Who We Are
A legacy of caring. A leader in nonprofit grants.
Our Mission
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is dedicated to meeting the basic needs of people experiencing poverty. Each year, the Foundation gives about $150 million in grants to nonprofits in the United States and Israel that provide direct services in the areas of Housing, Health, Jobs, Education, and Aging. Grants serve a range of individuals, including women at risk and their children, older adults, people with disabilities, and the Jewish community.
The Foundation distributes most of its funding in its priority communities, which have personal ties to the life and legacy of Harry Weinberg and are places where Foundation trustees reside and provide leadership.
Commitment to the Jewish Community
In the late 1930s, Harry Weinberg pledged his then-modest assets to enable many German Jews to reach safe haven in America. As Harry’s means increased over many years, so did his support of the Jewish community. This commitment remains at the core of the Weinberg Foundation’s identity.
The Weinberg Foundation supports organizations that serve people experiencing poverty within the Jewish community, both in the United States and Israel. Grants to support the Jewish community align with the Foundation’s funding priorities within the areas of Housing, Health, Jobs, Education, and Aging.
In Israel, the Foundation has a long history of supporting direct service-providers, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s (JDC) work dedicated to serving older adults (Eshel) and providing job training for low-income individuals (TEVET). In 2018, the Foundation expanded its commitment in Israel to organizations serving women at risk and their children. For more on the Foundation’s grantmaking in Israel, please click here.
In North America, over nearly three decades, the Foundation has provided approximately $30 million to organizations serving Holocaust survivors, and in Baltimore the Foundation is the largest contributor to The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, providing one of the single largest annual campaign gifts to any Jewish federation.
The Foundation also engages in a range of strategic initiatives focused on addressing Jewish poverty on a national scale, especially through its leading role in founding Together Ending Need. In addition, the Foundation supports various initiatives that strengthen the Jewish nonprofit sector, including those working to develop the next generation of leaders and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Jewish community.
Key Initiatives
Together Ending Need
In partnership with the Jewish Funders Network, the Foundation supports a nationwide collaborative effort dedicated to addressing poverty within the U.S. Jewish community. Launched during the 2019 National Convening on Jewish Poverty, Together Ending Need’s goals include assembling reliable and uniform data on Jewish poverty in America; changing the narrative on Jewish poverty; and developing, aggregating, and sharing best practices and models for reducing poverty.
Leading Edge
This nonprofit helps Jewish organizations attract, develop, and retain top talent by offering programs for onboarding new CEOs, strengthening partnerships between lay leaders and professionals, and conducting original research.
Yashar: Support for Inclusion at Jewish Camp
This initiative in partnership with the Foundation for Jewish Camp aims to enhance accessibility and inclusion for campers and staff with disabilities through capital improvements, professional development, staff training, research, and evaluation at participating camps and the broader field.
SafetyRespectEquity
The SafetyRespectEquity Network works to foster safe, respectful, and equitable Jewish workplaces and communal spaces. Through gatherings, research, and development of national standards, the network advances women’s leadership and gender equity, in addition to addressing sexual harassment, sexism, and gender discrimination.
There are eight levels of charity. The highest is helping a man to help himself.
שמונה דרגות לצדקה יש והרמה העליונה היא לעזור לזולת להגיע לעצמאות.
– Maimonides
History
Like most immigrants coming to the United States in the early 1900s, Harry Weinberg’s family arrived with little more than hope and a willingness to work hard. Beyond their many challenges, they saw opportunity.
Harry was gifted with a keen business mind and entrepreneurial spirit. Despite leaving school at age 12, Harry built a career that turned one successful investment into another, often seeing value where others did not. In the 1950s and 1960s, he owned bus lines in several cities, including Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Again seeing opportunity, and before many others recognized the eventual value of real estate in Hawai‘i, Harry began purchasing properties throughout the Hawaiian Islands. At the time of his death, Harry Weinberg was the largest single real estate investor in Hawai‘i.
However, Harry never forgot his humble roots. In 1959, he created The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to help meet the needs of low-income and vulnerable people. The Foundation as we know it today has existed since 1990, when Harry Weinberg died, a year after his beloved wife, Jeanette, passed away. Today, the fortune that Harry amassed has grown to $3.1 billion — the assets that make possible the Weinberg Foundation’s grantmaking.
For information on key moments throughout the Foundation’s history, click here.
Employment
You can view the Weinberg Foundation’s current job openings here.
