John O’Sullivan, the British conservative commentator, famously articulated what came to be known as “O’Sullivan’s first law.” This holds that “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.” It turns out that there’s a Jewish corollary to it: All organizations that have a Jewish orientation but are not actually Orthodox will eventually give their money to anti-Israel, Muslim organizations.

The Haas family is a preeminent San Francisco Jewish family. They are lineal descendants of David Stern, one of the creators of Levi’s jeans, back during Gold Rush days in San Francisco, and familial descendants of Levi Strauss, the other creator, who gave his name to the famous jeans. To their credit, the Haas family and their relatives, the Goldman family, have never converted to improve their social standing.

In 1953, Walter A. Haas and his wife, Evelyn, established the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr., Foundation. In the ensuing seven decades, the organization has founded all sorts of educational and arts programs in the Bay Area. It also made sure that substantial sums of money went to Jewish-oriented non-profits. In 2000, The Jewish News of Northern California explained this focus:

“There’s no question about it. Going back three generations, the Haas and Goldman families are the biggest Jewish donors to the Jewish community and the general Bay Area community,” said Rabbi Brian Lurie, who headed the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation from the mid-1970s to the early ‘90s and now serves as president of the Jewish Museum San Francisco.

The families’ main vehicles of general and Jewish philanthropy — the Columbia Foundation, the Richard & Rhoda Goldman funds and foundation, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund — have combined assets of more than $1 billion.

In terms of the Jewish community, the philanthropic giants are the Richard & Rhoda Goldman funds and foundation, and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.

In 1999, for example, the Goldman philanthropies allotted some $9.1 million to local, national and international Jewish causes. In the same year, the Haas Fund gave $2.4 million to similar causes, although it doesn’t make overseas gifts.

Goldman recipients have included the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Hillels, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco State University’s Jewish studies department and the city’s Scott Street Senior Housing Complex.

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund, in addition to donating to many of the same groups as the Goldman funds, has given to A Traveling Jewish Theatre, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, Ruach Ami: Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, Jewish Museum San Francisco and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

However, while the Haas and Goldman families have always been proudly Jewish and generous to the Jewish community, they are not really religious. To the extent they had a synagogue affiliation, it was to Temple Emanu-El, which is very reform (i.e., limousine leftist). And, of course, their foundations wholeheartedly supported leftist causes, albeit with a Jewish twist:

The Haas Fund was an early and key funder of Dayenu, a national Jewish nonprofit founded in 2020 that seeks to reverse climate change. Dayenu’s current $300,000, three-year grant ends in 2026.

By 2023, the leftist lean of this culturally Jewish, but not inherently religiously conservative, Foundation led to the Foundation refashioning itself entirely hard left fund with a “social justice” approach to grantmaking:

In recent years, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund strengthened our commitment to justice, equity, and inclusion internally through professional development, and externally through trust-based and community-informed grantmaking initiatives like our Racial Justice Cohort and support of community networks in the Bayview District.

[snip]

COVID-19 and a national reckoning of systemic racism was a catalyst for conversations about the effectiveness of philanthropy during crisis situations. While we’re proud of the way we showed up to support the community during the tumult of the last two years, we are shifting our approach to be more proactive — seeking solutions to problems before they reach crisis level.

For example, when we think about how to best support communities of Black, Indigenous, and people of color facing intergenerational poverty, we no longer consider it sufficient to simply invest in treating the symptoms of poverty. Instead, we aim to adopt a solution-oriented approach that funds organizations working within the systems that create the cycle of poverty, such as education, criminal justice, government, and workforce. This shift aims to more directly impact policy, create stable services, and address the root causes of inequities.

The problem, as leftist Jews across the world are discovering, is that no matter how much Jews love leftism, leftism does not love them. Now that the Haas Foundation is loudly and proudly leftist, it’s made a completely logical grant decision. The organization that came from Jewish money and that has dedicated itself for 70 years to Jewish organizations and supporting Israel will, in its 71st year, fund a Muslim, anti-Israel group, even while dropping funding to Jewish groups:

The S.F.-based Walter and Elise Haas Fund, a major grantmaker to local and national Jewish nonprofits over the past 70 years, is winding down millions of dollars in annual grants focused on what it called “Jewish life.”

The change is part of an overhaul of the fund’s philanthropic approach in the last few years, which includes empowering young adults in the grantmaking decision process. 

Now, a $100,000 grant to a San Francisco-based organization known for its strident anti-Zionist activism, chosen by the young adult fellowship, is angering some in the Jewish community — including the Jewish organizations whose funding has ended, or soon will.

The grant to the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) is counter to a central tenet held by the mainstream Jewish community — namely, solid support for Israel, and opposition to those who promote the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

AROC is an unsparing critic of Israel, accusing it of white supremacy, colonialism and, since Oct. 7 of last year, genocide. Its executive director, Lara Kiswani, encouraged activists to help “overcome Zionism” at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit in May.

Leftists in America are doing exactly what Stalin did once he gained power: They are jettisoning the Jews who helped him climb that mountain.

At least these San Francisco Jews just lost grant money. They should be grateful that Americans (non-Jewish Americans) voted the Democrats out of power because the current trajectory had (and still has) the potential to take a very ugly Stalinesque turn, with Jews finding themselves unemployed, imprisoned, and even executed, if not by the government, then by leftist vigilantes (see, e.g., Brian Thompson’s alleged killer).

Image: YouTube screen grab (edited).