Local scholar explores Jewish giving, philanthropy
By Dan Newman
Special to The Jewish State
While probably most comfortable in front of a group of college students, Livingston resident Marian Stern took the time last Monday to educate others about philanthropy and the role Jews have played in it.
Stern, an adjunct professor at Rutgers University and New York University, came to the Monroe Township Jewish Center as part of the American Jewish Experience Lecture Series, sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Central Jersey, headquartered in New Brunswick. Stern, who has five years of teaching experience, based much of her hour-long lecture on her teachings at the collegiate level. Stern started out by talking about the differences between philanthropy and charity, terms that she said are often confused with each other.
"Charity is when a person is really helping themselves, almost like a gift for public purposes," Stern explained. "Philanthropy is more about organizations and groups receiving money. You tend to hear this phrase used more often with very large donations or contributions, potentially into the millions of dollars."
Stern illustrated an example of well-known recent philanthropy being the massive donation that billionaire Warren Buffett gave to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She also said that since Bill Gates started doing philanthropic work many years ago, philanthropy has become a much more mainstream thing to do.
"It also helps that people like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Bono [of the rock band U2] have been in the spotlight, trying to raise funds for certain causes," Stern said.
As far as the American Jewish community, she spoke about tzedakah as one familiar form of philanthropy, especially as a way of teaching young children the value of giving back to the Jewish community.
According to Stern, philanthropy has its origins as far back as the Industrial Revolution. Today, there are a number of ways for people to give back to the Jewish community philanthropically, including donations to religious education funds, advocacy groups,
Israel, and to the promotion of Jewish continuity.
"Jewish people also give a huge amount of money to secular issues. This has become a very big item recently," Stern said.
Along those lines, though, Stern did note that there is "major competition" among Jewish charities for two reasons. First, there are fewer Jews than there once were, due to interfaith marriages, and therefore, there are less Jews to give money. Second, major organizations are still able to raise lots of money for certain causes, but Stern questions whether when that when money is passed down from generation to generation, the money end up going to philanthropic organizations.
Looking to the present and the future, Stern feels that many young people will become more careful and selective as to what organizations they may donate to, because many charitable causes have become so large that perhaps 100 percent of their donations will not go toward the earmarked fund.
"Donors want to see that their money is not going toward the overhead of an organization. Meaning, some of these funds have CEOs making lots of money and they must get paid also, so sometimes people don't want to donate to these places," Stern said.
Stern also commented that, for those who are entrepreneurial, donating philanthropically is a good opportunity to have a substantial impact on society.
"There's always a particular need for donations to all kinds of organizations," Stern said. "As we look toward the future, we may see that things may shift as far as what organizations get what kind of money. Things are way different than they were years ago. The people who are considered Generation X and Y types have really turned Jewish philanthropy on its head." 