Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Fashionista Finds Her Fellow Funders

Jewish philanthropists and Jewish fashion moguls don’t often run in the same circles, but a recent parlay of the tribe’s top donors may have changed all that: Sartorial superstar Donna Karan dipped her toes into the pool of Jewish givers last week when she made an unexpected appearance at the 2007 Jewish Funders Network conference in Atlanta.

A prominent philanthropist in her own right, Karan said she came to the two-day gathering to mix with likeminded people. “In essence, it puts you together with a group of people talking the same language,” said Karan, whose charitable giving in Israel has focused on Spirituality for Kids, an international educational organization that teaches ethical living through Kabbalah. So how did the creator of DKNY end up at JFN? “Synchronicity,” she said. At a recent Kabbalah Centre class in New York, Karan struck up a conversation with the stranger sitting next to her.

Her fellow spiritual seeker turned out to be David J. Blumberg, a San Francisco-based venture capitalist, philanthropist and member of the JFN. In May, Karan will travel to Israel to be honored by the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design. So when she heard about the Jewish funders gathering, she said, “I thought it was apropos that I go.”

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.