Jim Joseph Foundation To Become One of the Largest Jewish Philanthropies
February 15, 2006
Foundation for Jewish Youth Gets Founder's $500 Million
The Jim Joseph Foundation is poised to become one of the biggest Jewish philanthropies in the country with the addition of more than $500 million in assets, all directed toward Jewish education and youth programs.
The money will significantly increase the foundation's expenditures, which have averaged about $550,000 a year over the last several years. The foundation will now direct about $25 million a year toward causes and programs for Jewish youths.
Mr. Joseph, a West Coast real estate investor and developer, "felt he wanted to try to touch every Jewish child in this country, and his thinking was that by developing programs for youth and children, it would in the future strengthen the Jewish community in the United States," said Alvin T. Levitt, a lawyer and longtime confidant of Mr. Joseph, who will become the president of the foundation's board.
Mr. Joseph started his foundation in 1987. Like most living foundation donors, he financed it annually, spending down each year almost all the money he put into it. But at his death in 2003, the bulk of his multimillion-dollar estate went to his foundation, which has received it only after his estate was settled in court.
Charles Edelsberg, the vice president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, who will become the foundation's executive director next month, said the huge jump in assets gives the foundation an opportunity to have significant impact in two or three years. "What is appealing to me is that $25 million a year over 8 or 10 years is a quarter of a billion dollars, and that can make an impact," he said.
The foundation will give money not only to formal education programs but also to informal programs like camps and leadership groups.
It may also expand its giving to encompass programs for older youths, like Taglit-birthright Israel, which aims to send every Jewish child in North America between 18 and 25 on an educational trip to Israel.
"Birthright is currently oversubscribed," Mr. Edelsberg said. "Significant numbers of applicants in a given year can't go, so if we could fund it, we would have an immediate impact on hundreds and hundreds of young adults."
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