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.

Over sixty Foundation and Federation representatives participated in the Create a Jewish Legacy Community Showcase at the Jewish Federations of North America (formerly United Jewish Communities) General Assembly earlier this month in Washington, DC. Richmond’s interim executive director, Robert Nomberg joined Joslin LeBauer from the Jewish Federations of North America and Greensboro’s endowment director, Susan Gutterman for the session.

The panel led a discussion about the need for community public awareness campaigns designed to help individuals and families support the Jewish causes they care about; building a strong, vibrant community, now and in the future with bequests for permanent endowments. Create a Jewish Legacy promotes the message that all of us have the ability to make a difference in the lives of future Jewish generations.

The Masada-Hillel Endowment Fund was established over fifteen years ago at Richmond Jewish Foundation to support programming for college age youth attending schools in the Richmond area.  Currently, the Fund supports the Hillel program as administered by the Weinstein JCC.  Contributions support a vast array of programs and services as outlined below.

Hillel of Richmond provides social, educational, cultural and religious opportunities for the Jewish students on VCU/University of Richmond campuses as well as MCV and TC Williams Law School. Hillel supports the State of Israel within secure boundaries and provides programs and education to ensure that support.  Hillel of Richmond has been a program of the Carole and Marcus Weinstein Jewish Community Center for over 15 years, funding for Hillel of Richmond is provided primarily on local level.  Every month Jewish students from all walks of life gather for free Shabbat dinner and services, Israel advocacy programs, and lunch and learns.  Our weekly programming has something for everyone from free bagels and coffee on Monday mornings, holiday activities, and interfaith programming with other on-campus organizations.  We sponsor several annual programs like free Passover Seders and free High Holiday meals, free dinner with Holocaust survivors, Krav Maga with an Israeli IDF Specialist, and access to Birthright trips to Israel and alternative spring break trips around the globe.  We even help send students to conferences around the world for young leadership development.  We also sponsor events for Jewish Law and Medical Students as well as young Jewish graduates and professionals.  We have a full time director who is on campus everyday and maintains active facebook groups.

If you wish to make a tax deductible contribution to the Masada-Hillel Endowment Fund please contact the RJF offices. More Hillel of Richmond information and programming can be found by clicking here.

During its most recent meeting, Richmond Jewish Foundation’s Investment Committee exercised its fiduciary responsibility to the community’s endowed assets by reviewing the third quarter investment performance results and by analyzing the Foundation’s investment asset allocation.

“The Foundation is pleased to report that our main portfolio, the enhanced fund, is up 21% for the year thanks in part to a positive 13% third quarter,” said GD Rothenberg, Chairman of the Investment Committee. “We’ve weathered a difficult storm. Our commitment to maintaining a diversified portfolio combined with our long-term view of permanent funds is paying off with a tremendous quarter.”

In 2005, the Investment Committee developed an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) outlining a strategy which establishes investment risks and returns including the percentage of funds invested in stocks, bonds, and cash, as well as the selection of investment managers.  The committee regularly monitors and reviews the Foundation’s investments which have been managed for nearly four years by SEI Investments.

During the quarterly meeting, the Investment Committee reviewed SEI’s changes in equity managers as well as studied the Foundation’s asset allocation mix to determine the percentage of assets in each investment class needed to meet long-term growth goals and short-term spending needs.

RJF takes the fiduciary role very seriously. Recently, RJF received the Consultant’s Assessment of Fiduciary Excellence (CAFE) certification. This certification acknowledges that the investment practices of the Foundation conform to twenty-two best practices in the industry. These standards promote an optimal level of investment governance and the prudent management of investment assets for the RJF Board and Investment Committee. This process ensures the highest level of ethical and moral standards.

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