The Jewish Federation Bay Area celebrated reaching its $250 million Centennial Campaign endowment fundraising goal with a special appearance by world-acclaimed violinist Itzhak Perlman and a performance by the Israel Philharmonic’s flute quartet.

More than 350 longtime donors, community leaders and partners gathered for the event at Laura and Gary Lauder’s home in Atherton on March 4. The $250 million endowment is aimed at securing long-term support for Jewish organizations locally, in Israel and around the world, a Federation spokesperson told J.

The event was held in collaboration with the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which raises funds to support Israel’s national orchestra as cultural ambassadors for Israel. Perlman is its honorary co-chair.

Perlman, who was in town to conduct the San Francisco Symphony on March 5, joined the gathering for a conversation rather than a performance. The award-winning violinist was interviewed by members of the visiting ensemble and shared reflections on his career, mentors and experiences in music. Attendees described the conversation as humorous and candid, and said it offered a personal glimpse into Perlman’s storied life.

“It was a really neat opportunity to get to kind of know this person who is really renowned, who is sort of on a pedestal as a maestro,” said attendee Carol Weitz, who is a past president of J.’s board.

Following the conversation, the flute quartet performed a program featuring works by Mozart, along with the American and Israeli national anthems.

During the concert, the musicians briefly paused after their phones began buzzing simultaneously with emergency alerts from Israel. The messages informed them that missile strikes had been reported near Tel Aviv and that their families had taken shelter in bomb shelters. The performers shared the news with the audience before continuing the concert, acknowledging the emotional challenge of performing abroad while events unfolded at home.

“That was heart-tugging for all of us,” Weitz said.

Weitz described an evening of “gratitude and celebration” that was “the best reconnecting of community” the group had in a long time. “The warmth of the evening and the engagement of the cross-section of the community was really impactful,” she said.

The Centennial Campaign began in 2010 as the Federation marked its 100th anniversary, initially setting a fundraising goal of $100 million for its endowment. Strong community support allowed the campaign to surpass that benchmark in 2015, prompting leaders to raise the target to $200 million. Continued momentum ultimately pushed the campaign to a stretch goal of $250 million, which was reached in December.

“The Federation’s endowment not only fuels the steady, sustained investments for vital organizations strengthening Jewish life, caring for people in need, combating antisemitism, and promoting justice and inclusion, but in our ability to move quickly when it matters most — whether that’s responding to an emergency in Israel or an opportunity to do something transformational here at home,” Joy Sisisky, Federation president and CEO, told J. in a statement.

The completion of the campaign brings the organization’s total endowment to more than $400 million. Unlike annual campaigns, endowment funds generate ongoing support, helping ensure stability for the hundreds of programs and organizations the Federation funds, according to the Federation.

The establishment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) in 1925 represented more than the founding of an academic institution; it embodied a visionary approach to knowledge creation that would fundamentally reshape scientific inquiry in the Middle East and beyond. Concurrently, the formation of American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU) under the leadership of philanthropist Felix M. Warburg created an unprecedented model of international academic partnership that has sustained and amplified the University’s impact for a full century.

This relationship produced measurable outcomes across multiple dimensions of human progress: scientific breakthroughs that have saved millions of lives, technological innovations that have transformed industries, and social research that has influenced policy worldwide. The partnership between AFHU and Hebrew University represents a paradigmatic example of how sustained philanthropic investment in academic excellence can generate returns that benefit all humanity.

Historical Foundation and Visionary Leadership

The conceptual framework for Hebrew University emerged from the First Zionist Congress in 1897, but its realization required the collaborative vision of extraordinary intellectual leaders. Albert Einstein, whose theoretical contributions revolutionized physics, served not merely as a founding father but as an active participant in the University’s development. His role extended beyond symbolic endorsement to practical engagement: he delivered the University’s inaugural scientific lecture, edited its first collection of scientific papers, and served on both the Board of Governors and Academic Council.

Einstein’s commitment to the institution was so profound that he bequeathed his entire literary estate and personal papers to Hebrew University in his last will and testament. This bequest, which included over 55,000 items ranging from scientific manuscripts to personal correspondence, established the Albert Einstein Archives as one of the world’s most significant repositories of scientific and intellectual history. The economic value of Einstein’s intellectual property rights, which Hebrew University holds exclusively, continues to generate resources that support research and education.

The University’s founding committee included other luminaries whose contributions shaped modern thought. Sigmund Freud, whose psychoanalytic theories transformed psychology and psychiatry, lent his support to an institution dedicated to advancing human understanding. 

Martin Buber, the philosopher whose work on dialogue and human relationships influenced both academic discourse and practical conflict resolution, saw in Hebrew University a platform for exploring the fundamental questions of human existence.

Chaim Weizmann, who would become Israel’s first president, understood that the University represented what he termed “the first major project of modern Zionism.” His vision extended beyond nationalist aspirations to encompass a universal commitment to scientific progress and humanitarian advancement.

The Centennial Moment: Reflection and Vision

Joshua Rednik, CEO of American Friends of the Hebrew University, articulates the profound significance of this centennial milestone with clarity and conviction. “Over the last 100 years, few institutions have had as significant an impact on the land, people, and politics of Israel as the Hebrew University,” Rednik states. “We frequently say Hebrew University was the original Zionist project before Israel was even Israel. It has touched every corner of Israeli society.”

When Rednik assumed his role in 2022, he expressed being “thrilled and honored to lead AFHU into the future as the University approaches the centennial of its opening in 2025,” noting that “rarely has a University contributed so profoundly and left such an indelible mark on humanity through its award-winning research, visionary leadership, extraordinary facilities, brilliant faculties and dedicated students.”

Professor Tamir Sheafer, President of the Hebrew University, emphasizes the University’s comprehensive mission: “As a leading research institution, the Hebrew University sees itself as responsible for educating future generations, conducting groundbreaking research across nearly all fields of study, fostering extensive international engagement in both research and teaching, building strong ties with advanced industries in Israel and abroad, nurturing a diverse academic community, and translating knowledge into meaningful social impact while maintaining deep involvement in local communities, throughout Israel and within the international community as well.” His vision encompasses not merely academic excellence but social responsibility and global engagement, priorities that align seamlessly with AFHU’s commitment to connecting resources with Israeli innovation.

These perspectives from both AFHU and Hebrew University leadership demonstrate the alignment of vision and purpose that has sustained the partnership through a century of dramatic change and challenge.

Quantifiable Impact on Scientific and Medical Progress

The partnership between AFHU and Hebrew University has generated measurable outcomes that demonstrate the tangible value of sustained philanthropic investment in research excellence. Hebrew University faculty and alumni have received ten Nobel Prizes across multiple disciplines, with particular strength in economics and sciences. Fittingly, the most recent Nobel Prize was awarded in this centennial year to Prof. Joel Mokyr, an HU alumnus and current visiting professor, for his contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying sustained technological progress and the role of innovation in economic development.

Daniel Kahneman’s receipt of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on behavioral economics, conducted while at Hebrew University, fundamentally altered how economists understand human decision-making. His collaboration with Amos Tversky produced insights that have influenced fields ranging from public policy to corporate strategy, with applications that affect millions of lives through improved healthcare delivery, financial services, and educational approaches.

Israel Aumann’s 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics recognized his pioneering work in game theory, mathematical frameworks that have proven essential for understanding strategic interactions in economics, politics, and social relations. Aumann’s contributions have practical applications in auction design, negotiation theory, and conflict resolution—tools that governments and organizations worldwide employ to achieve more efficient outcomes.

The University’s medical research has produced breakthroughs with direct humanitarian impact. Hebrew University researchers have contributed to advances in cancer treatment, Alzheimer’s research, and infectious disease management. The institution’s work in agricultural sciences has led to the development of drought-resistant crops and innovative irrigation technologies that address food security challenges in developing nations.

Perhaps most significantly, Hebrew University has generated over 11,500 registered patents, ranking among the top institutions globally for technology transfer and commercialization. These patents have spawned more than 180 start-ups, creating economic value that extends far beyond academic recognition. The University’s technology transfer activities demonstrate how basic research can generate practical applications that benefit society while creating sustainable revenue streams for continued scientific advancement.

Economic and Social Transformation

The partnership between AFHU and Hebrew University has catalyzed economic development that extends throughout Israel and into the global technology sector. Hebrew University graduates have founded or led major technology companies, contributing to Israel’s emergence as a leading innovation economy. The institution produces one-third of Israel’s civilian research output, making it a central driver of the “start-up” nation.

AFHU’s fundraising capabilities have been instrumental in this transformation. In this past fiscal year ending September 2025, the organization raised $89.2 million—the largest annual contribution in its history—demonstrating the continued confidence that American donors place in Hebrew University’s mission. This financial support has enabled the University to attract and retain world-class faculty, construct state-of-the-art research facilities, and provide scholarships that ensure access to education regardless of economic background.

The social impact of this partnership extends beyond economic metrics to encompass contributions to democratic governance, social justice, and cultural understanding. Hebrew University graduates include four Israeli Prime Ministers, numerous Supreme Court justices, and leaders across multiple sectors of Israeli society. Twenty-five percent of current Knesset members and two-thirds of Israel’s Supreme Court justices are Hebrew University alumni, indicating the institution’s profound influence on democratic institutions and legal frameworks.

The University’s commitment to diversity has created educational opportunities for students from all backgrounds, including Arab-Israeli students who comprise nearly 20% of the student body. This inclusive approach has generated research and policy recommendations that address minority rights, social integration, and conflict resolution—contributions that have relevance far beyond Israel’s borders.

Contemporary Challenges and Institutional Resilience

The two years following October 7, 2023, have presented Hebrew University with unprecedented challenges. The conflict resulted in over 7,500 Hebrew University students, faculty, and staff being called to military service and has had a profound impact on the entire university community.

Despite these challenges, the University has maintained its research output and educational programs, demonstrating the institutional strength that has remained for a century. The enduring partnership between AFHU and HU has been resilient during times of crisis and validates the long-term strategy that both organizations have pursued, showing how sustained philanthropic commitment creates institutions capable of weathering extraordinary difficulties while maintaining their core mission.

