The Open Society Foundations, the major international philanthropy founded by left-wing billionaire George Soros, announced on Wednesday that it had pledged $30 million over three years to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate, directing those funds to a number of progressive groups, some of which are at odds with the mainstream Jewish establishment.

Jewish recipients of the funding include progressive Jewish groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Nexus Project and Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Alexander Soros, George Soros’ son, was a founding chair of Bend the Arc Jewish Action, which is another grantee. The younger Soros is a longtime donor to progressive Jewish causes and chairs OSF’s board of directors.

In its announcement, which did not break down how the funds would be distributed, OSF noted that its founder, George Soros, has regularly faced antisemitic attacks over the years connected to his support for left-wing causes. 

OSF said that the funds will go to efforts to protect communities facing violence, strengthen interfaith work and expand research and education on different forms of hate. The donations will also be used to “safeguard free speech and fundamental freedoms, including protecting space for lawful expression and open democratic debate,” the group said. This appears to be a nod to the ongoing debates around the creation of “buffer zones” around houses of worship and schools in light of repeated demonstrations outside synagogues that were widely condemned by Jewish groups as forms of intimidation. Several of the groups that will receive funding from OSF have come out against these buffer zones, while most mainstream Jewish groups have supported them.

OSF has also come under fire within the Jewish community for funding initiatives that are openly hostile to Israel, including providing grants for Jewish Voice for Peace, which spearheads and supports anti-Israel campus demonstrations. For groups like JCPA, which does political advocacy for the Jewish community, including supporting Jewish students during the 2024 anti-Israel encampments, this will mean receiving funding from the same organization that was backing the demonstrators.

“No grantee of any foundation agrees with every position of every other grantee,” Amy Spitalnick, JCPA’s CEO, told eJP.“We’ve been a clear voice calling out antisemitism wherever it exists across the ideological spectrum and underscoring that our legitimate concerns should not be exploited to attack democratic norms and institutions, including university research funding.”

Asked about the OSF’s support of anti-Israel groups, a spokesperson for the organization told eJewishPhilanthropy, “We’re a human rights organization and we were created in part to counter discrimination and hatred which are contrary to ideas an open society needs to flourish. Everything we fund is aligned with those values but a lot of the work is focused on many other issues [unrelated to antisemitism].”  

The commitment also potentially deepens the fragmentation in the American Jewish community’s efforts to combat antisemitism, weakening the collective power of legacy organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and Jewish Federations of North America, which have historically been the communal leaders on the issue. 

The OSF spokesperson told eJP that the pledge “supports organizations on the frontlines standing against antisemitism and other forms of hate — not by challenging another organization.”

JCPA, one of the grantees, is a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — the umbrella organization of mainstream American Jewish groups and “already collaborates with other legacy Jewish organizations, including on campus and broader education-related issues,” Spitalnick said.

But other organizations selected, such as Nexus, are newer and use a more left-wing lens to combat antisemitism than the approach taken by the largest Jewish organizations. Nexus released the Nexus Document to challenge the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, specifically arguing that double standards targeting Israel are not inherently antisemitic. The IHRA definition is largely embraced among mainstream Jewish organizations.

Breaking from most other mainstream Jewish organizations, including several progressive ones, Nexus defended a recent New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof that alleged widespread rape and sexual assault of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security forces. Nexus specifically took issue with the Israel Foreign Ministry and AJC calling the column a “blood libel”

In a tweet, Nexus wrote on Tuesday that “Kristof’s article is a challenging and important read. It takes courage and care to expose sexual violence” and accused Israel of “weaponiz[ing] the term ‘blood libel’ to dismiss Kristof’s thorough reporting.” 

Other recipients of the foundation’s funding include Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, a coalition of 60+ progressive member and partner organizations focused on humanitarian and social justice. JSJR includes both mainstream organizations, including the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, as well as more radical organizations, such as Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, which opposes buffer zones around synagogues and schools. 

Another recipient is Bend the Arc, a national progressive Jewish group that offers trainings focused on dismantling antisemitism, focused primarily on right-wing antisemitism, and which also opposes buffer zones around houses of worship.

Open Society’s commitment comes amid broader conversations in the Jewish world about the efficacy of legacy Jewish institutions’ efforts to combat antisemitism. In February, at Manhattan’s 92Y, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens called to “dismantle the Anti-Defamation League,” arguing Jewish philanthropy’s allocation of funds to fight antisemitism were “mostly wasted.”

Recent moves by the ADL, including its creation of a “Mamdani monitor” after the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and its shuttering of broader civil rights initiatives, have also raised the ire of left-wing Jewish groups, who see the organization’s moves as being politically motivated.

While OSF has already selected a number of grantees, the group said that it is accepting applications for more. Another recipient is Shoulder to Shoulder, an interfaith group aimed at countering anti-Muslim discrimination, which has ties to a number of Jewish groups. 

An OSF spokesperson said that organizations were selected based on ones “we knew were doing great work in this space, which is certainly already underway.”

“Some of these organizations have been on our radar for a long time; either we had a relationship with them or we had been aware of their work for a while,” the spokesperson said.