Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, has been elected as a new trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a leading philanthropic backer of anti-Israel causes, the foundation announced this week.

In joining the board, Ben-Ami is drawing closer to a foundation that has long been a top contributor to J Street, a progressive Israel advocacy group that has recently sought to capitalize on growing Democratic frustration with the war in Gaza.

But the foundation’s approach to philanthropy has not always been comfortably aligned with J Street’s mission, which is officially opposed to the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement seeking to isolate Israel. For its part, RBF has provided funding to a range of pro-BDS groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Palestine Legal.

Such giving came under scrutiny amid a surge of anti-Israel protests that arose in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks — particularly as JVP emerged as a leading organizer of some demonstrations. “Several of our partners take policy positions that are critical of the government of Israel,” the foundation said in a December 2023 statement defending its grantees, “but each shares our conviction that all human life is precious and valued.”

In a follow-up statement in May 2024, the foundation clarified that it “has had no direct involvement in the campus protests nor have we earmarked funds for them,” while acknowledging some grantees “have provided training, messaging, and/or legal support to student protest leaders.”

Ben-Ami, in a LinkedIn post, said that he was “enormously honored to be joining the board of a strategic and thoughtful leader in the philanthropic world” and was “looking forward to getting started.”

As a trustee, he will provide “fiduciary oversight of the Fund’s vision, mission, and activities,” RBF said in its brief announcement on Monday.

In an email to Jewish Insider, Ben-Ami said he was “deeply aligned with the Foundation’s focus on strengthening democracy, peacebuilding and promoting sustainable development,” praising the foundation’s approach as “particularly thoughtful and strategic.”

“I’ve appreciated RBF’s approach to funding in the Israel-Palestine area and specifically that they continue to engage on these issues when many others find the topic too politically contentious. It’s precisely their willingness to engage – and lead – on issues that others shy from that attracts me to them” Ben-Ami continued. “I might not agree with the exact tactics and prescription of each RBF grantee in this area, but I do know that the program is driven by a shared desire to achieve a just and durable peace and to challenge conventional wisdom in ways that I hope bring innovative solutions to light.”

“The beauty of the philanthropic world is that it allows dialogue to be opened and strategies to be tried that may not be possible in the more highly charged political arena where I have spent the bulk of my career,” Ben-Ami added.

The foundation’s “Peacebuilding” program, which focuses on the Middle East, “pursues interrelated strategies to advance conflict transformation of specific conflicts — Afghanistan and Israel-Palestine — as well as conflict prevention efforts elsewhere to de-escalate tensions and develop policy frameworks that advance peace,” according to its website. “The Fund has a particular interest in advancing shifts in U.S. foreign policy,” it adds.

In 2024, RBF’s assets totaled $1.4 billion, according to its most recent tax filings.

Even as it continues to reject BDS, J Street has recently shifted its policy and advocacy positions amid rising disillusionment with Israel’s conduct in Gaza. In August, Ben-Ami said he would no longer seek to push back against critics who claim Israel committed genocide in its war with Hamas. “I simply won’t defend the indefensible,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, meanwhile, he argued that the “longstanding framework built on unconditional support” for Israel “has broken down,” adding that “a changed reality demands a redefined approach to the relationship.”

Former RBF trustees have included Peter Beinart, a prominent anti-Zionist journalist, and Daniel Levy, a co-founder of J Street. In 2016, Nicholas Burns, a former veteran diplomat, resigned from the board, citing RBF’s “funding of organizations that support BDS,” which he called “fundamentally anti-Israeli.”

Stephen Heintz, RBF’s longtime president, who is stepping down this spring, also chairs the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an isolationist think tank that has promoted sympathetic positions on Iran. 

“Although our budgets, programs, and strategies have fluctuated over my tenure,” he wrote earlier this month, “our values have remained constant.”

In 1999, with the lofty goal of bringing every young Jewish adult to Israel free of cost, the nascent Birthright Israel launched its first trip to the Jewish state. Over the next 25 years, the organization would bring over 900,000 young Jews from some 70 countries to Israel. 

Last night, at a gala marking a quarter century of activity at Manhattan’s Pier Sixty, Birthright Israel Foundation’s CEO Elias Saratovsky announced two new goals: a $900 million fundraising campaign aimed at securing the organization’s future and bringing 200,000 participants to Israel over the next five years.

The campaign has already secured more than $220 million in commitments, Saratovsky told eJewishPhilanthropy — $132 million toward its $650 million goal for trips, and $90 million toward its $250 million goal for legacy commitments.

“We have a solid foundation of gifts,” he told eJP. “We’re grateful to everyone who has given so far, and now the opportunity we have in front of us is to ask the entire Jewish community to support an organization that has impacted the entire Jewish world over the last two and a half decades.”

Alongside Jewish summer camps, Birthright trips are credited with increased connection to Israel and Jewish engagement among participants, research from Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies has found. A participant on the first Birthright Israel trip, Saratovsky also credits that experience for his own Jewish involvement. 