Hebrew University’s research partnerships span across continents, creating networks of scientific collaboration that amplify the impact of AFHU’s investments and extend HU’s knowledge and expertise across the globe. The institution maintains active research collaborations with leading universities in the United States, Europe, and Asia, facilitating knowledge transfer that benefits the global scientific community. AFHU stands squarely alongside the University in efforts to mitigate the worldwide rise in antisemitism and efforts to derail Israeli academia. 

Future Directions and Strategic Opportunities

As both institutions enter their second century, strategic opportunities exist to expand their impact across multiple dimensions. Hebrew University’s goal of achieving a top-twenty global ranking is supported by AFHU’s commitment to raising $100 million annually, a target that would provide resources for faculty recruitment, infrastructure development, and program expansion.

The emergence of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and sustainable energy as critical research areas presents opportunities for Hebrew University to build on its existing strengths in computer science, medicine, and environmental research. AFHU’s role in connecting American expertise and resources with Hebrew University’s research capabilities positions the partnership to address emerging global challenges in these fields.

The growing recognition of mental health, social inequality, and democratic resilience as critical societal issues aligns with Hebrew University’s strengths in psychology, sociology, and political science. Research in these areas, supported by AFHU’s fundraising capabilities, can generate insights and interventions that benefit societies worldwide.

The Boundless Potential of Collective Partnership

Now that the centennial year has concluded, the partnership between American Friends of the Hebrew University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem stands as a testament to the transformative power of sustained philanthropic commitment to academic excellence. The measurable outcomes—ten Nobel Prizes, over 11,500 patents, hundreds of medical breakthroughs, and countless contributions to human knowledge—demonstrate the tangible returns that result from long-term investment in research and education.

More significantly, this partnership has created an institutional model that demonstrates how international collaboration can address global challenges while fostering scientific advancement and social progress. The relationship between AFHU and Hebrew University proves that sustained commitment to academic excellence generates benefits that extend far beyond the immediate recipients of that support.

The future remains uncharted, filled with challenges that current knowledge cannot fully anticipate and opportunities that emerging technologies will create. Yet, the century-long partnership between AFHU and Hebrew University has established a foundation of institutional strength, international collaboration, and innovative capacity that suggests no challenge is insurmountable when approached through collective commitment to scientific excellence and humanitarian values.

Through their continued partnership, American Friends of the Hebrew University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have demonstrated that there is no limit to what can be accomplished when vision, resources, and dedication combine in service of advancing human knowledge and improving the world for all people. The next century beckons with possibilities that their collective strength and shared commitment make not only achievable, but inevitable.

To learn more, please go to afhu.org.

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Sponsored by American Friends of The Hebrew University and produced by J.’s branded content studio.

For two decades, the San Francisco-based Jim Joseph Foundation has sought to reshape Jewish learning by focusing millions of dollars in grants on campuses, camps and leadership.

“They know exactly what they’re aiming to do,” said Rabbi Benjamin Berger, senior vice president of Jewish education, community and culture at Hillel International. Berger has worked with the Jim Joseph Foundation through both the Wexner Foundation and Hillel. “Their goal is to give Jewish people, especially Jewish students, the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and their commitments to Jewish life and learning.”

That clarity, Berger said, has influenced not just grant recipients but the broader field of Jewish education.

The story behind the Jim Joseph Foundation began in 1938 when Holocaust refugee Jim Joseph fled Austria with his parents and came to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Joseph entered real estate, buying commercial property in what would become Silicon Valley. He lived in both the Bay Area and Florida.

In 1987, Joseph established a philanthropic fund dedicated to Jewish education. When he died in 2003, he left the bulk of his estate — estimated at more than $500 million — to the fund, which was incorporated two years later as the foundation. His bequest formed the core of what became one of the largest Jewish foundations in the U.S. that focuses on education. Its most recent tax filings show assets topping $1.5 billion.

According to the foundation, it has given out about $900 million in grants over the past 20 years.

“We hope that Jim would be proud of the impact he made possible,” CEO Barry Finestone and former board chair David Agger said in a statement marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary. The foundation’s leadership declined requests for additional comment but directed J. to grant recipients.

Since 2007, the foundation has partnered with the Foundation for Jewish Camp, an umbrella organization supporting more than 300 Jewish day and overnight camps across North America.

“The truth is the Foundation for Jewish Camp would not be what it is and would not be able to do the work that we’re doing without partners like the Jim Joseph Foundation,” said Jamie Simon, CEO of the camps foundation. “Their long-term commitment has allowed us to play the long game, strengthening Jewish camp not just for today’s campers but for generations to come.”

To date, the foundation has given more than $35 million to the Foundation for Jewish Camp, including support for research, leadership development and efforts to make camps more affordable for families. 

With some of that money, 14 new specialty camps were established that combine Judaism with children’s interests, such as sports, arts, science and technology, environmental education and health and wellness. Locally, these camps include Maccabi Sports Camp in Hayward and sustainability-focused Eden Village West in Healdsburg.

“These camps would not exist without that partnership,” Simon said. “They allow kids to build strong Jewish identities while pursuing what they love.”

To address the issue of affordability, between 2007 and 2013 the Jim Joseph Foundation invested $11 million in the JWest Campership Program, which helped first-time campers attend Jewish camps in Western states by offering financial assistance. That pilot helped pave the way for the One Happy Camper program, which provides grants for all families new to Jewish overnight camp. 

Another major investment came in 2008 to Hillel International, the Jewish college campus organization. As Hillel expanded in the 1990s and 2000s, Berger said, dedicated Jewish education was not always at the core of its identity.

The Jim Joseph Foundation sought to change that by funding a group of senior-level Jewish educators whose primary responsibility was learning and teaching.

“The idea was to free these professionals up to focus on education,” Berger said. “What mattered most wasn’t just the initial group, it was that the investment reignited a spark across Hillel. It reminded the field that education has to be central to who we are.”

Over time, education became embedded across staff roles at dozens of Hillels. Programs like the Jewish Learning Fellowship, a 10-week seminar now offered on more than 220 campuses annually, grew directly out of that early investment.

“Because of the ways they invested in Hillel, literally hundreds of thousands of Jewish students have had access to meaningful Jewish content and educators who wouldn’t have had it otherwise,” Berger said.

Another significant focus of the foundation has been Jewish leadership development, particularly in addressing what some describe as a growing “pipeline crisis.”

For nearly a decade, the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute has worked with the Jim Joseph Foundation to tackle this problem.

Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, CEO of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, described the foundation as an “essential and fundamental partner.”

“They’ve supported us not only programmatically, but strategically by helping us refine our strategy and build the organizational capacity to address long-term challenges in Jewish education,” Jacoby Rosenfield said.

The “pipeline crisis,” she said, refers to a growing concern about the future supply of Jewish leaders such as rabbis, educators and communal professionals who are prepared to guide others in a complex world for Jews.

Jim Joseph Foundation grants have enabled the Shalom Hartman Institute to develop rigorous intellectual programs for young people ages 15 to 25, as well as for educators and rabbis, Jacoby Rosenfield said.

Among the dozens of grant recipients are Bay Area-based groups including the Jews of Color Initiative and JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa.

The foundation’s support has become a bedrock in Jewish communal life, said Simon of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.

“When the Jim Joseph Foundation invests in organizations like ours, we’re able to support hundreds of camps,” she said. “Those camps lift up communities and those communities shape the Jewish future.”

From the moment Dave got down on one knee in our Sausalito home and sent Bowie, our chocolate Lab, racing up the stairs to me with a ring tied around his neck, we knew that our wedding, like our love, would be unique. 

A weekend focused only on the two of us would not reflect who we are as a couple. We fell in love through our shared passion for Judaism, the arts and civic engagement. As we began planning our Oct. 18 wedding, we knew that community would be at the heart of everything.

On our first date two years ago, we quickly connected over a mutual love of the arts. Dave’s family has been longtime supporters of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Dave serves as vice chair of the Contemporary Jewish Museum and on the board of the California College of the Arts. We also discovered that we had both volunteered with ArtPoint at the Fine Arts Museums, though somehow never crossed paths. 

When it came time to choose a wedding venue, an arts institution felt like the most natural place to begin our marriage.

Melissa grew up visiting museums with her dad and watching performances with her mom. She has many fond memories of the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa. A sign in one gallery reads, “Do not touch the art, let the art touch you.” Many of the artists featured at the di Rosa are also supported by Dave’s grandmother Dorothy Saxe.

When we visited the sweeping 240-acre landscape, we learned that the di Rosa was undergoing a transition, shifting toward an events-focused model in Napa and opening a satellite location in San Francisco. After our tour of the Napa property, we met with curator of exhibitions and programs Twyla Ruby, who is Jewish. She told us, “I think having your wedding here would be an act of philanthropy.” It felt, like our love, to be bashert.

That moment moved us to action. Guided by the values of tikkun olam, we wondered if we could make our entire wedding weekend about supporting the arts and about building community. 

We had plenty of plates and frying pans, so we decided to use our registry to lift up the institutions that have shaped our values. Jewish tradition teaches that acts of tzedakah should accompany life’s most significant moments, transforming personal joy into communal good. What moment could be more significant than a wedding? 

We selected four organizations for donations that reflect our identities. Dave and his grandmother have long supported the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The California College of the Arts nurtures emerging creativity, and Dave’s late grandfather also served on its board. The Fine Arts Museums connect both of our families across generations. And the di Rosa, our wedding home, would be central to telling the story.

To bring the weekend to life, we drew inspiration from a tradition of co-creation that we first experienced at the Oshman Family JCC of Palo Alto’s “The Annual” fundraiser. We wrote to our guests inviting them to participate with a poem, a performance, a recipe or a handwritten note for our chuppah. They responded with incredible creativity. 

Together we planned a wedding that grew into an arts festival, complete with gallery tours at the Fine Arts Museums led by Lauren Palmor, assistant curator of American art, and a private photo exhibition by artist Lucas Foglia curated by Sally Martin Katz, photography curator at the Fine Arts Museums — all of them Jewish. 

We hosted a variety show featuring talented guests, and our officiant, Rabbi Sydney Mintz, surprised us with standup comedy. Our friend Vanessa Marlin of Bell and Trunk Flowers designed floral pieces inspired by the art at the di Rosa. Our cake, created by our friend Kirstin Pearson of Revelry Cakes, echoed the look of the Viola Frey sculpture. Videos telling the stories of each institution we were supporting played in art galleries throughout the weekend. 

