Paula Pretlow
Rafi Rone
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Reeling from the news of the attack on Israel, grant makers with close ties to the country pledged to help in its defense and to back efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in the face of war.
Several foundations announced emergency grants, such as $5 million committed by the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg foundation and $750,000 made available by the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Michael Bloomberg and his Bloomberg Philanthropies provided a matching gift for donations to Magen David Ogen, Israel’s “Red Cross,” which has raised $1 million. And UJA-Federation of New York culled $10 million from its endowment — called an initial commitment — to provide relief to victims of the attacks.
Other foundations with a strong grant-making presence in Israel, including the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, are providing money to triage humanitarian needs, but a more formal emergency response has not been made public.
Andrés Spokoiny, president of the Jewish Funders Network, told the 6,000 donors and grant makers who are part of the group that the need is urgent and will not fade any time soon. He urged them to give now, and to be ready to continue giving.
“It’s very important that funders pace themselves,” he wrote in an email message to members. “We understand the desire to help right now, but this is going to be a long and protracted war, and the rebuilding process will be even longer.”
On Monday, the network, which has eight staff members in Israel, held a Zoom meeting with 270 donors and grant makers to provide an update on how they could help. Sigal Yaniv Feller, who leads the group’s Israel operations, spoke from her car for about 10 minutes before leaving the call — she had to attend the funeral of her nephew who was killed in the attacks.
On the Zoom call and in emails to its members, the Jewish Funders Network encouraged donors to give to organizations already on the ground and with systems in place to respond to emergencies. It provided a list of groups in need and made a pitch to support Israeli hospitals and the Israeli armed forces through gifts to the Friends of Israel Defense Forces, as well as to first-responder organizations, including the Israel Trauma Coalition, Hatzalah, and IsraAID.
As of Tuesday, the network did not have a tally of how much its members had contributed.
Many large foundations that have been active in the region, such as the MacArthur Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, have remained silent in the days after the attack. But some are now beginning to make statements.
The Ford Foundation’s president, Darren Walker, posted a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, which read, in part: “I mourn the loss of innocent lives in Israel and Palestine, and my prayers are with all those affected by the horrendus acts of terrorism committed by Hamas.”
In an email to members of the Open Society Foundation’s network, Mark Malloch-Brown, the grant-maker’s president, said the “collective punishment of civilians was a serious violation of humanitarian law.”
He noted that the reactions to the attacks in the news and on social media reflected a deepening of societal polarization. “Because the current discussion is so divisive, we have not yet spoken publicly but will choose our moment to intervene to make this point when we think we might be heard,” he wrote.
(The MacArthur, Ford, and Open Society foundations are financial supporters of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)
Some smaller philanthropies that have a history of grant making in Israel, including the Aviv Foundation, Blaustein Philanthropies, and the William Davidson Foundation declined to comment.
In an email message, Fay Twersky, president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, questioned why philanthropy has not responded with vigor.
“I do not know why any specific foundation is not commenting on the unimaginable and barbaric terrorist attacks in Israel,” she wrote in an email. “But, their silence is deafening.”
The foundation Twersky leads announced specific grants. Blank’s $750,000 will be divided between two medical centers and a network of volunteer Israeli medics, and it will work to identify additional ways it can provide support in the coming weeks.
Schusterman Family Philanthropies also said its contributions would be ongoing, and would likely total “multi-millions” of dollars, according to a spokesperson.
“We are providing emergency response support for efforts to help the Israeli people with immediate needs, humanitarian aid, trauma response, and more,” the foundation said in a statement, which mentioned that IsraAid would be one of the recipients of funds. “We are also supporting reservists who have been called up to defend the country and its people,” the foundation said in a statement. “As the situation continues to evolve, we will provide support where we can to help meet near and long-term needs.”
Over the summer, the Weinberg Foundation made a two-year commitment to develop connections between Jewish and Arab communities in Israel. The $1.5 million effort is based on the idea that Jews and Arabs can develop a harmonious, shared society in Israel.
That effort will continue, said Rafi Rone, who leads the foundation’s support for social sector groups in Israel.
“It’s more important than ever,” he said.
Saturday night, as Hamas fighters had begun launching furious missile attacks into Israel, Rone was trying to sleep.He had set aside his work and his phone in observance of the Sabbath. But one of his apps, which alerts him when air raid sirens go off in Israel, was pinging him incessantly and keeping him up.
Once he learned of the scope of the attacks, Rone — who directs about $18 million a year in grants to social-service groups in Israel — scrambled to contact each of the more than 60 grantees the foundation supports in the country.
None of Weinberg’s grantees, who provide housing, health care for the elderly, support for domestic-violence victims, and employment help, had staff members who had been hurt.
But in a small country like Israel, with a population of about 9.3 million, Rone said, every person the foundation reached out to had a connection to someone affected in some way by the attack.
“It is intensely personal,” Rone said.
The foundation has had to abandon some plans. An urban policy fellow in Israel whom Weinberg supports called off her upcoming trip to Baltimore; her husband and son had been called up to serve in the reserves. Staff members who were going to visit Israel next week canceled their trips.
Over the weekend, the foundation’s five board members started texting each other. In less than two hours, they settled on a response: the foundation would provide $5 million in emergency grants.
Where exactly the money will go has not been determined, said Paula Pretlow, who chairs Weinberg’s board, but it was important to “step up to the plate” during an emergency.
“None of us knows what to do in the state of war that we’re experiencing now in Israel,” she said. “We felt that it was abundantly important to send a signal to the Jewish community and broader world that we are committed, we are engaged, and that we stand with Israel.”
