“If you don’t plow in summer, what will you eat in winter?” says the collection Midrash Proverbs, and this principle applies not only to an individual, but to a community as well.
On Wednesday, June 24, 7 p.m. at The Pfister Hotel, the Jewish Community Foundation of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation will celebrate the first year of a two-year national program’s local incarnation by which people and institutions “plow” for the community’s future.
This is the Create a Jewish Legacy program, a national effort led by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s LIFE & LEGACY program and supported here by it and four local funders.
Its chair is Jody Kaufman Loewenstein, who said, “This is the type of visionary project which takes place now, but provides for the future financial security of our Jewish community.”
And Steve Chernof, JCF chair, said, “The program is a terrific boost for the community and its future resources… thereby enhancing the ability of the organized Jewish community to do its work.”
As Caren Goldberg, JCF executive director, explained, the program has bettered its expectations for the first year.
Its idea was that 15 local Jewish organizations and agencies would obtain legacy gifts for their entities. Each was to obtain a minimum of 18, for a total of 270. Moreover, for reaching this goal, the donors would give each partner a $10,000 incentive grant, which “they can use to support the ongoing work of their institutions,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg reported that not only had all the partners met their goal, but many had surpassed it, resulting in more than 320 gifts and an estimated value of total future commitments of $8 million.
And beyond this achievement, said Goldberg, the program “has given us the opportunity to broaden the conversation about legacy giving and talk about how each member of our community can affect and shape the future of Jewish life in Milwaukee.”
Moreover, “through the program we are able to provide tools and resources to our partners [enabling them] to talk with individuals and families about securing our Jewish future,” Goldberg said.
According to information Goldberg provided, Milwaukee is one of 16 communities nationally participating in Create a Jewish Legacy, which as of March 31 established a total of 4,872 legacy commitments with an estimated value of $164 million in future Jewish community gifts.
In addition to celebrating the program achievements at this event, the JCF will give for the first time in five years its Legacy Leadership Award to Mark Brickman, Milwaukee businessman and Jewish community activist since 1971.
“The award to Mark is significant and well-deserved because he has been such a positive influence on the Jewish community for a long time,” said Chernof, “and is a role model for people who want to engage in activities that benefit the Jewish community as a whole.”
“Mark is a visionary leader not only in concept, but in deed,” said Kaufman Loewenstein. “His unique leadership style really gets everyone excited and wanting to move.”
Goldberg added that Brickman has “led by example in making legacy gifts of his own. Through his vision and by telling his story he’s encouraged many others to leave gifts to the community.”
Brickman praised the Create a Jewish Legacy program as “unique. I don’t know of any similar effort” in any philanthropic area. “I thought it was a brilliant idea” that “will result in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to support Jewish organizations all over the country.”
The Create a Jewish Legacy partners are: Anshe Sfard Kehillat Torah, BBYO-Wisconsin Region, Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, Congregation Sinai, the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, Hillel Academy, Jewish Beginnings Lubavitch Preschool, Jewish Family Services, Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center, Peltz Center for Jewish Life and Yeshiva Elementary School.
Loading ...