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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.

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Feinstein gives to scholarship program, but not to UJA

By Jacob Berkman · August 20, 2008

Alan Shawn Feinstein, a philanthropist in Rhode Island, is bailing out a scholarship program that went belly up.

Feinstein had been giving out $2,000 college scholarships to students through a nonprofit advocacy organization, The Education Partnership. But the partnership went into receivership in June, the Providence Journal reports.

Feinstein has offered to pay out the scholarships nonetheless.

Feinstein is Jewish, according to his foundation’s Web site. I found some interesting tidbits on the site’s FAQ section.

Can you tell me about his family?

Mr. Feinstein has been married for over 40 years to Dr. Pratarnporn Feinstein, a psychiatrist and native of Bangkok, Thailand. They have three children Ari, Ricky, and Leila Feinstein and three grandchildren. Though Mr. Feinstein comes from a strictly Jewish background, his family now consists of Christians, Moslems and Buddhists and a mixture of all races. That’s the way he wants it.

Why doesn’t Mr. Feinstein just give his money to a Jewish organization like the United Jewish Appeal?

Because he believes we were all put here to help all those in need regardless of their race, creed or color.

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No Ross, but parables aplenty at CAJE’s opening plenary

By Jacob Berkman · August 11, 2008

Joel Hoffman filled in for Dennis Ross as the CAJE conference’s keynote speaker.

Dennis Ross was supposed to be the keynote speaker for CAJE’s opening plenary Sunday night. But he called in sick at the last minute, informing conference organizers Saturday night that he would not attend.

Nevertheless, CAJE-ians made out pretty well with Ross’ stand-in, Joel Hoffman.

Hoffman, an expert Hebrew translator and a professor in New York at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, was probably the more appropriate choice anyway. Ross essentially was going to give a sales pitch for his new book and to talk about his recent trip to Israel. Nice, but I don’t really think that jibes with a conference on how to teach Jewish kids.

Hoffman framed his talk – which he gave as a violent thunderstorm ripped through Burlington – with a parable.

Two people fell asleep while on a journey and both had the same dream. God came to them and told them to gather up as much sand as they could and carry it back to their town. They would be home in three days. When they got home, God told them, they would be both happy and sad.

Hoffman then condensed all of Jewish history into a half-hour snapshot and talked about how that history has been defined throughout the ages by debate between the Diaspora and Jews living in Israel. That debate almost always has been won by the Diaspora, he said.

For instance, Hoffman pointed out, there are two Talmuds – one written in Jerusalem and one written in exile in Babylonia. The one written in Babylonia is the one universally accepted and studied as the definitive Talmud.

It is important, he said, that the Jewish educators at CAJE view themselves as people who truly can and need to pass on Judaism to the next generation.

Hoffman ended his history of the Jews with the second half of his parable:

The two travelers gathered up as much sand as they could carry and continued on their journey home. When they arrived three days later, the found that the sand had turned to gold, which made them happy. But they were both saddened because they wished they had carried more.

Hoffman suggested that the CAJE-ians take home as much gold as they can.

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Sex at CAJE: God didn’t ban homosexuality, the rabbis did

By Jacob Berkman · August 11, 2008

Richard Fruend talks about the Jewish ethics of sex. Sort of.

I am sitting in a class ostensibly about teaching Jewish sexual ethics to high school, college and seminary students, given by Richard Freund, a professor of Jewish ethics at Hartford University. It’s halfway through the session, and still no talk of sex.

But Freund is suggesting an interesting pedagogical tactic. He doesn’t assign his students – who are of all faiths – tests or term papers. Instead he asks each student to write a two-page position paper on each of the topics he covers. The papers are neither right nor wrong. They are just about discussion and thought. And Freund keeps every one of the papers because he is writing a book about thoughts on Jewish ethics.

One position paper, he said, had reverberations well beyond grade point average. A couple of years ago, a parent of a former student called him. The student, who was a 19-year-old junior in 2003, was put on a respirator, and his parents were trying to figure out what to do. The last session of Freund’s class talks about the ethics of death. The student had written two position papers on end-of-life matters, which Freund read to the parents over the phone. He gets choked up as he tells the story, which ends with the boy’s father saying, “Thank you. We know what to do.”

