Create a Jewish Legacy program surpasses 1,000 gifts
search
Journal

Create a Jewish Legacy program surpasses 1,000 gifts

Create a Jewish Legacy leaders celebrate the 1,000-gift milestone: from left, Laura Cohen, legacy team coleader, Temple Beth-El Mekor Chaim, Cranford; and CJL leaders: chair Michael Schechner, program manager Karen Secular, advisory committee member Jon Ulanet, and past chair Gary Botwinick.
Create a Jewish Legacy leaders celebrate the 1,000-gift milestone: from left, Laura Cohen, legacy team coleader, Temple Beth-El Mekor Chaim, Cranford; and CJL leaders: chair Michael Schechner, program manager Karen Secular, advisory committee member Jon Ulanet, and past chair Gary Botwinick.

SINCE SIGNING ON to the Create a Jewish Legacy (CJL) program five years ago, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest NJ (JCF) has logged 1,003 legacy gifts amounting to an estimated $28.7 million — the first among 58 participating communities in North America to reach this significant milestone.

By making a legacy gift — in the form of bequests in wills, beneficiary designations for retirement accounts or life insurance policies, or other gift-planning methods — participants help build the endowment funds of their local Jewish community organizations; in the Greater MetroWest region, CJL supports 16 synagogues and seven agencies.

When the program first launched, said JCF president Robert Kuchner, “none of us could have imagined that in five short years we’d be talking about more than 1,000 legacy gifts. This is a milestone our whole community should be proud of.”

CJL is run under the umbrella of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s Life & Legacy initiative, whose national director, Arlene D. Schiff, congratulated
JCF and the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ for their “commitment to changing the language and landscape of giving in your community.”

Federation CEO Dov Ben-Shimon thanked inaugural CJL chair, Ken Heyman; immediate past chair, Gary Botwinick; current chair, Michael Schechner; JCF president Robert Kuchner; JCF executive director Stanley Stone; CJL program manager Karen Secular; “and, most of all, the legacy teams for their commitment.”

For information, contact CJL program manager Karen Secular at ksecular@jfedgmw.org or 973-929-2918.

read more:
comments