Jewish Communal Fund fund holder to donate estate to support educational technology.

“I’m not a tech person,” admits 85-year-old Ira*. “I take to new gadgets very slowly.” Before he retired, Ira owned a retail camera store. “Now, film is passé. Kodak, the monolith of the photo industry, is bankrupt. Everything is digital.” While he has learned how to use a computer for online stock trading, Ira has pretty much stopped taking pictures – not wanting to bother with digital cameras.

That’s not to say that he doesn’t appreciate the value of technology and the critical role it plays in educating the next generation.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Ira plans to leave his entire estate to his fund at the Jewish Communal Fund, with instructions for the proceeds to be granted to Cornell Tech, an innovative academic partnership between Cornell University and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He holds the distinction of being the first person to name a space within Bloomberg Center, the first of three buildings to be built within Cornell Tech’s 12-acre permanent campus on Roosevelt Island by 2017. The Masters’ Studio, an area for graduate students to study and socialize, will be named for him and for his late wife, Esther.

Ira first learned about Cornell Tech from an article he read in the New York Times. “As a result of the innovation that the school brings, jobs will be generated and that will be very good for the economy,” he said. At the time, he wasn’t sure how much money he could contribute, but he knew that he wanted to make an impact.

For Ira, getting involved in Cornell Tech has provided him with a meaningful way to honor his legacy and that of his late wife. Having opened a donor advised fund at JCF in 2009, he enjoys donating to a variety of charities. “I’m completely satisfied,” he said.

When his wife passed away a few years ago, however, Ira began to think about what would happen to the fund after he was gone, especially since he does not have children to succeed him on it.

“When we first met, he pulled out a press clipping announcing that Cornell and the Technion had won the competition,” recalled Sharon Marine, Vice President for Development at Cornell Tech. “This gift combines the value he and his wife placed on education and their strong commitment to Israel. He was clearly drawn to the fact that this was a partnership between an institution in Israel and one in New York City. This was a way to honor them both.”

Ira gave $90,000 to Cornell Tech last year and an additional $80,000 this year from his fund at the Jewish Communal Fund, but the bulk of his gift to Cornell Tech will come after his death. Should there be a surplus from his estate, he has instructed JCF to grant the remainder to the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.  “My mother-in-law was a great reader,” he explained. “She had read all of these Yiddish books, but then she and my wife passed away. I can’t read Yiddish, but I didn’t want to throw them away. So when I heard about the Yiddish Book Center, I drove up to Amherst about three years ago with six boxes of books and I donated them to the library.”

Ira says he tries during his lifetime to donate money to organizations he is familiar with, such as JNF, Birthright Israel, HIAS and Hebrew Free Burial Society.  “I went to one funeral that HFBS organized,” he recalled. “My wife’s family had been in Russia during the war, and we brought them over after the war had ended. One of the older family members had died. We had no money at the time, and HBFS arranged the burial in a cemetery in Staten Island. There are plenty of indigent Jews who need a cemetery plot.”

Making a legacy gift was a no-brainer for Ira, and it has provided him with peace of mind.  “Your legacy is only the good name that you leave behind,” he said.

If you would like Jewish Communal Fund to assist you in establishing a succession plan for your existing charitable fund, or to create a new fund through a gift in your will or IRA beneficiary designation, please contact Tamar Snyder at [email protected].

*Ira asked that we only include his first name for privacy reasons.