The Ruderman Family Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation managed by former AIPAC New England Deputy Director Jay Ruderman and current Friends of the IDF New England board member Shira Ruderman. The Ruderman Family Foundation makes sizable donations to and maintains partnerships with a wide array of Zionist organizations in order to promote the Foundation's mission of, in their words, the "realization of the Zionist dream."
Jay Ruderman is the former Deputy Director of the New England branch of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Following his stint as Deputy Director of AIPAC New England, Jay Ruderman spent three years in the Israeli army, before returning to AIPAC again, where he worked as the Leadership Director for AIPAC in Israel. Jay Ruderman currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, an organization which facilitates Jewish settlement of Palestinian land through "Aliyah." Shira Ruderman spent 3 years as a commander in an "Intelligence Unit" of the Israeli Army. Shira Ruderman is currently a board member of the Friends of the IDF - New England Region, an organization which fundraises for the Israeli Army in New England, and Shira Ruderman currently serves on the "Boston Regional Council" of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) - Boston, a local pro-Israel lobbying and propaganda organization.
According to their website, the Ruderman Family Foundation
operates in both the United States and Israel and has historically specialized in two main fields: inclusion of people with disabilities in society and strengthening the relationship between Israel and the American Jewish community. The Ruderman Family Foundation considers American Jewry a strategic asset for the State of Israel and a significant partner in the prosperity of the Jewish People. While Jews in the United States hear and learn about Israel, most Israelis are unaware of the history and current challenges of American Jews. To change this reality, the Foundation works proactively to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the American Jewish community by helping to engage a broad spectrum of the Israeli population, and especially policymakers, to become knowledgeable of the contributions made by American Jews, since the establishment of the State, towards the realization of the Zionist dream.
As part of their work "toward the realization of the Zionist dream," the Ruderman Foundation maintains numerous partnerships aimed at promoting "the lasting and vital bond between American Jews, the State of Israel and Israeli society." Ruderman Family Foundation maintains one partnership with the Jewish Agency of Israel (on which Jay Ruderman is a Board Member). As noted above, the Jewish Agency for Israel is the primary organization promoting the settlement of new Jewish people on Palestinian land, or "Aliyah". The Jewish Agency for Israel reports that in the year 2020 they helped facilitate the settlement of 20,000 Jewish people in historic Palestine, providing "absorption" services for these settlers upon their arrival. In 2018, the then-head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Isaac Herzog, gave a speech in which he described intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews as "an actual plague."
The Israeli-American Council - Boston (on which Shira Ruderman is a Board Member) states on their website that the Ruderman Foundation provides support for IAC's "Boston Media Room," a cyber war room that IAC - Boston runs collaboratively with Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), and IDC Herzliya. According to IAC - Boston, "The goal of the program is to promote a positive influence on the international public opinion towards the State of Israel via social media platforms," providing "physical spaces for training and activating volunteers to take part in local online pro-Israel activities." IAC - Boston further notes about The Boston Media Room, "Under the guidance of volunteer mentors from the fields of research, journalism, hi-tech, and education, a hand-picked group of Student Ambassadors (ages 16-24) will represent an elite public diplomacy team, developing Israel awareness campaigns and reactions to local anti-Israel and BDS activity while training and engaging a wider community of volunteers (all ages) to join their efforts."
Over the past two decades, the Ruderman Family Foundation has made sizable donations to an array of organizations which support and normalize Israel's colonial rule over Palestinians and theft of Palestinian land and resources. These include (but are not limited to):
In addition to these direct donations, the Ruderman Family Foundation makes substantial donations to Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) and other intermediary organizations which channel money into Zionist organizations. Donor Advised Funds function as recipients of large sums of money from wealthy individuals, money which DAFs then channel to those wealthy donors' desired recipients as donations from the Donor Advised Fund, without the necessity of public transparency that the donation came from the specific wealthy donor. In this way, Donor Advised Funds allow wealthy individuals to financially support organizations without the public necessarily knowing that they are doing so or knowing the extent to which they are doing so. Pro-Israel Donor Advised Funds and other similarly functioning intermediary organizations to which the Ruderman Family Foundation has made donations include:
In addition to their support for organizations which support and normalize Israeli colonialism and apartheid, the Ruderman Family Foundation has made intermittent donations to organizations which support Boston area police forces. These include:
The Ruderman Family Foundation also donates to a number Boston Area universities, hospitals, and museums, some of which themselves support Israel's colonial rule over Palestinians and theft of Palestinian land and resources and are accordingly included on our map. These include:
During the 2021 Boston mayoral election campaign, Jay Ruderman and Shira Ruderman each made the maximum permissible annual donation ($1,000) to Michelle Wu's mayoral campaign on two separate occasions, once in 2020 once in 2021, while Ruderman Family Foundation Trustees Sharon Shapiro, Marcia Ruderman, and Todd Ruderman each made the maximum permissible annual donation to Wu's campaign on one occasion. Jay Ruderman also interviewed Michelle Wu in November 2020 for a "special episode" of the Ruderman Family Foundation's "All Inclusive Podcast." In the days leading-up to the November 2021 election, Jay Ruderman shared his support for Michelle Wu for on his personal twitter account.