But at $5,000 per participant, the signature trips are also a mammoth financial undertaking, requiring both logistical mastery and a constant funding stream. (See: the organization’s efforts to quickly charter a cruise ship in order to evacuate participants who were stranded in Israel after the skies were closed during the war with Iran last June.)

Since its early days, Birthright has benefited from support from some of the Jewish community’s most prolific donors — chief among them Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt, as well as Sheldon and Dr. Miriam Adelson, who donated half a billion to the organization over 15 years; following Sheldon Adelson’s death in 2021, the family scaled back its contributions, encouraging other donors to fill the gap. 

Many of those supporters — representing nearly every major Jewish foundation and individual donor family — turned out for the Manhattan gala — a sprawling, candlelit affair packed to capacity. Attended by nearly 1,000 trip alumni, along with Jewish professionals and donors, Lynn Schusterman was honored for her contribution to the project, delivering a speech about the love that her late husband, Charles, had for Israel and the butterfly effect she’s witnessed since the program launched. 

“Each of you in this room has the power and the responsibility to decide how the story of Israel and the Jewish people unfolds. When my late husband, Charlie, passed away, I had this idea of creating what I call ‘the Charlie’ — young people who had gone on Birthright, got past their community and [gave] back from what they had learned and the impact of Birthright,” said Schusterman. 

The event was emceed by Jonah Platt. Schusterman’s daughter, Stacy, and the co-president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Lisa Eisen, co-chaired the event. Other speakers included Birthright Israel cofounder Charles Bronfman, Saratovsky and Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark.  

“This is a room filled with leaders, with dreamers, with community,” said Platt. 

Fortunately, for an organization seeking nearly $700 million in donations, it was also a room filled with philanthropists. 

Sirene Abou-Chakra, the head of General Motors’ global philanthropy division with a history of posting anti-Israel messages on her public X account, is no longer in her role, a GM spokesperson confirmed to Jewish Insider.

Abou-Chakra, a native of Dearborn, Mich., took over the auto company’s mammoth philanthropy arm in June to questions about how her extensive anti-Israel social media history would impact GM’s relationship with the Detroit-area Jewish community and its extensive business relationships with the Jewish state. 

The spokesperson did not say if Abou-Chakra, who previously served as the chief development officer for the city of Detroit and also spent a decade with Google as an account executive, was fired or had left on her own accord. 

From late 2019 through the summer of 2024, Abou-Chakra posted a series of tweets that were critical of the Jewish state and Republicans, accusing Israel of being “built on lies,” alleging the country “is not a democracy” and claiming the pro-Hamas protests in Washington during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress last July were “planted” by pro-Israel actors. 

“Haven’t seen this at any pro Palestine rally all year and there have been thousands. *He* comes to town and all of a sudden ‘Hamas’ graffiti, anti semitic dolls, and American flags are burned? I have a hard time believing this wasn’t planted by the other side,” Abou-Chakra wrote in a since-deleted post. 

During that protest at Washington’s Union Station, demonstrators assaulted a police officer while he was making an arrest; spray-painted “Hamas is comin” on a statue outside the station, along with other pro-Hamas graffiti; carried Hamas flags; called for a “final solution”; burned an effigy of Netanyahu and carried another showing him with horns covered in blood; and took down and burned an American flag outside the station before replacing it with a Palestinian flag.

The posts, almost all of which were still online prior to JI’s first outreach to GM earlier this month, were promptly taken down, though the auto giant did not respond to multiple requests for comment at the time.

In a November 2019 tweet that had been deleted prior to this month but was featured in a Deadline Detroit article at the time, Abou-Chakra criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for visiting Israel. Notably, Whitmer’s trip included a stop at GM’s headquarters in Herzliya, which was opened in 2008 and employs more than 700 people.

“Apartheid is the Israeli regime restricting @RashidaTlaib movements in Palestine yet inviting @GovWhitmer to discuss trade. 2 US government officials from Michigan. 1 major difference,” Abou Chakra wrote. “Arabness is a crime in Israel, and this week 8 from the same family in Gaza paid that price.”

In the recent viral debate surrounding American Eagle’s “great jeans” ad campaign with Sydney Sweeney, which used a double entendre that drew accusations of promoting eugenics, it seemed many critics overlooked that the clothing retailer’s chief executive is a leading Jewish philanthropist who has long been committed to fighting antisemitism.

It was the sort of irony befitting Jay Schottenstein, 71, a mild-mannered billionaire entrepreneur from Columbus, Ohio, who oversees a sprawling business network that, in addition to American Eagle, includes DSW, the designer shoe chain he leads as executive chairman, among other holdings in wine, real estate and furniture.

But outside of philanthropic circles — where he is widely recognized as one of the most consequential sponsors of Jewish causes in the United States and Israel — his relatively private lifestyle has otherwise obscured his long-standing dedication to a range of issues including educational efforts, archeological research and translations of ancient Jewish texts.

“I think most people really don’t know who he is,” said Brad Kastan, a Jewish Republican donor who lives in Columbus and has long been friendly with Schottenstein. “He kind of keeps a low profile.”