We are proud that our wedding was rooted in values and participation. Whether someone baked challah or offered a handwritten blessing, every contribution brought our weekend to life and created community. By the end of the celebration, more than 100 of our 250 guests had created something. We have heard from the museums that more than $25,000 was raised for the arts and that the di Rosa has welcomed more than 50 new members since the wedding.

Under the chuppah, we spoke about our shared commitment to the Jewish community and to tikkun olam. We promised to build a life grounded in community, creativity and service.

Throughout the weekend, we watched our guests form new friendships while exploring art together. That connection felt like the truest sign that we had built something lasting. If a wedding reflects the marriage to come, we hope ours set the right tone. We want to keep creating joy, strengthening community and letting art touch everyone around us.

Now Is the Time for a DAF

There’s a moment in every philanthropist’s journey when good intentions crystallize into tangible impact. For Jewish donors across the Bay Area, that moment is now — and it comes with an unprecedented opportunity that won’t last beyond year’s end.

Imagine opening a giving account today that maximizes your charitable tax deductions before sweeping tax law changes take effect in 2026, while also immediately giving you an additional $1,800 Bonus Grant for your favorite Jewish nonprofit. This isn’t hypothetical — it’s reality for the first 100 new Federation donor-advised funds (DAFs) of $10,000 or more opened by December 31, 2025.*

Why So Many Donors Are Moving to DAFs

DAFs have become one of the fastest-growing charitable giving vehicles in the U.S. The reason? They represent the perfect intersection of flexibility, tax efficiency, and strategic impact.

A DAF is a special account that helps you organize and manage all your charitable giving in one place. You make tax-deductible contributions, watch those funds grow tax-free, and then recommend grants to support the Jewish and nonprofit organizations that matter most to you — all on your timeline, with the help of a trusted Federation advisor.

For Jewish donors navigating the complex landscape of tzedakah (taking care of people in need), this flexibility proves invaluable.

In addition to streamlining our philanthropic giving, having a Federation DAF has connected us with a greater community of people, many of whom are now genuine friends. It’s a real value add.
— Julie and Buddy Arnheim, Los Altos Hills

What Makes a Federation DAF Fundamentally Different

While any major financial institution will open a DAF for you, they won’t understand the sacred responsibility of tzedakah, connect you with Jewish nonprofits and others making extraordinary impact, or help you navigate the complex questions that define meaningful philanthropy.

Which groups are most effectively combating the surge in antisemitism? How can we ensure Israeli nonprofits receive funding to help rebuild? What can I do to help strengthen democracy? How can my family develop giving strategies that align with our values and long-term goals? These aren’t questions answered by algorithms or generic wealth managers. They require the deep Jewish wisdom and philanthropic expertise that only the Federation provides.

As a Federation DAF holder, you’re assigned a dedicated philanthropy advisor who serves as your personal guide. These are knowledgeable and certified professionals who have spent years supporting families in their philanthropy. They work closely with the Federation’s impact team, who have relationships with hundreds of nonprofits — evaluating their effectiveness, understanding their leadership, and tracking their impact. Your advisor brings not just data but wisdom, not just recommendations, but genuine insight into which organizations are truly moving the needle.

Our advisor helps us focus on areas where we can see real, measurable change and that’s been incredibly empowering.
— Anna and Matthew Kovinsky, Mill Valley

The Power of Community, Connection, and Collective Impact

Another advantage of a Federation DAF is something that doesn’t appear on any comparison chart: community. When you open your fund, you’re joining an exciting network of like-minded philanthropists. Throughout the year, DAF holders receive exclusive invitations to intimate events featuring renowned thought leaders, social impact innovators, and nonprofit executives.

A Federation DAF also gives you access to participate in our Giving Circles and Collective Impact Portfolios, which take an innovative approach to our community’s most pressing challenges, like combating antisemitism. When pooled with others, your grant can make an even bigger difference. 

Beyond Grantmaking: Family Legacy and Multi-Generational Giving

For many donors, a Federation DAF evolves into a cornerstone of family legacy and values transmission. The Federation’s family philanthropy guidance helps you involve children and grandchildren in meaningful giving decisions, teaching them the mechanics of charitable giving and the deeply rooted Jewish values that inspire it. The Federation’s legacy and gift planning experts work with you to ensure your philanthropic vision extends far beyond your lifetime, structuring your DAF and estate plans to support Jewish communities for generations.

Your Investment Grows, Giving You More Capital to Donate

With a Federation DAF, your contributions don’t sit idle, waiting to be granted. Instead, the Federation offers strategic investment options that allow your philanthropic capital to grow tax-free until you’re ready to recommend grants. Over time, this growth means you can grant significantly more than your original contribution, multiplying your impact without requiring additional out-of-pocket giving.

The Federation provides multiple investment options tailored to different risk tolerances and time horizons, all managed with the same fiduciary responsibility you’d expect from any premier financial institution. And here’s an innovative option most traditional DAF providers don’t offer — impact lending. Your DAF funds can be deployed as low-interest loans to nonprofits, generating both financial returns and social impact simultaneously, then returning to your fund for future grantmaking.

I chose to open my DAF with the Federation because it’s not just about financial management. It’s about community. Together, we’re investing in Jewish life, shared values, and the bonds that hold us all together.  Plus, who can say NO to Laura Lauder, our fearless Federation Board Chair?!
— Alison Pincus, San Francisco

The 2026 Tax Deadline That Changes Everything

Tax legislation changes taking effect in 2026 will significantly impact how much you can deduct from charitable contributions under current limits. Financial advisors nationwide are urging clients to maximize charitable giving before December 31, 2025 — your final opportunity to leverage today’s more favorable tax treatment.

Savvy donors are accelerating their giving timelines, front-loading contributions into vehicles like DAFs that allow them to claim the full tax deduction now while maintaining the flexibility to distribute grants over time. And your generosity today doesn’t just create immediate impact — it becomes a powerful philanthropic strategy that is grounded in l’dor v’dor — for your family and the broader community for years to come.

The Federation has admin fees, and yes, they might be a little bit more than what you would pay at big financial institution, but I feel really good knowing that they’re going to help the Jewish community.
— Sharon Petrowsky, Lafayette

It Only Takes Five Minutes

Opening your Federation DAF takes as little as five minutes through an easy online form. But the impact of that decision will reverberate for decades.

Jewish communities worldwide need the strategic, sustained support that only informed, connected philanthropists can provide. They need you. Not someday, but now.

Join our community and open your Federation donor-advised fund today at jewishfed.org/DAFbonus.

*$1,800 Jewish bonus grant available to the first 100 new Federation DAFS of $10,000 or more opened by December 31, 2025.

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Sponsored by Jewish Federation Bay Area and produced by J.’s branded content studio.

For this year’s print Charitable Giving section (available in our print edition!), we asked to hear from community members about their approach toward tzedakah: their general philosophy of giving, how they balance secular and Jewish donations, what inspires them to open their wallets or how the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel changed their giving.

Here are some of the responses we received:

Tzedakah reminds us our lives aren’t about our achievements

Charity has always been my favorite mitzvah.

Most of what we do in Jewish life is about developing the self: shaping character, deepening the spirit, disciplining the heart. Prayer refines the soul. Study expands the mind. Shabbat restores our sense of peace.

But charity — tzedakah — is different. It is not about self-development; it is about self-transcendence. It turns us outward, reminding us that life is not about what we achieve but what we share.

And charity doesn’t just change the person you help. It transforms you, too.

Because money is not just money. It’s hours of your life turned into numbers. It’s your effort, your education, your courage to show up every morning, your patience when things went wrong. It’s your energy, your late nights, your dreams.

So when you give charity, you’re not giving away a bill or a coin. You’re offering a piece of your life. You’re saying to God: Take everything I’ve built, every ounce of who I am, and let it serve something bigger than me.

That is why our tradition considers tzedakah one of the greatest of all mitzvot. It sanctifies not only what we give but the very life that earned it.

Perhaps no one expressed this more beautifully than Sir Moses Montefiore, one of the great Jewish philanthropists of nineteenth-century England.

On Montefiore’s 99th birthday, The Times of London published a glowing tribute to his success. He built hospitals, fed the hungry, rescued the oppressed.

Soon after, a friend asked, “Sir Moses, what are you worth?”

He paused, gave a figure. The man was surprised. “Surely you’re worth far more than that!”

Montefiore smiled. “You asked what I’m worth, not what I own. So I calculated what I’ve given away this year. Because we are worth what we are willing to share with others.”

The balance sheet of a life isn’t measured in dollars. It’s measured in hearts lifted. Tears dried. Hope restored.

We make a living by what we earn. But we make a life by what we give.

Rabbi Dov Greenberg
Stanford Chabad executive director
J. Torah columnist

After Oct. 7, I decided to donate almost solely to Jewish nonprofits

Before Oct. 7, 2023, I would say that about two-thirds of my charitable giving went to Jewish causes. After that, almost 100% has, and this has remained true two years later.  As one example, my alma mater is being investigated for what appear to be credible allegations of tolerating antisemitism, so my donations to that institution have ceased.

My own bottom line is quite simple: There are many other people who can support environmental and other causes to which I have routinely donated. But with few exceptions, nobody is going to support the Jewish community organizations except the Jewish community. Nobody except us is going to donate to the campaigns run by the Jewish Federation and others to help assist people on the ground in Israel. And we also need to keep in mind that the security needs for all Jewish institutions have increased over the past several years.

And while political donations aren’t the same (especially to the IRS) as charitable giving, I also make sure that when I’m donating to a candidate, that money goes, whenever possible, through a Jewish community fundraising organization. The candidate will still receive the same amount of money, but when you go on a candidate’s website to donate, there’s no reason for the candidate to attribute that donation to his or her position on issues that are important to us. When the donation comes as part of a large bundled donation through a Jewish PAC (whether it’s AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel, the Republican Jewish Coalition PAC, or a local Jewish community PAC for local races), the candidate knows that this is support from the organized Jewish community.

