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American Jewish donations to Israel

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Abstract

Jewish philanthropy to Israel, as measured by the annual United Jewish Appeal (UJA) campaigns, declined in the 1990s. A model of donors’ costs of gathering and updating stocks of information about recipients predicts both the centralized structure of general Jewish philanthropic giving (the Federation system) and the recent shifts away from giving through umbrella organizations. Donors have been changing the paths of donations, increasing their giving directly to foreign groups like the “Friends of ...f#x201D; organizations. While the UJA has had lower amounts to send to Israel, the decline has been more than compensated for by increases in such direct giving to Israel, even when measured in real terms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

    Helen Roberts

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  1. Helen Roberts
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This paper was prepared for the Conference on the Economics of Judaism and Jewish Observance, Bar-Ilan University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, December 13-16, 1998. I’d like to thank conference participants and the El AI security personnel at Newark airport. Special thanks are due to Carmel U. Chiswick and Barry R. Chiswick for helpful discussions and background information. All errors and omissions are, of course, my own.

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Roberts, H. American Jewish donations to Israel. Cont Jewry 20, 201–213 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02967965

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