Still, Schottenstein, who is Modern Orthodox, remains “accessible,” according to Kastan. The retail mogul, he told Jewish Insider, often can be seen walking to synagogue on Shabbat from his home in Bexley, a Columbus suburb, to attend Congregation Torat Emet, which he has endowed. “Because he’s a proud observant Jew,” Kastan added, Schottenstein “literally walks from Bexley to Ohio State, which has got to be six or seven miles, to go to football games on Shabbos.”

Meanwhile, Schottenstein, whose family is friendly with President Donald Trump, is a major player in Ohio politics, contributing to candidates from both parties, even as he largely favors Republicans. Most recently, he has donated to Vivek Ramaswamy, who is the likely GOP nominee in next year’s Ohio governor’s race. 

For years, Schottenstein, who was instrumental in lobbying for legislation to allow Ohio to buy Israel bonds, has been a go-to resource among pro-Israel candidates looking for guidance on key issues about the Middle East. “If you support Israel and you’re running for office and you’re looking for advice or support in the Jewish community in central Ohio,” said Kastan, “you’re going to find your way to Jay’s office.”

The Ohio benefactor has built deep ties to Israel, where the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, which is under construction, bears his name. Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, has called him a friend, and he was a top contributor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 reelection bid. American Eagle also operates dozens of stores in Israel.

Schottenstein, who has said he was in Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, has stepped up his efforts to support the Jewish state in the aftermath of the incursion. He has led donations to victims of the attacks and co-founded a fund to lend financial support to families of IDF soldiers killed in the war in Gaza, among other things.

“You watch what’s going on in Israel, how everyone’s pulling together, and there’s a lot of pain,” Schottenstein said in a podcast interview last year. “I mean, this is real pain to the Jewish people. In my lifetime, I don’t think we’ve ever experienced a war like this — never experienced a time like this. But thank God, we have a strong Israel. We have a strong sense of being.”

Through his foundation, which he leads with his wife, Jeanie, whom he met at Hillel as an undergrad at Indiana University, Schottenstein has supported a growing number of Jewish institutions. These include Chabad, Agudath Israel, Hillel, Hadassah, Yeshiva University and United Hatzalah, the latter of which honored him with a humanitarian award last year. 

Howie Beigelman, president and CEO of Ohio Jewish Communities, which represents the state’s eight Jewish Federations and affiliated nonprofit agencies, said that the “Schottensteins broadly are among the most generous and committed givers today,” adding that “their giving also now includes their children and grandchildren in an unmatched dedication to Jewish causes close to home and across the globe.”

Eli Beer, the founder of United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency medical services volunteer organization, told JI that he has known Schottenstein and his wife for 18 years. 

“I can say with certainty that the most important value for them is tikkun olam, repairing the world and making it a better place,” Beer explained. “Eighty percent of our conversations and time together, whether at their home for a weekend or just visiting, revolve around charity and how they can help more people in education, health and even sports, especially those who are underprivileged.”

Howie Beigelman, president and CEO of Ohio Jewish Communities, which represents the state’s eight Jewish Federations and affiliated nonprofit agencies, said that the “Schottensteins broadly are among the most generous and committed givers today,” adding that “their giving also now includes their children and grandchildren in an unmatched dedication to Jewish causes close to home and across the globe.”

“Where they stand out, of course, is in transformation projects that are charitable moonshots,” Beigelman told JI. “But they also work to find leaders they believe in and work with them to ensure the mission and the cause they champion has what it needs to succeed. And despite the reach of their generosity, and the significant amounts, they also remain deeply connected to each cause and each organization.”

Schottenstein, a descendant of Lithuanian immigrants who inherited his family’s retail business in the early 1990s, credits his late father, Jerome, a prominent supporter of Jewish causes, with fueling his continued devotion to philanthropy.

For some religious Jews, the Schottenstein name is all but synonymous with the eponymous, 73-book English translation of the Babylonian Talmud that the family sponsored over 15 years at an estimated cost of $250,000 to produce each volume. 

“I think the Schottenstein name, the tradition established by his father and his grandfather, they have established a worldwide brand not just in their stores, but in Torah learning,” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JI. “In many cases they are models of philanthropy — and really exemplify impact giving.”

Schottenstein, who calls the translation one of his proudest achievements, took over the project from his father when he died in 1992. Published by ArtScroll, it was completed in 2005 and has since “revolutionized the study of the texts,” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told JI recently.

Earlier this year, Schottenstein, speaking at a gathering of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation, which supports ArtScroll, said the organization, where he serves as board chair, had distributed paperback copies of the Talmud to Israeli soldiers fighting in the war. “Nobody could have imagined how the Gemaras would be used, on the battlefield, in tanks, in bunkers, in buildings,” he said in a speech in February. “Every rest period, you’d see guys studying.”

“I think the Schottenstein name, the tradition established by his father and his grandfather, they have established a worldwide brand not just in their stores, but in Torah learning,” Hoenlein told JI. “In many cases they are models of philanthropy — and really exemplify impact giving.”

