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March 19th, 2012

The Best of Both Worlds: Back to the Future of Philanthropy

Cross-posted from eJewishPhilanthropy and the Council on Foundation’s Re:Philanthropy blog.

As part of eJewishPhilanthropy’s crowdsourced conversation, What is Jewish Philanthropy?, I share why I am more optimistic than ever about the future of Jewish philanthropy. I invite you to comment below. Do you agree that the future of Jewish philanthropy looks brights? Do you believe that the greatest philanthropists are those who give both time and money?

Ask anyone to name the greatest philanthropists of all time—Jewish or otherwise—and they will invariably identify people known for giving away huge sums of money. From Rockefeller to Rothschild, from Buffet to Blaustein, from Morgan to Montefiore, most of us have come to equate philanthropy with the charitable contributions of people of immense wealth. Read More »

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Sandy Cardin

January 21st, 2011

Yom Haledech Sameach!

Yep, it’s that special day of the year on which we celebrate the birth of Ms. Lynn Josey Schusterman, our intrepid leader.

She was born in 1939, a little more than two weeks after Amelia Earhart—missing since July 2, 1927—was officially declared dead and when college students raised a little hell by swallowing goldfish at parties. Later that same year, John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath, Lou Gehrig retires from baseball, the St. Louis—a ship carrying 907 Jewish refugees—is denied permission to land in Cuba or Florida and is forced to return to Europe, and Germany starts World War II. Read More »

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Sandy Cardin

January 11th, 2011

Travels to China, Part Two: China Patterns

This is the second in a two-part series describing Sandy’s recent trip to China. You can read the first part here.

Despite being home to 20 million people, Shanghai seemed almost empty during my stay there. Apparently, it is always very quiet this time of year, as many of the foreigners leave town for the holidays and relatively few travelers make officially religion-lite China a Christmas destination.

I say “officially” because there are five “recognized” religions in China: Buddhism, Daoism, Protestant Christianity, a special Chinese (not Roman) Catholicism and Islam. That said, there are four synagogues in Shanghai that the government allows to function without proper permits: two Chabad Houses; one in a residential building on the western side of the city; and another, Ohel Rachel, located in a government compound and used only on major holidays (although the government did allow it to remain open during the recently concluded Shanghai World Expo). Read More »

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Sandy Cardin

January 11th, 2011

A Brief History of Jewish Shanghai

This description of the history of Jewish life in Shanghai is part of series describing Sandy’s recent travels to China. You can read part one here and part two here. As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments!

The city of Shanghai was a small, insignificant place until the mid-1800′s when the Chinese lost the Opium War in 1842 and, as part of the Nanjing Treaty with Britain, agreed to let the British establish five ports for international trade, one of which was Shanghai.

As it turns out, what was good for the British was good for the Jews. Among the first of those to take advantage of what was known as the British Concession was a Baghdadi Jewish family headed by David Sassoon. The Sassoons went from Baghdad to India, then to Hong Kong (where David served on the founding provisional committee of what is today one of the largest banks in the world, the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Company or HSBC). Read More »

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Sandy Cardin

January 7th, 2011

Travels to China, Part One: Back to the Future

This is the first in a two-part series describing Sandy’s recent trip to China. You can read the second part here.

As much time as I spend in various cities and countries around the world, most of my trips are usually one or two dimensional. I am there for work or for vacation, for a specific purpose or for none at all. I stay in one hotel and I share my time with the same people.

In the case of my recent trip to China, however, just the opposite was true. It had been more than 30 years since I last visited the Middle Kingdom as part of the round-the-world journey I enjoyed after taking the bar exam in 1981. This time, I was here to work and to tour, to attend two very focused seminars and to learn about the culture in general.

Needless to say, much had changed since I last came to China’s shores—and some things seemed not to have changed at all. I spent time in two cities: Shanghai, a massive place of 20 million people, once considered the Paris of the Orient and now the New York of Asia. I also visited the ancient city of Xi’an, home to more than 8 million people but not yet to the many technological and economic advances so evident in Shanghai. Read More »

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Sandy Cardin

September 2nd, 2010

Trends Versus Trendiness

As a representative of one of the funders responsible for creating STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) 10 years ago in an effort to help congregations of all Jewish denominations expand their reach, I recently read with great interest an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks back that chastised “Wannabe Cool Christianity”—i.e., attempts by evangelical leaders to engage young people in the life of their church.

The author, 27-year-old evangelical Brett McCracken, bemoans the extent to which many church leaders have gone to bring popular culture to their pulpits, quoting from rock musicians, using rock music in the service, or even holding services in a bar or nightclub. Read More »

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Sandy Cardin

August 16th, 2010

The Need for Followership Programs

Sandy Cardin is president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. This article was first published on JTA on Aug. 16, 2010.

“Another leadership development program? Don’t we already have enough of them in the Jewish world? What I think we need are some ‘followership’ programs. Go find me some of those to fund.”

When Charles Schusterman spoke those words to me in 1999, he had a good point: back then, most Jewish organizations and foundations seemed more interested in producing leaders than in building inspired communities.

If Charles were alive today, however, I think he would feel otherwise. Read More »

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Sandy Cardin

July 13th, 2010

The Road Ahead of Us

Sandy Cardin is the President of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

In 1965, a musical entitled Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd opened on Broadway. The show was full of incredible songs, one of which—”It Isn’t Enough”—included these lyrics:

It isn’t enough to hope. It isn’t enough to dream. It isn’t enough to plot and plan and scheme.

It isn’t enough to stand here, saying that life is grand here, waiting for something good to turn up.

I am reminded of these lyrics today because, as pleased as I am with what our foundation has accomplished since I arrived in 1994, I am convinced—much like the characters in Roar of the Greasepaint—that what we have achieved to date simply isn’t enough. Read More »

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