Posted on February 23, 2011
Alex Joffe wrote an interesting and important article on Jewish philanthropy. I agree with him and have long felt that Jews who are philanthropists can be more to support Jewish causes and that many Jewish communal leaders do not push these philanthropists enough. Several years ago I spoke with Gary Tobin about convening Jews from the Forbes 400 and others of means to discuss Jewish philanthropy and the possibility of their increasing their support for Jewish causes. Clearly no such meeting ever came to fruition but I still think that if it did it would yield a lot for the Jewish community. I encourage anyone with the ability to convene such a group to do so. In the interim I do what I can to educate those we work with and address with participants in the Jewish teen philanthropy programs we run what giving Jewishly really means.
