Eli Evans, a prolific writer about southern Jews and an influential grant-maker, died July 26 in New York City, two days shy of his 86th birthday.

In The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, the first of several books Evans wrote on the subject, he detailed growing up a Jew in Durham and the antisemitism directed at his family.

After working briefly in politics, as a speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson and an aide to North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford, Evans joined the Carnegie Corporation. There and later at the Charles H. Revson Foundation, he advanced a philosophy of activist grant-making focused on allowing talented people to carry out their own visions. His projects helped Marian Wright Edelman launch the Children’s Defense Fund, seeded the South with Black lawyers who became local civil rights leaders, and built ties between Israeli and Egyptian scientists after their countries made peace in 1979.

“Private philanthropy has the freedom, privilege and responsibility to do what government cannot,” Evans wrote in 1998. “It can use its independence to take the long view, to forewarn, to support the unpopular, the visionary, the dreamers and their dreams. It can test new ideas, try new approaches, and bring together people of widely differing perspectives, disciplines, and talents to discover new avenues of mutual understanding.”

 

[Eli was a close relative by marriage of Marshall’s family,” Ann Hurwitz told The Shofar. “Eli was a lovely man with a wonderful sense of humor. Once many years ago, Marshall, our son James, Eli and I went to Williamsburg together to celebrate Simchat Torah with Rabbi Schneerson. It was a memorable occasion.”]