The story is foreplay for the sexual discussion. I think.

Freund says that parents simply don’t talk to their kids about a whole array of complicated topics – including sex. And Jewish ethics class is a place where young people can express their thoughts.

** update**

Class started at 10:15 and is over at 11:30. It is 11:05 and still no sex.

** update**

11:15 and no sex. I’m starting to think this was a tease (just like the headline on that post).

** update**

11:20. Still no sex, but I think we’re getting there.

** update**
11:25: SEX!

“I have no doubt the Bible is viewed as our source on all of our tsures on sexual ethics,” says Freund. “But I have no doubt that it is not true.”

Most people cite Leviticus, where the Bible says that male-with-male sex is an abomination, as the source for the forbidding of homosexual activity.

But, Freund says, the Bible has hundreds of abominations. Most of them regarding food.

The trick is to look at the context in which the Bible was written -– during a time when male priests in other religions would copulate with each other publicly to ensure a year of fertility. The Bible, he says, is forbidding ritual homosexuality between men, not social homosexuality.

The rabbis later forbade social homosexuality, he said, because during Greek and Roman times, homosexuality was a normative practice for younger adults.

So, you can think whatever you want about homosexuality, says Freund, “Just don’t blame the Bible. Blame the rabbis!”

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Friend: TV writer Ross intends to leave almost everything to Jewish charities

By Jacob Berkman · July 18, 2008

I have been trying to get in touch with Mickey Ross, the producer and writer on such iconic television shows as “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “Three’s Company,” who over the past several months has given away some $14 million to UCLA and the City College of New York to build up their Jewish Studies programs.

Unfortunately, I found out Thursday that the 89-year-old Ross would not be able to speak. I spoke with a confidant and legal adviser of the writer-turned-philanthropist who said that Ross is not doing very well and has had several strokes in the recent past.

But, said Ross’ friend, who did not want to be identified, more gifts might be on the way. Ross has no heirs, his wife Irene passed away several years ago, and, his friend said, Ross intends to “leave more than 90 percent of his assets to Jewish charities.” He said that much of the remaining gifts could go to Yiddish projects. The previous two gifts both involved Yiddish components. Part of the $10 million gift to City College included endowing a Yiddish chair, and the $4 million to UCLA was specifically to endow a Yiddish chair.

Ross, who was born Isidore Rovinsky, grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home he has said was permeated by “the essence of Yiddishkeit.”

According to his friend, Ross is still lucent, and is still making his own decisions.

Ross was never particularly religious, but “he loves to speak Yiddish,” said the friend.

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The man who got Sammy Davis to kiss Archie Bunker is leaving his mark on Jewish studies

By Jacob Berkman · July 15, 2008

Michael Ross, the former producer of and writer for iconic American sitcoms “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “Three’s Company,” has given some $14 million to create Jewish studies programs at UCLA and City College of New York in recent months.

Ross – who was born Isidore Rovinsky and grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home that he has said was permeated by “the essence of Yiddishkeit” – gave $4 million to endow a Yiddish chair at UCLA, the university announced last week.

In April, he gave $10 million to the City College of New York for the establishment of the Michael and Irene Ross Center for Jewish Studies and to endow a Yiddish chair there. He graduated from City College in 1939.

I’m trying to get Ross on the phone, but I hear that he is not in the best of health these days… hopefully I’ll have more later.

If you have 10 minutes to kill at work, take some time to watch the clip above to see some of Ross’s genius at work. This clip, from the famous episode “Sammy’s Visit, which he produced, includes among other highlights Louise Jefferson telling Sammy Davis Jr. “Shalom Aleichem” and the performer laying a fat one on Archie Bunker. Could be one of TV’s finest moments.

1 Comment | Share This | Education, foundations & funders, gifts

Blavatnik to give $5 million to Tel Aviv U.

By Jacob Berkman · July 7, 2008

The Blavatnik Family Foundation will give Tel Aviv University $5 million to help build the school’s computer science program.

