5 Most Overpaid (and Underpaid) Jewish Charity Chiefs
Matt Brooks topped the Forward’s list of most-overpaid non-profit leaders/Courtesy of Republican Jewish Coalition
The Forward’s annual salary survey allows readers to see how much of the money they donate to Jewish charities winds up in the pockets of those group’s top executives.
So whose pockets got the fattest?
Matthew Brooks, head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, earned that honor this year. His salary of $562,731 was a whopping 154% than what would have been expected for an organization of its budget, according to an analysis prepared for the Forward by Abraham J. Wyner, a professor of statistics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The rest of the Most Overpaid list includes Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, who took home 106% more than the analysis predicted; Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who pocketed an eye-popping $765,129 a year; Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America; and Abraham Foxman, the retiring leader of the Anti-Defamation League.
The same five leaders were the most overpaid last year, albeit in a different order.
And the most underpaid?
The leader who got earned the least compared to what the algorithm predicted is Robert Wexler, head of American Jewish University. His relatively paltry annual pay package is $198,080, or 48% below the expected amount.
No. 2 was Sagi Balasha of the Israeli American Council, followed by Idit Klein of Keshet, Andrew Rehfeld of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, and David Zweibel of Agudath Israel of America, who was last year’s most underpaid leader.
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
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.