Harry E. Jankowitz (1935-2014) was a Milwaukee attorney who had a solo practice in an unassuming office in a modest part of town.
He was a lifelong bachelor. He also had some physical challenges, according to David Werner, Jankowitz’s accountant and the executor of his estate.
“When he was a teenager he was in a car accident and almost lost his life,” Werner said. “He lost the use of his left arm. Perhaps that was why he became a personal injury attorney.”
Even so, Jankowitz did well in his practice and was also a very astute investor in the stock market. This combination, and his modest lifestyle, enabled him after his death to make some Milwaukee Jewish community history.
He bequeathed to the Jewish Community Foundation, the endowment development program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, $15 million — the largest gift the foundation has received since its founding in 1973.
Caren Goldberg is executive director of the JCF. “This incredibly generous bequest will make a significant impact on our community for many years to come,” she said.
The only previous such large-scale gift to the JCF was given in 2002, totaling $7 million.
Goldberg said the money will go to the Harry E. Jankowitz Endowment Fund. “His gift ensures his personal legacy while supporting the Jewish community and causes he cared about,” she said.
Organizations that will receive grants from this fund will include the JCF, the Jewish Home and Care Center and the University of Wisconsin Law School, Goldberg said.
About 15 years ago as a result of his injury, he had to undergo back surgery which left him unable to walk, and he was in a wheelchair the rest of his life, said Werner.
For rehabilitation, he went to the JHCC. He became very fond of that institution and close to then-JHCC president Nita Corré.
He lived independently after that in a modest condominium on the east side. After his surgery he became an even more active investor. According to Werner, “He loved life and never pitied himself for his disabilities.”
Goldberg added, “One of the things said at his funeral by [Rabbi Ira S. Grussgott] of Congregation Anshe Lebowitz was that Harry used to say ‘Que sera sera’ [‘what will be, will be’ in Italian], and that Harry has made whatever will be much better. And he truly will.”
Werner said that his firm — Scribner, Cohen, & Company SC — represented Jankowitz since the mid to late 1950s. “My father, Jordon, was his accountant and adviser before me,” he said.
Werner explained why Jankowitz chose the JCF for the gift. Robert Weiss was Jankowitz’s business/estate planning attorney, and Weiss was active with the MJF and JCF. In the early 1990s, Weiss introduced Jankowitz to Bert Bilsky, then JCF executive director.
Both Weiss and Bilsky encouraged Jankowitz to leave a bequest to the JCF, Werner said. He was receptive for several reasons.
According to Goldberg, his gift is the continuation of the tradition of charitable giving that he learned from his parents, Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Romania.
Moreover, Jankowitz in an article about him in a JCF newsletter in 2011 said, “I have always been proud of being Jewish. If we Jews don’t take care of ourselves, nobody else will. Israel and our agencies will always need money.”
Stephen L. Chernof, chair of the JCF board of trustees, said, “We take pride in the trust our donors place in the Jewish Community Foundation. This gift is also a tribute to the relationship that Bert Bilsky created and nurtured with him, and that Caren Goldberg continued with him until the day he died.”
“We will honor his memory and generosity as we carry out his wishes,” said Chernof.
Arlene Becker Zarmi is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 40 publications nationwide. She was also the producer and host of a travel TV show for Viacom, and is a Jewish genre and portrait artist.
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