The Most Well-Known Jewish Philanthropists

Tzedakah or charity is a very important concept to Jews. According to the Sunday Times 2014 Rich List, wealthy Jews are happy to give their money to charity. Data reveals that the wealthiest Jews are also the most philanthropic. Jews on the Rich List donated £413 million to charitable causes. And that’s just in the UK!

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Jews from other countries are just as generous. Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, is well-known for his work in the international Jewish community. He has been a leading light in a number of important causes, including the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation and The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe. He also founded the Moshe Kantor Database for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, to help counter the rising tide of anti-Semitism in today’s troubled world.

Like many of his contemporaries, Moshe Kantor believes we all have a duty to make the world a better place, thus embodying the Jewish values of TikkunOlam. He is the patron of many philanthropic organisations, including the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and Jewish Care.

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is a very wealthy man, thanks to the biggest social network in the world: Facebook. But, like many Jewish philanthropists, he is happy to give his money away if it can help those less well off. Zuckerberg made his first significant charitable contribution in 2010 when he donated a whopping $100 million to his Startup: Education Foundation. Since then, he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have become major philanthropists. In 2015, they made world headlines when they announced they would give away 99% of their fortune to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an organisation set up to help others and generate a positive impact in areas of great need.

Irwin Jacobs

Irwin Jacobs is a remarkably generous man. He and his wife have given away more than $100 million to charitable causes. In 2010, the Jacobs donated $39.1 million to the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego. This money was distributed to a combination of Jewish and non-Jewish good causes.

Other well-known Jewish philanthropists include George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire investor, who has given away hundreds of millions to charitable causes. Michael R. Bloomberg, the 10^th richest person in the world is not far behind Soros in his generosity, followed by Eli and Edythe L. Broad, Leonard Blavatnik, and Meyer and Renee Luskin.

The Remarkable Mr. Rosenwald

One lesser well-known Jewish philanthropist who deserves a mention is Julius Rosenwald, the son of a Jewish peddler who grew up to become the chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Company. Rosenwald was a very modest man. He didn’t like to boast about his philanthropic works. Instead, he preferred to conduct his charitable work in private. During his lifetime, Rosenwald donated more than $62 million. In today’s money, that would be around $1 billion, which puts most people to shame. He helped to found more than 5,000 schools for disadvantaged children of colour in the early 1900s.

The hope is that the world’s most generous philanthropists will inspire others to do their bit to make the world a better place.