The Wexner Foundation told alumni on Thursday that it will spin off its flagship leadership programs into an independent nonprofit, marking a major development within the Jewish philanthropic landscape that comes as the foundation’s benefactor, Les Wexner, continues to face pushback for his past ties to financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Wexner, the founder of the commerce empire L Brands, became one of the Jewish community’s best-known philanthropists over the past four decades as he developed and funded a range of programs to support emerging professional and lay leaders in the Jewish philanthropic world.
Wexner Foundation President Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson said in a Thursday email that the foundation’s North American leadership programs will be moved to a new nonprofit beginning next year with a $40 million gift from Wexner and his wife, Abigail. Abrahamson told the Wexner alumni that the spin-off was a long time in the works.