Mike Harris | Bodega Bay
StandWithUs regional advisory board chair 

My spouse’s experiences broadened my views on giving

As a kid, I didn’t know much about charity beyond the blue-and-white rectangular boxes that my father kept at the cash register in his retail store in Berkeley. The boxes jiggled heavily, satisfyingly, as loose change piled up inside to help make the faraway land of Israel green with trees. Charity was a matter of sound: UNICEF boxes at Halloween, followed by bell-ringers and swinging red-metal buckets for Salvation Army.

It is my husband, Mark Moss, who broadened my perspective on giving. Having grown up poor in the Detroit area, he remained grateful to the local Jewish Federation for having helped his family purchase a home in the then-new Jewish suburb of Oak Park, where Mark attended excellent public schools. Later, he received a Hebrew Free Loan that enabled him to go to college. He understands firsthand the importance of Jewish philanthropy, and has always felt a profound urge to give back.

As a young couple, Mark and I contributed our synagogue dues and made small annual donations to the Jewish Federation in San Francisco. Over the years, our involvement grew, and we had some good fortune. The donor-advised fund (DAF) that we were ultimately able to set up with Federation has enabled us to support many Jewish causes, as well as secular ones such as our local food bank. Mark has also put in countless hours, over many years, doing board work for East Bay Jewish organizations. 

Meanwhile, I co-founded the national nonprofit Bruchim, which champions full inclusion for Jews who choose not to circumcise. We honor their decisions, provide resources for meaningful Jewish birth ceremonies and create pathways for them and their families to participate fully in Jewish life. I’m deeply grateful that because of Mark’s vision and commitment, our DAF can support Bruchim alongside numerous other nonprofits. 

Lisa Braver Moss | Piedmont
Bruchim president and co-founder

Every Hanukkah, we loop our kids into our annual giving decisions

Growing up, I learned an important principle: There are countless Jewish causes worthy of support, and since non-Jewish donors rarely prioritize these organizations, we have a responsibility to sustain our own community. This doesn’t mean choosing between Jewish values and the causes that matter most to us. In fact, the Jewish philanthropic landscape is remarkably diverse — encompassing animal welfare, environmental protection, reproductive rights and countless other critical issues. By giving through Jewish organizations, we can simultaneously support our Jewish values and advance the causes that align with our moral compass.

About 10 years ago, my wife Sonia Daccarett and I decided to transform tzedakah from a concept into a practice our children could own. Each year around Hanukkah, we hold a family meeting where our kids research, present and advocate for causes they care about. They must do their homework: understand the organization’s mission, ensure it aligns with our family’s values, and ideally find a Jewish organizational umbrella through which to direct the gift.

These presentations have become spirited family discussions. Our children defend their choices, field questions and learn to articulate why their causes matter most. We parents present our own selections as well. Together, we debate, prioritize and make collective decisions about where our tzedakah will go that year.

This process teaches our children how to evaluate charities critically, connect their values to action and understand that giving requires thought, conviction and sometimes compromise. More importantly, it transmits the value of tzedakah itself: the obligation and the privilege of giving back.

We also make donations throughout the year — supporting friends’ charity events or responding to urgent community needs.

What began as a Hanukkah tradition has become one of our family’s most meaningful rituals — an opportunity to do good while instilling values that will guide our children throughout their lives.

Alex Bernstein | San Francisco
J. Board Member

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of J.

When the phone call came from the Jewish Federation Bay Area informing Nancy Grand that she would receive the 2025 Robert Sinton Award for Distinguished Leadership, she had a simple question: “Can I say no?”

No, she couldn’t say no. Not after decades of philanthropy and service to multiple Jewish agencies and causes. Together with her late husband Stephen Grand, and continuing since his death in 2021, Nancy Grand has given more than $100 million to support Israel and Jewish organizations worldwide, from the Bay Area to Ukraine.

Grand will accept the Sinton award, one of the Federation’s highest honors, at the annual Day of Philanthropy on Nov. 20 at San Francisco’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. 

A former co-chair of the annual campaign and board chair from 2011 to 2013, Grand has been closely connected with the Federation ever since she and her husband moved to the Bay Area in 2003. That bond has remained strong through the overhaul of the Federation’s strategy two years ago to make it more closely resemble a community foundation. 

“They may rewrite the rules,” Grand said, “but they did not rewrite the values it stands for: sustaining a community. That’s the overarching thing that pulls us in.”

Related story: NPR host to headline Day of Philanthropy

Federation CEO Joy Sisisky got to know Grand before either one relocated to the Bay Area, having previously served with her on the board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Sisisky said the upcoming award is well deserved.

“Nancy has always been a really authentic and inspired leader,” Sisisky said. “She has this rich history with the Federation. She is so accessible, and she makes it all look so easy.”

It wasn’t always so easy. Although the Detroit native’s great-grandfather founded the Motor City’s chapter of Hebrew Free Loan, Nancy Grand once was a struggling single mother, who reached out to her local Jewish Federation for help with nursery school tuition. She worked as a teacher in the city’s public schools and later launched a career teaching the Dale Carnegie method of leadership training and public speaking.

Her life changed forever when she attended a Detroit Federation function and met Stephen Grand, the scion of Deco-Grand, a machining company that made precision automotive components and assemblies for diesel engines. 

“It was the twinkle in his eye,” Nancy Grand told J. after his death in 2021. “He had a great sense of humor and we laughed for 41 years.”

In 1990, he expanded into real estate, serving as president and partner of Grand/Sakwa Properties, a developer of residential and retail properties. Its success became the source for much of the Grands’ future philanthropy. In 2003, looking for a fresh start, the couple moved to the Bay Area and eventually settled in the North Bay town of Belvedere. Their dedication to the Jewish community continued. 

The couple’s philanthropy has covered a lot of ground. In 2010, the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual survey named the Grands the nation’s top donors to Jewish causes, with some $20 million in gifts that year. 

They funded the Beit Grand JCC in Odessa, Ukraine, gave $50 million toward the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Israel National Center of Personalized Medicine, and donated more than $20 million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s goals of developing innovations in alternative energy and medicine. Grand and her late husband have also donated to J.

Starting in 2010, they showed up multiple times on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of Top 50 givers in America, including in 2014 for donating $67 million to charitable organizations.

They also were the major donors to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital’s 80-bedroom Nancy and Stephen Grand Family House in Mission Bay, which provides free lodging for the families of seriously ill young patients.

After her husband died, she continued the work, and today Grand said she is “having a ball…. Stephen left many large legacy gifts, which I had to follow quite closely. Now I’m learning, exploring and appreciating more of what he liked.” 

Late last year, Grand donated $2.5 million toward the renovation and expansion of SF Hillel. 

She remains involved in JDC, having successfully wrapped up a 10-year endowment campaign and raising $200 million for the agency. She also has stayed close with the Jewish community of Odessa, which has endured more than three years of war since Russia’s invasion.

The JCC that she and her husband founded is “where people went for shelter,” she said. “It’s the homebase of the entire Jewish community and it’s still there. They haven’t been bombed, but they are living a horrible life. They are not OK.”

On a more upbeat note, she is looking forward to the Day of Philanthropy. Grand will address the crowd with a few remarks, something she joked that might resemble a “padded Academy Award speech.”

The gist of those remarks will focus on support of the Federation. “Encourage people to keep stepping up,” she said. “Keep showing up.”

The Jewish Federation Bay Area’s annual Day of Philanthropy is set for Nov. 20 with award-winning journalist and radio/podcast host Guy Raz as the featured speaker.

The day will honor Bay Area philanthropist Nancy Grand, who will receive the 2025 Robert Sinton Award for Distinguished Leadership. The Sinton award, which the Federation describes as one of its highest honors, is given annually to “extraordinary lifetime leaders.”

Grand, a Detroit native, was involved in the Jewish Federation there and chaired its annual campaign for three years. She and her husband, Stephen Grand, moved in 2003 to the Bay Area, where she continued her community involvement at the S.F.-based Federation. She served as co-chair of the annual campaign and then as board chair from 2011 to 2013. Nationally, she has held significant roles with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, including serving on its executive committee.

Related story: Nancy Grand to receive leadership award

Grand’s philanthropic work has focused heavily on medicine and science. She co-founded the Multiple Myeloma Translational Initiative at UCSF, has supported the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine, contributed to innovations at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and backed the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Family House, helping families of pediatric cancer patients. Most recently, she helped fund the San Francisco Hillel’s renovation in memory of her husband, who died in 2021.

Raz — who will be in conversation with fellow award-winning journalist Anne Kornblut — has been host, co-creator and editorial director of three NPR programs, including two of its most popular shows: “TED Radio Hour” and “How I Built This.”

Previously, Raz was a foreign correspondent for CNN and NPR, covering news in more than 40 countries, including wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Macedonia and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

‍Raz, a Marin County resident, was also weekend host of the NPR news program “All Things Considered” from 2009 to 2012. 

He has interviewed a range of internationally known figures from politicians Jimmy Carter and Al Gore to tech tycoons Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates to musical stars Eminem and Taylor Swift. The New York Times has described him as “one of the most popular podcasters in history.” His accolades include the Edward E. Murrow, Peabody and DuPont awards.

The day’s events at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco start with two morning sessions focused on Israel and the Bay Area. The program also includes a reception, lunch, the event with Raz and then a “fireside chat” with Grand and Federation CEO Joy Sisisky. 

Tickets for Day of Philanthropy cost $180 to $275. More information can be found on the event website.

Sitting alongside international dignitaries on a cold and rainy day in 2003, Tad Taube looked across a rubble-strewn field in Poland where the Warsaw Ghetto once stood. In addition to memorializing the Holocaust, Taube was envisioning a sunnier future and a museum that would rise on that very site to honor the thousand-year history of Jews in Poland.

The POLIN Museum, a project co-led and significantly financed by Taube, has logged millions of visitors since it opened in 2014. The museum is but one of the outcomes of the countless acts of philanthropy that defined his life’s work.

Taube, who fled Poland as a child in 1939, became a giant of Jewish philanthropy and charted a trail of largesse that stretched from the Bay Area across the U.S. and all the way to Israel and his native Poland. He died Sept. 13 at his home in San Mateo County after a long illness. He was 94.

