AVI CHAI Foundation Records

In 1967, Sanford C. Bernstein founded Sanford C. Bernstein and Co. an investment research and management firm in New York. Over the next ten years, his firm flourished, solidifying his company’s place in the city’s investment management circles. In 1978, Bernstein’s father passed away. After seeking the guidance of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of the Lincoln Square Synagogue and taking a series of private lessons on basic Judaism with him, Bernstein decided to follow a more observant path, adopting the Hebrew name Zalman Chaim.

In 1984, Zalman C. Berstein, Rabbi Riskin, Samuel J. Silberman, and attorney George W. Kaufman of Shereff, Friedman, Hoffman and Goodman met to discuss pre-organizational activities for a new foundation they created, which they named the T’Shuva Foundation. The Foundation’s first and only project (until a name change the following year) was sponsoring a conference in Israel to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook, who is famous for holding the role of Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. The initial goals of the foundation, until its evolution years later, was to cultivate an assemblage of rabbis and lay leaders focused on religious, philanthropic outreach to disaffected or unaffiliated American Jews to encourage them towards a path of deeper Jewish identity and observance.

The following year, after solidifying more of the foundation’s networking and outreach, Bernstein became concerned that the foundation’s name, T’Shuva (loosely translated as ‘repentance’), may carry unintended theological connotations for some audiences. It was decided amongst the founders to change the organization’s name to AVI CHAI, the Hebrew for ‘my father lives,' which Bernstein also felt held deep personal meaning.

Even at this early stage in the foundation’s history, Bernstein was anxious about any perception that the Foundation would be “simply writing checks.” He sought to distinguish projects of purely personal interest to him from projects that would further AVI CHAI’s core strategy. After discussing with the board how the foundation would proceed, an objectives agreement was made that the foundation would focus on two primary goals:

1. To encourage those of the Jewish faith towards greater commitment to Jewish observance and lifestyle by increasing their understanding, appreciation and practice of Jewish traditions, customs and laws.

2. To encourage mutual understanding and sensitivity among Jews of different religious backgrounds and commitments to observance.



AVI CHAI would later formulate several operational guidelines that would help achieve these objectives:

-Priority will be given to projects which further both objectives. In no case will a project be funded which furthers one objective at the expense of another.

-AVI CHAI will work within the full spectrum of the Jewish people in the interest of furthering its dual objectives.

-Support will only be given to programs or institutions which express a positive attitude towards the State of Israel and which do not reject the value of secular education.

-The Foundation will only sponsor projects which rely on teaching and enlightenment. Funding will be provided mainly to innovative programs which AVI CHAI develops itself or in concert with others.

-The Foundation will not fund deficits nor will it fund capital projects except through loans to Jewish day schools and Jewish summer camps.

-Grant requests will only be considered in response to a proposal submitted at our initiative.

-Allocations will be made as grants which conform with the guidelines for tax-exemption under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.



In 1987, AVI CHAI finally outgrew its offices at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and moved out on its own. With this increased independence, AVI CHAI was able to grow its networking, outreach, and grant funding by supporting the activities of dozens of non-profit organizations including MAOR, Networking of Jewish Outreach Professionals, Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals (AJOP), and Jewish Community Centers—JCCA (formerly JWB), as well as dozens of Summer camp programs for children and various synagogue community projects including those at the Lincoln Square Synagogue.

Zalman C. Bernstein retired from Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in 1994 at age 65, in order to fulfill his personal goal of making Aliyah. After moving to Jerusalem, he moved the AVI CHAI headquarters to Israel but retained an office in New York led by Associate Director Yossi Prager. Later that year, Prager’s title changed to Director – North America and Robert Binder was promoted to Director – Israel. Zalman C. Bernstein passed away in 1999 in Israel and was buried in a cemetery on the Mount of Olives close to Rabbi Avraham Kook, the primary inspiration for many of his initial philanthropic endeavors.

By the early 2000s, the two AVI CHAI international offices tailored their philantropic focus to the differing needs of their respective communities. The North American office concentrated mainly on grants related to day schools and camping, while the Israel office focused more on broader efforts such as informal adult education, media productions, outreach to recent Russian immigrants and Mizrahi communities, and major advertising campaigns to promote mutual understanding between secular and religious Israelis.

AVI CHAI began a substantial reassessment of their funding structures, activities, and partnerships in 2008 and planned for their eventual fiscal sunsetting in 10 years time.

On January 6, 2020, AVI CHAI North America concluded its regular grandmaking activities and focused solely on supporting the programs and activities of Beit AVI CHAI in Jerusalem.