Schottenstein’s passion for Jewish causes has on occasion intersected with his business. In 2024, for instance, he chose to mark the 30-year anniversary of American Eagle as a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange by blowing a shofar rather than ringing the opening bell. Months before the Oct. 7 attacks, meanwhile, American Eagle placed a mezuzah on the front door of its flagship location in Times Square. 

And the fashion company itself has partnered with the Anti-Defamation League on initiatives to help raise awareness about rising antisemitism, an American Eagle spokesperson confirmed to JI.   

“My affinity for philanthropy is guided by faith, family and caring for others,” Schottenstein said in a statement to JI on Monday. “One’s value is not determined by possessions, rather by the number of people we have positively impacted. Of all the accomplishments in my life, the most rewarding have been giving back to those who need it most.” 

He declined to comment on his company’s recent jeans ads.

How should Congress memorialize one of America’s greatest Jewish philanthropists? With a national park, according to new legislation. A bill which passed Congress Monday afternoon would kickstart the process of creating a national park dedicated to Julius Rosenwald, the former chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co. and a prolific philanthropist in the early 20th century.

In collaboration with famed educator Booker T. Washington, Rosenwald spent millions of dollars to fund the construction of more than 5,000 schools for Black communities throughout the South beginning in 1910. The schools educated hundreds of thousands of Black Americans, including poet and activist Maya Angelou and the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA). Rosenwald was also one of the founders of the organization that became Chicago’s Jewish United Fund (JUF). 

Should the president sign it into law, the bill would require the National Parks Service to examine creating a national park honoring Rosenwald, including a museum in Chicago — Rosenwald’s home city — chronicling the businessman’s life, and satellite sites at several of the remaining schools he financed throughout the South.

The Senate passed the bill Monday by a voice vote, after a House vote of 387-5, with 37 members not voting, last Thursday. Reps. Justin Amash (I-MI), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Tom Rice (R-SC) and Chip Roy (R-TX) voted against the bill.

The bill’s passage in Congress marks the culmination of a yearslong campaign in which advocates lobbied members of Congress, in particular Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), who introduced the House resolution, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who introduced a corresponding resolution in the Senate.

Dorothy Canter, president of the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historic Park Campaign, said she first learned about Rosenwald and his philanthropic work — as well as his success at Sears — from the 2015 documentary “Rosenwald,” directed by award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner.

Canter, who described herself to JI as a “national parks fanatic,” said she then discovered that there are currently no national parks dedicated to Jewish Americans. 

“This was a story that needed to be told,” Canter said.

After Canter conceived of the Rosenwald park concept, she worked with the National Parks Conservation Association — with which she is also deeply involved — and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to begin building the campaign and researching which Rosenwald schools were the best preserved.

They next approached legislators from the Illinois delegation to push the introduction of legislation to honor Rosenwald, according to Steve Nasatir, a former president of JUF and a member of the campaign’s advisory board.

Davis told JI on Friday that his connection to Rosenwald runs deep, including a stint as a clerk in the Sears flagship store in Chicago. 

“When we were approached relative to this bill it was an automatic,” Davis said. “Julius Rosenwald has not gotten the kind of recognition that he is due, period… The reason it means so much to me is I grew up in rural America. I know the history of these communities that didn’t have a school.”

“If there was ever an individual who deserved [this], not for himself — because… he wasn’t that kind of guy — but for what it has meant and what it means and what he has done for America and the world,” Davis added.

Davis caused a stir in the Jewish community in March 2018, when he praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and dismissed Farrakhan’s antisemitic rhetoric. Those comments led J Street to consider pulling its endorsement of Davis — although the congressman later condemned Farrakhan’s statements about Jews and Judaism.

Some of Rosenwald’s descendants are hesitant about the park project, arguing that Rosenwald strongly eschewed personal fame and recognition for his philanthropic works during his lifetime.

David Stern, one of Rosenwald’s great-grandchildren, said he has mixed feelings about the project and has remained uninvolved in the campaign because the Rosenwald descendants “have never really been into legacy, into institutional memories. We don’t believe in building the buildings and naming them after people, things like that. So there’s something a little inconsistent about this with our general philosophy.”

But he also noted that Rosenwald’s legacy of supporting the Black community is worthy of acknowledgement and has inspired philanthropy in others, pointing to columnist Courtland Milloy’s recent Washington Post article touting the Rosenwald schools as a model for improving Black community education in a post-pandemic world.

Stern added that, in an early discussion with Canter, he was skeptical that the project would even make it off the ground.

“I really thought it was never going to happen,” he said. “I’ve been watching her with incredible admiration at the speed and ability to move this along as quickly as she has.”

Rosenwald’s grandson Peter Ascoli, who wrote a biography about his grandfather, called the project a positive step honoring Jewish Americans and an important part of Black history, but said that he’d be more comfortable if it was funded by private sources, rather than the National Parks Service’s already-strained resources.

Canter told JI that when she first met Ascoli in 2016, he told her that Rosenwald would not have approved of the campaign.

“My response was that this is bigger than [Rosenwald]; this is the story of the son of German Jewish immigrants who did not finish high school but used his tremendous business acumen to catapult Sears, Roebuck into the predominant retailing powerhouse of the early 20th century… and then used his vast resources to help others in need to gain a foothold on the American dream,” Canter told JI. 

