Matriarchs Share Legacy and Inspiration
Atlanta Jewish Foundation’s annual Grow a Legacy event featured a lively panel of four outstanding local women.
After 37 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now with the AJT, , Jaffe’s focus is lifestyle, art, dining, fashion, and community events with emphasis on Jewish movers and shakers.
On March 6, the Atlanta Jewish Foundation hosted its annual Grow a Legacy event at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, for those who have made after-life charitable commitments, endowments and/or signed the Jewish Future Promise to ensure the vibrancy of Jewish life.
Over the years, this event featured stories from inspiring community leaders, including Bernie Marcus in 2023. This year, a week before Purim, which tells the story of Esther, the Atlanta Jewish Foundation honored four community matriarchs: Candy Berman, Etta Raye Hirsch, Cathy Selig, and Raya Zalik. These women shared the spirit of their legacies, philanthropic values and family dynamics as they relate to example setting. The panel was moderated by Lindsay Kopecky, Frances Bunzl Chief Advancement Officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
After a buffet by A Kosher Touch, guests moved into the sanctuary where they were welcomed by AA president Dr. Mark Stern and co-chair Lisa Haynor, who saluted women for being forward thinking and modeling L’dor V’Dor.
Senior Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal then asked for a moment of silence in memory of the recent passing of charitable community giant Sanford Orkin. He then represented how the “Eternal Light,” Ner Tamid, universal to all Jewish houses of worship, causes sensitivity, if it’s not perfectly functional. He said, “People flip out if the bulb goes out … a spiritual conundrum. These lights can change, like the community; but light is eternal, and bulbs must be replaced, and relit, sustained,” akin to the legacy of generational giving.
Federation CEO Renee Kutner started by referencing Mr. Rogers, “looking for helpers … the heroes who are willing to live for (not risk) values.” She stated that Federation’s goal is to raise $27.5 million by the end of April, “aligning resources with values. It’s not enough to think about the world today, but to have the wisdom to use the wealth — the bridge to strengthen those after us. We provide tools like donor advisory funds to enable giving tomorrow.” They have more than $400 million in assets under management.
Kopecky welcomed four female panelists, who all hold different stories and collectively have 20 grandchildren. Harkening back to Queen Esther, who answered the call to save her people, Kopecky asked how they fit into that. Berman noted that her father said, “We’re not here to take up space,” and philanthropy was about finding one’s passion. Selig spoke of the good feelings generated by giving “from childhood pennies in the Blue Box to her trip to Russia 30 years ago to smuggle medicine.”
She was also moved by the flight to Israel resettling Ethiopian Jews who had “never seen a plane or held a fork.” Zalik felt that charity is really an obligation. She explained that the Torah was first given to women whose responsibility was to teach and care for the family. Zalik explained that her grandfather fled to China from Siberia in the early 1900s. She recalled, “He gave challah and chickens for Shabbat for every Jewish family.” Later, her parents helped Jews in Sydney, Australia.
Hirsch, who was born on a farm in Tennessee, explained how her modest family saved groceries for the poor. Other highlights were Selig giving her grandchildren money (L’Dor V’dor Fund) to research causes and donate and called her a “bad ass.” Berman recalled that she gave up diaper service decades ago to be able to donate, “You don’t have to be rich to be a philanthropist.”
Hirsch thinks it’s important to reach teens to get the message early on. Zalik, a third generation “refugee immigrant,” wished that no one has to experience fear and separation.”
Hirsch concluded, “100 years from now, I hope my [progeny] are educated philanthropists and give as an honor with joy.”
Earlier in the reception, legal magnate Ted Blum told the AJT, “my donor advisory fund does everything I want — in the best way by aligning my family’s goals with meaningful causes.”
Insurance broker Stuart Shapiro uses his fund to continue the legacy of Jewish giving. Sponsor SouthState Bank Division Chair Ashley Carson explained, “It’s important for us to lean into the Jewish community.”
As stated in The Talmud, “As my ancestors planted for me, so do I plant for my children.”
comments