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About
Joyce Chernick is a major philanthropist and vice chair of the Fairbrook Foundation, a Los Angeles-based donor-advised fund under the California Community Foundation, where her husband Aubrey Chernick serves as president and board chair. The foundation has granted millions to conservative, pro-Israel, and counter-terrorism organizations, including the David Horowitz Freedom Center ($618,500 from 2004-2009), Jihad Watch ($253,250), Middle East Forum ($410,000), ACT! for America ($125,000), and Center for Security Policy ($66,700). She has been identified in reports as a funder of the 'Islamophobia network,' including financing opposition to the Park51 mosque project near Ground Zero and investments in Pajamas Media, a pro-Israel blog network. Chernick resides in a gated compound in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where she and her husband hosted a fundraiser for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign that raised $2.2 million. Her affiliations include director of the Los Angeles Opera Company, former board member of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies ($120,000 donation in 2005), and former trustee of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Politically, she has donated to both Democrats (e.g., Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton) and Republicans (e.g., Mitt Romney, John McCain), but shifted post-2014 to conservative causes, including $3,300 to RFK Jr.'s campaign (2023), $5,000 to Make America Great Again, Again PAC (2021), and contributions to Tim Scott campaigns/PACs ($23,300). Other philanthropy includes pledged matching gifts to Stanford University's Fund for Undergraduate Education (2014) and support for Children Uniting Nations with technology and mentoring programs.