Phil­an­thropy is arguably one of Judaism’s cen­tral val­ues. From bib­li­cal injunc­tions to care for the needy to the Tal­mu­dic prin­ci­ple that ​“All Jews are guar­an­tors of [i. e., respon­si­ble for] each oth­er,” the idea of giv­ing per­vades the reli­gious sphere. In Jew­ish Giv­ing, Jack Wertheimer demon­strates that it has also found fer­tile soil in the Amer­i­can tra­di­tion of vol­un­teerism and com­mu­nal respon­si­bil­i­ty. A pro­fes­sor of Jew­ish His­to­ry and for­mer provost of the Jew­ish The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary, Wertheimer traces the ori­gins of Jew­ish giv­ing and exam­ines in exten­sive detail how a sys­tem of phil­an­thropy devel­oped among Amer­i­can Jews and how it is func­tion­ing today. This is a sub­stan­tial piece of schol­ar­ship that com­bines his­to­ry and soci­ol­o­gy and pro­vides a wel­ter of data and case stud­ies. It is a log­i­cal and wor­thy suc­ces­sor to Wertheimer’s pre­vi­ous­ly, award-win­ning stud­ies of Amer­i­can Jew­ish life. 

The book is divid­ed into two major sec­tions. The first com­pris­es a three-chap­ter his­tor­i­cal sur­vey of the devel­op­ment of phil­an­thropy in the Unit­ed States. The sec­ond, based on soci­o­log­i­cal data, exam­ines the par­tic­i­pants in the sys­tem (donors); what the donors and donees think of each oth­er; and how the insti­tu­tions in the non-prof­it sec­tor func­tion. In keep­ing with Wertheimer’s tra­di­tion­al schol­ar­ly approach, there are near­ly sev­en­ty pages of notes and bibliography.

Although the last decade of Jew­ish life in the Unit­ed States has seen many chal­lenges, from the COVID epi­dem­ic to the Israeli-Gaza war, Wertheimer finds many con­ti­nu­ities in the field of phil­an­thropy. He points to the out­pour­ing of gen­eros­i­ty and respon­sive­ness of Jew­ish giv­ing to meet new chal­lenges and needs. In each gen­er­a­tion, Jews have risen to the occa­sion. He also notes and doesn’t down­play the major chal­lenges fac­ing Jew­ish phil­an­thropy, includ­ing the major decline in the per­cent­age of Jews who con­tribute to Jew­ish caus­es. These are relat­ed to broad­er trends in the Jew­ish demog­ra­phy — espe­cial­ly the decline in engage­ment with Jew­ish insti­tu­tions and prac­tices among non-Ortho­dox Jews; an increase in inter­mar­riage rates; a growth in the num­ber of young Jews who remain unwed; and a decline in iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with Israel among younger Jews (a trend prob­a­bly more pro­nounced since Octo­ber 7, 2023).

Anoth­er major trend Wertheimer stud­ies is the growth in the num­ber of mega-donors, who for the most part have tak­en up the slack caused by the decline in gen­er­al donors. Again, mega-donors have for a long time been a major part of phil­an­thropy and Wertheimer cites some well-known his­tor­i­cal exam­ples, like Judah Touro and Jacob Schiff. Today’s mega-donors play an out­sized role in the field, a role which has been sub­ject to some crit­i­cism. Many promi­nent Jew­ish mega-donors give mon­ey to caus­es that are not focused on Jew­ish issues and have turned away from the tra­di­tion­al insti­tu­tions of char­i­ty in favor of their own projects. 

The ques­tion of what is Jew­ish phil­an­thropy con­tin­ues to be debat­ed. Should Jew­ish giv­ing go to sup­port specif­i­cal­ly Jew­ish caus­es or should it be dis­trib­uted for the ben­e­fit of all peo­ple? Should it be a vehi­cle for the pro­mo­tion of the sta­tus of mega-donors whose names are fes­tooned over major pub­lic insti­tu­tions? Wertheimer is notable for objec­tive­ly exam­in­ing the issues and not rid­ing a crit­i­cal hob­by­horse. Notwith­stand­ing some of the prob­lems he rais­es, he con­cludes on a high note of praise for the remark­able accom­plish­ments of Jew­ish philanthropy.