World

Personal Shopper

Center takes
new approach
to giving.

Chanan Tigay

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

C

all him a personal shop-
per, a matchmaker or
a boutique investment

adviser.
However he is described, Joseph
Hyman is trying to chart a new
course in the world of Jewish phi-
lanthropy. A longtime Jewish orga-
nizational professional and fund-
raiser, Hyman last year launched
the Center for Entrepreneurial
Jewish Philanthropy to support
and advise philanthropists who
are considering major gifts to
Jewish and Israel-related causes.
Hyman acts as the middleman
between donors and organiza-
tions, working with philan-
thropists to understand their
particular interests, then hits the
pavement to locate worthwhile
organizations that meet their phil-

anthropic requirements.
The center's goal is simple: to
attract dollars to Jewish gralps
that might otherwise have gone
elsewhere.
"If successful, we believe that
CEJP will help to create a new
paradigm in Jewish giving," says
Hyman, who is going public about
his organization for the first time.
"One that empowers and inspires
a new generation of philanthro-
pists to participate because they
want to, not because they have to"
His endeavor comes at a time
when wealthy American Jews
make a disproportionately high
number of large gifts in America,
but overwhelmingly make them to
non-Jewish institutions.
It also comes as philanthropists
are increasingly looking to have a
say in exactly where their dollars
go.
The approach seems to be
working.
Since its launch 18 months ago,
the center already has facilitated
more than $10 million in philan-
thropic donations to Jewish and
Israel-related causes.
Recipients include some well-
known projects, such as Birthright
Israel, which provides free, 10-day

trips to Israel for young Jewish
adults. They also include some
lesser-known ones, including
Meshi, a center in Israel offer-
ing the parents of special needs
kids a break from child care; and
Project Kesher, a group devoted
to Jewish education and advocacy
for women in the former Soviet
Union.
Adam Frieman, a longtime
investment banker on Wall Street
and a financial sponsor of the new
center, says, "There are people out
there who are not giving to the
level that they're capable of giv-
ing. Some portion of that group
would give meaningfully more if
somebody were able to connect
with them on a personal level and
make the giving personal."
Jewish groups, notably the
Jewish Funders Network, offer
some donor advice. And several
organizations are doing similar
work in the general philanthropic
world — among them the Wealth
and Giving Forum, Rockefeller
Advisory Services and the
Philanthropic Initiative in Boston.
Nearly two years ago, shortly
before the center was launched,
Hyman sat down with a Chicago-
based private investor, Robert

Sklare, to chat about philanthropy.
They spent some 10 hours talking,
Sklare says, discussing the Jewish
philanthropic interests he and
his wife, Yadelle, shared, the areas
that got them excited and the
problems they hoped to help solve.
Then Hyman got to work tracking
down a series of organizations
that fit their bill.
Several did. In fact, Sklare
says, since then he's donated a
"substantial" amount of money
to Israel-related organizations
— certainly more than he'd have
given had he never met Hyman.
He has since funded, among
other groups, Birthright Israel;
Karev, an after-school enrichment
program for inner-city kids in
Ashkelon; and Meitarim, a group
of pluralistic schools that attempt
to bridge the gap between reli-
gious and secular students.
According to Jeffrey Solomon,
president of the Andrea and
Charles Bronfman Philanthropies,
general philanthropy has nearly
doubled in the last decade, and
the growth of Hyman's center
reflects that trend.
"I think we're going to see
more and more different kinds of
approaches to specialize it, make

Save Darfur

Activists plan
new rally.

Rachel Silverman

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

0

rganizers of April's
Save Darfur rally in
Washington are plan-
ning another large-scale event to
draw attention to the continuing
genocide in Sudan.
The second protest will be
held in New York City on Sept.
17 and, like its predecessor, will
be orchestrated by the Save
Darfur Coalition, a collection of
150 faith-based advocacy and
humanitarian aid organizations.
Discussions also are in place
to stage rallies across the country

that day, as well as in Europe and
Canada.
Unlike the first rally, which
was aimed at President Bush and
policymakers on Capitol Hill, this
event will court a more interna-
tional audience. Rally director
Chuck Thies said it will focus
on the demand for the United
Nations, which will be meeting in
Manhattan that week, to deploy a
peacekeeping force to Darfur.
In addition, Thies said there
will be a push to make sure
attendees represent an "interna-
tional community." He said the
coalition will hold community
roundtables in New York's immi-
grant neighborhoods, advertise
in non-English speaking newspa-
pers and strive to include world
music acts on the lineup.
The push for greater diversity
begs the question: How will Jews,

it more strategic, capture it," he
says. "This is the first one that is
specifically aimed at Jewish phi-
lanthropy."
Still, asked if this sort of philan-
thropy is the wave of the future,
Solomon demurs.
"It's hard to know what would
have happened had CEJP not been
there,' he says. "Would that money
have gone to different Jewish orga-
nizations? To general charities?
Would it have been given at all?
While helping to direct millions of
dollars is very impressive, it's hard
to know what would have hap-
pened had it not been there."
Rabbi Irving Greenberg, presi-
dent of the Jewish Life Network/
Steinhardt Foundation, says that
Michael Steinhardt, a mega-donor
to Jewish causes, was not initially
convinced about Hyman's efforts
but after he demonstrated that "he
had a little bit of a track record,
Michael became a funder."
"I think it's very significant,"
Greenberg says of Hyman's
approach. "My guess is that this
has not only got legs but that this
is the wave of the future." E

Answering
Israel's Critics

who played such a large role in
the Washington rally, figure into
the equation? The answer, for the
most part, is that it's too early to
tell, since most groups say they
won't flesh out their plans until
more details, such as the event's
location, are determined.
Still, agencies such as the
American Jewish World Service
and the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs, both of which sit on the
coalition's executive committee,
have pledged their support.
Gitta Zomorodi, senior policy
associate at the American Jewish
World Service, said Jewish groups
may be inclined to rely on this
existing infrastructure. Though
she said key players, such as
AJWS President Ruth Messinger,
may use their contacts to reach
out to leaders in other religious
or ethnic communities, "generally

speaking it works better when we
play to our strength, and that's
with the Jewish community."
While he hoped that other
groups "will be encouraging
greater participation from their
end," Jews don't need to tone •
down their level of involvement,
Raffel said.
The Save Darfur Coalition
was co-founded by the AJWS
and the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in 2004. The
museum issued a genocide alert
for Darfur even before the U.S.
government did; Messinger has
led two trips to the war-torn
region.
The conflict, which began in
2003, has left as many as 400,000
people dead. Government-backed
Arab militias are responsible for
systemically killing, raping and tor-
turing black Africans in Darfur. ❑

The Charge:

A local Palestinian American
activist charged last week that the
Gaza Strip is an "open-air prison."

The Answer:

Israel withdrew 8,000 Jewish resi-
dents and 25,000 soldiers from
the Gaza Strip last August, leaving
it in the hands of the Palestinian
Authority. If the inhabitants
sometimes feel "imprisoned," it
is because they regularly riot at
the Egyptian border, smuggle
in illegal weapons, fire Kassam
rockets at Israeli civilians and lay
explosive charges at the Israeli
border. Israel responds to protect
its citizens, as would any threat-
ened government.

- Allan Gale, Jewish Community

Council of Metropolitan Detroit

July 6 • 2006

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