JELF Pledges $2 Million Over Five Years

For Interest-Free Student Loans

ATLANTA — Responding to the mounting needs of Jewish students struggling to pay for higher education, the Jewish Educational Loan Fund (JELF) announced it will grant at least $2 million in interest-free loans to Jewish students in the Southeast, including Columbia, over the next five years.

“With the costs of education continuing to spiral ever higher, this increased funding is necessary to help Jewish students in need obtain a higher education,” said Dr. Marianne Daniels Garber, president of JELF.  “It represents a re-energized commitment by the Jewish Educational Loan Fund to its mission of helping needy Jewish students reach their educational and career goals.”

In the first year of its new commitment, JELF granted $326,522 in interest-free loans to 91 students for the 2005-2006 school year, including three students in Columbia.  This is a 67% increase over the value of loans granted during the previous academic year. 

JELF’s loans are based on financial need and provide the final dollars that recipients need to attend college, graduate school, and vocational and professional schools.  Since 1985, JELF has granted more than $3 million in loans to almost 1,600 students in the Southeast, including 75 from Columbia. 

“I am very pleased with the results of this year’s loan review, which show a continued commitment by JELF to help Jewish students from Columbia,” said Melanie Baker, a Columbia resident and local JELF representative who participated in this year’s loan review.  “JELF’s loan applicants are in difficult financial circumstances, often brought on by the loss of a job or the death or illness of a family member.  Without assistance from JELF, these students would not be able to realize their dreams of a higher education.”

JELF began in the late 1800s as an orphanage for children in the Southeast.  Today, from its central office in Atlanta, JELF serves students in 15 southeastern communities: Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa in Florida; Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah in Georgia; Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina; Charlotte, Durham/Chapel Hill, Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina; and Richmond and Tidewater, Virginia. 

Information on applying for loans for the 2006-2007 school year will be available at www.jelf.org in January.

Contact:  Cheryl Eppsteiner, JELF Executive Director

Phone:     770.396.3080

E-mail:    ceppsteiner@jelf.org