The New Israel Fund has announced the creation of a fundraising avenue to enable philanthropic contributions to organizations, including anti-Israel ones such as IfNotNow, that are excluded by major American Jewish organizations and local federations.
The Progressive Jewish Fund (PJF) was launched on Oct. 23 to allow donations to groups that mainstream Jewish philanthropic causes deem as controversial.
“People engaged in American Jewish life are being told, ‘The tent doesn’t include the things that you want to do,’ ” NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch told The Forward.
While the PJF isn’t the first Jewish donor-advised fund program that’s an alternative to the federation mechanism, it’s the only one solely for left-wing Jews, according to NIF.
“There are Jewish funds, there are progressive funds, but there are no progressive Jewish funds,” NIF vice president of finance and operations Jennifer Spitzer, who is managing the fund, told Jewish Insider. “We want to be the organization that provides a national Jewish progressive home.”