In the lead-up to the 2021 election, Michelle Wu stated that she opposed ending the Boston Police Department's participation in trainings with foreign military and security forces, including ADL-sponsored "counterterrorism" seminars in Israel for US law enforcement officials. Michelle Wu's statement came in response to a candidate questionnaire from Muslim Justice League (MJL) which asked Boston mayoral candidates: "Would you ban the Boston Police Department from participating in foreign security trainings, including these ADL sponsored trips to Israel and similar counterterrorism trainings?" In contrast to Wu's response, Wu's more conservative (and generally more pro-police) mayoral opponent Annissa Essaibi-George stated in response to the same MJL questionnaire that she would ban the Boston Police Department from participating in training exchanges with foreign militaries including the Israeli miliary, if elected. (See here, here, and here for documentation of past BPD participation in ADL-sponsored "counterterrorism" trips to Israel.)
(Boston area hedge fund billionaire and Zionist mega-donor Seth Klarman also made the maximum permissible annual donation to Wu's campaign on one occasion. See entry on Seth Klarman, and the Klarman Family Foundation.)
Assets held within a private foundation, as well as gains on those assets, face considerably less tax liability than assets held as personal wealth. Moreover, private foundations enable wealthy individuals to use tax write-offs to reduce the taxes they have pay on all of their assets, including assets held outside of their foundations as personal wealth. Such tax-evasion is perfectly legal, on the condition that a foundation's disbursements (donations + expenses) in a given fiscal year equal at least 5% of the fair market value of that foundation's total assets from the end of the previous fiscal year. The Ruderman Family Foundation's tax filings from recent years show total annual disbursements of assets which only marginally exceed this federally mandated 5% minimum. In FY19, for example, the Ruderman Family Foundation disbursed $9,131,339 of its assets, a mere 5.1% of the $177,550,381 fair market value of the Ruderman Family Foundation's assets at the end of FY18.
Moreover, because the Ruderman Family Foundation's assets are invested in corporate stock, assets within the Ruderman Family Foundation have in recent years yielded annual gains close to or even exceeding the amount of money the foundation has disbursed. In FY19, assets within the Ruderman Family Foundation produced revenues from interest, dividends, along with gains from asset sales totaling $8,422,495, just shy of the $9,131,339 that the Foundation disbursed in donations and expenses that year. In FY18, assets within the Ruderman Family Foundation produced revenues from interest, dividends, along with gains from asset sales totaling $10,017,586, exceeding the $8,856,823 that the Foundation disbursed in donations and expenses that year. In FY17, assets within the Ruderman Family Foundation produced revenues from interest, dividends, along with gains from asset sales totaling $9,257,431, exceeding the $8,516,486 that the Foundation disbursed in donations and expenses that year. As noted above, such gains on assets held within a private foundation face considerably less tax liability relative to comparable gains on assets held as personal wealth.
Rather than benevolent ventures through which wealthy individuals give away their money for the public good, private foundations should be understood as strategic financial maneuvers through which the wealthy reduce the taxes they have to pay into public budgets, in exchange for committing to donate a portion of the (under-taxed) wealth held within their foundations to their preferred charitable causes. Jay and Shira Ruderman use the Ruderman Family Foundation as a tax-free stock portfolio for over $177 million of their family's wealth, while funneling derivative income from these stocks into organizations and institutions supporting Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland.
28 links
Yachad New England (which encourages individuals it engages to attend a variant of “Birthright Israel” targeted toward people with disabilities) lists the Ruderman Family Foundation as one of its three partners. The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $562,593 to Yachad New England from FY13-FY19.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $17,500 to Tufts Unversity Hillel in FY12 & FY14.
Ruderman Family Foundation Executive Director Shira Ruderman serves on the IAC Boston Regional Council and is an IAC Council Member in the national IAC.