The foundation of Russian-born American industrialist Len Blavatnik will fund an extensive expansion of the school’s interdisciplinary research in computer science, award multiple graduate fellowships and create new positions for gifted young faculty, according to a release from Tel Aviv U.

The University will rename its computer science program The Blavatnik School of Computer Science.

Blavatnik, the CEO of Access Industries, ranked number 45 on the 2007 Forbes 400 list, with an estimated wealth of $7.3 billion.

Here’s the press release.

Blavatnik Family Foundation Donates $5 Million to
Expand Computer Science at Tel Aviv University

Gift Will Promote Cutting-Edge Discovery, Augment Faculty,
and Strengthen University’s International Impact on Industry

Tel Aviv - Tel Aviv University’s computer science graduates, already the most heavily recruited in Israel, just gained an even bigger edge in the global business world.

A $5 million gift awarded on June 4th by The Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by American industrialist Len Blavatnik, creates a wellspring for expanding the scope of Tel Aviv University’s interdisciplinary research, funds additional positions for gifted young faculty, adds multiple scholarships and fellowships, and fosters a partnership of TAU scholarship with local and international industry.

In recognition, the university’s School of Computer Science will be known as The Blavatnik School of Computer Science.

The Blavatnik Family Foundation has an impressive history of underwriting scholarships to advance science at Tel Aviv University, and to support other educational programs in Israel and globally.  Mr. Blavatnik is the founder and Chairman of Access Industries, a U.S.-based industrial group with investments in three sectors: natural resources and chemicals, media and telecommunications, and real estate.

A Giant Leap For Israeli Scholarship

Tel Aviv University’s computer scientists are already recognized worldwide for their excellence and ingenuity.  They lead R&D teams at multinational corporations, including Google and CheckPoint, and continue to create innovative technology - such as computer-assisted pharmaceutical drug design - with substantial implications for the future.

Tel Aviv University President Zvi Galil, a widely respected theoretical computer scientist and former chair of the university’s Computer Science Department, says “the donation from The Blavatnik Family Foundation not only demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to Israel’s leading center of higher learning, it is an important commitment to reversing ‘brain drain’ in Israeli academia - standing it on its head to create, instead, a ‘brain gain’.”

Prof. Haim J. Wolfson, Dean of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, says the donation is destined to strengthen Israel in many ways.  “Our scientists and graduates are key players in the impressively growing Israeli high-tech based economy,” Prof. Wolfson says.  “Computer scientists at Tel Aviv University are pushing forward the frontiers of every imaginable discipline, including medicine.  While nobody knows exactly where computer science will take us, the generous spirit and support of The Blavatnik Family Foundation will play a large part in shaping the future.”

Investing in “Brainpower”

A portion of the gift will be used to support the immediate recruitment of new faculty members, and will fund approximately 15 doctoral fellowships. The remaining portion of the gift will endow additional graduate fellowships, create opportunities to widen the scope of research, and allow new joint-study tracks in emergent interdisciplinary areas such as quantum computation and bioinformatics.

“This very generous gift will help us maintain our leadership position in research and education,” says Prof. Amos Fiat, head of The Blavatnik School of Computer Science. “The new funding will allow us to double the number of student fellowships, and will create important opportunities for great research.”

American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel’s largest and most comprehensive center of higher learning.  It is ranked among the world’s top 100 universities in science, biomedical studies, and social science, and rated one of the world’s top 200 universities overall. Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of its research programs, Tel Aviv University consistently produces work with profound implications for the future.

1 Comment | Share This | Blavatnik, Education, foundations & funders, gifts, Israel

Chicago federation tries a new model to build day school endowment

By Jacob Berkman · June 30, 2008

The JUF-Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago thinks that it has a formula to help solve the “cost of day school” problem.

The Chicago federation has started building an endowment – dubbed the Jewish Day School Guaranty Trust Fund – to give every day school in the metropolitan area a grant for each of its students. The endowment is like most others in that it pays a percentage of its assets, in this case 6.5 percent, to the cause it supports. But by collecting the funds to build the corpus of the endowment in a non-traditional way, the federation was able to increase the amount of money it was giving out over the last two years by 2,000 percent.

