Sometimes its good to put things into perspective.
The Jewish nonprofit world certainly lost money in the Madoff scheme, but we were not the only losers, and perhaps not even the biggest.
Bloomberg News put together a list of grants given out in 2007 by 10 foundations that lost significant assets in the Madoff scandal, nine of which are Jewish.
The news site provides a list of the grants doled out by the Bernard L. and Ruth Madoff Foundation, the JEHT Foundation, the Schlichter Foundation, the Betty and Norman F. Levy Foundation, the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation, Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, the Wilpon Family Foundation, the Frank Lautenberg Foundation, Valerie And Jeffrey S Wilpon Foundation and the Picower Foundation.
A survey of the list shows that these foundations gave money to scores of Jewish causes. But while much has been made of the losses in the Jewish charity world, this list should help to put things in perspective — the charity world in general is going to be affected at a more significant clip than Jewish charities.
These 10 foundations gave $7.3 million to Jewish causes in 2007 – a number that will certainly be missed. But, when you exclude a $3 million gift that the Shapiro Family foundation gave to Brandeis University, that number drops to $4 million. This is certainly a big number. But it is not an insurmountable number.
Compare that number to the $103,752,048 that these foundations gave out in general, and the $7.3 million certainly seems smaller.
The Jewish community has certainly taken a hit here, but it will most likely not be the end of Jewish charity or the Jewish nonprofit world. And the broader non-profit world is certainly suffering right along with us, if not to a greater extent.
Here is an excerpt from the Bloomberg list. It contains only the grants that these foundations made to Jewish nonprofits, and I have added the side-by-side comaprison of the total dollar amount given to Jewish charities vs. the total dollar amount each foundation gave out:
Bernard L. and Ruth Madoff Foundation Assets - $19,125,499 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== Kav Lachayim 2007 $15,000 New York, NY ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $15,000 Total giving $95,000 ==================================================================== The JEHT Foundation Assets - $7,503,918 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== Brandeis University The Int’l Center for Ethics 2007 $220,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $220,000 Total giving $24,208,994 ==================================================================== The Schlichter Foundation (Bernard Madoff, President) Assets - $1,626,925 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== 92nd Street Y 2007 $5,000 Lower East Side Tenement Museum 2007 $20,000 North Shore L. I. Jewish Health 2007 $20,000 Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation 2007 $40,000 Solomon Schecter School 2007 $2,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $87,000 Total giving $92,000 ==================================================================== Betty and Norman F. Levy Foundation Assets: $244,389,849 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== American Committee Weitzmann Inst. 2007 $25,000 Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation 2007 $100,000 UJA Federation New York, NY 2007 $100,000 Museum of Jewish Heritage 2007 $5,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $230,000 Total giving $31,280,050 ==================================================================== Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation Assets - $323,912,042 With Madoff - About $145,000,000 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Services 2007 $25,000 Amer. Friends of The Israel Museum 2007 $10,000 American Committee For The Weizmann Institute 2007 $25,000 American Friends of The Hebrew Univ. 2007 $11,000 American Friends Of Israel Philharmonic Orch. 2007 $45,000 American Jewish Committee 2007 $15,000 American Society For Technion 2007 $25,000 Anti-Defamation League 2007 $150,000 Armdi 2007 $25,000 Brandeis University 2007 $3,022,000 Combined Jewish Philanthropies 2007 $356,500 Gift Of Life Bone Marrow Foundation 2007 $45,000 Hadassah 2007 $10,000 Hebrew Senior Life Boston, MA 2007 $25,000 Jewish Adoption And Foster Care 2007 $5,000 Jewish Big Brother And Big Sister 2007 $15,000 Jewish Family & Children’s Services 2007 $30,000 Jewish Federation Of Palm Beach Cty. 2007 $160,000 Jewish Guild For The Blind 2007 $10,000 Jewish Home For The Aged Of Palm Beach County 2007 $210,000 One Family Inc. 2007 $35,000 Simon Wiesenthal Center 2007 $25,000 U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 2007 $25,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $4,304,500 Total giving $12,834,167 ==================================================================== Wunderkinder Foundation Assets - $73,280,226 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== American Jewish Committee 2007 $8,333 American Museum Of Moving Image 2007 $7,534 Chabad’s Children Of Chernobyl 2007 $50,000 Museum of Jewish Heritage 2007 $25,000 Righteous Persons Foundation 2007 $620,000 Temple Beth Am Los Angeles, CA 2007 $10,000 Temple Emmanuel Bevely Hills, CA 2007 $190,000 U S Holocaust Memorial Museum 2007 $150,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $1,065,867 Total giving $8,452,406 ==================================================================== Wilpon Family Foundation Assets - $109,120 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== Jewish Home & Hospital 2007 $25,000 Jewish Institute 2007 $15,000 Suffolk Y Jewish Community 2007 $10,000 The Jewish Foundation 2007 $15,000 Touro Law School 2007 $10,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $75,000 Total giving $2,983,250 ==================================================================== Frank Lautenberg Foundation Assets - $15,000,792 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== Albert Einstein College of Medicine 2007 $5,000 American Friends of Israel Museum 2007 $5,000 American Jewish Committee 2007 $7,000 American Technion Society 2007 $5,000 Beth Hatefutsoth 2007 $5,000 Daughters Of Israel 2007 $5,000 Dr. Michail Shafir Fund 2007 $5,000 Gift of Life Foundation 2007 $7,000 Jewish Community Center 2007 $5,000 JSDD of Metrowest 2007 $5,000 Temple Sharey Telifo Israel 2007 $39,480 UJA Federation 2007 $11,000 UJA Metrowest 2007 $5,000 Washington Institute For Neareast Policy 2007 $10,000 Washington, DC ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $119,480 Total giving $281,280 ==================================================================== Valerie And Jeffrey S Wilpon Foundation Assets - $420,852 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== Hebrew Wizzards 2007 $5,000 Mount Sinai Adolescent HC 2007 $5,000 US Holocaust Museum 2007 $10,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $20,000 Total giving $284,800 ==================================================================== Picower Foundation Assets - $958,425,057 Recipient FY Ending Amount ==================================================================== American Friends of Herzog Hospital 2007 $100,000 American Friends of Tel Aviv Museum of Art 2007 $5,000 American Jewish World Service 2007 $75,000 AVODAH 2007 $75,000 Foundation for Jewish Camping 2007 $109,278 Hillel 2007 $50,000 InterfaithFamily com 2007 $25,000 Jewish Coalition for Service 2007 $40,000 Jewish Community Center in Manhattan 2007 $10,000 Jewish Family & Life 2007 $33,333 Jewish Outreach Institute 2007 $185,000 Jewish Television Network 2007 $50,000 Limmud NY 2007 $225,000 Lincoln Center Theater 2007 $50,000 Moving Traditions 2007 $75,000 UJA-Federation of New York 2007 $56,250 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2007 $10,000 USC Shoah Foundation 2007 $5,000 ==================================================================== Total to Jewish charities $1,178,861 Total giving $23,402,801
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