Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc. : About Us

The most recent history of The Weinberg Foundation was provided as part of The Weinberg Foundation’s 15 Year Retrospective, a document that was produced and distributed in 2005. Part of the Retrospective included a President’s Letter by Shale Stiller. Excerpts of that letter are provided below.

Founded in 1959, 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Today The Weinberg Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States.

Born in 1908 in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, Harry Weinberg and his family immigrated to the United States in 1911. His education was meager and his family was poor, but these handicaps were never obstacles to his becoming one of the leading financial geniuses of his era.

Mr. Weinberg never forgot, or even attempted to forget, his perilous beginnings. In 1959, he created The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Until his death 31 years later, he made significant gifts to the Foundation which, in turn, transferred much of that largesse to a number of important charitable organizations. The Foundation did not reach its maturity until Mr. Weinberg’s death in 1990 when, pursuant to the terms of his last will and testament, it was the beneficiary of substantially all of his billion-dollar estate.

From November 1990 until February 2005, the Foundation was led by Bernard Siegel. Mr. Siegel established the reputation of the Foundation in many areas of philanthropy and was instrumental in causing the net value of the Foundation to substantially increase.

The Foundation’s sole purpose is to assist poor and vulnerable individuals through operating, program and capital grants to direct service organizations. Most of the Foundation’s $100 million annual grant making is for the benefit of poor people primarily located in Maryland, Hawaii, Northeastern Pennsylvania, New York, Israel, and the Former Soviet Union. These grants are focused on meeting basic needs such as shelter, nutrition, health, and socialization, and on enhancing an individual’s ability to meet those needs. Within that focus, emphasis is placed on older adults and on the Jewish community.

The largest single priority for grantmaking by The Weinberg Foundation is help for poor older adults. This decision of the Foundation is based on four factors:

The many instances when Mr. Weinberg, although a “tough” businessman, would melt in his encounters with poor older adults. The most famous of these occurred in 1988 when, after visiting five old-style nursing homes in Israel and observing the discomfort of the residents because there was no air-conditioning, he wrote a check on the spot for $1 million to The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to air-condition all five of the homes;
The ever-increasing numbers of poor older adults, created by longer life expectancies and greater financial needs of many of these individuals;
The unfortunate fact that most other major foundations give very little to help this particular population; and
The sentiments expressed so ably by one of the great moral leaders of the 20th century, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “The test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.”

By charter, the Foundation is prohibited from giving funds to colleges, universities, and cultural institutions. As a matter of practice, the Foundation also does not support think tanks, research organizations, and advocacy groups, a policy engendered by this comment of Mr. Weinberg: “While others are finding the cures for all the ills of the world, someone will be hungry, someone will be cold. That’s our job.”

Mr. Weinberg’s view, and the mission of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, is a reflection of a famous statement in the Talmud: “If all the afflictions of the world were assembled on one side of the scale and poverty on the other, poverty would outweigh them all.” The imbalance of that scale has always been true, and despite heroic efforts by many valiant people, it will probably always be true.

The challenge of the Board and staff of The Weinberg Foundation, therefore, is not the grandiose idealism of those who believe that poverty can be eliminated. The challenge is far more modest: to help to alleviate the problems of a finite number of poor people in the most intelligent way possible.

The Board harbors no illusions that in seeking to fulfill this quest, it will make no mistakes. The grant-making role of foundations is very tough work. The Board must be pro-active and not simply react to the requests submitted by applicants. The Board must also, with the help of experts, educate itself in the substantive areas in which its grantees operate.

The Board must challenge its grantees by asking the right questions, a role reminiscent of the wonderful story about his mother told by the great Nobel physicist, I.I. Rabi. When Rabi was a schoolboy and would return home each day, his mother would never ask him: "What information did you learn today?" Instead, she would ask: "Did you ask any good questions today?" If the Board of the Foundation can attempt to be Rabi-like by asking the good questions, it will have gone a long way in giving away The Foundation's money in the most intelligent way.