At its June 2 annual meeting Richmond Jewish Foundation’s Board of Directors elected Stuart Cantor to serve as president. Stuart is Chairman of TrustMor Mortgage Company. He earned a BS from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is a Certified Public Accountant. He is a former president and current trustee of Keneseth Beth Israel and a former president and current executive committee member of Rudlin Torah Academy. Stuart has been married to Joan Bers Cantor for 23 years, and they are the parents of 6 children.

Joining Cantor as officers are vice presidents Abby Moore and Jeff Lacker, secretary Beth Long, treasurer Andy Brownstein; Adam Plotkin will chair the Investment Committee.

Other returning directors are Irv Blank, Roger Leibowitz, Morty Brown, Miriam Davidow, Rick Gary, Stuart Siegel, Bob Weisberger, Gregory Itskovich, Gail Moskowitz, Walter Rabhan, Rebecca Kalman-Winston, Sam Revenson, Paul Silver, and Charles Swartz.

New directors include Beryl Ball, Ruth Greene, Sy Sibleman, and Evelyn Lampert.

Beryl Ball has over 25 years experience in the investment and retirement services industry with SunTrust Bank and most recently with CAPTRUST Financial Advisors. A Richmond native, she, husband John and their children are life-long members of Beth Ahabah.

Ruth Greene practices law with SeltzerGreene, PLC, providing expertise on matters involving workers’ compensation, insurance coverage and general litigation. Ruth earned her JD from the College of William & Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law.

Sy Sibleman has served as the assistant executive director at the Virginia Holocaust Museum since 2009. He is a member of KBI and was recently elected to serve on the board of Rudlin Torah Academy. Sy earned a doctorate in French from the King’s College, University of London and is a published author.

Evelyn Lampert has lived in Richmond since 1967. She was one of the founding members of Congregation Or Ami and a past president. She currently serves on the Weinstein JCC board. Recently retired, Evelyn practiced clinical social work for 32 years. Evelyn attended Temple University and has a B.S. and M.S.W. from Virginia Commonwealth University. Evelyn has three adult children, two adult stepchildren, six grandchildren. Her late husband was Harvey Lampert. She has been married to Marty Cohen since 2003.

We congratulate Frances Goldman, Lynn Kessler, GD Rothenberg, and Nannette Shor for completion of their board service. We thank Frances for her tireless work as our treasurer, Lynn for her guidance on our investment committee, GD for his leadership in transforming RJF’s investment committee, and Nannette for her dedicated leadership on our distribution committee.

Please click the picture to view more photos from the event.

2010 Annual Meeting

Donor Advised Fund Recommendation Form

Every May 5, including today, over 1,000 people – the residents of Beth Sholom Home, Beth Sholom Woods and six other agencies for youth and the elderly – celebrate Fannie Hutzler’s birthday. It’s a day many look forward to year after year.

Mrs. Hutzler’s family has celebrated her birthday with the community ever since she passed away in 1891. For many years the Hutzler family handled the celebration themselves, but in 1933, Henry Hutzler decided to ensure that the tradition be carried on after his passing.  He sought the help of what is now Richmond Jewish Foundation to establish the Fannie Hutzler Fund to do just that.

“I give and bequeath a sum to be held in Trust in memory of my mother, Fannie Hutzler, as a perpetual fund for ‘Fannie Hutzler Day’…the income from said Fund to be used for a ‘birthday party’ (cake, candy, ice cream, etc.) to be given on each 5th of May, the children or inmates of certain named institutions, all of Richmond, Virginia,” probated in 1933.

In addition to Beth Sholom Home and Beth Sholom Woods, birthday parties will take place at The Virginia Home, United Methodist Home, Virginia Home for Boys, Masonic Home of Virginia, St. Joseph’s Villa and Friends Association for Children.

Henry Hutzler would be pleased to know that his simple bequest has brought so much happiness to so many.

Happy birthday, Fannie.

Sadly, our dear friend, Alex Lebenstein recently passed away. Many of us know his story. It’s worth repeating.

As a child living in Germany, Alex’s nightmare began on November 11, 1938 when the Nazi’s entered his city of Haltern, Germany on “Kristallnacht” destroying all things Jewish in their path.  Along with his parents, he witnessed the Nazis destroying their possessions, their security, and the only home that he had known.

While his story is much like many other Holocaust survivors, Alex’s experience has influenced thousands of young people on both sides of the Atlantic, promoting racial harmony, anti-bias education, and social justice.  Sixty years after trying to forget, Alex not only remembered but also shared the messages of the Holocaust with others.

Being encouraged to tell his story to youth, Alex began accepting invitations to speak; first, in his hometown of Haltern, Germany at the request of the students who needed to understand their history, the history of their grandparents and parents.  Upon his return, Alex began accepting requests to speak throughout Central Virginia.  His story, not only, told the dates and the facts, but it also told of the challenges Alex endured and how he had overcome them.

Alex ultimately learned as much from the youth as they learned from him.  The youth wanted to do more. In Germany, they erected monuments, museums (in boxcars), and worked toward and became a school against racism. Most importantly, they inspired the entire town to become involved which led to naming Alex an honorary citizen and renaming the town’s school in his honor, the Alexander Lebenstein Realshule – “School Against Racism; School with Courage.”  In Central Virginia, after school presentations or groups led at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, students wrote letters, drew pictures and created a book about Alex.  They continued to e-mail him for facts and for encouragement to fight the woes of society and to learn how to live and act civil with others.

