Jsli.org
Legal name: Jewish Spiritual Literacy Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 731685391
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2021, Form 990-EZ 2024
- Location
- Baltimore, MD, USA
- Phone
- 4104009820
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Judaism
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $132,317
- Expenses
- $107,544
- Assets
- $60,097
- Liabilities
- $806
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
People named in this filing
- Alexander Seinfeld (Chairman)
- Harmon Shragge (Treasurer)
- Gina Rosenfield (Board Member)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission is to foster a paradigm shift in Jewish education (and in spiritual and moral education generally) towards an experiential pedagogy that provides students with a spiritual vision relevant to their daily lives. We create seminars, curricula and other materials for both formal and informal learning, and innovative teaching methods for spiritual and moral educators of all backgrounds. Our programs include: **__Torah Health and Wellness__** – a book, multi-media website, workshops, seminars and curricula **__Jewish Teachers Institute__** – training and mentoring for Jewish day schools.
What it reported doing in 2024
TORAH HEALTH AND FITNESS - Launched last year, Torah Health and Fitness is a response to a growing awareness that the Jewish community has not paid enough attention to this mitzvah. We have the same health stats as the general public including tragic levels of preventable conditions such as diabetes and cardio-vascular disease. Our mission as the Jewish People is greatly handicapped because we are not meeting this challenge. In addition to medical knowledge we have 3,000 years of Torah wisdom on this subject, but until now it has been scattered across many books, most of which have never been translated. In partnership with doctors and dietitians, the program includes current medical information (with references to medical literature) on what is known about nutrition, exercise, weight loss and longevity. We know from ten years of R&D that this combination of Torah wisdom and medical knowledge can increase awareness of how vital and easy it is to eat and exercise (etc.) healthfully and to increase the holiness with which we treat our bodies, and thereby keep Jews out of the hospital, nursing homes, and wheelchairs for preventable reasons. While Jewishly-focused, our long-term goal is to help anyone of any background achieve improvements in health, wellbeing and longevity. The book (Body & Soul: The Torah Path to Health, Fitness and a Holy Life), the free resource website (https://torahhealth.org), and our numerous workshops, seminars and podcasts have helped thousands of readers make permanent improvements to their lives and wellbeing.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 86% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Program spending has declined or grown slowly and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 83
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 51
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 77.3%; rating input score 77
- Program expense ratio: 93.3%; rating input score 93
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 18.7%; rating input score 72; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.56; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 40; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 85.5%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -0.5% per year; rating input score 0; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 15.8% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 77.3% of revenue deployed · 93.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 5 filed program accomplishments · $100K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 41/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 40/100.