“We worked together for 50 years,” said Anita Friedman, executive director of S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services and chair of the Koret Foundation, which Taube presided over for years. “He had two major goals: to strengthen the Jewish community in the United States and locally, and to build bridges between Jewish communities everywhere, with a special emphasis on rebuilding Jewish life in Poland. That’s what made us philanthropic soulmates.”

As founder and chairman of Taube Philanthropies, Taube established a nearly 30-year legacy of giving that touched multiple aspects of local Jewish and community life, including the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life, which holds the Oshman Family JCC and other Jewish organizations in Palo Alto; the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University, which was his alma mater; and numerous Bay Area Jewish agencies and institutions, including J.

Non-Jewish beneficiaries of his generosity include the S.F.-based Smuin Contemporary Ballet, the Stern Grove Festival Association, the UCSF Division of Cardiology, SFMOMA and dozens more.

“Tad was more than a philanthropist,” said Jordan Shenker, CEO of the Peninsula JCC in Foster City, to which Taube also donated generously. “He was a builder of community, a believer in justice and a strong supporter of Jewish identity.”

Born in Krakow in 1931, Thaddeus Taube grew up in a comfortable middle-class home. His father, Zyg, was by all measures a success story for Polish Jews, holding a law degree and launching several businesses. But with the coming storm from Hitler’s Germany, Taube’s parents knew it was time to leave. 

“In 1939 my parents took a business trip to the United States,” Taube recounted in a film created by JFCS when he received its 2017 Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for Lifetime Achievement. “The family made the decision not to go back.”

A friend of the family later escorted young Tad out of Poland by train across Nazi Germany and, eventually, to freedom. “The same time as the German army was marching in,” Taube said, “I was marching out.”

After entering the United States, Taube reunited with his family and they settled in Los Angeles. His mother, Lola, found work as a waitress, and his father became a night watchman. They had to start over from the bottom, but over time they reclaimed their place in the middle class. Taube saw the promise of America early on.

After graduating from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a master’s in industrial management, he worked for a time in the fledgling high-tech sector before transitioning to Bay Area real estate investment. He launched Woodmont Companies in the 1960s and, later, Taube Investments. He also owned the Oakland Invaders, a team in the short-lived U.S. Football League.

One of the most fortuitous moments in his career came when Taube befriended Joseph and Stephanie Koret, who founded Koret of California, a successful garment manufacturing company. For much of the 1970s, Taube ran the business and also helped diversify the couple’s holdings. In 1979, he orchestrated its sale to Levi Strauss & Co., which netted the Korets millions of dollars and kickstarted the Koret Foundation.

Meanwhile, his own real estate investment business thrived, with apartment buildings and properties located in the Bay Area, Texas, Arizona, Oregon and Maryland. After Joseph Koret’s death in 1982, Taube became president of the Koret Foundation. 

“I shifted the emphasis of my work from making money to giving money away,” he told J. in 2019.

Over the decades, he supported Hillels and JCCs and invested in health care initiatives, including the Tad and Dianne Taube Pavilion at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. 

Taube’s foundation also gave millions toward the arts, education and civic life, including to the United Way, the Commonwealth Club of California, Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, the Ronald McDonald House and the San Francisco Opera.

For all that, he received dozens of honors, such as a lifetime award from JFCS, the Scopus Award from Hebrew University and recognition from the Anti-Defamation League and Israel Bonds.

One of the causes nearest and dearest to Taube’s heart was the Jewish Heritage Initiative of Poland, created in 2003 to focus on the revitalization of Jewish life in the country of his birth. 

“We had a real affinity for what was happening in Poland,” recalled Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture executive director Shana Penn in a 2017 interview with J. “Much of our work would be to shift American Jews’ attitudes about Poland, to move past the death-camp attitudes. By the time we started our work in Poland, Tad was a seasoned philanthropist.”

The Koret and Taube philanthropies together gave more than $16 million toward construction of the POLIN Museum and spearheaded a campaign to raise $50 million for the core exhibition. (The Polish government contributed $100 million toward the $150 million in construction costs.)

In addition to the museum, Taube’s foundation also launched Krakow’s Jewish Culture Festival, now in its 34th year. Taube was named Poland’s honorary consul to the Bay Area in 2007. He received the Commander’s Cross, Poland’s highest civilian honor, in 2015. 

“This was my dad’s greatest achievement, from his point of view,” recalled his son Juddson Taube. “He always said Poland doesn’t have to be a Jewish graveyard, a place where Jews just come to see Auschwitz. The museum is just one piece of his larger project of reviving Jewish life in Poland.”

In the early 2000s in Poland, “Jewish life was a desert,” Taube told J. in 2019. Now, he said, “I feel like it’s bloomed.”

Taube married three times and had, as his son noted, three nuclear families over his life. “He loved coming home to kids,” Juddson Taube remembered. “He just had this idea of what a family was. He was extremely affectionate and attentive and had no problems saying ‘I love you.’ He loved company.”

Conservative politics made up another core aspect of Taube’s perspective. He was a key supporter of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank, research and academic center. Among its faculty is economist Michael Boskin, who chaired the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush. Boskin also served on the Koret Foundation board.

“Tad and I go back maybe 45 years,” Boskin said. “He became a dear friend. Tad was an entrepreneur at heart, and he liked philanthropy that had tangible results helping people. He brought a lot of important innovation to the [Koret] foundation, to his own foundation and philanthropy.”

Though his small, wood-paneled Belmont office was lined with photos, awards and memorabilia celebrating his life and achievements, Taube was quick to credit colleagues for much of the nuts-and-bolts work of philanthropy. “It takes a capable, hardworking team to make a major gift that truly impacts an organization or an entire community,” he wrote in a 2016 Times of Israel opinion piece. 

Taube was also more than a writer of checks. He took a hands-on interest in the causes he supported.

“There are no families without problems and no people without problems,” said Friedman. “He had a sensitivity to what it meant to be alone and poor in the world because of his own family experience, and he never lost that sensitivity. I was a good partner for him. He was my caseworker.”

Taube continued working into his 90s. But earlier this year, his health began to fail. His son, who is a director on the board of the family foundation, shared that Taube and his team together planned for the inevitable day he would no longer be around. 

“We basically prepared for this transition for three years,” Juddson Taube said. “We have this template that dad laid out over several decades.” 

Years ago, Taube set up endowments to fund his foundations in perpetuity. In 2013, he signed the Giving Pledge, a promise by wealthy individuals to give away the majority of their money to charity during their lifetimes or at death.

As Taube told J. in 2017, “We have planted a lot of shrubs over the years that have grown into trees. I still have a lot of work to do.”

Taube is survived by his wife of 28 years, Dianne, and children Mark, Paula, Sean, Juddson, Travis and Zakary. Contributions in his memory may be made to American Friends of the POLIN Museum in New York or to the Ronald McDonald House Charities at Stanford University.

Sponsored by Ogen and produced by J.’s branded content studio.

Behind Israel’s headlines lies a quieter crisis: the struggle for financial dignity. Inflation is rising, banks are tightening access to loans, and thousands of Israelis are left without a safety net. The Gaza war has only increased these pressures. Families are working harder but falling further behind. Small businesses are ready to rebuild but cannot access the credit they need. Nonprofits are stretched as they care for communities under strain.

For more than 30 years, Ogen, Israel’s trusted nonprofit social lender, has provided families, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits with economic stability, financial guidance, and the tools to rebuild with dignity. At the heart of this model is Ogen’s blended financial platform, which transforms donations into accessible credit. By offering interest-free and social loans to those excluded from banks, Ogen creates opportunities where traditional institutions cannot.

From Despair to Renewal

Each Ogen loan restores hope.

• When the war in Gaza broke out in 2023, farmers Maya and Sharon Cherry almost shut down their operation. With their Ogen loan they expanded their crops instead, building a greenhouse that allowed them to grow even more produce.

• Just days after the Iran attack in June, restaurateur Khier Diab almost lost his bakery when his customer base dwindled. Thanks to a quick loan and mentor provided by Ogen, he was able to revive his business.

• When residents in northern Israel were evacuated due to Hezbollah attacks, Kalphon Avraham Gee’s home was badly damaged, rendering it unlivable. An emergency Ogen loan enabled him to make needed renovations, restoring the house to a home.

• Reservist Oriel Har-Noy, a father of three from Mevo Horon, returned after 50 days of military service to find himself unable to make his final mortgage payment. A loan from Ogen allowed him to clear his mortgage and secure his family’s future.

• Entrepreneur Loti Rosenthal needed support to grow her business, but didn’t know where to turn. Ogen’s mentorship program taught her how to pivot, so she could double her income and hire new employees.

Serving All of Israel

A family avoids crushing debt. A small business protects jobs. A nonprofit serves thousands of needy clients. With loan repayment rates among the highest in the country, every donation becomes a renewable lifeline, helping not once, but again and again.

This is the ripple effect of Ogen’s blended financial model. A single loan does more than uplift one borrower. A family loan can reduce household debt by more than half, allowing parents to plan for the future. A small business loan supports not just the owner but also employees and local suppliers. Each repayment is reinvested into a new loan. Ogen’s method of financial inclusion empowers Israelis and lays the foundation for sustainable growth and opportunity nationwide.

Ogen serves all parts of Israeli society — Jewish and Arab, secular and religious, new immigrants and longtime residents. Families can access up to $14,000 in interest-free loans, businesses up to $185,000 in affordable credit, and nonprofits even more. Each loan comes with counseling and mentorship to ensure lasting stability.

By focusing on financial dignity and empowerment, Ogen builds bridges across diverse communities, strengthening Israel’s social and economic fabric.

Why Ogen, Why Now

Hardship is about more than money. It affects a family’s sense of security, a business owner’s confidence, and a community’s ability to plan for the future. By replacing anxiety with independence, Ogen helps parents focus on their children rather than on overdue bills, gives business owners the courage to invest in growth, and allows nonprofit leaders to imagine new ways of serving their communities.

Equally important is the pride borrowers take in repayment. Every payment made is a sign not of dependence but of renewal. By paying back their loans, families and businesses know they are helping create the same opportunity for someone else. This cycle of repayment and reinvestment ensures that dignity remains at the center of Ogen’s mission.

For the Cherry family in Be’er Milka, Khier in Tamra, Kalphon in Kiryat Shmona, Oriel in Mevo Horon, Loti in the Haredi sector, and tens of thousands more, Ogen has already made the difference between despair and renewal. The challenge now is scale. With support, Ogen can meet the growing need.

