Jerusalem Fellowships, Bizrael, and GoInspire are just a few of the programs Chanan Kaufman created to reconnect thousands of Jews to their Jewish identity. Would massive debts upend it all?
“Rav Noach got us to take responsibility for other Jews even though we were just beginners ourselves.” Yet even for the Aish-trained kiruv maven massive debts threatened to upend the enterprise he’d built over two decades — until he realized that ideology doesn’t have to be sacrificed for a sustainable business model. Kaufman with his beloved rebbi back when group kiruv was a radical plan (Photos: Mordy Gilden)
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or more than 20 years Rabbi Chanan Kaufman had been building organizations and programs reconnecting tens of thousands of disenfranchised Jews to their lost heritage. But then the 2008 recession hit and the serial Jewish outreach entrepreneur — founder and seeder of such popular programs as Jerusalem Fellowships Jewel and Aish New York — wound up holding the bag for $1.5 million in debts. He says it was the best thing that ever happened to him.
“Our financial disaster spurred me on to make a major changeover ” Kaufman tells Mishpacha. “I was 50 years old and for over two decades I’d been pushing creating working hard but it was always with that stress of raising the funds and pressing on to do more — I never had a dime in the bank. So the crushing debt stopped me in my tracks and made me reassess the entire process.”
And now Chanan Kaufman is on a mission — to change the way nonprofits are run in the Jewish world. Today he’s created a sustainable business model where ideology doesn’t have to be sacrificed against the debilitating pressure of always having to find funding for the monthly budget.
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