After Katrina, Creating Community All Over Again

The New Orleans Jewish Day School Reemerges From Disaster by H. Glenn Rosenkrantz Metairie, LA – Kindergarten classroom, destroyed. Administrative offices, gone. First and second grade facilities, upended. Materials and resources, washed away or damaged. And that was just on the first floor. Hurricane Katrina’s rage and the resulting floodwaters five years ago this week spared precious little, and the New Orleans Jewish Day School – situated here on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain just west of the city – was no exception. “The storm demolished us,” said Dr. Bob Berk, head of school. “The school was wiped out.” Nearly 100 students, from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, had barely begun the academic year when Hurricane Katrina changed everything. For the school and... Continue Reading

Lynn Schusterman: Unintimidated Philanthropist

by Eetta Prince-Gibson The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation (CLSFF), chaired by Lynn Schusterman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a primary supporter of Bat Kol, the Israeli organization for religious lesbians. CLSFF is one of the largest Jewish-centric philanthropic foundations and donates, according to most estimates, some $70 million annually to a wide range of primarily, but not solely, Jewish projects. Bat Kol is part of ROI, one of CLSFF’s flagship projects, which, according to its publications, “aims to support young leaders worldwide who are making Jewish life more exciting and accessible.” In and extensive and telephone interview with The Jerusalem Report, Schusterman, 70, discusses her support for ROI, her engagement with the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender)... Continue Reading

New LA Grants Expand Five Innovative Programs

The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles (The Foundation) has awarded a total of slightly more than $1 million in Cutting Edge Grants to five nonprofit organizations whose programs seek to address social issues, strengthen Jewish identity and add vibrancy to local Jewish life. Programs receiving funding span arts and culture festivals for young, unaffiliated Jews; free children’s books with Jewish themes for families with youngsters; an independent living program for young adults with special needs; and a community-wide effort to address the issue of hunger in Los Angeles. Recipients include the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’s Fed Up with Hunger/Netiya program, $250,000; Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, which provides funding for artists to create their work and... Continue Reading

Mort Mandel: We Want to Change the World

from Cleveland Jewish News: From modest start, Mandels now major force in Jewish philanthropy … Brothers Jack N., Joseph C. and Morton L. Mandel have long supported Jewish and non-Jewish causes. Starting with nothing 70 years ago when they scraped together $900 to purchase their uncle’s business in August 1940, they formed their first charitable foundation in 1953. … In 2007, the last year for which tax reports are publicly available for several family and supporting foundations from which they make grants, their philanthropic assets totaled more than $2 billion, and they made grants of more than $74 million. The foundations, though technically separate grant-making sources, comprise the Mandel Foundation, among the largest foundations founded by Jews in the country. During the recent... Continue Reading

NIF Considering New Funding Guidelines

New Israel Fund Considering Red Lines by Nathan Guttman The New Israel Fund, the target of attacks by right-wing organizations accusing it of supporting anti-Zionist groups, is discussing the possibility of specifying in its guidelines that grants will be given only to groups that accept the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland. The discussions have been taking place in recent months in Israel and in the United States, where NIF’s headquarters are located and most of the group’s donors reside. Initially, the discussions were set as a regular review of funding practices as part of structural changes the fund has experienced this year, with the appointment of new executive directors in the United States and in Israel. But according to three sources who have either seen the new proposed guidelines or... Continue Reading

The Giving Pledge

by Rob Eshman Last week, 40 of the world’s richest families and individuals signed the Giving Pledge, each promising to give away at least half of their fortune to philanthropy before they die. A large number of the signatories are Jewish. This column is for them. I won’t presume to tell any of these people where to give their money – they made it, I didn’t. But what I can point out is the enormous impact their financial support could make on the future of the Jewish People. The Jewish names on the Giving Pledge list represent many billions of dollars: Michael R. Bloomberg, Eli and Edythe Broad, Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg, Larry Ellison, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, George B. Kaiser, Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest, Lorry I. Lokey, Alfred E. Mann, Bernie and Billi Marcus, Bernard and... Continue Reading

World ORT Leverages Canadian Gift in Israel

World ORT is spearheading the introduction of interactive educational technology in Israel’s under-resourced southern communities thanks to a $2.2 million donation by Canadian philanthropist Seymour Schulich – his second investment in this program in just four months. Mr Schulich’s initial $2.1 million investment in March enabled World ORT to launch the pioneering program in the north of Israel through its local programmatic arm, Kadima Mada. By the end of this summer vacation 206 classes in 40 schools in 13 communities will have been fitted with Interactive Whiteboards, laptops and other equipment. Another 209 Smart classes, as well as training for teachers in their use, will be rolled out over the next two years. The program will “bring about an educational and social revolution.”... Continue Reading

Roots & Branches Foundation Chooses Members

Eighteen Jews in their 20s and 30s have been selected as the 2010-2011 members of Roots & Branches Foundation. Now beginning its fourth year, this initiative of Rose Community Foundation provides young adult Jews with hands-on grantmaking experience. Roots & Branches Foundation includes Jews from throughout the Metro Denver area. They represent a broad spectrum of Judaism, describing themselves as Reform, Reconstructionist, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, cultural and secular Jews. From July 2010 through February 2011, Roots & Branches members will explore Jewish philanthropic concepts, establish funding priorities and decide how to grant up to $110,000. The group investigates and analyzes community needs, decides on a grantmaking approach to address the needs they identify, and awards grants... Continue Reading

Incrementalism and the Need for a New Jewish Philanthropic Narrative

People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. E.O. Wilson, American biologist Although the Jewish people are often described as a people of the book, perhaps the “people of the narrative” might be a more apt description. Yes, the Torah is a rich and inspiring statement on Jewish faith, law and identity, but for most Jews the Torah is accessible largely as a narrative. Equally, the post-biblical history of the Jewish people is a tapestry of narratives, spanning the ages, geographies, challenges and triumphs in a series of interconnected chapters and verses. Indeed, the endurance of the Jewish people is a testament to the narrative it has created for itself, and the complexity of that narrative is a testament to the endurance... Continue Reading

A Strong, Involved – and Misdiagnosed – Generation

by Gabrielle Carlin and Andy Ashwal Much has been written about the future of the Jewish people hood; specifically, today’s leaders are concerned with the erosion of the next generation’s involvement in the traditional philanthropic Jewish community. Summarily, the concerns range from a lack of a sense of collective responsibility on the part of Americans Jews under the age of 35 to despair that today’s young Jews are increasingly disconnected from the State of Israel. Such is not the case. We have truly been misdiagnosed as a generation more concerned with ourselves than our people hood. Having only heard today’s leaders speak about tomorrow’s generation, it is time for us – the generation under scrutiny – to weigh in. As the Campaign Executive for Jewish National Fund’s JNFuture... Continue Reading

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