The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation (MFF) is a Los Angeles, California-based nonprofit foundation which aims to strengthen the State of Israel and its ties to the United States, as well as to strengthen the Jewish identity of American Jews and their connection to Israel.
The MFF was founded in 2000 and is based in Los Angeles.[1] Adam Milstein serves as the president of the foundation.[2]
The foundation aims to educate and train students and young professionals to identify with their Jewish roots and to connect with and advocate for the State of Israel.[3] The foundation has three main operating principles: "Active Philanthropy", "Life Path Impact", and "Philanthropic Synergy". "Active Philanthropy" means that the foundation remains actively involved, investing time and resources to ensure the impact and success of the organizations, projects, and programs they support.[4]
The foundation also offers grants to support students on college campuses. The grants are available to help fund cultural events, coalition-building initiatives, campaigns and social media activism led by students.[5]
Such funding became the center of a controversy at UCLA in 2014, when it was revealed that Milstein had directed funds to be specifically used for political activities on the UCLA campus.[6] Much of the foundation's funding has directed toward college campuses, including to groups such as the Israel on Campus Coalition, which has been accused of targeting students for political heterodoxy.[7][8]
Initiatives
In partnership with the American-Israel Educational Foundation (AIEF),[9] the educational wing of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), MFF created the Campus Allies Mission to Israel and the Campus Allies delegation to AIPAC's annual Policy Conference. The initiatives aim to make African American, Christian, and Latino student leaders advocates for Israel.[10][11] The Campus Allies Mission to Israel is for non-Jewish, Zionist student leaders and activists who have not been to Israel and are ineligible for Birthright Israel.[12]
In December 2015, MFF partnered with the Israeli Video Network to launch an "Inspired by Israel" video contest, with the purpose of showcasing how people are inspired by Israel.[13]
In July 2017, MFF launched its "Milstein Meme Competition" in an effort to find the "funny side of pro-Israel activism."[14][15]
In January 2018, the foundation launched the website Virtually Israel 2.0, which hosts virtual reality tours of popular sites in Israel.[16]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
