(Bloomberg) — Two outstanding Jewish teams are beginning what they are saying is the first-ever exchange-traded fund that may tailor investments in S&P 500 Index corporations relying on whether or not they’re pleasant to Jewish causes.
The Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group that seeks to fight antisemitism, and Jewish investor group JLens, are beginning the JLens 500 Jewish Advocacy US exchange-traded fund with commitments of about $100 million, in line with an announcement Thursday. Its ticker will probably be “TOV,” which suggests “good” in Hebrew.
The teams will largely use the ETF as a car to advertise Jewish-friendly causes by means of shareholder advocacy and to counter rising stress on corporations to boycott Israel, ADL Chief Government Officer Jonathan Greenblatt stated in an interview.
JLens will measure corporations in line with “Jewish values” scorecards and can exclude companies whose actions don’t align with them, Greenblatt stated. That features these which can be yielding to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions motion, which requires broad financial and cultural boycotts of Israel. Solely 4 corporations will probably be excluded from the fund at launch.
“We’re placing our cash the place our mouth is,” Greenblatt stated. “It’s going to offer us the chance to harness the collective energy of shareholders in a manner that merely hasn’t occurred earlier than.”
Within the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 assault on Israel that killed 1,200 civilians, there’s been a spike in anti-Jewish incidents, in line with Greenblatt. That assault spurred Israel to strike Gaza, killing tens of 1000’s of individuals and sparking a humanitarian disaster. The variety of reported antisemitic incidents within the US hit a file of 10,000 within the yr after the assault on Israel, in line with the ADL, which stated these included verbal or written harassment, vandalism or bodily assault.
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Belongings in US faith-based ETFs and mutual funds exceeded $100 billion for the primary time final yr as extra traders opted to put money into alignment with their non secular values, in line with Brightlight, which advises traders on faith-based investing. That’s up from $72 billion in 2020.
JLens will exclude Common Mills Inc. from the ETF, in line with JLens managing director Ari Hoffnung. The meals firm in 2022 stated it had bought its stake in a joint venture in Israel that makes dough merchandise. Professional-Palestinian teams stated they’d spent years pressuring Common Mills to sell its investment. Common Mills didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Thursday.
The ETF can even exclude tobacco corporations Altria Group Inc. and Philip Morris Worldwide Inc. in addition to oil sands operator ConocoPhillips as a result of they don’t align with Jewish values, Hoffnung stated.
Philip Morris and ConocoPhillips didn’t reply to requests searching for remark. Altria declined to remark.
The ETF counts amongst its traders the Jewish Federation of Higher Pittsburgh, Atlanta Jewish Basis and Jewish Group Companions in Memphis, in line with the assertion.
Different non secular ETFs embrace these run by Encourage Investing, which operates a fund whose ticker is WWJD. The Catholic fraternal group Knights of Columbus additionally runs non secular ETFs.
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A file $1.1 trillion flowed into US ETFs final yr, in line with Bloomberg Intelligence. Because the begin of 2023, about 240 funds attracted $100 million or extra of their first yr, in contrast with 148 within the prior two years, the researchers stated.
