28 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2024 
J
N

J

ews who experienced antisem-
itism give significantly more 
to charity than those who have 
not, according to one of the largest 
surveys of Jewish household giving 
ever conducted.
The survey of American Jewish 
donations in 2022 found that some 
three-quarters of American Jewish 
households gave to charity that year, 
donating an average of more than 
$10,000. One-quarter of American 
Jewish households donated to Israeli 
or Israel-focused organizations, giving 
an average of nearly $2,500. 
The survey of more than 3,000 
households, two-thirds of which were 
Jewish, is being published following an 
outpouring of American Jewish dona-
tions to Israel in the wake of Hamas’ 
Oct. 7 attack and the ensuing war in 
Gaza. The war has been accompanied 
by a spike in reports of antisemitic 
incidents in the United States. 
According to an initial count by the 
Ruderman Family Foundation, which 
commissioned the study, American 
Jews donated more than $750 million 
to war-related causes in the first seven 
weeks after the Oct. 7 attack. But the 
study’s authors caution that the del-
uge of crisis philanthropy in recent 
months does not reflect American 
Jews’ standard giving practices. 
This survey, conducted in March 
2023 by Indiana University, aims to 
show what American Jewish philan-
thropy at the household level looks 
like in a normal year. 
“The big question is the sustainabil-
ity of this type of emergency support 
for the long term, and how it will 
impact those day-to-day patterns,” said 
Hanna Shaul Bar Nissim, a deputy 
director of the Ruderman Foundation 
and a co-author of the study. “Those 
who gave after Oct. 7, it’s emergency 
giving; it’s not your ongoing, usual 

pattern of giving.”
The survey found that Jewish 
households gave about 35% more 
than non-Jewish households. But 
the survey authors said that that dif-
ference mainly reflects the fact that 
American Jewish households, on 
average, are wealthier than non- 
Jewish households. 
Especially striking to the survey’s 
authors was the impact of antisem-
itism on Jewish philanthropy. The 
survey reports that Jews who experi-
enced antisemitism donated 10 times 
more, on average, than those who did 
not. Jews who reported being con-
cerned about antisemitism also gave 
more than those who were not. 

The difference also shows up in the 
median donation of both groups — a 
number that accounts for the impact 
of especially big or small donations on 
either end of the spectrum. The median 
donation from Jews who experienced 
antisemitism, $2,290, was nearly double 
that of Jews who did not, $1,150. 
The survey did not include the 
sample size of Jews who experienced 

antisemitism. Researchers also cau-
tioned that the data does not indicate 
that being the victim of antisemitism 
leads to more giving — only that the 
two phenomena are correlated. The 
study was not designed to explain why.
“We cannot say this is a causal 
relationship because of how the data 
is gathered, but there’s certainly a 
relationship between the experience 
of antisemitism relative to those who 
have not had such an experience,
” 
said Patrick Rooney, one of the study’s 
co-authors and a professor emeritus at 
Indiana University’s Lilly Family School 
of Philanthropy. “The fact that it’s 10 
times as much is a very profound dif-
ference.
” 

Part of what makes the study unique 
is its focus on household giving as 
opposed to the more commonly stud-
ied area of organized philanthropy, 
which can be researched through the 
tax returns of foundations, Jewish 
federations and other nonprofits, said 
Shaul Bar Nissim. 
The survey data shows, for exam-
ple, that the average Jewish donor 

gave more to their congregation than 
to any other cause. Synagogues — 
like churches and mosques — are 
not required by law to disclose their 
finances, which makes them harder 
to study as an object of philanthro-
py. Under U.S. tax law, contributions 
to houses of worship are considered 
charitable and tax deductible.
Shaul Bar Nissim said it was par-
ticularly surprising to learn that one 
in four Jewish American households 
donated to Israeli organizations or 
Israel-focused causes in the United 
States in 2022, which she called “a 
higher rate than we expected.
”
Her expectations were shaped by 
prior studies of organizational Jewish 
charity rather than household giv-
ing. Those studies show that Jewish 
nonprofits and foundations annually 
dedicated an estimated 12% to 14% of 
their giving to Israel over the past two 
decades, and that organized Jewish 
giving to Israel has been decreasing as 
a share of overall Jewish giving. 
In a related finding, households 
interested in giving to Israel continue 
to rely on communal institutions such 
as Jewish federations, even as their 
overall centrality to Jewish life has been 
decreasing. 
Jay Ruderman, president of the 
Ruderman Family Foundation, said his 
organization commissioned the study 
in order to aid the decision-making of 
Jewish philanthropy professionals. 
“Given how the rising threat posed 
by antisemitism has been a promi-
nent concern for the American Jewish 
community not only during the 
current war in Israel but in the years 
immediately preceding it, we believe 
that our study’s findings present key 
insights that can inform the organized 
Jewish community’s activities in both 
the short- and long-term future,
” 
Ruderman said. 

Give much more to charity, survey finds
Victims of Antisemitism

ASAF ELIA-SHALEV (JTA)

GIVING GUIDE

A tzedakah box for charitable giving in the foyer of a synagogue in Lafayette, 
California, Jan. 20, 2022. 

(SMITH COLLECTION/GADO/GETTY IMAGES VIA JTA)

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