As the Jewish Federations of North America holds its annual General Assembly this week, newly emerging evidence from the Pew Research Center’s 2013 “Portrait of American Jewry” points to enormous challenges facing federations, Jewish philanthropy and organized Jewish life, more generally. Virtually every Jewish institution is contending with a sharply diminishing base of people who…
Supreme Court justices Stephen Breyer and Elana Kagan talked about their Jewish identities at the opening plenary of the 2014 General Assembly conference of the Jewish Federations of North America. Speaking before a crowd of more than 2,000 at the conference center just outside Washington, Breyer said the most remarkable thing about there being three…
Several large, mainstream Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, have to decided to vote in favor of admitting the dovish Israel lobby J Street into organized Jewry’s primary umbrella group on Israel. Others, like the Jewish Federations of North America, are leaning towards voting that way, according to informed…
Denver no longer has a Jewish federation. It still has the federation building, 33 federation workers and a host of programs catering to the needs of the Jewish community, but the word “federation” is gone. As of six months ago, the operation is named JEWISHcolorado, with a subtitle stating, in small fonts, “formerly known as…
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…
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…
For more than 30 years, my relationship with Jewish federations, Israel Bonds, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, J Street and Hillel has been the focus of my life. I have chaired federation and Israel Bonds campaigns, led and helped create Jewish day schools in both Milwaukee and Tucson, Ariz., and donated millions of dollars…
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…
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