Too bad about the shoddy, historically-challenged original.
The column is still worth reading, about the left turn onto Tikkun Olam Parkway so many Jewish charities have taken:
It’s not just Jewish groups. Messinger’s message is the same one coming from every corner of what you might call the Philanthropy-Industrial Complex, that group of elites welcomed at Davos and Aspen, whose op-eds appear each week in the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the like. Giving money to your own community, to causes that interest you in particular, to efforts that are small-scale: It’s all a waste; you should be trying to save the world.
And I’m just hearing about this now:
The pressure to turn all of our charitable efforts into one giant progressive pile of cash to be thrown at whatever cause is most fashionable is enormous. One who stood against it was Robert Wilson, a hedge-fund manager who gave to many good causes, including scholarships to private schools for poor kids.
In the wake of his suicide last week, an exchange he had with Bill Gates came to light. Wilson declined to sign on to Gates’ “Giving Pledge,” suggesting that many of those who did were just ducking responsibility by giving to their own family foundations — institutions that, he warned, would eventually be controlled by the kids and grandkids. You know, the ones hanging out at the Clinton Global Initiative.
Gay, Atheist, Millionaire Robert W. Wilson, Who Committed Suicide Gave Millions to Catholic Church; Told Bill Gates His Giving Pledge Was ‘Worthless’
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