Going back to Talmudic times, we find references to the idea of “kuppa,” which loosely translates to a “community chest” to which members of the Jewish community were required to contribute to help the local poor. This concept and various iterations have been the basis for many of our modern-day fundraising institutions.

NEW YORK, April 29, 2014—The Leichtag Foundation, in partnership with the Jewish Funders Network, has awarded $1.12 million through a  matching grant initiative  designed  to increase  funding for Jerusalem-based NGOs that are devoted  to furthering cultural and social programs in  the Israeli capital.

One of the more provacative titles for a panel at the 2014 JFN Conference was "Israel's Internal Ticking Time Bomb."

Cross-posted at the Times of Israel.

Those of you with young children or grandchildren surely know books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate. My kids love them and I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, of course, to wean them from these literary paupers. I started a quixotic quest to introduce them to the classics with one of the favorite authors of my youth: Alexandre Dumas.  In so doing, I couldn’t help but think about Pesach.

Cross-posted at the Times of Israel

I played an April Fool’s Day prank on the Jewish Funders Network staff last week. I told them a major funder wanted to have Pluto designated a planet once again.

Cross-posted on the Times of Israel

The biggest problem when driving in Israel is not that people are reckless, but that they don’t want to be “frayerim.” As in, “I’m not going to be the frayer who stays in the slow lane,” or “I’m not going to be the frayer who lets that car in my lane.”

The entire JTFN team joined our colleagues at the Jewish Funders Network for the annual JFN International Conference in Miami Beach from March 9-11. We were delighted to spend three days with more than 350 other Jewish funders and foundation professionals, spreading the word of teen philanthropy. We also participated in panel discussions and attended many thought-provoking sessions. Now that we've had time to process the experience, here are our five key takeaways from the conference:

We often talk about planting seeds to foster meaningful philanthropic collaborations.