These are impecunious times for everyone, even America’s super-wealthy. The Chronicle of Philanthropy issued its annual survey of top donors in America for 2010, yet of the 50 billionaires that had promised to donate at least half their net worth to charities, few followed through.
However, Jews remained the top donors, comprising at least 19 of the individuals and couples named on the survey including five of the top six givers (three were tied).
Financier George Soros ranked No. 1 with $332 million donated in 2010, followed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with $279.2 million. Irwin and Joan Jacobs, Eli and Edythe Broad, and Leonard Blavatnik took spots 4 through 6 respectively, with donations between $117 and $119.5 million.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was no.18 Charles E. Kaufman, who died in September at the age of 97, and bequeathed his entire $53.3 million fortune to charity. This was the first year that Kaufman appeared on the list.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tied for 10th place with Marc R. and Lynne Benioff, donating $100 million. Zuckerberg, the youngest individual to ever appear on the list, pledged $100 million in Facebook stock to establish his foundation Startup: Education. The charity supports programs that aid in improving public schools in Newark, New Jersey.
I would that we invest/give to that which is eternal. Not existential.
A NOTE ON ZUCKERBURG’S DONATION – To the Newark Public Schools. As their schools are run by the state of New Jersey and the governor seems to be winning his fight with the teacher’s union perhaps there is some hope. But the reality is that ANY public school is bound to be a disaster to some degree because: it is “free” and therefore not valued, it is run by the government and therefore run into the ground, and Newark had a Democrat for mayor for more than 50 years and well, we all know what that means.
Zuckerburg’s donation is another triumph of fantasy over reality. If he isn’t going to give to Jewish charities he ought to at least donate to those which are likely to use the money wisely. My bet is that a lot of his money will go into the pockets of Newark officials and that the schools will not improve one iota. Oh, there might be some kid who gets “free” piano lessons which cost the city $500 an hour – and the kid might actually become a decent musician, but there will not be much to show for it in the long-run.
I’ve noticed that they’re not actually even secular, as they have an intense disdain for all things Jewish, and if their old-money families haven’t already hellenized completely, they belong to the de riguer old money German-Jewish synagogue, where there’s no greater joy than that of having one’s children marry a gentile and eradicate all traces of Judaism from their lives.
I fail to comprehend these ‘Jews’ that really love to fund education, often even private school education, but godforbid it be Jewish education.
The only rich Jews I ever have had a mind to applaud are those like Moskowitz (did I get his name right?) who buy up lands in East Jerusalem and hopefully all around Shomron and Yehuda, for exclusive purposes of building more housing for their own Jewish nation on the soil of Eretz-Yisrael. Also, back in 1948, these were the kinds of Jews who were buying weaponry for ha-Palmach and other armed Jewish freedom fighters, along with the machine tools that would enable the Jews of the new State of Israel to manufacture their own guns, ammunition and a lot of other useful items. There were also the Jewish businessmen who found a way to purchase the ingredients from which Israel could and did refine their own uranium into plutonium for the start-up of Israel’s nuclear and thermonuclear arsenal.
May all of them be blessed by the black hats. And speaking of black hats, I think the Jewish nation owes a debt to the Lubavitcher movement, which has brought authentic Judaism to isolated Jewish communities all around the world. The little that I know about the formal aspects of the religion of my own Jewish nation came from people like that. So maybe all of us ought to give them some support.
As for the rich and self-hating Jews who have abandoned Judaism for liberalism, let the bastards be buried in the contempt of the rest of us.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
The survey shows that Jews, on the whole, are not stingy; but that the wealthiest Jews tend to be religiously secular.
Irwin and Joan Jacobs are big donors NPR (National Public (Palestine) Radio), and, of course, as people of culture, they are big donors to the San Diego symphony, and they have set up major donation to set up a Chartet School. Once I advertised that I teach Hebrew and Bar Mitzvah lessons at the JCC in La Jolla where they are big donors, their mother called me up and said she would try to get her grandchildren lessons but she doubted whether Irwin and Joan were interested enough in them studying. So to sum it up,to Jewish education, Jewish Day schools, nothing. (Jews for Nothing).
(From Wikipedia Irwin Jacobs Donations He has donated $62 million total to the American Society for Technion, his alma mater Cornell University, KPBS Radio and Television, and San Diego Natural History Museum.[7] His KPBS donation was in the sum of $1 million, and the multi-year gift is designed to strengthen the station’s local journalism and news collaboration with NPR. The Jacobs have donated funds to build studios for KPBS and have supported the station for decades.[9]
Irwin Jacobs has pledged $120 million for the San Diego Symphony, a similar amount for the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego, $75 million for UCSD’s future specialty hospital and $20 million to replace the central library in downtown San Diego. Also in 2005 the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse was named after Jacobs and his wife in honor of their philanthropic contributions towards the institution’s development.[10][8]
yamit82 says:
February 10, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Jews for nothing
Survey Finds Jews Are Top Givers in the U.S.
According to a survey by the Chronicle on Philanthropy, five of the six biggest charity donors in the United States are Jewish. But those donors give only a negligible part of their money to specifically Jewish causes.
The Chronicle’s list, however, also offers more cause for concern for those in the Jewish nonprofit world who wring their hands about the lack of giving by Jews to Jewish causes.
The Institute for Jewish and Communal Research has collected data showing that less than a quarter of all philanthropic dollars given by Jews go to overtly Jewish causes.
As Rabbi Kahane remarked, “Worse than Jews for Jesus. Worse than Jews for Gurus. Worse than Jews for Marx. Jews for Nothing.”