Ascoli is now a member of the Rosenwald Park Campaign’s advisory council.

Stephanie Deutsch, who is married to another of Rosenwald’s great-grandsons, agreed. 

“He had two things that kind of propelled his work. One was the Jewish idea of tzedakah [charity] and giving,” said Deutsch, who also wrote a biography about Rosenwald’s work and is a member of the campaign’s board. “And then his sense of identification… he said ‘as a member of a persecuted minority,’ he being Jewish, identified with African Americans. So I see the park as something really exciting. And it tells a story that’s so important and significant, but it’s largely not known today. So I think it’s about more than honoring a person.”

While Americans anxiously awaited the outcome of the presidential election, Eric Fingerhut, CEO and president of the Jewish Federations of North America and a former U.S. representative, called on the next administration and Congress to provide additional pandemic relief to “ailing non-profits” and increase funding for non-profit organizations’ security needs.

In an interview with Jewish Insider, Fingerhut — who represented Ohio’s 19^th congressional district from 1993 to 1995 — said that at a time of deep divisions, he views the way that North America’s 146 Jewish federations function as a model for all Americans.

“Leaders of our community, many members of JFNA’s board and at most federations, are on both sides of this election,” he said. “This has always been the case.” 

On Tuesday night, past JFNA board chair Kathy Manning flipped a redistricted House seat and will represent North Carolina’s 6th congressional district as a Democrat. Detroit oil and real estate magnate Max Fisher, a major philanthropist to Jewish causes until his death in 2005 and a member of JFNA’s board, served as an advisor to Republican presidents on Israel and Jewish concerns. Current JFNA board chair Mark Wilf, who co-owns the Milwaukee Bucks franchise, is a longtime Democratic donor who in March contributed $21,250 to the Biden Victory Fund.

“We have always had people on both sides of the political aisle, and always been a model of how we’ve worked together on matters of common concern for Jewish life, Israel and the Jewish people around the world,” said Fingerhut. “We have maintained that unity on that common agenda even as we’ve disagreed politically and worked against each other vigorously. We will continue to, no matter the outcome of this election.”

Fingerhut also noted that the Jewish community is “disproportionately deeply engaged in the civic affairs of the United States as candidates, campaign workers and as supporters of the democratic process, like as poll workers.” The community’s effort, he said, “reflects both our caring for the health and welfare of the country and our appreciation for the unbelievable welcoming and prosperity and success the Jewish community has achieved in this open, democratic society.”

JFNA has representatives in Washington who lobby Congress and the administration on a wide range of issues, including funding for human services — most Jewish federations fund or manage facilities for senior citizens and the mentally and physically disabled — but usually refrains from commenting on specific policies. Earlier this year, the organization worked with the Orthodox Union, the Union for Reform Judaism, Agudath Israel of America, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups to push legislators to provide relief to faith-based charities and religious nonprofits struggling from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Fingerhut was hopeful that the next president will sign into law the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, and ensure that Medicaid and Medicare programs are extended.

Fingerhut was quick to point out that today’s political climate bears resemblance to other tumultuous times in modern American history.

His 2004 run for Senate coincided with former President George W. Bush’s campaign for a second term, and the country, he said, was terribly split over the Iraq war. His state, Ohio, a swing state, was “deeply divided. The rhetoric was very acute.”

“We have had very close elections in our recent past, have been very divided over very contentious issues, and we’ve gotten through,” Fingerhut told JI, adding that Jewish values have something to teach all of America at this tense time.

“One of the things we have in our Jewish tradition is a commitment to civility and respect for differences of opinion. We need to exemplify that in our own behavior, and insist on it in others in public life.”

The American Jewish community’s network of approximately 9,500 nonprofit organizations has largely avoided collapse during the COVID-19-spurred slump that has caused many for-profit businesses to shut down or significantly shrink.

The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, which allowed businesses and nonprofits to obtain forgivable loans if they kept staff on payroll, ended August 8. Making the difference now, experts say, are the American Jewish philanthropists who have stepped up to support the nonprofit system. Foundations are dipping into their endowments to provide additional funds to support camps, Jewish schools, human services agencies and others — well beyond what they anticipated when originally planning their 2020 budgets.

While the pandemic has led to struggles in the Jewish nonprofit community, including a months-long shut-down of fee-for-service organizations like Jewish community centers and camps, with resulting layoffs, furloughs and re-prioritization of funds, the biggest worries lie ahead.

“The real question is, what is 2021 going to look like? Everyone is making it through 2020. But everyone is very concerned about the impact on 2021. I don’t know where things will be,” said Reuben Rotman, chair and CEO of the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, which represents 140 agencies providing food, counseling services, support for those with developmental and physical disabilities, vocational assistance and more.

“There have been reductions in staffing and services. But right now, our agencies by and large are being kept whole” with the help of government resources like PPP, and with aid from philanthropists, Rotman told Jewish Insider.

