American Friends of the Hebrew University

American Friends of the Hebrew University

Founded in 1925 by Felix M. Warburg, American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU) channels U.S. philanthropic capital to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The organization operates a Pooled Endowment Fund (PEF) that unites roughly 1,700 individual donor-restricted endowments under a single investment umbrella, alongside a Charitable Common Fund and a segregated Gift Annuity Fund. The PEF pursues an equity-heavy, multi-asset strategy with direct exposure to venture capital, private equity, real estate, and liquid markets. Confirmed positions span geography and stage: an alternative investment portfolio with a global mandate, direct U.S. real estate including the firm's 199 Water Street headquarters and a commercial property in Troy, New York, and State of Israel Bonds. The endowment also executes fund commitments, with a strategy covering seed, early-stage, expansion, and late-stage venture allocations. AFHU's board-level investment oversight is chaired by Marc O. Mayer, with Chairman and Honorary President Clive Kabatznik serving as a major donor. The organization maintains regional offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, partners with the university's technology-transfer arm Yissum, and engages next-generation donors through its Leadership Empowerment and Development (LEAD) program. In a notable operational shift, AFHU has established a position for cryptocurrency donations. Unlike a traditional single-family office, AFHU's architecture represents a pooled endowment model: no single family controls the corpus, and investment policy must serve a federal non-profit charter and the multi-generational needs of the Hebrew University. The investment committee balances the demands of 1,700 distinct donor agreements with a centralized allocation process, creating a governance layer absent in privately held family capital.