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Canadian philanthropist and cofounder of Birthright Israel Charles Bronfman came to Robbinsville High School March 7 to share his wisdom about philanthropy with an auditorium full of teens and their parents. His friend and fellow philanthropist, Ricky Shechtel, had invited him to speak to the 8-12th graders who are part of a project funded in part by the Ricky and Andrew J. Schechtel Philanthropic Fund, the Jewish Community Youth Foundation. The goal is to expose Jewish teens not only to the value of philanthropic giving, but to the mechanics of deciding who deserves donations and why.

The foundation offers a spiraling program of exposure to different types of charities: in 8th grade, local need based; in 9th, national social service organizations; in 10th, Jewish arts and culture; in 11th, politics, outreach, and advocacy; and in 12th grade, Israel. Each grade level selects from a list of suggested charities several organizations that intrigue them enough to take the next step -- sending out two or three students for a site visit.

After the site visits, each teen presents his or her findings and opinions to the group, and then they debate over how the group's money should be allocated. Linda Meisel, executive director of the Jewish Family and Children's service of Greater Mercer County explained, "They have a conversation with one another as to how to allocate the money, and they can't leave the room until the money is allocated."

Each year the teens are asked to donate $120 of their own money, which in 8th grade usually comes from b'nai mitzvah gifts, but later is money the students have earned. Each student's money is matched each year by $120 from the Schechtel's fund and $120 from the United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks. This year the students are distributing a total of $64,800 to a wide range of organizations. The Jewish Family and Children's service of Greater Mercer County runs the program.

For young teenagers, Jewish charitable giving, or tzedakah, usually brings to mind the idea of donating money to organizations that provide essential, life-and-death services to needy people. But through this program they learn about a range of organizations with varying missions.

Benjamin Dafilou, a 10th grader at Hopewell Valley Central High School and a member of Har Sinai synagogue, shared how the program has widened his understanding of charitable giving. "This year especially encompassed a lot more than I had previously thought about, for example, an educational aspect. Before it was more to donate to people who are needy," he said. Then he explained why an organization like the Tenement Museum in New York, dedicated to the different immigrant cultures that thrived within their walls, should be funded. "It needs to be kept alive so that that kind of history doesn't disappear," he said.

Alison Berg, 12th grader at West Windsor Plainsboro North High School, felt similarly. Focusing on her site visit to the Jewish Museum, she emphasized the importance of preserving Jewish culture. "Before I focused on food, shelter, and health, and this was a total change of direction," she said. "We were not dealing with life or death, but learned that this was really important as well."

The March 7 event where Bronfman spoke was the foundation's yearly Philanthropy Fair and Check Presentation Ceremony at Robbinsville High School, where many of the 160 students in the program were on hand to present giant checks to representatives of the organizations they were funding.

Aaron Shavel, a junior at the Princeton Day School and member of the Jewish Center, explained how the program works. "We started with a smaller viewpoint of local areas, which developed into a national view, and with that our topics and goals changed," he said.

Shavel cites two things he has learned about charitable giving through his activities with the foundation: first, that part of allocating funds to different charities is developing relationships with their representatives, and second that because some organizations are already well funded and may need his donations less than others. "We like to allocate to organizations where we can really make a difference," he said.

Talia Ramo, a 12th grader at Montgomery High School, pointed out how sometimes the decision to choose a particular charity is simply based on a gut-level personal connection to an organization. She felt this way about Shalva's Me and Mommy program, an early intervention program for children with mental disabilities. "They have some government funding, but we really liked them," she said.

For Ramo, her participation in the program has helped her realize her long-term career goal to become a social worker. "I wanted to be a psychologist, but social work is on a grander scale," she said, "and this helped me to see that."

The foundation was started by the Schechtels in 2003 with a single 8th-grade group; with the idea of developing a five-year, sequenced program to teach Jewish teens about philanthropy. This year's participants come from 29 schools, public and private. All congregations in Mercer and Bucks counties are contacted and asked to mail information about the foundation to their post-b'nai mitzvah group.

Shechtel opened the formal program by introducing the keynote speaker, Charles Bronfman, cofounder with Michael Steinhardt of the Birthright Israel program. "He is an example for kids about what you can do for the world as a philanthropist and the power of an idea to change the world," she said, as she introduced Bronfman.

After telling the teens how his charitable efforts began at age 17 walking up and down staircases and collecting 50-cent pieces for the Jewish community, Bronfman talked about how he started Birthright Israel, which sponsors trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. To get things started with Birthright, said Bronfman, they put provocative ads in college newspapers, and, because it was Rosh Hashanah, the ads were signed with the traditional "shana tova," or "happy new year" greeting. "We had 12,000 applications for 8,000 places," Bronfman said. "I thought I had died and gone to heaven."

Then he added that he knew the program was on the right track when one of the letters he opened began, "Dear Mr. Shana Tova." It is just this kind of ignorance of Jewish tradition that Birthright is out to correct.

Most of Bronfman's remarks were in response to questions asked by three 12th graders, Allison Brobst of Lawrenceville, Tali Ramo of Skillman, and Lindsey Curewitz of Yardley, about Bronfman's career as a philanthropist. Here are a few of the questions and responses.

Q: Why did you take it upon yourself to help others?
A: "I don't believe when one is in the philanthropic world, you do it with altruistic reasons. I give because I want to give." "It gives me an awful lot of satisfaction. It's where the soul meets the business plan." He told the teens it is important to find something that says to them, "I really want to do this and it's going to make a difference."

Q: What struggles do you face in philanthropic work?
A: "We have found through experience that whatever you want to do, you have to fight for it. Birthright is still struggling; we have a waiting list of more than the number of young adults we can accept this year."

Q: What do you still want to accomplish in the world of Jewish philanthropy?
A: "I want to see Birthright institutionalized like the bar and bat mitzvah as a rite of passage for young Jews around the world."

The teens in the Jewish Community Youth Foundation have been going through their own rite of passage, learning to think like adults as they make charitable giving decisions. Meisel explained, "We're trying to make them smart givers and also build in a tradition of giving. But they are also learning how, if they pool resources with other people, they can make difference, even if each child only has a small amount to give."

Meisel has been impressed with what the students are taking from the program, but at the same time she has her own selfish reasons for wanting to develop another generation of astute philanthropists. "From my vantage point as someone who manages a social services agency, I think it is crucial to educate young Jewish people about the significance of giving and philanthropy and the tradition of giving and philanthropy in the Jewish community."

As much as the teens' participation in the foundation is making them better givers, the experience also contributes to their growth as people. As Shavel explained, "I was exposed to new opportunities where I was in the driver seat. Our money was on the table, and we were working with peers to try to make a difference, but with Jewish values."