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ADAM MILSTEIN

A PROUD ISRAELI-AMERICAN ACTIVE PHILANTHROPIST

How do you galvanize a community that has forgotten its heritage? As Adam Milstein realized 15 years ago, it takes passionate determination and tireless effort. Milstein emigrated from Israel with his wife and daughters in the early 1980s, became an American citizen in 1986, and built a thriving real estate development business. Around the year 2000, his daughters started dating young men who weren’t Jewish. He told his daughters he hoped they’d marry Jewish husbands. They asked him why. Faced with this question from his daughters, Milstein realized he didn’t have an answer. As an Israeli, he’d spent his time  Read More…

For a long time, Jews who stayed in Israel had a negative view of those who left. They coined it yerida, the descent, to leave the homeland to live in the diaspora. Native Israelis called Israeli expatriates yordim, meaning those who’d gone down. Perhaps feeling some measure of guilt for their choice, Israeli expats told themselves they hadn’t left forever. Someday, they told themselves and their families, they’d return home. Adam Milstein, an Israeli-American real estate developer and philanthropist, left Haifa in the early 1980s with his wife and two daughters. He earned his MBA from the University of Southern  Read More…

When you look at the success of Silicon Valley, you see that most of it began at Stanford University. Starting with David Packard and William Hewlett’s little garage-founded electronic company in 1939, Stanford talent generated some of the Valley’s biggest successes, including Google and Cisco Systems. Every year, companies founded by Stanford alumni pump $2.7 trillion into the American economy. Since the 1930s, Stanford alumni have created over 5.4 million jobs. Israel has a similar talent incubation system, but it’s not a university. It’s Unit 8200, the elite cybersecurity niche of the Israeli Defense Forces. Eighteen-year-old whiz kids go into  Read More…

For Israeli-American real estate mogul and philanthropist Adam Milstein, building on-campus alliances in support of Israel has become a top priority. Within the past year, Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campus groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), have added 40 campuses to their roster, giving them a presence on 150 campuses. According to the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), SJP and similar groups gain ground by building alliances with progressive on-campus organizations such as those promoting environmental causes, LGBT advocacy, immigration reform, race relations, and prison reform. Although BDS hasn’t sparked a frightening level of anti-Israel backlash  Read More…

n the two years since the Israeli Leadership Council changed its name to the Israeli-American Council, its budget went from $4.5 million in 2012 to $17.5 million for 2015. Part of the influx comes from newly supportive backers Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, but even without the Adelsons’ $10 million donation for 2015, the budget for IAC increased by 40% in the years since the name change. Co-founder Adam Milstein championed the change, and some within the organization questioned it at first. Board member Eli Tene told the Jewish Journal that he remembered thinking, “Why change what’s working?” Yet Milstein’s idea  Read More…

For Jews raised in Israel, Jewish life operates on autopilot. The Jewish calendar governs all affairs, and all businesses close on Jewish holidays. Families share Jewish celebrations in schools, in public, and with one another. In the U.S., especially in areas without vibrant Jewish communities, it requires effort to connect to the Jewish community. Israelis who come to America have to pay for Jewish day school and Jewish private schools. They have to pay to join synagogues, which are the hubs of American Jewish life. Making these investments seems unnecessary for Israelis who always think they’ll eventually return home. Then,  Read More…

Today’s American Jewish community is a mix of Orthodox and non-Orthodox, a blend of multi-generation Americans and emigrants from modern-day Israel. A recent Pew Research release, for example, suggests that Orthodox Jews have more in common with American evangelicals than with other ethnic Jews. As American Jews diverge on matters of faith, increasing numbers are finding unity in what Israeli American Council COO Miri Belsky calls “Israeliness.” Israeli-American philanthropists like Adam Milstein advocate for the homeland by uniting religious and secular Jews in America around their common heritage. BDS and the New Anti-Semitism The pro-Palestinian BDS movement has gained favor  Read More…

In the turbulent Middle East, Israel has benefited greatly from its alliance with American allies. The U.S. has contributed a collective $121 billion to support Israel, which, along with Turkey, is the Middle East’s only stable and proven democracy. To assume that the benefits are only one-sided, however, ignores Israel’s increasing importance to American economic growth. For decades, Israelis have contributed to the American economy, both within the U.S. and back home. True Economic Partnership Many Americans in the Christian evangelical community support Israel because of its biblical significance. They see Israel as a land given by G-d to the  Read More…

Adam Milstein emigrated from Israel to America in the early 1980s. He finished his MBA, became a real estate developer, and earned his American citizenship in 1986. He stayed in America for 20 years without building deep connections with the American Jewish community. He sent his two daughters to Jewish day schools in Los Angeles, but both girls attended secular high schools. Around 2002, Milstein realized how much he and his family had assimilated into American life and how little of his Israeli identity had been passed on to his daughters. “Kids don’t want to be Israelis or immigrants,” Milstein  Read More…

The concept of tzedakah isn’t directly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, but it’s one of the biggest reasons why so many people of Jewish descent get involved in philanthropy. Tzedakah isn’t charity, exactly; charity implies giving from generosity of spirit or compassion. Tzedakah is an obligation, borne from an ancient understanding that your money belongs to G-d anyway, and he expects you to give some to others as part of good stewardship. Some argue that tzedakah is as much about giving time as it is about giving money. According to Maimonides, the highest form of tzedakah gives others the ability  Read More…