A downward economic cycle, exacerbated by the dot-com/technologies bust and the recent Sept. 11 attacks, has taken its toll on segments of the Jewish nonprofit world.
Forgive Lee Wallach if he sounds like a commercial for the organized Jewish community. Wallach says he owes his life to the Los Angeles Jewish community, and he is worried that the current economic downturn might endanger the service programs that guided him from an orphanage to a successful — and Jewish — life.
Southern California\’s economy already has withstood the past year\’s downturn — and the cataclysmic events of Sept. 11 — better than many competing regions.
Las Vegas isn\’t exactly the holiest place on earth. Hotels on the Strip have dumped the family-friendly approach in favor of European-style topless shows, and much of the praying takes place at craps tables and roulette wheels.
It is common to find couples with different, and even conflicting, attitudes toward spending money.
As Los Angeles housing prices continue their upward climb, members of Orthodox and Conservative communities are having a tougher time finding affordable houses to buy within walking distance of their synagogues — a must for observant Jews who don\’t drive on Shabbat.
Jewish charitable organizations are not going to get the help they were hoping for in the new tax bill, since the final version leaves out a proposal that might have boosted giving by billions of dollars.
When the stock market entered bear territory last month, individual investors weren\’t the only ones taking note. The continued softening of the market can also have a major effect on nonprofit organizations, many of which have benefited greatly from an exceptional run during the past five years.
While it\’s still too early to tell how the recent changes will affect Jewish nonprofits in Los Angeles, fundraisers at some of the city\’s largest philanthropic organizations say they\’re not worried yet.
The revelations in my book "IBM and the Holocaust" sprang upon the world Feb. 12. The book documented IBM\’s strategic business and consultative alliance with Nazi Germany beginning from the first moment of the Hitler regime in 1933 and continuing right into the war.
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