American Jewish Philanthropy: Overview of Research between 2000 and 2020

Abstract

This article provides an overview of research on American Jewish philanthropy since 2000. We describe how this field is being studied and call attention to gaps in existing scholarship. The review sheds light on an important philanthropic community and reveals the difficulty of defining American Jewish philanthropy and studying its giving patterns. We show that several areas of Jewish philanthropy remain understudied, including the scope and trends of giving, changes in organized Jewish giving, generational succession sustaining Jewish philanthropy, and the growing importance of donor-advised funds. The review provides an up-to-date collection of sources beneficial to scholars who research nonprofit organizations and philanthropy and are interested in studying Jewish philanthropy and suggests several paths for future research.