Davidson Foundation Gives $18M to Detroit Jewish Community
The William Davidson Foundation made $30 million in grants for the Jewish community of Detroit.
The foundation, named for the late owner of the Detroit Pistons basketball team, also allocated $18 million to help improve economic conditions in southeast Michigan.
The funding for Jewish life includes a $5 million, five-year grant to support the PJ Library, which provides free Jewish children’s books and music to families; $8 million over five years to support the Hebrew Free Loan’s interest-free college loan program for students; up to $15 million for a tuition assistance program at the Hillel Day School, a nondenominational K-8 school; and $1.2 million for a three-year fellowship program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Davidson, who owned Guardian Industries, a maker of glass, automotive and building products, supported an array of Jewish causes during his lifetime, including the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, where the graduate school of education bears his name. He died in 2009 at 86.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
