Elisa Spungen Bildner
Raising the Profile of Jewish Camping
By Susan Josephs

Elisa Spungen Bildner had a life-altering realization after talking to numerous people about one of her favorite subjects: Jewish summer camps. "Hands down, people would get very excited in these conversations. They would just let go," she recalls. "It became very clear to me what a profound effect Jewish summer camp has had on people’s lives."

Spungen Bildner and her husband, Robert Bildner, armed with their growing reputation as a philanthropic dynamic duo intent on revitalizing the Jewish community, went on to establish the Foundation for Jewish Camping. Nine years later, the $12 million public foundation provides funding, scholarships, professional development programs and other resources to the 130 Jewish overnight summer camps and their 60,000 campers in North America. "The Foundation plucked Jewish camping from an obscure part of Jewish communal awareness and stuck it into the forefront," she says.

A passionate veteran of two nonprofit overnight camps, Spungen Bildner, 53, believes camping "is special because you’re in this environment 24/7 and Judaism is not this disjointed thing. Kids are doing Jewish and fun things at the same time," she says. "Our goal is to help create the best possible camps and get Jewish families thinking about Jewish camps as an alternative to secular camps."

Although she considers the foundation to be one of her crowning achievements, Spungen Bildner embraces a diversified approach to philanthropy. She sits on the boards of seven organizations, including the JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), and recently finished a term as chairwoman of the Jewish Funders Network.

Having frequently "been the only woman around a conference table, there were times when I felt my voice wasn’t taken as seriously as the men," she observes. "When my kids hear me talk like this, they think it’s the ramblings of a 1960s Jewish feminist, but it’s clear to me that we need to keep working on getting Jewish women into the highest positions of Jewish organizational life."

The mother of four children, Spungen Bildner has juggled successive and successful careers as a lawyer, journalist and businesswoman. Most recently, she served as president of a fresh-cut produce company. "So many of my career decisions have been based on how best to raise my kids," she says. "But I also have a lot of interests and can’t fathom the word ‘retirement.’ When I leave a position or job, it’s really just a question of what I’m going to do next."

Raised in Skokie, Ill., Spungen Bildner developed an early love and understanding of philanthropy from her parents, "who were very giving of their time. Later, I learned how you can do so many things for tikkun olam when you do have money and how you can develop a passion for a particular area of philanthropy," she says.

A graduate of Yale University, Spungen Bildner received her law degree from Columbia University and met her husband while working as a lawyer. "I married into a philanthropically oriented family and I hope, in retrospect, that our kids understood what we were doing," she says of all the years spent "running to meetings. My husband and I have always believed that if Jews are not giving to their own institutions, then those institutions will not survive."

Continuing to practice what she preaches, Spungen Bildner feels "blessed to have huge amounts of energy and little need for sleep. I get very bored if I’m not involved in a tremendous number of things," she says. "And I love that in life there are endless possibilities to do something good."