 600 students. As an undergraduate at the University of […]

Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards Committee member Michael Mellen and 2015 awardee Jessica Markowitz had never met when they were matched through the Diller Teen Awards’ mentorship program last winter. Nevertheless, they each brought curiosity and enthusiasm to the table at their first meeting over lunch in New York City. Michael had previously acted as a mentor and was interested in […]