Author Archives: Stewardship Foundation

10 Days in Israel – Despite Hamas Bombs

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Despite the whine of bomb sirens and feelings of uneasiness huddling in bomb shelters, the young people signed up for Birthright Israel are still flooding into the country. For most of us Americans, it might seem that plunging into a study of Israel during such a time of conflict would be insane, but the young people, and their consenting parents, consider it a learning experience about daily life in Israel.

Birthright Israel groupTaglit-Birthright Israel, known here as simply Birthright Israel, is the brainchild of Charles R. Bronfman, a Canadian / American businessman and philanthropist who inherited Seagram spirits empire (sold to Vivendi for $34 billion) and today is the father of a family of charitable foundations including Taglit-Birthright Israel that sends Jewish youth from all over the world on free educational tours of Israel.

Philanthropy is part of the Bronfman DNA. As children, Charles and his siblings knitted squares for blankets to be sent to the troops overseas during WWII. At 17, he began to solicit money for the United Jewish Appeal. From a poor Jewish neighborhood in Montreal, he collected 50 cents from 20 friends, even though he could have donated the $10 himself and simply written their names on the donation. He did it because he wanted the donors to experience how good it feels to participate in helping others.

The Bronfman DNA is evident in Birthright Israel today, even with Hamas rockets raining down on Israel. In late July, the website reports that “fewer than 10 of the 6,000+ participants that came to Israel in the past 15 days have left trips earlier than planned.”

Birthright Israel is the first Jewish educational program with a waiting list bigger than the number of applicants who actually are able to participate in the 10-day, all expense paid live and learn experience. Over 400,000 young adults from around the world, ages 18 – 26, have taken this journey.

The Bronfman family wants young Jewish people to come to Israel to see it, experience it, talk about it, and think about what Israel means for them and the Jewish people. The New York Times published an article August 1 that recounts the personal experiences of participants who have just recently returned from their trip to the Middle East with the Taglit-Birthright Israel organization.

We live in a passionate world and our hearts go out to all those who are suffering on both sides of this conflict. We pray for quick and permanent solution and ask you to join us in this petition for peace and religious freedom.

Patriotism, Taxes, and Liberty

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In 2008, Vice President Joe Biden suggested in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America host Kate Snow that shelling out more to government is patriotic. “It’s time to be patriotic, Kate. Time to join in, time to be part of the deal, time to help America out of the rut…”

Four years later, America’s debt continues to rise, so should we all wave the flag with one hand and and pay higher taxes with the other? If we do, are we better patriots?

Not if you listen to the honorable Judge Learned Hand (1872-1961), a US judge and judicial philosopher who served on the US District Court in New York and later the US Court of Appeals Second Circuit. Judge Hand has been quoted more often by legal scholars and by the Supreme Court that any other lower-court judge.

Because we’re in the business of helping donors avoid unnecessary taxation, our favorite quote from Judge Learned Hand is this:

God Bless America“Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.”

And because it’s July 4th week, our country is in the midst of an immigration crisis the likes we’ve not seen in our lifetime, we wanted to share another noble address the judge gave in 1944 during an address in Central Park at the annual “I Am an American Day” event where newly naturalized citizens swore the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America:

“What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.”

We wish all our friends, fellow advisors, and partners a blessed and joyous July 4th, and may God Bless America.

April is the Cruelest Month

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“April is the cruelest month,
breeding lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing memory and desire,
stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

I am often reminded of this quotation by renowned poet T.S. Eliot around tax filing time. These lines talk about the expectations and disillusionments that can befall the investment decisions that are revealed in your tax returns.

snow irisSome of your investments unexpectedly become “lilacs out of the dead land…” Whether by your efforts or those of your financial partner they yield the positive results your desire. Your tax return can also revive memories of poor decisions and lost opportunities… “mixing memory and desire”

Whether you were pleased with your investment returns this year or not, you know that tax laws continually change. However, there remains one constant — charitable giving. Giving always yields positive results! Your giving affects the bottom line of the charities you support, and it changes lives of real people in ways most of us will never know. The way you give can also affect your financial health. For example:

  • If you bought or sold property this past year but did not go through the Stewardship Foundation, you might have missed some important tax benefits.
  • If you are holding onto property or a business because the market does not favor selling, you might benefit from alternative options the Stewardship Foundation can suggest.
  • If you tried to support a charity or non-profit using non-cash assets, but your preferred charity or non-profit was not in a position to receive it, you should contact the Stewardship Foundation for our assistance.

The Stewardship Foundation can work with donors and investors of most charities and non-profits. We are experienced at stirring dull roots with spring rain. Now is the time to plan and to explore your investment options for the 2104 tax year. Now is the time that your charities and non-profits need your financial support.