Abstract
This chapter situates ethnographic research on Jewish service travel to New Orleans in relation to two recent trends: the growth of Jewish social justice organizations and the emergence of a donor class with the ability to shape community policies. Building on Maussian conceptions of the gift, I argue that the American Jewish community functions as a gift exchange system solidified through a dense network of philanthropic organizations. Within this system, service tourists are both aid givers and aid receivers; as such, they negotiate institutional scripts centered on service and Jewish identity as well as their own concerns about the various implications of trip fundraising. Reading ethnographic data alongside institutional narratives ultimately generates questions about the unintended consequences of philanthropy in this new gilded age.
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Notes
- 1.
In an article posted on nola.com, Richard Campanella—a geographer whose work is focused on the city of New Orleans—designated the area around the warehouse as “very cool” and at the center of post-Katrina gentrification trends. www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2014/03/putting_cool_on_the_map.html, accessed May 29, 2014.
- 2.
Elizabeth Tonkin (2009) provides an analysis of the ways in which service to others can lead to the solidification of intragroup social bonds.
- 3.
In contrast to the trips I studied, meeting Israeli peers is a central component of Birthright Israel, a free Jewish philanthropy-sponsored trip to Israel (Kelner 2010).
- 4.
Lila Corwin Berman (2008) describes how sociologists have become key figures for defining American Jewish identity. The role of sociology is most notable when it comes to documenting and debating the dramatic increase in rates of intermarriage within the American Jewish community.
- 5.
Birthright Israel website, http://www.birthrightisrael.com/, accessed July 28, 2015.
- 6.
Maimonides, Laws of Giving to the Poor, Chapter 7:1–7.
- 7.
These insights are based on a conversation I had with Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Foundation, a major player in the field of Jewish philanthropy (interview, July 23, 2013).
- 8.
The analogy between Repair the World and the Corporation for National and Community Service was further solidified in 2013 when David Eisner, former CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, was selected as CEO of Repair the World, the organization formed in response to this report.
- 9.
I should note that I also received a small grant from the organization to begin my research on service learning.
- 10.
The essays collected in The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and the Remaking of New Orleans (2011), edited by Cedric Johnson, explore the intersections of post-Katrina recovery and neoliberal governance.
- 11.
At times, some local Jewish agencies felt burdened by the constant stream of groups, especially those groups that expected local Jewish agencies to provide them with food and lodgings, thereby taxing local resources and staff.
- 12.
Post-Katrina New Orleans provided charismatic activists and social entrepreneurs, often poststorm transplants, with opportunities to assume leadership positions that they would likely not have achieved within the same time frame in other contexts.
- 13.
These titles come from the “Participant Guide” Jewish Funds for Justice provided to the student volunteers. Trip leaders used these booklets to facilitate trip workshops.
- 14.
The Foundation Center website, www.foundationcenter.org, accessed May 30, 2014.
- 15.
The Giving Pledge website, www.givingpledge.org, accessed May 30, 2014.
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Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on research funded by the University of Michigan Department of Anthropology, the University of Michigan Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the Berman Foundation, the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, and Repair the World. I would like to express my thanks.
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Kornfeld, M. (2017). Funding Meaning on Jewish Service Trips to Post-Katrina New Orleans. In: Klaits, F. (eds) The Request and the Gift in Religious and Humanitarian Endeavors. Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54244-7_6
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