Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Simon Greer Fired From Post at Nathan Cummings Foundation

The Nathan Cummings Foundation has fired its leader Simon Greer, according to several sources in the Jewish organizational world.

A spokesman for the Cummings foundation, which still lists Greer as president and CEO on its website, did not deny the firing.

The foundation, which spends about $20 million per year, is the single biggest funder in the progressive Jewish nonprofit world.

Greer made major changes to the Cummings foundation since taking over in January 2012.

Under his leadership, the group wound down its program for Jewish life, which gave nearly $6 million annually to liberal Jewish causes.

Instead, Greer decided to focus solely on income inequality and climate change.

At the time, Greer emphasized that Jewish groups that tackled such causes would continue to receive Cummings funding.

Prior to The Cummings Foundation, Greer built up Jewish Fund for Justice into a major player in the social justice world. The group is now called Bend the Arc.

Contact Paul Berger at [email protected] or on Twitter @pdberger

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.