JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Broad Foundation to give $400 million to Harvard-MIT venture

By Jacob Berkman · September 11, 2008

If you needed further proof that Jewish mega-donors trend toward giving to higher education, check out this scoop from the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

"Eli and Edythe L. Broad will announce this morning that they are pledging $400-million to endow the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, in Cambridge, Mass., a biomedical-research center that is jointly run by Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research."

The Broads have given away $1.7 billion in total, including $600 million to this venture, according to the Chronicle.

The Broad Foundation gives out about $40 million per year, making it the fifth largest foundation started by Jews, after the Annenberg Foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation $49,616,000 and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Philanthropies, according to a 2007 study by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Communal Research.

The study found that the Broad Foundation gives exactly 0% of its grants to overtly Jewish causes and 0% of its dollars to Israel –- though Zionists should not feel slighted by the latter stat, since the Broad Foundation's Web site states that the foundation does not give any money overseas.