Up until the end of the 20th century, defining Jewish philanthropy was not a problem. Whether it is a problem now is worth some discussion.
Jews have always given to charity. Throughout history, all Jews, not just wealthy ones, were required to help the poor. The Hebrew word “tzedakah” comes from the root for what is right or righteous. Tzedakah was never a choice but rather a sacred obligation.
Long before the creation of institutions and laws that encouraged charitable giving, Jews were commanded to help the poor. They were further inculcated with the belief that Jews were responsible for repairing the world. It is this tenet of tikkun olam, repairing the world, that requires Jews to support the larger, non-Jewish community.
Jews do not have a market on charitable giving. Other religious and ethnic groups support the poor. But according to Jewish law and culture, giving to the poor is neither voluntary nor benevolent. In essence, Jews have been hard-wired to be philanthropic.
For thousands of years, tzedakah was a form of self-preservation, and it helped define Judaism as a values-driven, responsibility-assigning code of daily behavior, one that does not leave communal responsibility up to the individual. Until the last decades of the 20th century, Jewish philanthropy meant support for the local community, for oppressed Jewish communities and for a Jewish state. Prior to 1948, most believed that if Jews were in trouble, they could rely on no one but themselves and other Jews for safety, security and support. Hopefully, the world is a different place today.
American Jews have lived through a golden age of freedom, opportunity and unprecedented access to the larger community. Nations have also developed social-service sectors that demonstrate a shared sense of responsibility for the less fortunate. During the economic boom of the 1980s, the United States saw a proliferation of grant-making foundations, and philanthropy itself was evolving into a burgeoning and respected vehicle for positive social change. In a way, the world was catching up with the Jewish belief in tzedakah as a powerful means of improving and supporting all members of the community.
Modern philanthropy does not carry the same mandatory weight as no-frills tzedakah, but the growing interest and compelling desire to give back to the community has progressed to the point where successful entrepreneurs are challenging others to give significant portions of their wealth back to the community through charitable giving.
So why does it seem difficult to define Jewish philanthropy today? Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, yet according to some sources, they make up a quarter of the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans and up to 35 percent of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of top donors. Shouldn’t Jewish philanthropy be defined as Jews making charitable contributions? Or does the term somehow imply gifts to Jewish causes or purposes?
According to a national study, “Most foundations established by Jews give most of their grants and a majority of their dollars to secular (non-Jewish) causes and institutions.” The 2007 research by Brandeis University looked at foundations with assets totaling $17 billion, the majority of which gave the lion’s share of their support to secular organizations (for higher education, health and medical, arts and culture, and human services).
American Jews made their fortunes here and want to give back to the larger community. This is good, and the Jewish commandment to repair the world both encourages and supports it. It is when you add to this the decline over the past 20 years in annual support to the Jewish federation system (and all other umbrella fundraising groups) that defining Jewish philanthropy as charitable giving by Jews becomes problematic.
While American Jews represent a disproportionate amount of major donors, they are giving less to support Jewish communal infrastructure, arts and culture, education and the State of Israel. Philanthropists have the right to give their charitable resources to whatever cause they see fit. Unfortunately, no one but Jews support Jewish causes in this country and elsewhere.
Jews feel secure and comfortable in this country, and they should identify as Californians, Americans and global citizens. But what about the Jewish community? Would it not then be fair to define Jewish philanthropy as giving to Jewish arts, culture, education, religious and communal life and Israel?
The problem is that Jews who think of themselves as Jews, who identify in the slightest way with being Jewish, who criticize Israel and other Jews, are neglecting the needs of their family and themselves if they do not give to Jewish causes and to Israel.
Someone who is generous to others while denying himself or his family is in need of some counseling. Giving feels good. But when one gives to others but not to his children, his parents, his relatives, it is not a tribe mentality that has gone wrong, but a psychological separation from oneself.
If non-Jews gave to Jewish causes, Jewish philanthropy could be defined as charitable giving by Jews. It wouldn’t matter what the purpose was. But there seems to be an inherent ambiguity in the term Jewish philanthropy.
Maybe Jewish philanthropy should be defined as support by Jews who want to identify as Jews and who give a significant portion of their largesse to Jewish causes.
Someone who describes himself as “born of Jewish parents” and whose philanthropy does not particularly support Jewish causes should not care or expect to have his giving attached to anything Jewish. My guess, however, is that this person’s desire to give is, in fact, rooted in Jewish values.
What defines giving a significant portion of one’s philanthropic resources to Jewish causes is subjective and can vary from year to year. But a generous and successful cobbler who lets his family run around shoeless is following neither human nature nor Jewish law. n
Michael Kesselman is a philanthropy consultant in the Bay Area who worked for many years with the Koret Foundation in San Francisco and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation in Baltimore. His website is www.KesselmanConsulting.com.