The Israeli-American Council Boston states on their website that the Ruderman Foundation provides support for the "The Boston Media Room," a cyber "war room" which, according to IAC Boston, aims to "promote a positive influence on the international public opinion towards the State of Israel via social media platforms," by providing "physical spaces for training and activating volunteers to take part in local online pro-Israel activities." IAC Boston further notes about The Boston Media Room: "Under the guidance of volunteer mentors from the fields of research, journalism, hi-tech, and education, a hand-picked group of Student Ambassadors (ages 16-24) will represent an elite public diplomacy team, developing Israel awareness campaigns and reactions to local anti-Israel and BDS activity while training and engaging a wider community of volunteers (all ages) to join their efforts."
From fiscal years 2001-2019, the Ruderman Family Foundation donated $16,514,449 to Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP).
Specifically, the Ruderman Family Foundation provides support for "The Boston Media Room," a program jointly launched by Israeli American Council - Boston, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP), and IDC Herzliya. According to IAC - Boston, "The goal of the program is to promote a positive influence on the international public opinion towards the State of Israel via social media platforms," and IAC-boston further notes that the media room aims to "serve as physical spaces for training and activating volunteers to take part in local online pro-Israel activities. Under the guidance of volunteer mentors from the fields of research, journalism, hi-tech, and education, a hand-picked group of Student Ambassadors (ages 16-24) will represent an elite public diplomacy team, developing Israel awareness campaigns and reactions to local anti-Israel and BDS activity while training and engaging a wider community of volunteers (all ages) to join their efforts."
Ruderman Family Foundation Trustee and Community Liaison Sharon Shapiro currently serves on CJP's Board of Directors.
Jay Ruderman is the former Deputy Director of AIPIC New England. Following his stint as Deputy Director of AIPIC New England, Jay Ruderman spent three years in the Israeli army, after which he returned to AIPAC, working as the Leadership Director for AIPAC in Israel.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $50,000 to UMass Medical School in FY12.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $35,000 to The David Project from FY05-FY14.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $20,000 to the New Israel Fund in FY11.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $2,200 to the New England Jewish Labor Committee from FY14-FY18
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $25,000 to the Boston Museum of Science in fiscal tear 2012.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $1,800 to the Massachusetts State Police Museum and Learning Center in FY12.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $600,000 to MIT in FY09.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $350,000 to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) from FY13-FY18.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $726,838 to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) from FY05-FY18.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $38,300 to the JCRC of Greater Boston from FY13-FY19.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $1,000 to Harvard University Hillel in FY12.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $1,120,500 to Hadassah from Fiscal years 2001-2011.
Ruderman Family Foundation Executive Director Shira Ruderman serves as a Board Member of Friends of the IDF New England Region.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $8,400 to Facing History and Ourselves in FY04-FY05 & FY09.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $1,500 to the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) from fiscal years 2002-2003.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $742,507 to Brandeis University from fiscal years 2010-2016.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $5,000 to the Berklee College of Music in fiscal year 2009.
The Ruderman Family foundation donated $3,600 to the Boston Police Foundation in fiscal year 2011.
The Ruderman Family foundation donated $151,770 to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from fiscal years 2001-2019. In July 2021, The Ruderman Family Foundation and the ADL partnered to put on an event entitled "Understanding the Rise of Global Antisemitism and Extremism," which RFF and ADL stated would include "perspectives from the Israel and the United States."
MIT Sloan has partnered with the Ruderman Family Foundation to provide a week-long certificate program on leadership for adults with disabilities. The Ruderman Family Foundation also donated $414,000 to the MIT Sloan from FY18-FY19.
The Ruderman Family Foundation partners with the Northeastern University Jewish Studies Program to put on the annual Morton E. Ruderman Memorial Lecture.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $250,000 to Northeastern University in FY19. In total, the Ruderman Family Foundation has donated $551,000 to Northeastern University in FY02-FY05 & FY11-FY19. The Ruderman Family Foundation also donated $2,000 to Northeastern University Hillel in FY05 & FY07.
The Ruderman Family Foundation donated $101,360 to the Lappin Foundation in FY09-FY11 and FY13-FY18.
The Ruderman Family Foundation has provided substantial funding to Gann Academy. Gann Academy recognized The Ruderman Family Foundation for donating $50,000-$99,999 to Gann in FY2021, and also recognized Jay and Shira Ruderman for privately donating $10,000-$17,999 in FY21. The Ruderman Family Foundation's financials indicate that they have made the following donations to Gann Academy in previous years:
FY19: $20,000
FY18: $5,506
FY15: 10,000
FY14: $5,000
FY13: $25,000
FY12: $25,000
FY11: $25,000
FY10: $25,000
Jay Ruderman is also listed as a Trustee of Gann Academy, and Shira Ruderman is listed as an Honorary Trustee.