Steinhardt Attacks Jewish Leaders

By Dan Friedman November 3, 2009

In a surprise move, even noted by the non-Jewish business press, Michael Steinhardt attacked Jewish communal organizations and their complacent leadership. A longtime stalwart of Jewish philanthropy, he accused organizations of disliking change and being satisfied, at least in the case of campus Hillels, with “trying hard” but not being “good enough.”

Too many Jewish organizations don’t change anything, he claimed. People with social studies PhDs doing analyses and surveys achieve “gur nicht” Steinhardt noted but, talking about the new survey which suggests that the massive investment in Birthright has had some success he said that “maybe this one will change something.”

Watch his speech on The Jewish Channel below.

Hat tip to Jordana Horn.

Dan Friedman is the former executive editor and whisky correspondent of the Forward, and is the author of a book about Tears for Fears, the ’80s emo rock band.

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