Metro
The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit's
Janice Charach Gallery Hosts
JANICE
CHARACH
GALLERY
RoztA ,ecAiet
The Washington Post's "must-see exhibit of 2007,"
Aronson Facto,
PostSecret reveals secrets, hopes and fears,
all written anonymously on postcards.
****•,-
Now through December 20
imvitaloot,
Gallery Hours:
Sunday Noon - 4 p.m.
Monday - Wednesday 10 a.m. - 5 p..
Thursday 10-a.ni.- 7 p.m.
r*
.
Interim head of Steinhardt foundation
can wield unprecedented influence.
For information, pleat-6 call th
Gallery, 248.432.5448
or visit www.jccdet.Org .
Jacob Berkman
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
Sponsored by
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Peggy & Joseph M. Boyle
Jeffrey Charach
4
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Marge Duncanson
Sarah & Harold Gottlieb
Nancy & Phil Kiraly
CITIZENS
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Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building
Eugene & Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus
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West Bloomfield, Ml 48322
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A20
November 15 • 2007
obert Aronson already was
pretty busy as the CEO of
the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and a consul-
tant to several mega-philanthropists,
including the billionaire owner of the
Detroit Pistons. Now he has taken on
a second full-time
job: acting presi-
dent of Michael
Steinhardt's
Foundation for
Jewish Life.
As the top
professional at
the Detroit fed-
Robert Aronson
eration, a post he's
held for 18 years,
Aronson manages
a phiflanthropy
and supporting
foundation that
allocate nearly $70
million per year.
At the Steinhardt
Michael
foundation — for-
Steinhardt
merly known as the
Jewish Life Network
— Aronson will be advising a philan-
thropist who since quitting the hedge
fund business 12 years ago has given
away $125 million.
Steinhardt also has helped launch
landmark initiatives like Birthright
Israel, a program that sends college
students and young adults on short
trips to Israel, and the Partnership for
Excellence in Jewish Education, which
issues grants to support day schools.
Aronson was quick to praise his
predecessor at Steinhardt's foundation,
Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, as "one
of my guiding lights:' but the two men
cut starkly different figures.
Greenberg, who quit the job last
spring amid some acrimony, is best
known as a trailblazing theologian,
not a manager. Under his direction,the
foundation at times resembled a think
tank. Aronson is seen less as a leading
philanthropic thinker than a CEO who,
Steinhardt hopes, can help focus and
evaluate the success of his charitable
giving, and improve efforts to forge
partnerships with other philanthropists.
The hiring comes at a time when
observers argue that the federation
system — built on the model of a
central authority determining how
donations from thousands of donors
will be distributed — is losing influ-
ence to ultra-wealthy philanthropists
determined to control how their dol-
lars are spent.
As the head of one of the largest
federations and the top adviser to
one of the most influential of these
independent-minded philanthropists,
Aronson now is in an almost unprec-
edented position to forge a formula for
bridging these two charitable models.
Adding to the challenge is that
Steinhardt is among the loudest critics
of local federations and their national
arm, the United Jewish Communities.
"In a federation, you are dealing
with a whole community and deal-
ing with a process," Aronson told JTA.
"You have committees and boards
and people to consult when you build
programs in the community. There are
many people involved in the process.
Sometimes that is good and some-
times that is frustrating. But I have
done it for years.
"When you work with a private
individual, you try to worry about
what they want:' he added. You don't
worry about process."
Aronson is no stranger to dealing
with major philanthropists. He is a
longtime consultant to several donors
in the Detroit area — notably Bill
Davidson, the Pistons' owner who has
given away hundreds of millions of
dollars, most recently a $75 million
gift to so Hadassah Medical Center
in Israel — and other prominent giv-
ers throughout the country, including
Lynn Schusterman.
Aronson already worked with
Steinhardt, serving two years as chair-
man of Birthright Israel and oversee-
ing his push to establish Areivim, a
$100 million fund for transformative
Jewish education projects that would
be built through individual donations