Together, we can rebuild Israel’s future with resilience and respect, one loan and one life at a time.

To learn more and support Israelis with dignity go to support.ogen.org.

Sponsored by Ogen and produced by J.’s branded content studio.

Tad Taube, a giant of Jewish philanthropy who fled Europe in 1939 and charted a trail of largesse that stretched from the Bay Area across the U.S. and all the way to Israel and his native Poland, died on Saturday at his home in San Mateo County. He was 94.

As founder and chairman of Taube Philanthropies, Taube established a nearly 30-year legacy of giving that touched countless aspects of local Jewish and community life, from the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life in Palo Alto, to the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford (his alma mater), to numerous Bay Area Jewish agencies and institutions. 

After graduating from Stanford and earning his fortune in business and real estate, Taube decided in the early 2000s that philanthropy would become his life’s focus. “I shifted the emphasis of my work from making money to giving money away,” he told J. in 2019.

He supported Hillels and JCCs and invested in health care initiatives, including the Tad and Dianne Taube Pavilion at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Taube was also a longtime board member and president of the Koret Foundation.

Taube’s foundation also gave millions to beneficiaries in arts, education and civic life, such as the United Way, the Commonwealth Club of California, Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Ronald McDonald House and the San Francisco Opera.

And for that, he received dozens of awards and honors, including a lifetime humanitarian service award from Jewish Family and Children’s Services, the Scopus Award from Hebrew University, and recognition from the Anti-Defamation League and Israel Bonds, among others.

One of the causes nearest and dearest to Taube’s heart was the Jewish Heritage Initiative of Poland, created in 2003 to focus on the revitalization of Jewish life in the country where he first lived. Taube, who was born in Krakow, was just 8 years old in 1939 when he escaped Poland — and the fate of more than 90 percent of Polish Jewry, some 3 million people who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Despite the painful memories, Taube never lost his connection to his birthplace, and in 2014 he led a Bay Area delegation to Warsaw for the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (POLIN Museum), for which he was a founding benefactor. The initiative also produced Krakow’s Jewish Culture Festival, now in its 34th year. Taube was named Poland’s honorary consul to the Bay Area in 2007, and in 2015 he received the Commander’s Cross, Poland’s highest civilian honor. 

In the early 2000s in Poland, “Jewish life was a desert,” Taube told J. in 2019. Now, he said, “I feel like it’s bloomed.”

Taube is survived by his wife of 28 years, Dianne, and children Mark, Paula, Sean, Juddson, Travis and Zakary. Contributions in his memory may be made to American Friends of the POLIN Museum in New York or to Ronald McDonald House Charities at Stanford University.

When Bay Area board members from Friends of the IDF gathered at a Palo Alto restaurant in December, it was supposed to be a Hanukkah celebration. But the mood was far from celebratory. Days earlier, their region’s executive director of more than five years, Amarelle Green, had been abruptly terminated by the national nonprofit’s CEO.

“We were shocked,” one regional board member told J. The person asked not to be identified over concerns about retaliation from national leadership. 

The annual gala earlier in the fall was considered a success, and the regional chapter under Green’s leadership was seeing record donations, according to regional board member Ricki Alon.

FIDF, a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) founded in 1981, has 25 chapters across the country that raise money for the emergency needs of soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces — a particularly urgent demand since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

“She was absolutely terrific,” Alon said of Green. FIDF Bay Area was on track to raise more than $6 million for the second year in a row, Alon noted.

Green declined to speak with J. about her removal. 

Shortly after her termination, some Bay Area board members began to investigate what was behind the move and, in doing so, said they uncovered allegations of mismanagement by national FIDF leaders.

In light of the discovery, Alon said she and others decided to freeze their contributions to the FIDF. Some chose to redirect their support to other nonprofits that provide a similar level of support to Israeli soldiers. The unnamed regional board member, a “silver level” donor who contributes at least $10,000 annually, confirmed they had frozen their donations this year and said most of, if not all of, the 20-person regional board had done the same.

Donations plummeted. To date this year, contributions to the Bay Area FIDF chapter have fallen under $1 million, according to Alon.

The Bay Area board began crafting a letter in January, sent later in the winter to members of the national FIDF board, alerting them to concerns about board chairman Morey Levovitz and the nonprofit’s CEO, Steve Weil, and asking the board to look into the claims of fraud and misuse of funds.

Alon, who previously served on the national board and helped co-found the Bay Area chapter in 2010, said she emailed a 65-point complaint to the national board in March that included a list of people whom the board could interview about allegations related to Levovitz and Weil.

Three months later, Alon said she received confirmation that the board was investigating.

Earlier this month, a damning exposé by Israeli news outlet Ynet revealed the findings in an 18-page internal board report detailing dysfunction inside the FIDF.

Among the allegations: Board chairman Levovitz is said to have taken over the powers of the CEO and is accused of spending lavishly on travel and lodging, using donor funds meant to support IDF soldiers. 

The leaked report also detailed allegations that Levovitz, who became board chairman in 2023, steered employees to work with vendors or individuals with whom he had financial or personal ties. According to the report, Weil allegedly made derogatory remarks about women and held business meetings with whiskey and cigars.

On Monday, FIDF donors were told that Levovitz and Weil had resigned, effective immediately. The nonprofit rejected all accusations of fraud or misuse of funds.

“The decisions made by the Board included accepting findings and recommendations made by an investigative committee that was recently formed to investigate organizational governance, culture and morale at the organization,” the national board wrote to donors. “Although the investigation identified certain issues related to organizational culture and staff morale, it found no fraud, misappropriation of funds, theft or kick-backs by or to Levovitz or any other employee, National Board Member or lay leader of FIDF.”

The board has named Nily Falic, a longtime donor and past chair, as interim national chair. Nadav Padan, a retired Israeli military general who has served as FIDF’s national director for the past four years, will take over daily operations.

Meanwhile, FIDF said it is determined to restore confidence among staff and supporters.

“We are fully committed to building a culture of transparency, collaboration, and unity within our organization,” the statement said. “Because when FIDF is strong internally, we are strongest for Israel’s soldiers.”

The Bay Area board members who spoke to J. expressed confidence that the organization will regroup.

“The FIDF will return to what it was,” Alon told J. on Monday. “We would not allow these two individuals to destroy what took so many across decades to build.”

Building back trust among donors, including Bay Area board members, will take time.

“I am still concerned about the organization and I hope that they’ll right the ship and it will all be great and we can all contribute again,” the unnamed board member said. “But I’m not willing to do that until I see the change, and I am sure that they’re not just trying to wipe the slate clean.”

The Torah column is supported by a generous donation from Eve Gordon-Ramek in memory of Kenneth Gordon.

Behar-Bechukotai
Leviticus 25:1-27:34

The public reading of the Torah this week consists of two parashahs: Behar and Bechukotai. Behar consists of one major theme: the Sabbatical and Jubilee years and all of their corresponding parameters. Bechukotai is famous for Moses’ admonition and warning of what the consequences are for forsaking our covenant with God. 

There is a lesser-known section in the second parashah that discusses gifts that one would be motivated to pledge to God and His Temple. What insights can we glean from those verses tucked away behind the dramatic rebuke for which the parashah is famous?

Chapter 27 of Leviticus is where the instructions regarding valuations begin. The first set of verses lays down the amounts that one would have to donate to the Temple’s treasury if they pledge to give the value of a human being. There is a shekel amount required depending on the age and gender of the subject of the vow. There is no negotiating the required sum. It is set forth by the Torah the way that an insurance company sets forth compensation for workplace injuries. 

What is unusual is the statement, “If he is too poor for the valuation, then he should be stood before the Kohen and the Kohen shall evaluate him. According to what the person articulating the vow can afford, he should be assessed by the Kohen.” (Leviticus 27:8) 

We were just told that the amount that is owed is a fixed sum and then we are told that it is a variable based on the capacity of the giver. The Torah seems to understand the psychology of a donor. Often, people are overcome with a desire to give and to attach the gift to something meaningful (like the valuation of a person). But in their exuberance, they are not necessarily realistic about their means. If they would be told to take the time to rationally assess their own financial situation, their excitement to give might wane. The Torah is forgiving of the impulsive nature of pledging a donation and does not force someone to be held to a promise that they cannot afford.

The Torah does not stop there. “If one gives an animal from which an offering can be brought to God, everything that he gives to God will be holy. Do not trade it nor exchange it, neither from good to bad nor bad to good and if one does exchange it for another animal, then it and its replacement are both holy.” (Leviticus 27:9-10) Here is another keen insight into human nature. When one decides to donate to charity, specifically to be offered on the altar, one is not allowed to change their mind and keep the intended gift by replacing it with another one. The Torah speaks of animals and understands that someone might feel regret at giving their favorite one. We are warned that if we attempt to replace it, both the original and its replacement are now consecrated.

However, if one donates to the Temple treasury, the rules are different. One does have the opportunity to renege and redeem his or her property. How does the Torah prevent people from carelessly making promises that they can undo? The property must be assessed by a Kohen and then its value is increased by a fifth. (Leviticus 27:11-15) The increase is a penalty imposed on one who wishes to reclaim his or her own property back. The Kohanim of the Temple are allowed to sell consecrated property and use the funds for needs of the Temple, either its structure or function. In such a case, the value is assessed and there is no addition of the extra fifth. 

We live at a time when we do not have the ability to give offerings at the Temple, nor to donate to the Temple’s treasury. We are, however, called upon to help support the community in various ways. There are thoughtful ways in which one can set their priorities, and the mores that emanate from the end of Parashat Bechukotai serve us well in our calibration of our moral compass to make sure that we are deliberate in our decisions to give tzedakah. 

The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund presented longtime volunteer, leader and philanthropist Eileen Ruby with the Judith Chapman Memorial Women’s Leadership Award on May 2.

Ruby served as board chair of the S.F.-based Federation from 2023 to 2025. She previously served as board president of the former East Bay Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of the East Bay and has served on the boards of several other local Jewish institutions including Kevah, the Jewish Film Institute, the East Bay JCC and Berkeley Hillel. She also chaired the endowment campaign for the Piedmont Education Foundation and served as a Piedmont Park commissioner for two terms.

