by joe eskenazi & jta staff
Just a few weeks after signing off on an $11 million donation to Hillel, San Francisco’s Jim Joseph Foundation announced another blockbuster grant this month — $12.5 million to Birthright Israel.
What’s more, the donation triggers matching grants, making the total value some $25 million.
So far, hundreds of thousands of 18- to 26-year-olds have taken Birthright’s free, 10-day tour of Israel. What the Jim Joseph five-year grant aims to do is keep them involved once they return.
“Fifteen cities in the U.S. will be selected for what we’re calling ‘Birthright Israel NEXT.’ What it really is is a program of alumni activities primarily targeted at non-college students” — young adults who’ve graduated and are now presumably working, explains Chip Edelsberg, the Jim Joseph Foundation’s CEO.
While Birthright has been a phenomenally successful program, “the general feeling was we were at risk of squandering the investment or at least not fulfilling its full potential by not supporting young adults when they return.”
Birthright alumni still enrolled in college show they are more likely to engage Jewishly once back on campus. Some 40 percent enroll in Jewish studies courses, according to a 2005 study by the Maurice Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis, and Hillel says that some 50 percent of its participants are back from Birthright.
But follow-up with alumni of post-college age has been more difficult. For many years, the budget for post-Birthright programming was a relatively limited $1.5 million per year, according to Susie Gelman, the board chair of the Birthright Israel Foundation. Professionals stationed in key communities reached about 13,000 Birthright alumni per year.
The Jim Joseph Foundation was formed in 2003 after the death of Bay Area developer Jim Joseph. Its primary aims are Jewish continuity and education.
As a private foundation, the foundation is mandated by law to give away at least 5 percent of the earned income derived from its assets. Edelsberg said the foundation is worth roughly $900 million.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California