In February, when Jewish impact investing organization JLens launched a Jewish values-based exchange-traded fund that uses the collective voice of shareholders to advocate against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, it was far behind other advocacy groups, including those representing Islamic values and Christian values with ETFs that have staked their claim on the New York Stock Exchange since the late aughts. 

In less than a year since it launched on the Stock Exchange, more than 1,000 individual and 20 institutions have invested in the fund, which now surpasses $180 million in assets. In addition to being a nine-figure proof of viability, for JLens, the amount also carries symbolic value, being a multiple of 18, symbolizing “chai,” the Hebrew word for life. The milestone comes as JLens, an affiliate of the Anti-Defamation League, welcomes four high-profile board members as they continue to push for Jewish-friendly investment products, platforms and workplaces at a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing globally and BDS is pushing companies in the opposite direction.  

The TOV ETF — “tov” meaning “good” in Hebrew — is “essentially a mutual fund that trades on the stock exchange,” Michael Lustig, one of the new board members, told eJewishPhilanthropy. Since launching the ETF, JLens has lobbied several Fortune 500 companies for religious accommodations, Jewish employee resource groups and to incorporate antisemitism training into anti-discrimination training. They have also halted proposed BDS resolutions at Google, Lockheed Martin and Intel at the same time as the TOV ETF increased its value 17%.

JLens was founded in 2012, and prior to launching the TOV ETF, an investor needed at least $250,000 to invest, limiting the investments to the superrich and institutions. The TOV ETF allowed regular people to join the fight by buying a share for as low as $30, so even a teenager could invest their bar or bat mitzvah haul. The majority of TOV ETF investors are individuals investing between $1,000 and $10,000.

“There’s a tremendous amount of economic diversity in the Jewish community, and you should not have to be super wealthy to be able to invest your values,” Ari Hoffnung, managing director of JLens, told eJP. “The Jewish community has been involved in lobbying and government relations for over 3,000 years. Prince Moses, an Egyptian Prince, 3,300 years ago, went to register as a lobbyist in the Cairo authorities. And he had a great campaign slogan, ‘Let my people go.’… We live at a time when CEOs are akin to heads of state, where the policies of some public companies like Meta, like Google, like Amazon, are arguably as important or even more important than some of the policies of countries that are members of the United Nations.”

JLens invests the TOV ETF funds in the top 500 U.S. companies. Even when a company participates in activities the fund views as questionable, JLens rarely disengages with the organization, having  done so on only two occasions prior to the ETF launching; once with General Mills, which JLens believes acquiesced to BDS, and again with two tobacco companies, which JLens felt didn’t align with Jewish values. Not owning stock in a company does more damage than good, Hoffnung said.  

“If we don’t own the companies, we lose our voice,” he said. “We lose our right to vote [as a shareholder].”

New board members include Lustig, who brings over 25 years of experience on Wall Street, including as a managing director at BlackRock; Rachel Schnoll, CEO of Jewish Communal Fund and a former managing director at Goldman Sachs; Rob Stavis, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners; and Steven Fineman, the managing partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein.

“The boardroom is a critical battleground in the fight against antisemitism, and we need leaders who understand both corporate governance and our community’s values,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of ADL, told eJP. “Michael, Rachel, Rob and Steve bring the exact combination of Wall Street expertise and deep commitment to protecting the Jewish people that we need right now.”

Lustig, an adjunct professor of finance at New York University Stern School of Business, is a returning board member who helped JLens transition to ADL and who identifies as “kind of an impact investing evangelist.” After retiring from Wall Street in 2011 at 47, he dedicated himself to Jewish communal work, serving on multiple boards. “I’ve kind of been on a moratorium on adding boards, but I accepted this one because it was near and dear to my heart.”

The TOV ETF gives “essentially the same returns you would get on an S&P 500 fund but you’re doing so with a Jewish lens,” he said. Because it takes low investment and brings great returns, it’s an easy decision for people to invest and can serve as a gateway for future impact investments.

In the past, when people thought of investing Jewishly, they thought of Israel Bonds, Hoffnung said. Sometimes, when you are dealing with companies making trillions like Meta, it can seem as if the Jewish vote won’t mean anything. “The Jewish community has never been successful because of our vast numbers,” Hoffnung said, but being a part of the conversation allows them to corral other shareholders to vote alongside them. This year, they rallied nearly 50% of other Meta shareholders to pressure the company to add stricter safeguards around antisemitism and hate to the platform, which averages 3.5 billion daily users. 

Even if other shareholders are only thinking about the bottom line, Hoffnung said, “not only [is antisemitism] unethical, it is also bad for business, because at the end of the day, a company who is associated with hate is not a brand advertisers want to be with in the long term.”

JLens will hit another milestone this December when representatives will ring the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

The closing bell is “more fun than the opening bell,” Lustig said, because it’s when the energy is frantic — everyone getting trades in under the wire. The bell ringing shows how far the TOV ETF has come. “It was a concept… It became an ETF. It’s become a successful ETF, and the ringing of the bell is just a recognition of that success.”