Laura Lauder, current Federation chair, called Ruby “one of the key leaders who says, ‘Hineini,’ here I am.” Ruby was introduced at the award ceremony by former Chapman winner and J. board co-chair Carol Weitz.

Ruby was instrumental in merging the East Bay Federation and the current Federation in 2019 and led the process of crafting a new strategic plan for the Federation. 

Federation CEO Joy Sisisky said Ruby has “transformed this Federation into a model for all of North America.”

The Women’s Power of Giving Luncheon brought more than 150 people together for the award presentation, co-chaired by Tina Sharkey, a member of the PBS board of directors, and Lily Kanter of Serena & Lily. The annual luncheon featured Jill Kargman, author of “Momzillas” and originator and lead of the TV series “Odd Mom Out,” in conversation with Sharkey. Attendees included former Chapman award recipients Nancy Grand, Lynn Bunin and Dana Corvin.

The Jewish Bar Association of San Francisco, a networking group and nonprofit, has announced new scholarships for law students whose upcoming summer jobs will include a focus on issues related to the Jewish community.

The scholarships come at a complex moment for Jews entering the legal profession, according to Adam Kaplan, co-president of the group. 

“It’s incredibly important now following the October 7 attacks and all the scrutiny around Israel,” he said. “There’s been so much antisemitism, especially on college and law school campuses, and also in the workplace.”

The ongoing problems of antisemitism mean that it’s an “important time to look at legal issues involving freedom of speech versus regulations of campus protests,” he added.

The association is accepting applications for $1,800 scholarships, with up to five recipients. The program is open to all students, Jewish and non-Jewish, enrolled in Bay Area law schools. The deadline to apply is May 16.

Kaplan said applicants’ summer jobs can be within the government, academic or nonprofit sector, as long as the work includes a focus on issues tied to the Jewish community.

“Usually, summer work is to learn about your interests and the sorts of legal work you want to do,” Kaplan said. “Students can use it to get a foot in the door. [The work] could be research, writing an article, or directly representing, but it’s framed pretty broadly.”

In the decade since its founding, the Jewish Bar Association of San Francisco has sponsored lectures on legal topics, offered networking opportunities for its 750 members and hosted social events. 

Kaplan, an in-house attorney with Intel, said association members represent top firms, companies and legal service providers. They also include judges, academics, law students, lawyers in small firms and solo practitioners. The organization’s 2024 gala honored Ninth Circuit Judge Daniel A. Bress and Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s cafe in San Francisco.

Law students interested in the scholarships can apply here.

Updated Feb. 21

Before Rabbi Idit Solomon founded a fertility-focused nonprofit, she struggled for years to get pregnant. She had turned to in-vitro fertilization, which led to anguish and financial strain after multiple cycles. She also felt isolated from the Jewish community in her grief, she told J.

Solomon decided that if she ever became pregnant, she would pay it forward to other Jews facing similar hardships. After additional IVF attempts, Solomon received the news she’d longed for, and in 2012 she gave birth to twin girls. By that time, she was already working to create Hasidah, focused on helping hopeful parents-to-be dealing with fertility challenges.

For over a decade, the Berkeley-based nonprofit with the motto “build Jewish families” has distributed grants averaging $5,000 to $10,000 to individuals and couples to pay for IVF procedures. Solomon has also offered spiritual care and resources to destigmatize the topic of infertility, which can be hard for some people to discuss. 

In September, though, Hasidah transitioned to a spend-down model, prioritizing IVF grants. Once the remaining $40,000 runs out, Solomon said in early February, the nonprofit will shut down. 

Solomon, who serves as Hasidah’s CEO, said the decision to close the nonprofit followed an organizational analysis and was tied to a number of issues, including the fundraising landscape. She also noted that fertility-support options have expanded since Hasidah’s early days, with more organizations providing financial and other resources for fertility issues and with abundant information available online.

“A lot of pressure that we got was constantly about ‘expand, expand, expand,’” Solomon said. “But I think we’re just going to celebrate what we did, which was extraordinary.”

Solomon said Hasidah’s IVF grants resulted in the birth of almost 60 babies, served more than 1,000 clients and provided free information online, much of it Jewish-oriented, to countless others aspiring to become parents.

“Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 9:7) is considered the first commandment given by God and one of the most important. In Israel, the state fully funds fertility treatments for Israeli citizens up to age 45 with a limit of two children. Israel also has become a medical destination for treatments whose cost is prohibitive elsewhere. 

IVF treatment is notoriously expensive. According to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average cost for a single IVF cycle can range from $15,000 to $20,000 and sometimes exceed $30,000. Because many people must undergo multiple cycles, the financial strain accumulates rapidly. IVF treatment is often not covered by insurance. California is one of nearly two dozen states with laws for covering infertility treatments, but the terms vary widely.

Hasidah, which is Hebrew for “stork,” previously received funding from the Jewish Federation of the East Bay, which  in 2019 became part of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, and from San Francisco’s Mount Zion Health Fund, among others. However, most of its budget, including the entirety of the IVF grant pool, came from individual donors, some of whom, like Solomon, had their own experiences with infertility.

“Our No. 1 donor type was a grateful patient … who’s been through it and then gives back,” she said. “We even had past recipients of our grants who would give back.”

Rebbetzin Meira Albert was one such recipient.

Although she and her husband, Rabbi Gershon Albert of Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland, were able to conceive their first child naturally, routine genetic testing during pregnancy revealed that she has a genetic mutation called Fragile X syndrome. This disorder causes a range of delays, including intellectual, behavioral and developmental issues. For Albert, it affects fertility.

“We were told that having my first child was lucky, or God,” she said.

The couple knew they wanted more children and would need help to conceive. They met with specialists, and she went through fertility treatments, hoping that a combination of science and faith would bring good news.

“Even though the doctor said it would take a miracle, we tried to retrieve my own eggs,” Albert said. “But it didn’t work. I didn’t get any eggs.”

By that point, the Alberts had exhausted their funds. Their family had already pitched in to cover some of the medical costs, and living on Meira’s social worker salary and Gershon’s rabbi salary left little disposable income for them to keep trying.

Fortunately, congregants at their Modern Orthodox synagogue connected them with Hasidah, and they were quickly approved for a grant. Because she had already successfully carried one child and undergone fertility treatments, Albert was a good candidate for IVF using an egg donor and her husband’s sperm.

For some reason, though, the transfer failed.

“That was quite devastating for me, because it was a lot to get to that point,” Albert recalled. She was ready to give up. “I wasn’t going to put my body through it anymore.”

She decided to try one final transfer, this time using two of the four remaining embryos to improve the odds of one sticking. Those two embryos developed into a healthy set of twins, a boy and a girl, who are now 6 years old. A few months after the twins were born, Albert discovered she was pregnant again — their “‘miracle’ baby against all odds.” 

“It’s a testament of how much I was indebted to them and how much they helped me. I wanted to work for them and help other people through their struggles.”

Rebbetzin Meira Albert

Albert was so grateful to Hasidah that she began working for the organization, leveraging her background in social work.

“It’s a testament of how much I was indebted to them and how much they helped me,” she said. “I wanted to work for them and help other people through their struggles.”

As other fertility-related nonprofits and financial aid programs sprang up over the years, Hasidah cited these new resources as alternatives or even additional sources of funding for IVF. 

When Hebrew Free Loan in San Francisco started a fertility loan program around 2019, for example, HFL executive director Cindy Rogoway could tell early on that collaborating with Hasidah had potential. 

“She has referred a lot of people to us over the years who took out loans,” Rogoway told J. “I’m a big believer in collaboration.… I think it’s all for the better good of the community, and this was a prime example of one that really worked beautifully. I was very sad to hear when Idit told me that it was time to close [Hasidah] down.”

Hebrew Free Loan makes 15 to 20 fertility-related loans per year, with around 40 loans currently outstanding, totaling over $500,000. 

Even when Solomon could not offer financial support, she sought to help clients by combining her experience in pastoral care as a Reform rabbi with what she had learned during years of personal struggle.

“I was getting calls all the time for grants, and I would hear people asking very deep spiritual questions,” Solomon said. “I started offering that care and developed a framework over the years,” which she then shared with other rabbis to use.

Hasidah’s website houses Jewish approaches to infertility, such as a tashlich ritual for fertility around the High Holidays, a blessing for a newborn after infertility or a previous pregnancy loss, and a prayer before starting IVF. For clergy, Solomon has developed written materials to reference when guiding congregants dealing with infertility. She has also led training seminars on the emotional and spiritual elements tied to the issue. 

Once Hasidah closes, the resources that Solomon has accumulated will need to find a new home. Solomon told J. she has so far considered options such as transferring the information to a national group like the Jewish Fertility Foundation or I Was Supposed to Have a Baby.

Dr. Aimee Baron, a former pediatrician who went through her own fertility issues, founded I Was Supposed to Have a Baby in 2019. She has collaborated with Solomon on summits on Jewish fertility.

“We would be thrilled to have her resources,” Baron said, “and with very clear credit saying that these resources came from Hasidah.”

Despite her years of work to shine a light on infertility in the Jewish world, Solomon credits the clients for their inspiration and insights.

“By far one of the most meaningful experiences of Hasidah was when I could just work with people going through this,” she said. She compiled her resource library by “listening to the questions that people ask me and realizing these are the issues that people really have. Because that’s what I heard, that’s what I addressed.”

Update on Feb. 21: The details of Dr. Aimee Baron’s own fertility issues have been corrected.

(JTA) — A new Jewish climate initiative says it has secured $18 million in philanthropic commitments for grants and advocacy work in the United States and Israel. 

The idea behind the Jewish Climate Trust is that the American Jewish community has a responsibility to do more on climate, especially under a new president who is hostile to the issue, according to the group’s founding CEO Nigel Savage. 

In his first weeks in office, President Donald Trump has frozen federal funding for clean energy and withdrawn the United States from global climate accords, reneging on commitments to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“The actions of the new administration on climate … will do great damage,” Savage said. “But the actions and inactions of the U.S. government cannot preclude us from acting. As a Jewish community, we need to raise our game on climate.”

