Sidney Rivkin, Wisconsin regional director for the Jewish National Fund, will never forget how Milwaukee attorney, builder, philanthropist and Jewish community activist Avrum Chudnow made memorable Rivkin’s first days on the job some 20 years ago.
Rivkin was supposed to report on a Monday, but it happened that his second son was born on that day, so he missed work.
The next day, Rivkin showed up, and Chudnow — who, Rivkin said, knew about the birth — demanded to know where Rivkin had been the previous day.
When asked if that wasn’t an intimidating, scary moment, a sign that Chudnow, chair of the Wisconsin JNF board, would have no understanding for family matters, Rivkin laughed.
“One never knew when he was pulling your leg or not,” he said. “He had a sense of humor, which he would sometimes hide by making such a comment.”
In fact, Chudnow “was very concerned about other people. He was always asking after my family and other people’s families,” said Rivkin.
Others remembering Chudnow, who died April 20 at age 91, also remembered his sense of humor.
“He would make cute little comments during heavy meetings to lighten the atmosphere,” said Rabbi Gideon Goldenholz, spiritual leader of Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, where Chudnow was a very active member.
But behind the sense of humor was a man dedicated to the goal of “leaving behind something that mankind can benefit from that wasn’t there when he came on earth,” said Rivkin.
To Bert L. Bilsky, executive director of the Jewish Community Foundation, the endowment development program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Chudnow was “one of the community’s pillars…. He provided funds, but more than that, he provided leadership and a constant level of attention to the details and to the needs of the organizations.”
Nita Corré, president of the Jewish Home and Care Center for 25 years, knew him over the total of 30 years she worked there. She said he had made it a habit to come to the JHCC synagogue every other Sabbath to “be with the residents.”
She said she got to know him particularly well during the planning process for the Sarah Chudnow Campus, the continuum of care facility named after his mother and built in Mequon.
“One of the things I loved most about him personally was that the word ‘impossible’ was not part of his vocabulary,” Corré said. “He made me feel everything was possible if you tried hard enough” and “whenever I left his office, I felt I had to do it better.”
“Be sure to put in the word ‘visionary’” in describing Chudnow, Goldenholz said. “He always looked toward the future.”
In fact, he was active in planning for the future until his last days.
Within a month of his death, Chudnow sat with Bilsky to work on plans for the future, Bilsky said, noting that Chudnow established one of the first funds in the foundation in the 1970s.
“We went through many drafts of the plan,” Bilsky said. “It was impossible to believe he would not be around to finish every task he started.”
Goldenholz said that Chudnow’s whole family had been a “pillar of the congregation” for a long time. Shul projects in which Avrum Chudnow played key roles included organizing the fund-raising for the construction and expansion of the synagogue’s Mequon building.
Goldenholz visited Chudnow in the hospital during his last days, and found him “asking questions … He wanted to know how the projects were going, wanted to be sure everything’s okay.”
Chudnow was particularly dedicated to the work of JNF. Though perhaps best known in JNF circles for leading development of the Timna Park in Israel’s Negev Desert region, he also served as chair of the Wisconsin region board for about 20 years.
“Nobody felt they could rise to his level of love for the organization,” said Rivkin. “We felt he should retain that position and inspire us all.”
Rivkin said that Chudnow’s son David had told him that Chudnow was giving instructions practically to his last breath. “He would not allow a moment to go by without trying to accomplish something,” said Rivkin.
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