The worst fears — the collapse of the Jewish nonprofit community — have not come to pass, at least so far. “The catastrophic scenario we feared was averted,” said Andrés Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network. “The entire camp system, human services, JCCs, schools, [were] at risk. It suffered a lot but it didn’t collapse. This should not make us complacent.”

No one knows how much, in the aggregate, American Jewish philanthropists have contributed to pandemic relief, experts say, but it is significant.

A new study by the Center for Disaster Philanthropy found that American funders in general donated $11.9 billion overall to coronavirus-related needs so far in 2020. This marks a strong contrast to the impact on nonprofit organizations during the 2008-09 financial crisis.

“If you dial back to the recession 12 years ago, philanthropy took a break. It went down in the short term. Between 2005 and 2010, philanthropy stayed flat,” said Avrum Lapin, president of The Lapin Group, a Philadelphia-based consultancy. “In this crisis, philanthropy has pretty much stood up. Not to say that organizations are not having a tough time. It has not only stayed current but looked at some systemic challenges and risen up to meet them.”

***

The umbrella for North America’s 146 Jewish federations and network communities, each of which is also an umbrella for social services, Jewish education and other agencies in its local area, is the Jewish Federations of North America.

Six months into the pandemic, “we’ve had 146 different emergency campaigns,” said Eric Fingerhut, JFNA’s president and CEO. Jewish federations have “raised $175 million dollars above and beyond their regular annual campaigns,” specifically for pandemic assistance, he told JI. “Federations made special allocations to camps and human services agencies to respond to the crisis in the moment. It is a moment of incredible generosity and response.”

Jewish federations generally distribute some $3 billion annually to the agencies they support domestically, as well as overseas programming through the Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Agency for Israel and other groups.

Since the early days of the pandemic, JFNA has been an organizer of philanthropy efforts to support Jewish nonprofits through the crisis. On Sept. 1 it announced a new matching grant program totaling $54 million to aid the severely impacted human services field.

The Human Services Relief Fund is the newest of a number of pandemic emergency funds and systems put in place since March by major Jewish funders and the organized Jewish community.

JFNA also oversees the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF), which has provided approximately $91 million in emergency relief to Jewish nonprofits. More than $10 million of that has been distributed in the form of grants, and about $81 million as zero-interest loans, said Felicia Herman, who directs the grant program. Funding has come from seven foundations including the Aviv Foundation, The Paul E. Singer Foundation, the Lynn and Charles Schusterman Family Foundation and the Wilf Family Foundation.

So far this year, the Schusterman Foundation has spent $400 million addressing COVID-19-related needs and funding its regular grantees, which include civic programs nationwide and Jewish organizations.

Of that, “at least $10 million” has been designated as emergency funds for groups that do direct support, like the Blue Card, which aids Holocaust survivors, said Lisa Eisen, co-president of the Schusterman Foundation. It gave $15 million to JCRIF and overall this year has upped its support to Jewish organizations by about 50% over what it had planned, Eisen told JI.

***

The pandemic has still taken a toll on a number of Jewish nonprofit organizations. Income at fee-for-service agencies like JCCs — which employ a total of 40,000 people — took a big hit. Synagogues are currently tallying their High Holy Day renewals. Philanthropic funding is down at some organizations, though generally in the single-digit percentage range, which is in line with national trends. The National Council of Nonprofits published a study showing that individual giving in the U.S. overall was down 6% in the first quarter.

There have been significant layoffs at Jewish community centers around the country. JFNA itself laid off 37 of its 180 staffers in May. In April, Hillel International laid off or furloughed more than 20% of its staff.

J Street, the liberal Israel-focused lobbying group, cut its $8 million budget by $1 million, Jeremy Ben-Ami, its president, told JI, having saved a significant amount of money by moving the organization’s conferences online. J Street received a forgivable PPP loan of $660,000 and some tax credits, he said, and has not needed to lay off or furlough any staffers. J Street’s 2020 budget of $8 million is balanced, Ben-Ami said, and he expects it to grow slightly for 2021. But, he cautioned, “I am not ready to declare victory, because we have not seen the full impact” the pandemic will have on philanthropy. “The stock market [strength] has in a way cushioned the blow, and we haven’t quite seen the end of this story yet,” he added.

The Zionist Organization of America, a right-wing organization led by Mort Klein, has not fared as well. The organization pushed its annual gala dinner from December to January 2021, and then to March, and Klein is uncertain if it will be possible to hold the banquet at all. “A handful” of its approximately two dozen staff positions had to be cut, he said, though he did not provide more specifics regarding the layoffs or the organization’s annual budget. A recent ZOA campaign against the Movement for Black Lives saw the organization receive a number of unanticipated donations, which Klein said has helped to minimize the fundraising downturn.

The left-wing New Israel Fund has experienced a mixed picture, CEO Daniel Sokatch told JI. Unrestricted gifts to NIF were up 18% through the end of July compared to the same period in 2019, he said, but the number of individuals donating is down 9%. The biggest drop in support has been from supporters in New York City, where COVID-19 hit hard early in the pandemic. A PPP loan of $927,000 allowed NIF to retain its U.S. staff (it also has staff in Israel), though all staff members were forced to take a temporary salary cut and in Israel the entire staff was furloughed for a period. Looking ahead, with everyone continuing to work from home, Sokatch is considering dropping office space leases that are approaching their renewal dates, he said.

