eJewishphilanthropy

March 4, 2009

Dan Brown is the creator of eJewishphilanthropy.com. Some years ago, he sold his marketing business in Philadelphia, earned a masters degree in nonprofit management, and after several years of increasingly longer visits to Israel, decided that here is where he wanted to live. His new web endeavor was designed with several purposes in mind: to provide a newsfeed on Jewish philanthropy; to facilitate and provide web-based learning for nonprofits, and to enable web-based networking. I encourage anybody with interests in this area to explore the website and sign up for the newsletter. We met at the Aroma Coffee Shop in the bus station for a lively two and a half hour conversation that ranged far and wide in the world of Jewish philanthropy, including how to reach the next generation, the role of UJC, and the relationships between UJC and its major partners (JAFI and JDC). I was relieved when he wasn’t able to explain to me what the World Zionist Organization actually does anymore, since its recent active role in repatriating World War II assets. I have spent much time reviewing its website to come to a similar point in my understanding. It does play a prominent, if unexplained, role in JAFI, providing half of its board member, but more on that later.

I am beginning to think in Hebrew. Before boarding the 480 for the trip back to Tel Aviv after an invigorating day, I stopped at a bakery kiosk to buy some Hamentashen for Linda.

“Shesh esrey,” said the clerk. I did not need to translate consciously. I just reached into my pocket and took out a 10 shekel, 5 shekel, and 1 shekel coin to pay the 16 shekels. As I walked away, I thought in English, “I just gave away the 1 shekel coin that I was saving to pay to use the restroom in the bus station, before getting on the bus!”