Howard Blas's Posts

Original Article is Published at JNS.org

“They felt that solving the Middle East’s water problem may lead to peace,” said Ellen Marcus of the infusion of money her parents gave to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva.

Ellen Marcus had no idea how rich her simple, unassuming, Holocaust refugee parents, Howard and Lottie Marcus, were until their estate planner told her. She shared the climactic story of that discovery, in addition to their life, their interest in water resources in Israel and throughout the Middle East, and their eventual donation of $500 million to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva, the largest philanthropic donation to Israel in the history of the Jewish state.

“They felt that solving the Middle East’s water problem may lead to peace,” said their daughter.

She talked about the legacy of her parents following a Feb. 6 screening of the 90-minute documentary made about her parents, “Who Are the Marcuses?” at the Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center in New York City, in partnership with Americans for Ben-Gurion University, attended by about 100 people.

The film was directed by Matthew Mishory with cinematographer Michael Marius Pessah.

Young dentist Hans (“Howard”) and his wife, Lottie, who were proud Germans, recognized the warning signs in 1933 when he was barred by Nazi guards in April 1933 from entering the building that housed his office. They fled to Naples, Italy, where Ellen Marcus recounted just how dire their situation was. “This wasn’t in the film—he had to sleep in a tub or on the couch of his waiting room. He varied his diet—milk with bread and bread with milk,” she said, tongue in cheek.

He also suffered from tuberculosis and typhus, both incurable at the time, she said.

When a dental patient who worked for the British consul general was unwilling to help him escape Mussolini’s Italy for England, another patient who worked for the American consul general’s office creatively completed paperwork that allowed the couple to relocate to the United States, despite strict restrictions on immigration.

Once there, Lottie began working at a Jewish investment firm, and the two befriended, Ben Graham, known as the father of value investing and the author of The Intelligent Investor. He recommended contacting one of his mentees—a young investor named Warren Buffett, who worked for him in 1954 before returning to Omaha, Neb., to start what would become Berkshire Hathaway, the multinational conglomerate holding company.

Howard and Lottie Marcus with their daughter, Ellen. Credit: Courtesy of the film, “Who Are the Marcuses?”

The film refers to the Marcuses’ “buy and hold ’em for life” approach to investing in the stock market. Over time, their initial modest investment grew to stock holdings worth approximately $200 million. Stalwart supporters of Israel, the couple eventually decided to invest their fortune in water technology and research by donating to BGU.

Howard died at the age of 104 in 2014; Lottie died in 2015 at the age of 99. BGU announced the large endowment from the Marcus estate in June 2016. By the time the stocks were transferred to the university, their value had risen to $500 million.

‘The transformative power of education’

The film features footage of the Marcuses in Germany, Italy, the United States and Israel, and serves as a virtual “who’s who” of Israeli academics, politicians and thought leaders, including past and current presidents of BGU Daniel Chamovitz, Rivka Carmi and Avishay Braverman; Israel President Isaac Herzog; American-born Israeli author Daniel Gordis; former Prime Minister Shimon Peres; and others. All offered insightful, sometimes humorous insights.

Buffett said: “They made a wise choice—to do something that wasn’t getting done.” The late Peres offered: “The Marcuses flew coach so Israel can fly first class!”

Filming the documentary on Howard and Lottie Marcus. Credit: Courtesy of the film, “Who Are the Marcuses?”

Filming the documentary on Howard and Lottie Marcus. Credit: Courtesy of the film, “Who Are the Marcuses?”

Ellen Marcus reported that she’s still in touch with the 93-year-old Buffett: “I call him Mr. Buffett. I emailed him 10 years ago after my father died and have been corresponding with him ever since.”

The two participated in a panel discussion in March 2023 after the film was screened at the Omaha Film Festival. She noted that not that “he just came—no Armani suit, no security, just his family!”

After the screening this week, Martha Graybow of New York said the film was “uplifting to watch during these very dark times for those who care deeply about Israel and its future.”

She continued, saying “I have so much admiration for the Marcus family and their astonishing generosity to Ben-Gurion University. They are true visionaries who believed in the transformative power of education and the potential for peaceful coexistence across the Middle East.”

At the screening of the film “Who Are the Marcuses?” in New York City on Feb. 6, 2024. Photo by Lenore LaVine.

Brett Cohen, who lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, has spent significant time in the Negev, including participating in the Arava Institute’s Israel Ride in 2016, 2022, and hopefully, this year as well.

He visited communities in southern Israel such as Ofakim/Merchavim and Kibbutz Erez—partner communities with Greater Metrowest NJ Jewish Federation in his former New Jersey community—where he said he has seen “the importance of that region to the future of Israel.”

Along those lines, Cohen also noted being “deeply fascinated by climate innovation and the remarkable work being done at BGU and by others in Israel, particularly in water solutions and other climate mitigation efforts.”

