The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation has been a vital player in the Jewish philanthropy landscape for decades. Co-founder Adam Milstein was born in Israel and served in the IDF under Ariel Sharon during the devastating 1973 Yom Kippur War. After graduating from the Technion, Israel’s premier institute of technology, with a bachelor’s in business and economics, he and his wife Gila immigrated to the U.S. in 1981. He went on to earn his MBA from the University of Southern California, and the Milstein family stayed in Los Angeles where he built a successful career in commercial real estate investment.
But both Adam Milstein and his wife Gila felt they could make more of an impact outside of the real estate business. They asked themselves, “Where do we go next?” and “wanted to conquer new frontiers” as the goal of making more and more money in commercial real estate was no longer satisfying their need to make meaningful change in their community. Milstein had always donated to Jewish causes, so he and Gila made the decision to make Jewish philanthropy more of a full-time pursuit—to fight Jew-hatred, support the State of Israel, and protect American democracy.
A Foundation Built on Synergy
With that mandate, the Milsteins founded their family foundation in 2000, a nonprofit based in Los Angeles. Its mission is to strengthen American values, support the U.S.-Israel alliance, and combat hatred and bigotry in all forms. Milstein wanted to make as much impact as he could with the foundation, which meant being strategic in choosing which organizations to support. He always aimed for “synergy,” meaning every program the foundation supports needs to help other programs. They don’t support projects that are stand-alone and have no impact on anything else. They are looking for partnerships—ways to make stronger relationships between organizations and to create a force multiplier so that one plus one equals five.
Milstein ensures that every program his foundation funds is shared among multiple groups. “Everything that I do, I put a few organizations together, I make them work together, make them empower each other, and create a force multiplier,” he explains. This is evident in the array of organizations the Milstein Family Foundation supports and how closely connected they are in their missions.
A Network of Impact
The foundation supports organizations across several key areas. For strengthening American values and national security, the foundation invests in the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan research and policy institute focused on strengthening U.S. national security and reducing threats posed by adversaries of the United States and other free nations. The Middle East Forum promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats.
Many of the organizations the foundation supports are geared toward education about Israel and antisemitism. Birthright Israel is a well-known program that brings Jewish young adults to Israel to help them forge a personal connection with the land of the Bible, the people, and their Jewish heritage. OpenDor Media is an educational media platform that puts out digital content for millions, including the stellar podcast “Unpacking Israeli History,” which consistently ranks as the top trending Jewish podcast.
Milstein is outspoken about the dangers posed by antisemitism and anti-Zionism on American college campuses. His foundation supports organizations like StandWithUs, which allows pro-Israel student leaders from campuses all over the world to enhance their skills and knowledge to be more capable leaders, and Alums for Campus Fairness, which empowers alumni to counter antisemitism on campus and promote open, honest dialogue about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The foundation also empowers organizations that focus on media and journalistic fairness, including the Online Antisemitism Task Force, which works to root out hate speech and antisemitism on the internet and social media; and HonestReporting, which combats ideological bias in journalism. By supporting a network of organizations whose missions closely align, the Milstein Family Foundation multiplies its impact, creating a wave of meaningful change for Jews, the U.S., Israel, and democratic societies globally.