Even among organizations that are staying afloat, the big question is how long they will be able to do so. The American Jewish Historical Society, whose archives contain some 30 million documents, added an additional staffer, bringing the full-time employee count to seven, said Annie Polland, the organization’s executive director.

AJHS got a $130,000 PPP loan through the Small Business Administration, which helped it retain staff through the spring and summer. The organization received what Polland called a “lifesaver” grant of $205,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act fund. 

While AJHS, like most public-facing Jewish organizations, quickly shifted to virtual programming in what Polland said was “a whirlwind adaptation to Zoom,” and the foundations that support its work have not lessened their funding, “we don’t know what 2021 is going to look like,” she said.

T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights has also fared relatively well through the pandemic, said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, its executive director. T’ruah has not needed to lay off or furlough staff and has even been able to add a full-time position and a part-time position to its roster of 10 full-time staff and six part-time workers, said Jacobs. “People have been very generous,” she told JI. “Those who are still employed or not dependent on a salary are more motivated than ever to contribute as a moral response to this crisis, as well as to the major threats to democracy. We’ve in particular had a strong response to our efforts to stand up the deployment of federal agents in Portland, OR, and the work of our rabbis who have been on the street there,” she said.

***

With no end to the pandemic in sight, funders and CEOs alike are grappling with the uncertainty of what the next year will look like, both in terms of programming and fundraising. 

“We’re dealing with a lot of uncertainty so we in the philanthropic community should continue to be flexible, to dig deeply, maybe deeper than would feel comfortable, and to help nonprofits with scenario planning and other forms of technical assistance,” Eisen told JI. “The uncertainty makes it hard to plan and budget even as fundraising is anticipated to decrease.”

The uncertainty impacts not only planning for programs, but also trying to budget for 2021.

Spokoiny told JI that his biggest concern was the survival of what he called the “second layer” Jewish organizations, like Jewish federations, schools and community centers.

Because the stock market has continued to perform well, foundations whose money is invested have “more money than ever to give,” said Spokoiny. But “more than 80% of the funding in the Jewish community, in dollar terms, does not come from major funders, but by individuals giving $1,000 to the scholarship fund at their day school.”

It is that type of grassroots donor whose ability to give is most vulnerable to job loss, loss of government unemployment assistance, and a possible economic slump.

T’ruah’s Jacobs noted: “If we do see a deep and long recession, and if many donors find themselves out of work in December, we are concerned about a drop in donations, especially as more than half of our gifts come from a broad base of small-dollar donors.”

According to Eisen, “there are a lot more conversations about organizations joining forces in partnerships, or in mergers, of sharing assets, buildings and staff, of synagogues coming together. There are many, many conversations happening at the national level and the local level.”

She noted that the Schusterman Foundation has provided funding through JCRIF, offering technical assistance with a consultant to organizational leaders pursuing mergers.

“Not every institution is going to survive, nor should it,” said Eisen. “This is a moment to look at what our community needs to be sustainable, and that will include some tough and painful conversations.”

“I am optimistic that our community can emerge stronger, but there will be some painful decisions along the way.”

After decades of consistent success on and off the field, the Kraft family, owners of the New England Patriots, are preparing for a big transition: Josh Kraft, the third of four sons of Robert Kraft, is set to take over his family’s philanthropic efforts, including a new foundation created last year to combat antisemitism. 

You would be forgiven for confusing this with a different piece of recent Patriots news. The announcement, which the family has made public in recent weeks, may lack the panache and emotional potency of star quarterback Tom Brady’s departure from New England, but it similarly marks a new era in the Kraft family legacy.

Though this transition occurs away from the limelight of the football field, it signals an important shift for the myriad philanthropic programs run from the offices of One Patriot Place.

Kraft, 53, has spent the last 30 years — virtually his entire career since graduating from Williams College — working for the Boys and Girls Club of Boston. Originally managing the group’s youth outreach program in south Boston, Kraft founded the group’s Chelsea branch in 1993, and was named the Nicholas CEO and president in 2008.

“I’ve learned so much,” Kraft told Jewish Insider in an interview on Friday. “But I just feel it was time for a needed professional change.”

Looking at different options in the nonprofit space, Kraft found the transition to his family’s foundation to be a natural fit. “I couldn’t picture myself working for another nonprofit,” he said.

As president of Kraft Family Philanthropies, he will oversee a high-profile operation that includes the Kraft Family Foundation, the Patriots Foundation, the Revolution Foundation, the Kraft Center for Community Health and the newly formed Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism.

While his new role appears to have a larger portfolio than the Boys and Girls Club, Kraft emphasized that the mission, which he describes as “supporting marginalized groups and building community,” remains the same.

“For the last 150 years, the Boys and Girls Clubs nationally have been true social justice,” Kraft explained. “What we’ve really done at any Boys and Girls Club is leveled the playing field so any kid that walks in the door, no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, physical or mental abilities [or] socioeconomic status, is afforded the same opportunities.”

