The Jewish Board

The Jewish Board

Founded in 1874, The Jewish Board emerged as a volunteer-run child-welfare society in Manhattan. Over a century and a half, CEO Jeffrey Brenner and a board chaired by Loews CFO David B. Edelson have scaled it into New York City's most extensive community-based mental health provider. The endowment’s capital base is built from philanthropic grants—major backers include UJA-Federation of New York and the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation—and from real estate assets it holds and operates. The investment portfolio deploys capital across buyout, venture, and expansion-stage opportunities, with real estate forming the visible core of its strategy. The endowment directly controls a New York-centric property footprint that spans commercial headquarters at 135 West 50th Street, mixed-use sites like the Greenberg Center on West 57th Street, and residential facilities including Geller House on Staten Island and Kaplan House in Manhattan. Co-investor relationships extend to institutional grantors such as UJA-Federation and the Weinberg Foundation, which have funded specific programmatic expansions. Operations extend from the central Manhattan offices to counseling centers and residences in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. The board draws trustees from law (Brad S. Karp of Paul, Weiss), corporate operating roles (Steven L. Fasman, formerly of Catalent), and industrial family offices (David Moore of Moore Holdings). Philanthropic governance is reinforced by an active Young Leaders Committee and membership in the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, a consortium spanning 170+ nonprofits. The structural distinction is one of operational integration. The Jewish Board is not a traditional endowment that only writes checks; it is a direct service provider using its own real assets and program-related investments to deliver care. This makes it a rare hybrid where investment performance and mission delivery are tied to the same property and balance sheet.