The federation is collecting major pledges from donors that can be paid off over 10 years, but ... as soon as the first installment arrives, the federation starts paying off an amount commensurate to the total pledge. To put it in simple dollar terms: The endowment pays 6.5 percent. Donor A pledges $1 million to be paid off over 10 years. As soon as the donor pays the first $100,000 installment, the federation will give $65,000 in interest to the day school subsidy as if it already has the entire $1 million in hand, as opposed to the $6,500 it would give on $100,000.

In addition, according to Steve Nasatir, the federation’s CEO, the federation is giving a 10 percent bonus on the first installment, so it would add another $10,000 on to Donor A’s hypothetical gift.

The federation is making the payments from a low-interest $40 million line of credit that it took out from a bank.

This is not for low-stakes donors, Nasatir said. “We’re looking for gifts in the amount of $1 million or $100,000. We’re not interested in less than that, though we would say thank you for the donation.”

The approach – which Nasatir calls front-end loading –- has been wildly successful since it was started in 2006.

The federation actually opened the endowment to subsidize day schools in 2000. But in its first six years it gained no traction, collecting only a few million dollars in pledges. “We found during the first six years we picked up some gifts here and there, but nothing special,” he said.

But since the federation started the front-loading method, 110 donors have stepped forward, pushing the anticipated value of the endowment to $27.5 million.

Though it only has collected between $4 million and $6 million worth of pledges, the federation paid out more than $1.5 million to 15 of the area’s 16 day schools this year, amounting to $330 per student. (One school did not want to participate in the program because it is an exclusive private school that charges about $24,000 per year in tuition.)

The endowment has garnered support from the Jewish community across the religious spectrum, as rabbis and communal leader from every denomination are involved in soliciting donors, Nasatir said.

Nasatir added that he is not worried about the economy in this case because all of the donations are coming from mega-donors, and while some have been hurt financially, most are in position to weather the blow. Only a couple of donors have not followed through with the second installment of their pledges, he said.

The federation exec hopes that the model catches on and thinks that large federations are in a particularly good position to do so because they can secure the low-interest loans necessary to pull off the front loading.

“This will work in a lot of places,” he said. “We can’t think that all day schools’ problems will go away, but it will help if big federations can do all that they can, and this is not heroic work. it is just smart.”

The financials, in case you were wondering how this could work:

The federation is paying off the interest on the loan borrowing from the line of credit, according to its CFO Michael Tarnoff. It might sound like a risky move, but Tarnoff said that he is not concerned in the least. It will work as long as the endowment earns 3 percent more than the interest rate on the loan over the course of the loan, then the federation will be set. In that case, the loan can be repaid in full simply by using the interest on the endowment.

The federation borrowed at a rate of .5 percent over the London Interbank Overnight Rate, which as of Friday afternoon was 2.8 percent – which means that the federation is paying 3.3 percent on the loan. In order to pay off the loan, if that rate stayed stagnant, the endowment would have to earn 5.5 percent on its corpus. Over the course of 10 years, the federations endowments typically average 8 percent.

Tarnoff is not worried about the tanking economy because even if there is a full blown recession for five years, the economy will most likely bounce back by the time the loan is due. In an absolute worst case situation in which the endowment loses money over the course of the loan, the federation would have to discontinue the program. But all investors are made aware of that risk and besides, Tarnoff says, the chances of that happening are “one in a trillion.”

“If you look back through history, there has been no period where investments were bad enough over a long enough period of time for that to happen,” he said. “And that includes 1929.”

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Jim Joseph gives $5 million to NYU to pay for advance degrees in Jewish education

By Jacob Berkman · June 27, 2008

The Jim Joseph Foundation will give $4.96 million over six years to New York University for a scholarship program to support graduate studies in Jewish education.

Starting in 2009, the San Francisco-based foundation will give full scholarships to eight students in NYU’s dual Ph.D. program in education and Jewish studies, which was founded in 2001, according to a press release on NYU’s Web site. And it will award 16 full scholarships to a new program for students to earn dual Masters degrees in education and Jewish studies. The recipients of the scholarships will be known as Jim Joseph Foundation Fellows.

