A gift of $100,000 was left in a will for Hebrew University in Jerusalem, from a homeless Holocaust survivor from NYC who died at the age of 92. The woman was reportedly a resident of Manhattan streets, with no known family.
The woman also left a similar sum to a couple who assisted her in the past, offering her food and lodging. She took responsibility for the couple’s car, moving to make certain they would not receive summonses due to alternate parking regulations. She told them that when she dies, she would give them something, but they never took it too seriously, since they did not expect a homeless woman to have anything to pass on.
University officials were surprised at the gift, adding the women never visited Israel to their knowledge. Officials have decided the funds would be used for educational grants and assistance for underprivileged students.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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8 Responses
It would have been nice if the money was given to tsadakkah instead.
I’ll be surprised if even 1 dollar of the gift finds it’s way to one single poor person. She just helped line the pockets of some greedy, rich University snobs.
How sad that this woman was never properly taken care of in her lifetime. One has to wonder where this money came from and where she held it all these years? How much money remains of her estate beyond this gift? Too bad she wasn’t zoiche to live a normal life or to do tzedokah at the end either.
2morecents,
It’s a shame that your taiva for lashon hara overpowers your respect and appreciation for the advances that those “University snobs” have offered you. In fact, many robbonim would consider a donation to an institution such as Hebrew University to be an extremely high form of tzedokah.
Please forgive me, but I fail to see why some posters always have to look for, and indeed find, the negative side of the story.
A lady who doesn’t seem to have had an easy life, left some money for a Jewish organisation. Surely a good-news story – YWN seems to agree.
As a yeshiva bochur myself, I find this story very nice.
I guess the next time we reach for a medicine and notice it is the result of research from a University (many medicines are), we will put it right back and not take it. A cure from a snob? No. Let’s suffer and hope the illness will pass.
Probably the only person ever to not be bothered by meshulachim.
MCL – What! which Rabobonim are you talking aboult Reform or Cathlic.
Obamanaz,
As you must be well aware, donating tzedokah to torah institutions is the highest form of tzedokah according to modern gedolim (I believe it was either Rav Elyashiv or Rav Kanievski who said it).
If you have ever studied tanach academically with a true intellectual approach, you undoubtably have come across contributions made/found/offered by graduates/professors/researchers of Hebrew University.
I don’t know about you, but I consider the study of Tanach to be torah learning. As Hebrew University is arguably the premier tanach research institute in the world, it certainly has the status of a torah institute(at least in some respects).
The money given by this lady, may help a future tanach scholar receive a first class opportunity to learn and teach tanach, thereby benefitting the world with his torah.
That sounds like tzedokah to me!
sincerely,
MCL