A review of Solly Kaplinski’s evocative “Journeys into the Gentle Heart’ revealing the WHY of the WHO.
by David E. Kaplan
Travelling the length and breadth of Israel, you cannot fail to notice when visiting parks and forests, hospitals, water reservoirs, restored antiquities, universities and colleges, museums, kindergartens, special needs schools and other enriching medical, scientific or cultural institutions – the illuminating boards with the names of donors. These boards are an insight into the DNA of a special global Jewish community – a community of individuals who, having succeeded in their personal lives in the lands they live, then want to contribute to the success of the land of their collective dream – the eternal Jewish homeland of Israel.
Alongside the family names on these donor boards invariably appear the cities they hail from. Typically, you’ll see Sydney or Melbourne, Cape Town or Johannesburg, Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, LA, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia or New York or multiple cities across Europe and the UK to name but a few. Short in wording, these donor boards are long in their message. It tells a story of a collective venture – and for many of them an “adventure” – of like-minded visionaries and of shared family values that transcends global geography, embraces Jewish history and ensures Jewish continuity.
While earlier generations of philanthropists, notably the Rothschild and Montefiore families, contributed during the pioneering period to the creation and establishment of the Jewish state, the baton passed to ensuing generations who continued the legacy contributing to strengthening the state so that in the words of Israel’s illustrious diplomat, Abba Eban, “Israel’s future will be longer than its past.”
So, while we gaze at the donor boards and recognise many of the family names, what is less known is the ‘WHY’.
This is the question that fascinated Solly Kaplinski, who has spent much of his working life professionally engaging with “givers”. The result of his enquiry is his latest book ‘JOURNEYS INTO THE GENTLE HEART – The World Is Built With Kindness’, where Solly engages with 50 donor families, “who I know personally and with whom I worked – in some cases over a 20-year period. ”Most of the material “was solicited via a combination of interviews, drafts submitted and finessed, and zoom calls.” It makes fascinating reading and particularly instructive to those engaged in the multifaceted world of fundraising.
Solly has all the attributes to explore the world of Jewish philanthropy. An engaging personality, author, poet and the son of Holocaust survivors – his parents survived the Shoah as a member of the Bielski partisans in the forests of Poland – Solly, before settling in Israel with his family 25 years ago, headed Jewish Day Schools first in Cape Town in his native South Africa and later in Canada. In Israel, he went on to serve as Yad Vashem’s Director of the English Desk and thereafter served as the JDC’s Executive Director of Overseas Joint Ventures. These experiences gave Solly an amplified insight into the global world of Jewish philanthropy and to understand the mindset of donors.
An added dimension to his book is that it was written over a period of traumatic transition in the Jewish world covering pre and post the October 7, 2023 massacre. Has something fundamentally changed in the nature and scope of fundraising from pre to post October 7, 2023? Solly recalls in his foreward, a memory of the response of Jewish communities in South Africa and around the world “when confronted with Israel’s existential crises in the days leading up to the 6-Day War in June 1967, when mass graves were being prepared in Israel,” and how huge sums of money were raised with people “even pawning their jewelry and selling other items of value, to rally to the cause.”
Such was the passion and the commitment that has not only persisted but intensified over time. Rallying “to the cause” remains a key thread throughout Solly’s book and clearly reinforced following October 7.
“The massive challenge” in the post October 7 world, Solly writes, “is to focus on Israel’s long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction which will be incalculable.” His guess is that “donors will be faced with how to continue supporting the causes which speak most to them – and how to reconcile that, given the new realities of Israel’s desperate situation and plight, where one may feel obliged and compelled out of necessity, to engage in more Israel-centered philanthropy – a no-choice philanthropy. Of course, it doesn’t have to be an either-or choice: the pie can be expanded and there will be many who will give over and above.” I sense Solly is eluding here to the similarity of the calling today that transpired during the pre and post period of the 6-Day War.
Noting the current “frailty and fragility” of Israel’s current situation and “the horrific rise in antisemitism around the world,” Solly surmises that the current “joint partnership” between Israel and the Diaspora Jewry “may very well need to be refracted through a different prism.”
This intensified concern for Israel is shared by many of the donors Solly interviewed. Canadian philanthropist and corporate lawyer, Gail Asper from Winipeg, expressed that “…when Israel is in crisis as a result, for example, of the devastating and horrific attacks of October 7, 2023, I feel it is our responsibility to make Israel, the only home for the Jewish people, a top, unconditional priority.” President and a trustee of the Asper Foundation, Gail sums up a common sentiment of most donors when she concludes:
“If we all work together, we can ensure the Jewish people will flourish in perpetuity.”
In the same vein, Executive Director of ANKA Property Group, Vera Boyarsky from Sydney Australia believes:
“Without a healthy Israel we can’t hold our heads high and confidant. As my late father said, “Give till it hurts as it’s only money; the people in Israel are giving their lives.”
Set on addressing the needs of Israel’s tomorrows is Sir Mick Davis from London, whose brother Ricky Davis participated in Israel’s heroic Entebbe Raid of 1976. Says Davis:
“When this war is won…philanthropists will need to channel energy and passion into addressing the challenges of Israel’s future strength. For too long we have allowed massive economic, educational, and health disparities to fester in Israeli society, creating divisions that have been too easy for unscrupulous populists to exploit. We must strive to distribute access to the opportunities of Israel’s innovative economy the length and breadth of the country, across every section of the economy.”
Davis sees the role of the philanthropist in “ensuring that Israel is able to maintain its qualitive edge in the years and decades to come,” and “while it is not ours to finish the job, our Jewish souls will not allow us to desist from it.”
