THE NEW JEWISH CHARITIES
An Ethiopian
woman grinding
flour from maize
(Indian corn). The
American Jewish
World Service has
conducted grain
storage technology
research in Ethiopia
and other nations.
26
MAZON
The idea of a direct connection to pro-
grams is one of the strong selling points
for the new breed of Jewish philanthropy.
"The general culture seems to prefer
the 'micro' to the 'macro, " said Leonard
Fein, a writer, lecturer and longtime Jew-
ish activist who founded Mazon in 1985.
"There's something attractive about
smaller and more directed philan-
thropies," he said. "While federations are
having a hard time, specific Israel-related
philanthropies are [said to be] doing quite
well. Project Renewal [which sent federa-
tion money to specific Israeli cities] was
an enormous success, because it focused
in on one palpable element in the federa-
tion bag."
Mazon's uniqueness has to do with the
way it is attempting to turn the Ameri-
can Jewish consciousness to the issue of
hunger. Mazon (from the Hebrew word
for food) urges Jews to contribute three
FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1990
percent of the cost of celebrations — bar
or bat mitzvahs, weddings, anniversaries
— as "offerings" to combat the problem
of hunger.
There is a thoroughly Jewish element
to such contributions, according to sup-
porters. It also personalizes the process
of giving in a way that few other philan-
thropies can. The symbolic connection
between "taxing" one's own celebrations
and feeding the hungry is inescapable.
It is also a potent fund-raising tech-
nique. This year, the group expects to
distribute about $1.1 million — a dramat-
ic increase from the $20,000 doled out in
1986 as the group's first grants.
Laurie Pappas of Franklin is chairman
of the Mazon Council of Metropolitan
Detroit. A longtime hunger activist,
Pappas said she finds statistics showing
that 12.4 million children under 8 live
below the poverty line "appalling."
"There's a pain in my heart for people
who are hungry," she said. "For me, it's a
very personal, gut-level issue. There are
so many of us who have so much, and it's
another great gift to give to those who are
hungry."
Among projects of the local Mazon
Council, to which 11 Reform and Conser-
vative synagogues belong, is a pamphlet to
help youth learn about the hungry.
"Hunger is not specifically a Jewish or
a non-Jewish issue," Pappas says. "It's an
issue of humanity."
Mazon provides grants to a wide range
of programs, from food banks to advoca-
cy and social action groups focusing on
the issues of hunger and homelessness. A
typical grant is this year's $5,000 to the
Pomona Valley Council of Churches in
California to purchase powdered milk and
canned tuna for the group's hunger pro=
gram.
Most of the groups funded by Mazon
have little connection to direct services to
the Jewish community — a fact that re-
flects another trend among the new gen-
eration of Jewish philanthropies.
Jewish life, Fein argued, swings back
and forth between "particularism and
universalism.
"During the Reagan years, during
which these new groups got started,
there was a belief that the community
had become overly concerned with its
own issues, not with the welfare of soci-
ety in general," he said.
Because Mazon provides money to a
wide range of organizations that deal
with a visible problem in American soci-
ety, it has galvanized many younger con-
tributors and volunteers.
It's not a situation where
people are giving to one or
the other. Usually, the charity-
minded individual is giving to
both the Campaign and a
smaller fund."
— Lawrence Jackier
"Every day, I see the homeless around
me," said David Orbuch, a trial attorney
for the Justice Department who has be-
come involved in raising money for
Mazon. "I'm very involved with UJA,
and with the local JCC. But by being in-
volved in Mazon, I feel better because it
tries to alleviate a very immediate prob-
lem. It allows me to do something with a
non-Jewish population that maybe an-
other Jewish organization would not do."
Recently, Orbuch delivered a check for
$7,500 to "Bread for the City," an inner-
city hunger project in Washington, D.C.
"We saw first-hand the kinds of needs
in the city that a group like Mazon could
help meet," he said.
Mazon has benefited tremendously
from the dramatic upsurge in home-
lessness and hunger in recent years.
"You no longer can leave your house
without encountering the objects of
Mazon's philanthropy," Fein said. "In a
grotesque kind of way, it's daily publicity
for Mazon."