Jewish Review of Books
Legal name: Jewish Review of Books Foundation C/o Abraham Socher
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 872379616
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2022–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Cleveland Heights, OH, United States
- Phone
- (877) 753-0337
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $420,043
- Expenses
- $975,405
- Assets
- $32,131
- Liabilities
- $38,263
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- ABRAHAM SOCHER (EXECUTIVE DI): $307,164 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Jewish Review of Books is a quarterly print publication with an active online presence for serious readers with Jewish interests, publishing literary and cultural criticism and public scholarship on Jews and Judaism through essays, articles, and reviews.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2024, the jewish review of books foundation (the foundation) published four issues of the jewish review of books(see https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/issues)along with several web-only pieces on their website. The foundation successfully hired a new art director and a new director of operations. The foundation engaged a new printer to produce and mail the magazine. The foundation launched a new substack newsletter at the end of the year to engage new audiences.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 89
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 69
- Sustainability: 3
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 85.1%; rating input score 85
- Fundraising efficiency: $12.13 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 2 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 25
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -132.2%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.03; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 1.19; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 31.5%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 12.1% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -27.2% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -23% per year; rating input score 0; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 85.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $830K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $307K · 4 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 27 of 27 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 3 filing years from 2022 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 45/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 1/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 3/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 4/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 10/100.