Jewish Pride

Michael Steinhardt left a stellar career on Wall Street and spent the next three decades launching revolutionary philanthropic programs like Birthright Israel and OneTable that offer a proud, rich future for the next generation of secular American Jews.What are the keys to a proud Jewish life? Part memoir, part manifesto, Michael Steinhardt’s Jewish Pride offers a compelling vision for a rich, rewarding future for Jews in America and around the world.  From his middle class beginnings in Brooklyn to a spectacular Wall Street career, Steinhardt understood that apathy and assimilation were threatening the Jewish future in America. Meanwhile established Jewish institutions were failing in the urgent task of strengthening secular Jewish identity. Using his own capital and the wisdom and connections he’d gained in his successful business career, Steinhardt recruited partners, focused on data and results, and even got the Israeli government to help launch the revolutionary Birthright program. By turns provocative, inspiring, revealing, and outright hilarious, Jewish Pride captures its author’s unique personality and outlook and offers honest talk about the Jewish world today, along with a bold prescription for revitalizing Jewish life in the future.

“Contrarian Michael Steinhardt has used his wealth to launch innovations to help make the Jewish world become as vibrant and committed as possible. A strong believer in data and evaluation, he is a harsh critic of how the organized Jewish community uses its resources. Not afraid to admit failure, he turns to each new idea with undiminished enthusiasm. This is a book of a secular and proud Jew who loves the Jewish people and the joy of experiencing Jewish life.”, “In this book Michael Steinhardt describes among other projects, his brilliant and innovative idea of Birthright. Birthright is successful in bringing American and Israeli young people together for the sake of advocating the relationship between the US, Israel and other countries. And I know that even some marriage proposals and weddings resulted. This book should be read by all people of good will who advocate for the relationship between Israel, the US and other countries.”, “Here is the view from the inside—not of the Jewish religious world, but the Jewish philanthropic and institutional and political world. It is astute, candid, and could only have been written by someone whose access and contributions have made a difference in the lives of countless Jews.”, “For the twenty some years that we’ve been friends, Michael has demonstrated by word and deed his deep caring for the Jewish People. This book, written with full heart, reflects not only that caring, but also his concerns and his hopes for our future. It is a welcome addition to our ongoing debate.”

Michael Steinhardt is one of the Jewish world’s most prominent philanthropists. Born in 1940s Brooklyn, following a spectacular career on Wall Street he has spent decades inspiring Jewish pride through the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life and launching revolutionary programs like Makor, OneTable, and Birthright Israel. He is the author of No Bull: My Life In and Out of Markets.