In addition to a love of Israel is the aspect of family values, of instilling in the next generation the desire to contribute to the upliftment of those less fortune or in need. Both are best articulated by Jeremy Dunkel from Sydney, Australia:
“Philanthropy is often part of the conversation around our dinner table, as we hope to pass on our love for, and commitment to the global Jewish community to our children. The tragic events of October 7 have only reinforced this, illustrating that we are one people, and are collectively responsible for the welfare of our brothers and sisters in Israel, and throughout the Diaspora.”
Also emphasizing the enormous impact of October 7 is retired Baltimore judge, Ellen M. Heller. Raised in a modest “blue collar” East Baltimore neighborhood after the end of WWII “where we were the only Jewish family. My family, like others, lived modestly. Most of the clothes my sisters and I wore had been passed on by cousins.” For Ellen, October 7 is a date “that will always be in the annals of unthinkable, cruel pogroms against Jews: the slaughter of innocent people – grandparents, parents, children, infants. With this day of devastation, I have realized an important component of my philanthropy: the giving that comes from the emotion, the strong anguish to be of help and to save lives – in this instance Jewish lives, lives of our people. This giving derives from the basic instinct and determination that our people and the existence of our Jewish homeland must survive.”
For some of a particular generation, a strong motivation towards philanthropy has been the impact of the Holocaust. This is the case with Eva Fischl OAM, President of The Joint Australia, who defines herself “as a Holocaust survivor,” and says plainly, “my actions are a product of that definition.” Being a Holocaust survivor, “carries huge baggage around my survival. It depicts pain, anxiety, fear, sorrow, sometimes guilt of surviving with the knowledge that both family and others have died.” For Eva, it propelled a devotion “of 42 years of my life to my fellow Jews – anchored by the belief that the Shoah, the supreme example of rendering people powerless, behoves those that can – to help.”
So too are Lottie and Ervin Vidor from Sydney both Holocaust survivors, “who arrived in Australia with just the clothes on our backs.” Lottie came in 1949 “with my parents, after wandering around Poland for almost four years in the hope of getting a visa to the USA or Australia…”
For the Vidors, “…to support the local community as well as Israel is in our DNA – and makes us feel both humble and grateful.”
Originally from Cape Town South Africa Peter and Elaine Smaller from Sydney, have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and are “enjoying the philanthropic side of our lives.” This would appear to be an important factor in sustaining enthusiasm for constantly giving. Peter says he grew up “in a household where philanthropy was ever present.” Of his parents, “I never heard them say no to anyone asking for help – both Jewish and non-Jewish causes.”
Elaine sees the need “to build a strong Israel. Especially today. That sense of – we are nothing without a strong Israel-has driven my philanthropy. I am eternally grateful for those who live in Israel and face a daily existential threat, so that I can live in peace in the Diaspora.”
There are those that give out of deep religiosity. For Nicole Yoder of Jerusalem, “Giving reminds me that I have nothing that I didn’t receive as a blessing from above. This keeps me grounded. Giving enables me to express my compassion. I like to give where my giving can make a life changing difference to someone.” As Vice President for Aid & Aliyah at the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, “…it is a source of joy and fulfilment that the ICEJ has defended and stood with Israel, especially today.”
There are throughout instructive tidbits. For example, one anonymous donor from Washington, USA, expressed that what was especially important for him was “…that the maximum amount of my gift actually reaches the people in need and is not lost in the administration of the organization.” In this respect he refers to a leading authority in the Sanhedrin in the early first century CE, Rabban Gamliel who once said, “Do not give an excess tithe through guesswork.” (Pirkei Avot 1:16).” In other words, “Do your homework!”
For Kevin Kalinko of Sydney whose family supports many Israeli charities as well as local and international Jewish causes, one of the questions now being raised as they define their family’s philanthropic strategy is “Do we give more to fewer organizations or less to more organizations?” Wanting to optimize one’s impact, I assume it’s not an uncommon challenge to most philanthropists. An illuminating gem in the Kalinko interview was his recollection from his early 20s while backpacking in Turkey on a very tight budget, “I negotiated to buy yesterday’s bread for half price from the local bakery in Istanbul. One morning, I was sitting on the side of the road in front of the bakery, with yesterdays pide about to eat my breakfast,” when he noticed that the man sitting next to him had a selection of cheeses, olives, vegetables and bread. “He looked at my pide and back at his meal and then offered to share his meal. When I paid more attention to the man…I realized he was homeless. He had little to give but was willing to give that which was important him.” This story reminded me of Solly writing in his foreward of cases of Jews in the Diaspora in response to the 6-Day War of “even pawing their jewellery and selling other items of value, to rally to the cause.”
Solly delightfully likens a fundraiser to a shadchan – a matchmaker. He refers to a lesson he learnt from his teacher Rabbi Edward Abrahamson, “that a shadchan doesn’t just bring a man and a woman together to get married; he or she is giving them the great z’chut to find a partner in life, to raise a family – and to build a Jewish home. And in a similar vein, we as fundraisers, are helping donors to understand – and embrace the power that they have to do good and do what is just, right, honest and moral.”
In what motivates all these donors to so generously support causes “close to Home” – where ‘home’ could be the city where they live or their beloved Israel where their heart lies no less, I will end with Sara and Irwin Tauben of Montreal.
Like many of the donors in Solly’s book – as with Solly himself – the Holocaust casted a giant shadow over Irwin, whose parents were the “sole Shoah survivors of their families” and who came to Montreal “with nothing but love for each other and the will to succeed – and to give their family a better life.” One month after their arrival in Canada, Irwin was born.
Says Irwin who together with Sara, support causes in Canada, worldwide and Israel:
“My father used to tell us: ‘Never look up; always look down.’ This was his way of telling us not to envy those with more, but to be grateful that we can help those in need.”
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The book – useful for those in the field of fundraising and resource development – is available for free and can also be read free online at: www.journeysintothegentleheart.com
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
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