Perspective: Michael Steinhardt and the takeover of Jewish philanthropy by mega-donors
Financier and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt attends the Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala at the Marriott Marquis on May 5, 2016, in New York. By Lila Corwin Berman Lila Corwin Berman is professor of history and director of the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History at Temple University. March 22 at 7:57 AM Over the past six months, major Jewish philanthropist Michael Steinhardt has been the subject of serious allegations from multiple women of sexual harassment.
Over the last 50 years, three connected transformations have changed the face of Jewish philanthropy: the growth of endowment practices; the rise of “identity” language; and the concentration of communal wealth. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, when American Jews created many of the communal institutions that still stand today, they approached charitable giving as an immediately redistributive process.
That new era became defined by identity and endowment. Starting in the 1950s, at first gradually and then with fervor, Jewish federations that had once been unable — whether because of their bylaws, a lack of resources or both — to build endowments jumped into the business.
By then, American Jewish philanthropy was transforming into a futures-based project, where capital held would serve as a guarantor for the perpetuity of Jewish life. Jewish federations were joined and, eventually, overshadowed, by private foundations like the one Steinhardt runs, structures unlike federations that were built from the start to hold one individual or family’s wealth and release it slowly, often more slowly than investment income on it accrued.
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