Interest-Free Loans Improve Quality of Life
An American immigrant to Israel received today one of the country’s great honors, the Knesset Speaker’s Prize for Quality of Life.
In 1990, three decades after immigrating to Israel, Hebrew University academic Eliezer Jaffe set about taking the old shtetl idea of a free loan society and building it on a national scale in Israel.
Jaffe, co-chairman of the Hebrew University Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and author of “Giving Wisely: The Israel Guide to Non-profit and Volunteer Organizations,” set up the Israel Free Loan Association, a body that grants interest-free loans to low-income individuals and businesses.
The organization provides new immigrants and veteran Israelis with interest-free loans for all kinds of purposes, including adapting a family’s living space to accommodate the special needs of a disabled family member, developing small businesses, setting a failing business back on its feet and making higher education available for disadvantaged young people.
The great thing is that the money comes back — it’s a kind of recyclable philanthropy — meaning that while its assets are much smaller, the program has awarded some $130 million. It has granted 40,000 loans altogether.
Amazingly, the return rate for these loans stands at 99%, a rate much higher than is the norm for bank loans, or loans from other financial institutions.
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.