To some degree, Jewish philanthropists and communal groups have already started focusing on climate in recent years after long neglecting the issue. Hundreds of Jewish institutions have published climate action plans, several have pledged to divest their endowments from fossil fuels, and the Schusterman Foundation, which was built on oil wealth, recently made its first grant to a climate group. 

The Jewish Climate Trust represents the largest initiative of this wave so far. 

Launched on Thursday to coincide with Tu Bishvat — a holiday celebrating the renewal of nature, the planting of trees and the Jewish connection to the environment — the group has announced two sets of grants.

The environmental group Adamah will receive $3 million over three years to support its climate advocacy within the Jewish community, bolster its interfaith work, and create a networking and community-building effort for Jewish green business leaders. (Savage is the founder of Hazon, one of the two nonprofits that merged to create Adamah in 2021.) 

Another $3 million will go toward Israeli environmental nonprofits to promote sustainability principles in the rebuilding of communities near Gaza that were targeted in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. 

“We aim to harness the strength and ingenuity of Jewish people around the world and the State of Israel to address the climate crisis,” Stephen Bronfman and Michael Sonnenfeldt, the two philanthropists behind the initiative, said in a joint statement. 

Bronfman is the son of Birthright Israel founder and Seagram magnate Charles Bronfman and works as a close adviser of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In 2023, he and his sister pledged $9 million to Birthright in honor of their father’s 90th birthday, designating some of the money to make the program more environmentally friendly.

Sonnenfeldt is the founder of the Israel Policy Forum, a think tank promoting the two-state solution, and head of Tiger 21, a network for high-net-worth investors with $6 billion in cryptocurrency holdings. He recently donated $20 million to Ben-Gurion University. 

The money pledged to the Jewish Climate Trust includes personal donations from Bronfman and Sonnenfeldt, who are the group’s founding co-chairs, as well as commitments from other donors such as the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation.

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.

Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, said Sunday that his son’s 2011 death from an opioid overdose has deeply connected him to the struggles of Israeli hostage families, including seven who welcomed their daughters home last week after more than 450 days in captivity. President Donald Trump’s confidante and longtime golfing buddy, Witkoff is set to visit the region to oversee the ceasefire-for-hostages agreement and help lay the groundwork for talks on a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of all hostages.

“I’m always comparing my family and what it went through when I lost my boy, Andrew, and what it must have been like for these families not knowing what was going to happen to their girls,” Witkoff said in brief remarks at the ribbon cutting ceremony for The Altneu Synagogue Sunday night in Manhattan. “So when the president asked me to do this, I thought to myself, this will be the most worthy thing I could ever do in my life. Nothing else would matter beyond this.”

Witkoff, 67, a prominent real estate developer and Jewish philanthropist, was tapped for the role to achieve Trump’s Middle East goals — ending the more than yearlong war in Gaza that started with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel, brokering peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and expanding the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia. Witkoff was by Trump’s side last September when a would-be assassin targeted him during a round of golf in Florida before the Secret Service intervened. Witkoff offered a personal endorsement of Trump during the Republican National Convention in July, describing him as a “kind and compassionate” person who helped him cope after his son’s death.

In his remarks at the Sunday event, Witkoff said that Trump, who attended his son’s funeral, knew when he asked him to take the role of Middle East envoy that he was “a member of the club of parents who had buried a child. And there could be nothing worse than that — because we would all give our lives for our children.”

Trump also appointed Adam Boehler, a former Abraham Accords negotiator, as an ambassador-level hostage envoy.

The six-week ceasefire in Gaza, secured in the final days of the Biden administration and with Witkoff’s mediation, has been widely praised as a significant diplomatic achievement for the new administration. The parents of the four female hostages – Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Naama Levy and Daniella Gilboa – who were released on Saturday, thanked Trump for his role in finalizing the deal. Witkoff shared a photo with Trump of Levy, one of five IDF soldiers kidnapped from their Nahal Oz outpost on Oct. 7, holding a blackboard on her helicopter ride back to Israel that read, “Thank you, President Trump.”

“He had tears in his eyes,” Witkoff said of Trump’s reaction.

Witkoff said he was “thrilled” for the opportunity to help bring these families the closure and peace they deserve and expressed his hope that the deal would be durable. Keith Siegel, one of three Americans believed to be alive, is reportedly next on the list – along with Arbel Yehud, a civilian woman, and Agam Berger, a soldier — to be released in the coming days.

However, he tempered expectations about his long-term future in the role, acknowledging the personal toll it takes. “I don’t know if I could do it for four years,” Witkoff said. “Although President Trump would probably be able to convince me or anyone else to continue in this endeavor.”

Before heading to Israel on Wednesday, Witkoff will lead on Monday a U.S. delegation to Poland to participate in events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The delegation includes Howard Lutnick, the nominee for commerce secretary; Ellen Germain, the special envoy for Holocaust issues; Charles Kushner, Trump’s pick for ambassador to France and the father-in-law of Ivanka Trump; businessman Isaac Perlmutter, and Boris Epshteyn, a senior advisor to Trump.

This story was originally published on the Forward.

(JTA) — Viewers tuning in early to broadcasts of Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday could catch a glimpse of a woman with long white hair standing next to Hillary Clinton and speaking animatedly with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

The woman was Miriam Adelson, the pro-Israel megadonor who helped propel Trump to both electoral wins and who is hosting an inaugural ball Monday night alongside Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta CEO who has more recently engaged with Trump.

Adelson, 79 who stepped back during the inauguration itself is a major funder of pro-Israel politics and a prolific donor to Jewish causes, carrying on a legacy she built with her late husband, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The Adelson family has long been one of the largest sources of campaign money for Republican candidates and has backed Trump during each of the last three general elections. Now, the widow is wielding an estimated net worth of $35 billion on her own. She has carried on her late husband’s politics, though she is seen as more deliberate in her decision-making.

Adelson gave Trump’s campaign at least $100 million in October, making her the third biggest donor to his campaign, after Elon Musk, who is playing a key role in the administration, and the reclusive billionaire Timothy Mellon.

During the campaign, she introduced Trump before he gave a speech on fighting antisemitism. She also appeared at a ceremony at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Some pro-Israel Republicans who were concerned that J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice president, might extend his isolationist outlook to Israel were reassured after Vance and his wife Usha sat with Adelson at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. Adelson and the Vances appeared together again on Sunday night at a pre-inauguration party.

Updated Jan. 13

No stranger to the devastating impact of wildfires, the Northern California Jewish community is mobilizing to pool resources and aid relief efforts in Los Angeles.

A punishing set of wildfires began spreading with ferocity on Tuesday across the Los Angeles area, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and destroying more than 2,000 homes and other structures, according to officials. Five people have died, and the death toll is expected to rise. 

The Los Angeles area is a hub of Jewish life, with the second largest Jewish community in the U.S. The fires have already destroyed one synagogue and threatened other Jewish institutions. 

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center (PJTC), a Conservative congregation, nearly burned to the ground on Tuesday, JTA reported, though members managed to rescue all of the synagogue’s 13 Torah scrolls. PJTC, which is over 100 years old, is seeking donations to assist congregants who have lost their homes and to help pay for a temporary site and to eventually rebuild. 

On Wednesday, the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund — which in the past raised millions for wildfire relief in the Bay Area, including after the deadly 2018 wildfire season — alerted its donor base to the needs in Los Angeles. The S.F.-based Federation, one of the wealthiest in the nation, has more than $2.4 billion in assets under its management.

“You can help,” according to the email sent to families with philanthropic funds managed by the federation. It directed donors to its donor portal, with an alert about the Wildfire Crisis Relief Fund, opened jointly by three Jewish federations in the Los Angeles area.

“All of us here in the Bay Area have so many friends, and family, and loved ones who have been affected,” Rebecca Randall, the S.F.-based Federation’s chief philanthropy officer, told J. on Thursday. 

Value Culture, a Jewish-led San Francisco nonprofit, announced on Friday that proceeds from its events over the weekend would be donated to support fire relief.

The Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region also launched a fundraising campaign.

“Having experienced this in our region not long ago, our hearts go out to the Los Angeles community,” said an email sent Wednesday from the Sacramento federation staff. “The victims of the Los Angeles wildfires need us now.”

Meanwhile, the Jewish activist and San Francisco cafe owner Manny Yekutiel, who is from Los Angeles, turned his business into a storage facility to support fire victims, he said.

“We have turned the back of Manny’s into a drop off center for needed goods,” he wrote in an email to his customers. He added that the business was taking in non-perishable food, masks, baby supplies and other urgent supplies to be donated.

Yekutiel also wrote that he planned to drive down to LA over the next few weekends, and was seeking volunteers to join the effort. “It is an evolving situation and before we send anyone down there we are making sure that we are going to be helpful and not in the way,” the announcement said.  

Randall, of the S.F.-based Federation, said that Jewish federations are uniquely capable of raising large sums quickly due to their size and reach, pointing to, for example, the more than $850 million raised by federations across North America after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel.

According to the Wildfire Relief Fund’s website, the money raised will “support our neighbors affected by this catastrophic event.” It states that “one hundred percent of your gift will go directly to those who need it most.”

On Thursday, the local Federation planned to send an email to its entire Bay Area Jewish email list, urging them to donate. 

The Palisades Fire, already considered the most destructive in L.A.’s history, had burned across more than 17,000 acres and was 0% contained as of Thursday, according to Cal Fire. The Eaton Fire, which had burned more than 10,000 acres, was also 0% contained.

“This is really the power of collective action, and working together to ensure that Jewish communities and others that are affected receive the support that they need,” Randall said.

Daniel Sher, the associate rabbi at Kehillat Israel in Pacific Palisades — one of the communities hit hardest this week — reflected the grief so many are experiencing.

“I cannot begin to describe the feeling that I am currently holding as I hear from so many beloved community members who’ve lost their home. My family has found out that we’ve lost our home,” he said Wednesday in an emotional video posted on Instagram. “Our community that we love so dearly is in disarray.”

Kehillat Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue, has set up a fire assistance fund and created a list of resources for people seeking help.

To donate directly to the L.A.-based Wildfire Crisis Relief Fund, visit its website. For those with a donor-advised fund or supporting foundation managed by the S.F.-based Federation, visit its portal to give. 

Update on Jan. 10: Added Value Culture’s fundraising effort.