About Us
Nekudah Capital Advisors’ practice is rooted in six interwoven elements we prioritize in our client engagements — Rights, Respect, Stewardship, Profit and Progress, Principles, and threaded through it all, Process.
What guides us
Rights
Social, economic and environmental justice are not just noble pursuits, they are foundational in the Torah and among the driving forces that brought the United States into being. In the language of the Enlightenment, unalienable rights – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – are realized through democracy but also through commerce. How do we bring our community to a place of safety and permanence to sufficiency to abundance, and then how do we lift others up in the same way?
Respect
Even so, great injustices and exploitation were committed in the name of progress, as the rights and privileges of all were not respected and honored. The slave trade, the abuse and destruction of virtually the entirety of aboriginal American civilization, the Farhud, the Shoah, everything the Torah admonishes as being antithetical to civilization, are stark and unforgivable reminders of the importance of “for all”. Justice is not justice when it is reserved for the few.
Stewardship
The principle of rights “for all” extends to the environment as well. Generations of scholars and scientists, politicians, industrialists and innovators have shaped society and the environment in profound and often unproductive ways through policy, technology and enterprise as it pertains to the utilization of our natural resources. Environmental justice has taken many forms across centuries as civilizations have moved and expanded, but the essence of it has been and continues to be that equal access to and preservation of the environmental commons is critical to fully enjoying our unalienable rights and the gifts enshrined in the Torah.
Profit and Progress
The capital markets can be an efficient mechanism for directing dollars to projects and enterprises which serve humanity – providing food, shelter, transportation, raw materials, health care, infrastructure, social services and even recreation and entertainment – and do so profitably. At the same time, businesses that have been or continue to be predatory, depletive or harmful in some or all of their practices service the interests of only a few in search of profit to the detriment of people and planet. There are also parts of the market that are more casino than conduit and do little or nothing to create value, grow the real economy and serve society.
Principles
The notion of sustainability is that businesses and infrastructure investments can be part of a virtuous circle with a wide range of stakeholders from owners to employees to suppliers to customers to the communities that surround them. There should not have to be losers in order to have winners in a capitalist system. Sustainable enterprises can create products and services profitably, but also efficiently and with respect for human and natural capital. Investing in enterprises that understand that perpetuating the resources on which they draw and the communities and markets in which they operate should perpetuate earnings and growth and the interests of all stakeholders in the long term.
Process
Our philosophical orientation is only a starting point. Translating these principles into implementable processes for asset owners and asset managers is our mandate. We work with individuals, families, foundations, endowments, religious institutions, businesses, retirement plans and other asset owners and trusted advisors to develop approaches that are consistent with their values and communities and chart a path to implementation.