Among the most generous contributors to universities, cultural institutions, and general charities have been individual Jews and Jewish family foundations. Jewish philanthropists have made enormous contributions to universities such as Harvard, Penn, Yale, and Columbia. They have contributed to opera houses, museums, symphonies, and ballet. They are major donors to medical centers that treat the general public. They have made significant contributions to Black Lives Matter and other organizations that support minorities, including gay and transgender people. Historically, they have been among the strongest supporters of labor unions.
Of course, many Jews also support Jewish organizations including the United Jewish Appeal and the Jewish National Fund, along with their synagogues and day schools.
Now, Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people, is in desperate need of charitable and other support. The time has come for Jewish donors to rethink and perhaps reprioritize their charitable giving.
Don't give charity money to anti-Israel organizations like George Soros does
Certain changes in priority seem obvious. No self-respecting Jew should give a penny to any organization that has turned against Israel and supported Hamas. These include Black Lives Matter, the National Lawyers Guild, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Socialist Party, Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, and labor unions that have turned against Israel. These groups should permanently be denied any Jewish charity.
Of course, George Soros will be prioritizing precisely those bigoted groups because he hates Israel and the Jewish people. But he is no model for Jewish giving.
Then there are the American universities such as Harvard, Penn, and Columbia that have done too little, too late to condemn Israel’s enemies among their own student body, faculty, and administrators. Jewish donors should stop contributing to these universities unless and until they stop treating Jews worse than they treat other minorities. Few, if any, universities satisfy that test today. Indeed, as a result of the killing of one man – George Floyd – in 2020, many of these institutions have engaged in a massive “reckoning” concerning their treatment of African Americans. Now, as a result of the mass murder of October 7 and the horrible and bigoted reactions to it from within the universities, they must engage in an equally soul-searching and self-critical reckoning about their treatment of Jews and the Jewish state. I am not a wealthy man, but I will not contribute a single penny to City University, Yale, or Harvard – where I went to school – until such a reckoning occurs. I hope others will follow suit.
Finally, there are the cultural, artistic, medical, and other institutions most of which have taken no position on the recent events in Israel and Gaza. If this is consistent with longstanding policies of not commenting on such events, that is understandable. But if these same institutions have taken actions to support other communities, but not Jews, they, too, are complicit by their selective inaction.
Even regarding those institutions that are not complicit, perhaps the time has come for Jewish donors to prioritize Jewish charitable giving, especially to groups that support Israel and fight antisemitism. As famously said in Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season.” When antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes were on the decline, it was the season for supporting neutral cultural and other institutions. Now, it may be the season for turning a bit more inward.
Rabbi Hillel the Elder taught, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me, but if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?” For generations, Jewish philanthropists have emphasized the second part of that sage advice. They should continue to support general institutions, especially medical and social ones that are essential to good health, but for now – when the Jewish community and the Jewish state are in crisis – they should also focus on the first of Hillel’s admonitions; we must not neglect ourselves and our own charitable institutions. I, for one, have prioritized my giving to United Hatzalah, a volunteer emergency medical service that treats Jewish, Muslim and Christian Israelis alike.
If we ourselves are not for Israel and the Jewish people, who will be?
The writer, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, emeritus, is author of over 50 books; among them The Price of Principle: Why Integrity is Worth the Consequences (2022) and Get Trump: the Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law (2023). His latest e-book, War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism (2023), is available on Amazon.