For two decades, the San Francisco-based Jim Joseph Foundation has sought to reshape Jewish learning by focusing millions of dollars in grants on campuses, camps and leadership.
“They know exactly what they’re aiming to do,” said Rabbi Benjamin Berger, senior vice president of Jewish education, community and culture at Hillel International. Berger has worked with the Jim Joseph Foundation through both the Wexner Foundation and Hillel. “Their goal is to give Jewish people, especially Jewish students, the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and their commitments to Jewish life and learning.”
That clarity, Berger said, has influenced not just grant recipients but the broader field of Jewish education.
The story behind the Jim Joseph Foundation began in 1938 when Holocaust refugee Jim Joseph fled Austria with his parents and came to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Joseph entered real estate, buying commercial property in what would become Silicon Valley. He lived in both the Bay Area and Florida.
(Courtesy Jim Joseph Foundation)
In 1987, Joseph established a philanthropic fund dedicated to Jewish education. When he died in 2003, he left the bulk of his estate — estimated at more than $500 million — to the fund, which was incorporated two years later as the foundation. His bequest formed the core of what became one of the largest Jewish foundations in the U.S. that focuses on education. Its most recent tax filings show assets topping $1.5 billion.
According to the foundation, it has given out about $900 million in grants over the past 20 years.
“We hope that Jim would be proud of the impact he made possible,” CEO Barry Finestone and former board chair David Agger said in a statement marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary. The foundation’s leadership declined requests for additional comment but directed J. to grant recipients.
Since 2007, the foundation has partnered with the Foundation for Jewish Camp, an umbrella organization supporting more than 300 Jewish day and overnight camps across North America.
“The truth is the Foundation for Jewish Camp would not be what it is and would not be able to do the work that we’re doing without partners like the Jim Joseph Foundation,” said Jamie Simon, CEO of the camps foundation. “Their long-term commitment has allowed us to play the long game, strengthening Jewish camp not just for today’s campers but for generations to come.”
To date, the foundation has given more than $35 million to the Foundation for Jewish Camp, including support for research, leadership development and efforts to make camps more affordable for families.
With some of that money, 14 new specialty camps were established that combine Judaism with children’s interests, such as sports, arts, science and technology, environmental education and health and wellness. Locally, these camps include Maccabi Sports Camp in Hayward and sustainability-focused Eden Village West in Healdsburg.
“These camps would not exist without that partnership,” Simon said. “They allow kids to build strong Jewish identities while pursuing what they love.”
To address the issue of affordability, between 2007 and 2013 the Jim Joseph Foundation invested $11 million in the JWest Campership Program, which helped first-time campers attend Jewish camps in Western states by offering financial assistance. That pilot helped pave the way for the One Happy Camper program, which provides grants for all families new to Jewish overnight camp.
Another major investment came in 2008 to Hillel International, the Jewish college campus organization. As Hillel expanded in the 1990s and 2000s, Berger said, dedicated Jewish education was not always at the core of its identity.
The Jim Joseph Foundation sought to change that by funding a group of senior-level Jewish educators whose primary responsibility was learning and teaching.
“The idea was to free these professionals up to focus on education,” Berger said. “What mattered most wasn’t just the initial group, it was that the investment reignited a spark across Hillel. It reminded the field that education has to be central to who we are.”
Over time, education became embedded across staff roles at dozens of Hillels. Programs like the Jewish Learning Fellowship, a 10-week seminar now offered on more than 220 campuses annually, grew directly out of that early investment.
“Because of the ways they invested in Hillel, literally hundreds of thousands of Jewish students have had access to meaningful Jewish content and educators who wouldn’t have had it otherwise,” Berger said.
Another significant focus of the foundation has been Jewish leadership development, particularly in addressing what some describe as a growing “pipeline crisis.”
For nearly a decade, the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute has worked with the Jim Joseph Foundation to tackle this problem.
Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, CEO of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, described the foundation as an “essential and fundamental partner.”
“They’ve supported us not only programmatically, but strategically by helping us refine our strategy and build the organizational capacity to address long-term challenges in Jewish education,” Jacoby Rosenfield said.
The “pipeline crisis,” she said, refers to a growing concern about the future supply of Jewish leaders such as rabbis, educators and communal professionals who are prepared to guide others in a complex world for Jews.
Jim Joseph Foundation grants have enabled the Shalom Hartman Institute to develop rigorous intellectual programs for young people ages 15 to 25, as well as for educators and rabbis, Jacoby Rosenfield said.
Among the dozens of grant recipients are Bay Area-based groups including the Jews of Color Initiative and JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa.
The foundation’s support has become a bedrock in Jewish communal life, said Simon of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
“When the Jim Joseph Foundation invests in organizations like ours, we’re able to support hundreds of camps,” she said. “Those camps lift up communities and those communities shape the Jewish future.”