The grant will also help pay for administration an adjunct faculty at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies.

“The Jim Joseph Foundation believes ardently in the importance of Jewish educators and their critical role in ensuring a vibrant Jewish future,” Chip Edelsberg, the executive director of the Jim Joseph foundation, said in the release. “We are confident this significant investment in NYU supporting these degree programs will produce future Jewish educational leaders.

And now the pitch:

If you are an organization or a foundation and you have received or given a grant, please let me know and I’ll post it. (That way I don’t have to read about it a week late from the Chronicle of Philanthropy and then wait until it is 9 a.m. in San Francisco so I can give your PR person the old “What the heck, why didn’t you tell me about this?” call.)

0 Comments | Share This | Education, foundations & funders, Jim Josephs Foundation

Could a national network of Hebrew College by in the works?

By Jacob Berkman · May 27, 2008

Most likely not, but the idea has at least been floated, according to the man tapped recently as the new head of the Hebrew College in Boston.

Rabbi Daniel Lehmann, told the Fundermentalist today that he recently had a preliminary discussion with an official at the Baltimore Hebrew University about possibly merging the two schools. The idea, he said, sprung from a proposal to create a national Jewish university that he recently received from an official at the Spertus College of Judaica: The Hebrew Teachers Seminary in Cleveland.

The state of Hebrew colleges in general is dismal.

Most of the colleges were founded during the early part of last century as teachers colleges to train Hebrew school teachers back in the day when most American Jewish kids attended the five-day-a-week after-school Judaic pedagogical torture sessions.

But over the past 35 years the likes of BHU in Baltimore, Spertus in Cleveland, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, and Gratz College in Philadelphia have faced increasingly stiff competition for students and donors as Jewish studies programs have cropped up at major mainstream universities.

Baltimore, especially, has suffered as the Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, which was its largest funder, recently stopped the $1 million annual allocation it gave BHU. The board of trustees also forced out its president of seven years because of fund raising trouble, and has had trouble keeping interim presidents as it searches for someone permanent.

One bailout idea, said Lehmann, without getting into specifics, would be to merge all of the Hebrew colleges left standing under one umbrella, because as he said, there is a lot of overlap between the schools.

Lehmann has been a rising star in the Jewish educational world since he became the founding headmaster of the progressive Gann Academy-The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston in 1997, a position he held until last year has a daunting task ahead of him.

(Full disclosure: Before he moved to Boston, Lehmann was the Judaic Studies principal at the Fundermentalist’s alma mater, the Beth Tfiloh Community Day School in Baltimore. He is the first rabbi that I knew who listened to the Grateful Dead.)

Hebrew College has a serious budget crunch due largely to its decision to build an 80,000-square-foot campus that pushed the school’s annual budget from $1.5 million in 1993 to $17 million in 2006, according to a recent Boston Globe report.

The crunch forced the school to lay off 30 employees in January of 2007, and its enrollment of post-graduate students has dipped to around 200, according to the report that a Hebrew College spokeswoman called “accurate.”

Of all the Hebrew colleges, the one in Boston faces expecially stiff competition from the mainstream university world, as Brandeis University, which has a renowned dept of Near Eastern Judaic studies and mega-donors galore pumping tens of millions of dollars into its ever expanding Judaic studies programs, is only a few miles away from the campus.

But it is in a bit better shape than other Hebrew universities, as it has become a central part of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ decision to revision itself by focusing on Jewish education. The Boston federation and Hebrew College created a Hebrew high school that now has 800 students and is working on creating a middle school.

Its new rabbinical seminary and cantorial school are attracting students from across the country, Lehmann said.

And its Meah adult education program is going national, opening branches in Baltimore, Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland.

That alone could potentially position Hebrew College – in the Fundermentalist’s view – as an excellent central office for a national network of Hebrew universities. In fact, the school has partnered with the BHU on its Meah program there. (Lehmann says that the college sought a similar partnership with Gratz in Philly, but Gratz was not interested. So much for brotherly love.)

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