Strauss heirs continue tradition
JOSHUA SCHUSTER
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California
Each year, the heirs of Levi Strauss pour millions of dollars into the Bay Area Jewish community.
"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," says Rabbi Brian Lurie, who headed the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s 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.
Brothers John Goldman and Doug Goldman and their uncle Peter E. Haas are all distant nephews of Strauss. Along with other family members, those three San Franciscans help divvy up the grant money for the Haas and Goldman funds.
John Goldman, who serves on the board of directors for the Goldman funds and is a trustee of the Haas fund, sees philanthropy as a reflex.
"It's just part of what I do. My wife, Marcia, says it's kind of like breathing. It's natural," says Goldman.
Noting that nearly every patriarch in the family, from Levi Strauss on, has taken a lead role in funding the Jewish community, Goldman says that "the family has an obligation to keep that thread going."
Peter E. Haas, president of the Haas fund and a former JCF president, says he learned his philanthropic values from his parents, Walter and Elise Haas.
Doug Goldman, who is on the board of directors of the Goldman funds and is a trustee for the Haas fund, says that "the Jewish community is my upbringing. I clearly understood I was a Jew."
Wanting to better understand the needs of the Jewish community, the Haas fund two years ago hired a program assistant who focuses half time on Jewish projects.
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