As the end of the year approaches, our inboxes and mailboxes fill with solicitations for giving, as organizations seek to capitalize on our holiday season generosity and desire to boost our tax write-offs. So who to give to? It is hard to give well. It takes time to figure out one’s priorities and then determine…
Actress Blake Lively recently launched a website called Preserve, which aims to promote an artisanal lifestyle through the posting of recipes, craft projects and style profiles, and to sell a variety of food and clothing items. Because Preserve genuinely desires “to give back to those with fewer opportunities but just as much heart and soul…
A suburban New York woman admitted to stealing another person’s identity in order to scam more than $180,000 from the Jewish National Fund. Marie Augustin, 42, of Westbury, Long Island, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Nassau County Court to third-degree larceny and first-degree identity theft, the The Associated Press reported. Prosecutors said Augustin used a fake…
Gamblers know that the house always wins — except, as some Jewish charities are learning the hard way, when it doesn’t. Federal tax law and state gaming regulations allow some charities to play pit boss, taking bets on games like bingo and poker to fill their charitable coffers. But thanks in part to the economic…
Jewish charity goes largely to Israel-related groups. Our readers think that’s a bad idea. Last week, as part of our ongoing investigation into Jewish charity finances, we asked you how you thought Jewish charitable dollars should be spent. The results, embedded below, suggest that Forward respondents think that education-related Jewish charities should get the largest…
Do the spending priorities of American Jewish charities match those of American Jews? Judging by an informal but highly revealing poll of Forward readers, the answer is no. As in NO. As in: spend more money on education, culture and community, about the same on general advocacy and much less on Israel. The Forward’s poll…
How do Jewish charities spend almost $100 million a year on parties? It starts with a sushi spread for a couple hundred people and a full open bar in the Cotillion Room at The Pierre, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Then a waiter in a tux rings a bell, and everyone parades into the grand…
How should Jewish donor dollars get spent? Today, the largest share of Jewish donor dollars goes to Israel-related charities, as the Forward reported last week in the first part of our series on Jewish charity finances. (Part two of the series, published today, is here.) Are we spending too much on Israel? Or maybe too…
100% of profits support our journalism