The latest Kraft Philanthropies initiative is the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. Robert Kraft announced the creation of the foundation, along with a $20 million funding commitment, in June 2019 while accepting that year’s Genesis Prize in Jerusalem. That announcement was followed by a high-profile $5 million donation to the foundation by Russian-Israeli billionaire Roman Abramovich and the hiring of Rachel Fish as the new group’s executive director in October.

Kraft promised that the new organization, which remains in development, will open a new front in bringing awareness to the continued propagation of antisemitism. The effort, he hopes, will put “antisemitism in the discussion with other forms of hate,” he explained. “It’s not just a Jewish problem, it’s everybody’s problem.”

The foundation has supported countless Jewish causes over the years, including recent donations to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Jewish Agency. The contributions come amid rising concerns over domestic antisemitism.

Football fans were alarmed earlier this month when Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson posted an antisemitic quote misattributed to Adolf Hitler. In response, Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman issued a video statement inviting Jackson to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Kraft acknowledged that the organization had been in contact with Edelman about his statement, but declined to address the incident.

While antisemitism remains a growing concern for the organization, much of the recent focus has been on combating the effects of COVID-19. Even during his transition, Kraft finds himself busier than ever as the pandemic continues to rage.

Since coming onboard his family’s foundation, he has launched a joint effort with the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation that has provided more than three million meals to veterans and their families. With many children unable or discouraged from receiving vital healthcare at hospitals and clinics, the Kraft Foundation repurposed some of its mobile opiate units to provide services, such as vaccinations, throughout the region.

The Kraft Foundation also provides grants to support grassroots nonprofits across New England. Kraft highlighted recent efforts to support health care — including efforts to increase access to cancer screenings as well as issuing grants of up to $750,000 through the Myra Kraft Emergency Fund — and social justice work like Operation Exit, a program to match young adults released from prison with stable jobs and support for victims of domestic abuse.

“We’re always leveraging our partners to make an impact,” Kraft said. “It’s just staying flexible and meeting the needs of the community, even in a pandemic.”

Paul Moshe Reichmann, the Orthodox Jewish real estate developer who made and lost billions of dollars while transforming the skylines of Toronto, New York and London, died on Friday in Toronto. He was 83.

From the New York Times

Mr. Reichmann and his brothers, Albert and Ralph, led Olympia & York, their family’s real estate development firm, which counted among its greatest projects the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan and Canary Wharf in London’s East End. At their apex in 1990, the Reichmanns held about 8 percent of New York City’s commercial office space, more than twice as much as their closest rival, the Rockefellers.

 

Paul Reichmann, a tall, soft-spoken man who dressed in black suits, white shirts and dark ties, was clearly the family business strategist and chief decision-maker. He and his family were lavish contributors, mostly to Orthodox Jewish causes; they donated up to $50 million a year to yeshivas, synagogues and hospitals around the world.

 

The strains of commerce and religious orthodoxy were often inseparable in the family’s ventures. For example, Olympia & York closed its construction sites on the Jewish Sabbath, paying overtime for Sunday labor, and during the Jewish religious holidays, as well as Christian ones.

 

At the height of his business career, Mr. Reichmann sometimes spoke wistfully of the Talmudic studies and religious school building projects he undertook as a young man.

 

Paul Reichmann was born in Vienna on Sept. 27, 1930, the fifth of six siblings. His parents, Samuel and Rene, were Orthodox Jews who had moved from rural Hungary to Vienna, where they owned a prosperous egg export business. But Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938 forced the family to flee to Paris.

 

Two years later, when the Nazis overran France, the Reichmanns fled to Tangier, Morocco, where Samuel Reichmann became a successful currency trader.

 

When anti-Jewish riots broke out across the Middle East after the 1956 Arab-Israeli War, the Reichmanns uprooted themselves again, this time going to Canada. The family settled in North York, a suburb of Toronto, where Samuel and his sons, Paul, Albert and Ralph, started a small company producing tiles and other building material, which they called Olympia Tile. In 1958, it became the springboard for Olympia & York, which would erect close to 100 buildings in the Toronto area over the next 15 years.

From Bloomberg

In 1949, Paul Reichmann devoted himself to studying the Talmud in the U.K. and Israel. In 1952 in Israel he met Lea Feldman, who later became his wife.

 

From 1953 to 1956, he worked in Casablanca as the unpaid educational director of Ozar Hatorah, an American-sponsored group that runs schools for Orthodox Jews, according to Bianco. Reichmann later called that time “the most interesting years of my life.”

From the Toronto Star

Paul Reichmann was among the greatest land developers in history. Reichmann, who died Friday morning in Toronto at 83, was also among this country’s outstanding philanthropists.
It is unlikely that those of my generation, raised in Toronto in the 1960s and 1970s, will see Reichmann’s like again. With uncommon audacity, persistence and real estate acumen, Reichmann reshaped the skylines of Toronto, New York and London.

Faith and Fortune: The Reichmann Story from Handel Productions on Vimeo.