I am a Zionist Jew who has served Africa my entire life—because giving is what we Jews do. Jewish Americans, just 2% of the population, account for 16% of U.S. megagifts totaling $7 billion in $1 million-plus donations. This disproportion stands at 800%. In 2022, Jews comprised nearly half of America’s 25 most generous philanthropists, donating $27 billion collectively—overrepresentation by a factor of 25 against a 2% population. Jewish households give more than any religious group, mostly to secular causes like education, health, and the arts—over $11 billion yearly to non-Jewish institutions. Jewish Federations raise $3 billion-plus for disaster relief, hospitals, and food banks that serve entire cities. Pew Research ties Jewish identity to charity and social responsibility, not inward focus. This generosity extends worldwide, yet antizionists weaponize it against us. Jews constitute 0.06% of South Africa’s population, 38,000 out of 63,000,000—not even a rounding error. The disproportion of giving by Jews in SA is beyond calculation, yet the focus of hate against Jews in SA is so overwhelmingly extreme—which proves that our philanthropy is not appreciated, it is just weaponized to betray us.

As I’ve chronicled in my series Bridges of Liberation—from debunking myths about the Jewish role in the slave trade here to highlighting our unwavering support for African independence movements here, this commitment runs deep in our shared history of exile and resilience. Zionism itself is Pan-Africanism—both indigenous returns to ancestral soil, forged against colonialism, enslavement, and denial of self-determination here. We’ve airlifted Ethiopian Jews home not as refugees, but as family—Operations Moses and Solomon in the 1980s and ’90s saved tens of thousands, a bond that echoes today here.

Since 1950, ORT has trained over 500,000 Africans in vocational skills across twenty countries, empowering youth with tools for self-sufficiency in a world that too often leaves them behind. IsraAID has delivered emergency relief to more than thirty African nations—often the first on the ground after disaster, reaching over 250,000 people in crises from landslides in Papua New Guinea to floods in Kenya just this year alone. The Jewish National Fund has planted millions of trees in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana—combating........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)