The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution

Lila Corwin Berman

Published by Princeton University Press 2020

The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex

The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution

Lila Corwin Berman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691209791

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first comprehensive history of American Jewish philanthropy and its influence on democracy and capitalism

For years, American Jewish philanthropy has been celebrated as the proudest product of Jewish endeavors in the United States, its virtues extending from the local to the global, the Jewish to the non-Jewish, and modest donations to vast endowments. Yet, as Lila Corwin Berman illuminates in The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex, the history of American Jewish philanthropy reveals the far more complicated reality of changing and uneasy relationships among philanthropy, democracy, and capitalism.

With a fresh eye and lucid prose, and relying on previously untapped sources, Berman shows that from its nineteenth-century roots to its apex in the late twentieth century, the American Jewish philanthropic complex tied Jewish institutions to the American state. The government’s regulatory efforts—most importantly, tax policies—situated philanthropy at the core of its experiments to maintain the public good without trammeling on the private freedoms of individuals. Jewish philanthropic institutions and leaders gained financial strength, political influence, and state protections within this framework. However, over time, the vast inequalities in resource distribution that marked American state policy became inseparable from philanthropic practice. By the turn of the millennium, Jewish philanthropic institutions reflected the state’s growing investment in capitalism against democratic interests. But well before that, Jewish philanthropy had already entered into a tight relationship with the governing forces of American life, reinforcing and even transforming the nation’s laws and policies.

The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex uncovers how capitalism and private interests came to command authority over the public good, in Jewish life and beyond.

Author / Editor information

Lila Corwin Berman is the Murray Friedman Chair of American Jewish History at Temple University, where she directs the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History. She is author of Metropolitan Jews: Politics, Race, and Religion in Postwar Detroit and Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity.

Reviews

"I cannot overstate the significance of this groundbreaking work’s crucial argument regarding the relationship of American Jews to the state. The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex will open up new avenues for research and new ways of thinking about American Jewish history."—Tony Michels, University of Wisconsin–Madison

"The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex introduces a fresh interpretation of Jewish philanthropy in the United States and integrates its innovative analysis into a substantial literature on American political economy. Bold in its argument, this important book will generate considerable discussion."—Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: The State of Philanthropy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Associations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
2. Regulations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
3. Property Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
4. Taxation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
5. Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
6. Finance and Identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
7. The Market Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
8. The Complex Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Conclusion: Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Archives and Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Author’s Interviews Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257