To ensure that this important message of tolerance and human rights is told forever, the Alexander Lebenstein Fund for Tolerance and Human Rights has been established at Richmond Jewish Foundation. Alex loved speaking and inspiring us to make the world a better place. When he returned from a speaking engagement, he would drop by the Richmond Jewish Foundation office to proudly deposit the gift donated from the school, business, or congregation into his fund.

If you wish to make a tax deductible donation to the fund so that Alex’s message of tolerance and human rights is never forgotten, please click here or contact Robert Nomberg at 804.545.8656.

After his recent passing, Gerald T. Shor’s family established a new fund to honor his memory. Gerald was raised in Raleigh, NC and had been a resident of Richmond, VA since 2005.  He was a member of Keneseth Beth Israel Synagogue in Richmond and Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh.  He was a long time member of B’nai B’rith.  He is survived by four children; Marcia Shor of Richmond, Barbara McDowell of Raleigh along with her husband, David, Michael of Charlotte and Nathan and his wife Nannette of Richmond.  Gerald was the proud grandfather to nine grandchildren; Bryan along with his wife, Meghan, Andrew, Lauren, Marla, Rachel, Katherine, Adam and Jaclyn.

Legacies Provide Important Funding Source in Down Economy

Richmond Jewish Foundation President Debra Gardner and Interim Executive Director Robert Nomberg joined more than 80 of their colleagues at the first ever Jewish Legacy Forum in Tucson, Arizona, December 8-10. 

At the conference, Gardner and Nomberg presented a best practices workshop on Create a Jewish Legacy branding and marketing. The forum focused on sharing expertise and innovations to help build and promote legacy programs in Jewish communities across North America. A legacy is a gift left for the future of the community, to carry on the donor’s wishes beyond his or her lifetime. This typically includes an endowment, which is a permanent fund that provides perpetual support to an organization from the income earned. This is especially important during tough economic times, when other funding sources may be cut back.                                                                                                                           
“We encourage communities to use endowments and planned gifts as a long-term strategy for building and sustaining the Jewish community,” said Joe Imberman, Associate Vice-President Planned Giving and Endowments at the Jewish Federations of North America, which co-sponsored the forum with the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego and the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona.

The forum covered such topics as creating a legacy culture in the community, partnering with agencies to build endowments and helping each donor fulfill their own philanthropic vision through legacy planning. Eighty-five professionals and lay leaders from 26 communities attended.

“We need to both engage the soul and engage in business planning to reach a golden age of philanthropy we could only have dreamed of a few years ago,” said opening speaker Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and co-author of The Art of Giving.

Keynote speaker and award-winning columnist Amy Hirshberg Lederman summed up what many of the participants sensed. “We are witness to something historic. We are all here for a reason. We believe in the future of Jewish people and we can make a difference in that future.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Martha Lochert Photography

Richmond Jewish Foundation announces strong performance results, outperforming significant market indices for 2009. The Foundation’s main fund finished the year up 27% relative to its benchmark of 25.1%. The Foundation manages approximately $27.6 million in assets.

“Our investment manager, SEI, has done an outstanding job in one of the most challenging market environments in quite some time,” said GD Rothenberg, chair of Richmond Jewish Foundation’s Investment Committee. “Through the end of the third quarter, our investment results ranked in the top 8% on a calendar year-to-date basis versus our peer group (endowments/foundations with assets under $100 million). Even though the markets have sharply rebounded in 2009, it was a difficult year to outperform. It’s good to see this trend continued during the fourth quarter resulting in one of the fund’s best performances in many years.”

Richmond Jewish Foundation acts as a fiscal steward of the Richmond Jewish community’s charitable assets. Its objective is to earn good returns on investments without taking an inordinate amount of risk. For the past five years SEI Investments Management Corporation from Oaks, PA has managed Richmond Jewish Foundation’s assets.

“I greatly appreciate the members of the Investment Committee for their continued leadership to ensure that the community’s assets are well managed. They take their role as a fiduciary very seriously and it shows,” said Rothenberg.  

 The other members of the Investment Committee include Beryl Ball, Tom Byer, David Gardner, Lynn Kessler, Roger Leibowitz, Adam Plotkin, Richard Schwarzchild, Bob Weisberger, Michael Blumberg, Gail Moskowtiz and Stewart Kasen.

Our community’s Book of Life was introduced for the first time during the Richmond Jewish Foundation and the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond joint annual meeting. Twenty-two wonderful statements were presented to the community. This Book of Life interactive DVD was made possible by funding provided from the Elizabeth and Edward Hirschler* Endowment Recognition Fund.

Thanks to Richmond Jewish Foundation’s Elizabeth and Edward Hirschler* Donor Advised Fund a kiosk will be built at the Weinstein JCC displaying the interactive DVD.
Anyone, regardless of age, wealth, or affiliation, who commits to secure the future of Richmond’s Jewish community, either through a current gift to a permanent endowment fund or through a deferred gift to any of the Create a Jewish Legacy partners, Israel, or any charity, will be presented with a page to inscribe with their own thoughts and to tell, in their own words, the meaning behind their gift in their Book of Life page.

The Book of Life page, along with a family photograph, will then be added to those written by others. These pages will be collected and placed in the interactive display at the Weinstein JCC. Together, these stories will tell future generations our story- the story of Richmond’s Jewish community. You can transmit not just your funds, but your family history and legacy to the next generation. These legacy gifts help ensure the future of our Jewish community, guaranteeing that the strong and vibrant agencies, congregations, museums, and schools that our parents and grandparents worked so hard to build will be here for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come.