The Synergistic Philanthropy of the Milstein Family Foundation

The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation has been a vital player in the Jewish philanthropy landscape for decades. Co-founder Adam Milstein was born in Israel and served in the IDF under Ariel Sharon during the devastating 1973 Yom Kippur War. After graduating from the Technion, Israel’s premier institute of technology, with a bachelor’s in business and economics, he and his wife Gila immigrated to the U.S. in 1981. He went on to earn his MBA from the University of Southern California, and the Milstein family stayed in Los Angeles where he built a successful career in commercial real estate investment.

But both Milstein and his Gila his wife felt they could make more of an impact outside of the real estate business. In a May 2024 episode of the podcast Giving Ventures, Adam describes the crossroads they reached: They asked themselves, “Where do we go next?” They “wanted to conquer new frontiers” as the goal of making more and more money commercial real estate was no longer satisfying their need to make meaningful change in their community. Milstein had always donated to Jewish causes, so he and Gila made the decision to make Jewish philanthropy more of a full-time pursuit. He wanted to give more than just money, so he leveraged his time and effort toward building “a big ecosystem or organizations and likeminded individuals that have the same goals and mission in mind, being to fight Jew-hatred, support the State of Israel, and protect American democracy.” 

With that mandate, the Milsteins founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation in 2000, a nonprofit foundation based in Los Angeles. Its mission is to strengthen American values, support the U.S.-Israel alliance and combat hatred and bigotry in all forms. Milstein wanted to make as much of an impact as he could with the foundation, which meant being strategic in choosing which organizations to support. He always aimed for “synergy,” which he described in detail in an interview for Tribemagazine:

“That means every program we do needs to help other programs. We don’t like to help projects that are stand-alone and have no impact on anything else. We are looking for partnerships. We are looking for ways to make stronger relationships between organizations and to be creating a force multiplier so that one plus one equals five.”

JNS reports that Milstein “ensures that every program [his foundation] funds is shared among multiple groups.” Adam told JNS: “Everything that I do, I put a few organizations together, I make them work together, make them empower each other, and create a force multiplier.”

This is evident in the array of organizations the Milstein Family Foundation supports and how closely connected they are in their missions. Sixty-two of those organizations are listed on the foundation’s website, and they fall into similar categories: strengthening American values and democracy worldwide, supporting Israel and combatting hatred, most notably antisemitism.

The foundation strengthens American values through its support of organizations like   Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan research and policy institute founded after the September 11, 2001 attacks with a focus on “strengthening U.S. national security and reducing or eliminating threats posed by adversaries and enemies of the United States and other free nations.”

Another beneficiary is the Middle East Forum, a nonprofit that “promotes American interest in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats.” Milstein has consistently warned the Jewish community, as well as the American security apparatus, of the threats Middle Eastern radicalism and violence poses not just to Jews, but American interests and Western values such as individual freedoms, liberalism and freedom of religion.

Many of the organizations the Milstein Family Foundation supports are geared toward education about Israel and antisemitism. Birthright Israel is a well-known program that brings Jewish young adults to Israel to help them forge a personal connection with the land of the Bible, the people and their Jewish heritage. OpenDor Media is an educational media platform that puts out digital content for an audience of millions, such as the stellar podcast hosted by OpenDor’s EVP Noam Weissman Unpacking Israeli History, which consistently ranks as the #1 trending Jewish podcast.

Milstein is outspoken about the dangers posed by the antisemitism and anti-Zionism that festers on American college campuses. His foundation supports organizations that do vital work on campus to educate students about Israel and combat antisemitic narratives. Two such organization, StandWithUs and Alums for Campus Fairness, work in close partnership. StandWithUs allows “pro-Israel student leaders from campuses all over the world to come together and enhance their skills and knowledge to be more capable leaders on their campuses” while Alums for Campus Fairness empowers and brings together alumni to counter antisemitism on campus and promote open, honest dialogue about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The foundation also empowers organizations that focus on media and journalistic fairness. Jew hatred proliferates quicky online, so the Online Antisemitism Task Force works hard to root out hate speech and antisemitism on the internet and across social media. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) monitors coverage of Israel and the Middle East and promotes accurate and balanced reporting. HonestReporting is a non-partisan organization that combats ideological bias in journalism and the media, especially with regard to coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

By supporting a network of organizations like these whose missions closely align, the Milstein Family Foundation is able to multiply its impact. The result is a wave of meaningful change for Jews, the U.S., Israel and democratic societies globally. 

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