Chanukah, which starts tonight, features eight days of giving. But charitable giving to Jewish causes went into high gear before the holiday, as demonstrated by the high volume of fund-raising events for Jewish causes in the past two weeks.

The event with the biggest political muscle was the reception last night of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Guests included the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, who was sworn in yesterday, and Governor-elect Spitzer.

The most academic group of gala guests was the one assembled Tuesday by the American Jewish Congress to honor the chancellor of the City University of New York, Matthew Goldstein. Guests included CUNY professors David Nasaw, the author of a new biography about Andrew Carnegie, and the chairman of the faculty senate, Rishi Raj, a mechanical engineer.

For pomp, circumstance, and nachas, Yeshiva University’s annual Chanukah Dinner trumped all. The event Sunday included a speech by Senator McCain and the awarding of honorary degrees to Mr. McCain, homecare services entrepreneur and orthodontist Dr. Felix Glaubach, Ambassador David Kurtzer, real estate developer Arnold Penner, publisher Solomon Scharfstein, and clothing retailer Marcy Syms. That was all before dinner started. The program during the meal focused on Yeshiva University trustee Ronald Stanton, who recently gave $100 million to recruit and retain faculty, acquire and renovate facilities, and support research.

The highest-grossing event was the United Jewish Appeal–Federation of New York’s Wall Street Dinner, on Wednesday, December 6, which generated $21.5 million and gave back as good as it got: The winner of the for-kicks-only poker tournament at the event, Michael Ben-Shoaff, took home a round of golf with Thomas Lee and a magic lesson from Alan “Ace” Greenberg. It wasn’t all fun and games, though.

One of the honorees, Daniel Och, the senior managing officer of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, reflected on his involvement in the organization, which included a solidarity trip to Israel in May.

“Our generation receives everything a lot earlier than our parents’ generation, including responsibility,” Mr. Och said.

Speaking of generations: The event most likely to generate future philanthropists with strong Jewish identities was a celebration by Birthright Israel Monday of its 100,000th participant. Clusters of single Jewish men and women, otherwise known as Birthright alumni, flirted under the watchful eyes of the philanthropists who funded their free trips to Israel.

The mixing of generations was in greatest evidence at the Jewish Museum’s Chanukah party Wednesday, where 4-year-olds danced with 40-and 80- year olds. One can only hope that the tradition of philanthropy gets passed on with the latke recipes.