Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation is dedicated to building a multi-generational culture of tzedakah (philanthropy) and to supporting the vitality of Jewish life where Kanfer family members live, including Akron and Cleveland, Ohio; and Brooklyn and Chautauqua, New York.
Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah promotes and supports “Living Torah” – Judaism as a powerful, evolving wellspring of accumulating wisdom and sensibilities that enriches people’s lives and helps create a better world. We are also continuing the Lippman Kanfer family’s commitment to strengthening the ecosystem for innovation in the Jewish community and to the pursuit of justice.
HistoryToday, Lippman Kanfer Family Philanthropies is comprised of Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation and Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. The family’s philanthropic activities date back to 1966, when husband and wife business team, Goldie and Jerry Lippman z”l (of blessed memory) established Jerome Lippman Family Foundation in Akron, Ohio with a mission focused primarily on Akron-based Jewish organizations.Over the decades, as the Lippmans’ nephew Joe Kanfer joined in leading the family business, he also became very engaged in the family’s philanthropy. In the 1990s, Jerome Lippman Family Foundation refined its mission to focus on sustaining Jewish life – with a special emphasis on Jewish education throughout the life cycle; rescuing and rebuilding the lives of individuals in communities at risk; and fostering high performance and innovation in Jewish nonprofit organizations.
In 2000, the name of the Foundation was changed to Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation to better reflect the family’s multi-generational involvement and contribution. With the death of Jerry in 2005, the national Jewish communal leadership of second-generation family member Joe Kanfer, and growing engagement of third-generation Kanfers, the Foundation entered a period of dynamic expansion and transition to perpetuate and build upon Jerry’s legacy and reflect the family’s diverse philanthropic interests.
In 2013, the family launched a sister foundation to Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah. Together, the two foundations advance the aims of their collective philanthropy, which include: continuing to build and sustain a multi-generational family culture of tzedakah (philanthropy); supporting Jewish life in their hometown of Akron and in the family’s other local communities of Cleveland, Ohio, Brooklyn, New York, and Chautauqua, New York; maintaining the pursuit of justice; and impacting Jewish life broadly in North America in a strategic way, with a particular focus on broadening and deepening access to and engagement with the wisdom of Jewish tradition and encouraging its creative application in contemporary Jewish life. The family also recognized that it is blessed in its diversity and the love and respect everyone has for each other today; the dual foundation approach proactively facilitates a healthy multi-generational family culture as the family continues to grow and add generations.
Lippman Kanfer Family Philanthropies 