Levi Strauss’s Descendants Help Lead Revolution in Jewish Philanthropy

Jewish philanthropy has gone through a period of rapid change of seismic proportions in recent years. Although the shock waves have been felt across the country — indeed, all the way to Israel — the epicenter of that shakeup was in San Francisco. And several members of the Levi Strauss clan were key among the people who triggered the quake.

In the early 1980s, Richard Goldman, whose late wife, Rhoda Haas Goldman, was a descendant of the founder of the apparel company, was instrumental in challenging the American system of Jewish philanthropy to support projects in Israel, in defiance of most Jewish donors around the country.

At about the same time, Jonathan J. Cohen and his wife, Eleanor F. Friedman, granddaughter of former Levi’s president Daniel Koshland, opened up another path of philanthropy to Israel when they founded the New Israel Fund in 1980.

From the outset, the fund was a pioneer in providing donors a bigger say in how their gifts were used, compared with the United Jewish Appeal. Since then the fund has become one of the most popular ways for American Jews to support civil rights and religious pluralism for Arabs and Jews in Israel.

In both cases, the efforts were greeted by sharp denunciations from leaders of Jewish fund-raising federations in other cities, who worried that the new approaches would undermine the strength of organized Jewish philanthropy. But the actions have led to changes in the United Jewish Appeal and other institutions that have invigorated a new generation of donors to Israel.

Challenges from the Levi Strauss heirs and others are a key reason the United Jewish Appeal, once the principal vehicle for donations going to Israel, is no longer the monolithic force it once was. Now, Jewish giving from the United States to Israel flows from thousands of individuals, dozens of foundations, and many local Jewish federations as Israeli institutions raise more and more contributions directly from American donors.

By the same token, the New Israel Fund — a Washington group that provides money to advance human rights and to promote peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews — has become increasingly popular among American Jews, many of whom are troubled by Israel’s current conserv ative Likud government.

Last year, the organization received $17.4-million in contributions — a 30-per-cent increase over the previous year — on the strength of its efforts to support progressive causes in Israel.

Wayne Feinstein, executive vice-president of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, sees the New Israel Fund as the natural outgrowth of the philanthropy of the families whose wealth was built in the Levi Strauss clothing empire.

“It is a reflection of the Haas and Koshland ethos: innovation, change, and responsiveness — and putting your money where your mouth is.”

The San Franciso federation’s challenge to traditional Jewish giving two decades ago focused primarily on the Jewish Agency for Israel, the quasi-public institution run by the Israeli government that received the funds from the United Jewish Appeal.

The federation’s leaders believed that the agency was hobbled by political patronage and bureaucratic waste and insisted that it be reformed. To back up its demand, the federation established an independent office in Israel to monitor the Jewish Agency and to distribute grants directly to Israeli programs.

The federation’s executive vice-president at the time, Brian Lurie, was generally regarded as the architect of the organization’s provocative stance.

But observers say he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without the help of Mr. Goldman, then a former president of the federation and chairman of its overseas affairs committee. Indeed, Mr. Goldman had been instrumental in placing Mr. Lurie at the helm of the San Francisco federation in the first place.

Mr. Goldman received a tremendous amount of criticism from his peers at other Jewish federations around the country for his efforts to overhaul the Jewish Agency. But he held fast to his convictions. “We took a lot of heat, but we didn’t feel the heat,” says Mr. Goldman, reflecting on the fracas.

The controversial approach provoked criticism even within the San Francisco federation and among members of the Haas family itself. “I was not completely in favor of that in the beginning,” recalls Peter Haas, Mr. Goldman’s brother-in-law. “I am a firm believer in umbrella giving, and I felt that, if every community started to do their own thing there, it would defeat the purpose of the federation’s overseas allocations.”

Over the years, however, more and more federations joined in calling for reforms, and subsequently the United Jewish Appeal and the Jewish Agency have made substantial changes in governance to give donors a bigger say in how their money is spent. Likewise, several federations have opened their own offices in Israel. And over time Mr. Goldman and Mr. Lurie have been vindicated in their approach.

“One of the most positive things to happen over the past decade is that the federation movement is taking responsibility over the Jewish Agency,” says Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and former senior vice president and chief operating officer of the U.J.A.-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.

That view also prevails within the family circle. “It has proven to be a good thing,” says Mr. Haas. “It certainly forced the U.J.A. to take a hard look at things, and it led to a complete reform, so I confess to being wrong.”