RootOne has announced a $60 million gift from the Marcus Foundation, one of the final major gifts directed by Bernie Marcus before his passing in early November 2024.

The gift will support RootOne’s goal of providing immersive educational experiences to Israel for North American Jewish teens. This latest donation brings the Marcus Foundation’s total giving to the organization to $140 million. The grant will be used to scale the number of teen participants to15,000 per summer within the next five years. This funding will also help to expand the network and diversity of RootOne-funded trips through partnerships with new providers and incubation of special-interest trips.

"The RootOne vision was very close to Bernie Marcus’ heart. He recognized long ago the crisis of antisemitism in America—particularly on college campuses—and was committed to innovative solutions to ensure the safety and future of the young Jewish population,” said Marcus Foundation president Jay Kaiman.  “His challenge to us all was to not stand idly by and allow others to define Israel for us, especially for young people.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/kali9)