Ellen Marcus, who encouraged her parents to leave their wealth for a greater purpose, is now deeply involved in stewarding the funds, ensuring their legacy continues to ripple outward.

Filming the documentary on Howard and Lottie Marcus. Credit: Courtesy of the film, “Who Are the Marcuses?”

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The Original Article is Posted at JNS.org

Israeli doubles team Daniel Cukierman and Edan Leshem retired against the Czech team of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek due to an injury to Cukierman’s hamstring.

Israel’s hopes for a dramatic comeback from a 2-0 deficit against Czechia on day 2 of the 2024 Davis Cup World Group in Trinec, Czechia were quickly dashed after only five games on Sunday when the Israeli doubles team of Daniel Cukierman and Edan Leshem retired against the Czech team of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek due to an injury to Cukierman’s hamstring. Czechia advances to September’s Group Stage Finals for the second year in a row. Israel returns to Group I and will be in action in September.

The Czech team got off to a fast start, breaking the Israelis in the first game of the set and holding serve in the second game. In game three, Cukierman grasped his hamstring in pain after trying to chase down a Machac lob. He returned from a medical time out with his hamstring taped and briefly continued the match. The Israelis, now down 4-0, won their first game as Cukierman held serve. He was in obvious pain and retired, giving the Czechs a 4-1 win and a sweep of the best of five series.  

The fourth match, no longer necessary to determine the series outcome, was played with Israel’s Orel Kimhi (#456) losing to Czechia’s Vit Kopriva  (#115) 3-6, 6-3, 11-9. Kimhi was the only Israeli in the two-day affair to win a set versus the Czechs.

In Saturday’s contest, Israel’s 24-year-old lefty Yshai Oliel (#415) battled 18-year-old Jacob Menshik (#127), losing the 1 hour, 34 minute match 6-1, 7-5. Oliel, up 6-5 in the second set, nearly managed to take the match to a third set.

In the Saturday’s second match, Cukierman (#465) faced Jiri Lehecka, current #31 and former world #23, fresh off a 2nd round appearance in last month’s Australian Open. Cukierman lost the first set 6-1 and battled back down 6-5 to take the second set to a tie-breaker; he went on to lose 7-6.

“It was very difficult for me, I felt like I lost timing and confidence in the first set, but with the help of the team I managed to come back in the second set and play my game, put more balls into the field and try to attack as much as possible,” said Cukierman. “We were close throughout the whole process,” he added.

In commenting on both of Saturday’s matches, former Israel tennis great and current Team Captain Jonathan (“Yoni”) Erlich noted, “The games were quite similar. The Czech players started the game by storm and our players started defensively. They had chances to turn the score around but the Czech players played excellently and knew how to close the game. It’s definitely a tough mission to come back from 2:0 but we will try to focus on our next game [doubles] and hopefully the momentum will change.  We must prepare ourselves and believe that it can be done.”

Due to Cukierman’s impressive performance on Saturday, Erlich decided to substitute Cukierman for Roy Stepanov to team up with Leshem for Sunday’s doubles match. The extent of Cukierman’s injuries will be determined upon the team’s return to Israel.  

While Israel’s team members anticipated tough competition, they were not intimidated by the Czech team. Cukierman noted before the tournament, “We have played against the Czech players before and we know them well. They are very strong and there are clear differences in the ranking between the two teams. Of course we are the underdogs, but at the Davis Cup, you can’t tell and we will fight and try to surprise.” 

Oliel added, “Me and Tomas Machac—we grew up together and I know him well. He of course made an amazing jump. They are a great and strong team and we will have some tough games. We train very well and hope that we will be able to bring our abilities to fruition and win.”

While Erlich knew the Israeli team was facing stiff competition, playing the Czech team has special meaning for him.

“The last match against the Czech Republic was also the last in my career, so the memories are pleasant and exciting also thanks to the victory in the doubles game and on the other hand less happy than we lost in the end. I hope this time we can do a better result,” he said.

In 2022, the Czech team beat Israel 3-1 with Erlich and Cukierman scoring an impressive 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jiri Lehecka and Tomas Machac.

The 12 winning nations (out of the 24 in action around the world this weekend) will secure a place in the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage in September—alongside 2023 champions Italy, 2023 runners-up Australia and wild cards Great Britain and Spain.  

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The Original Article is Published at The Jerusalem Post

Parting wisdom for potential olim: Surround yourself with a familiar environment, even in a foreign country.

When the Sone family made aliyah from Montreal, Shawna promised her children they could continue attending Camp Ramah, their beloved Jewish summer camp in Canada.

However, in Israel she was surprised to learn that for many of their children’s friends, summers did not have a similar experience and that families barely survived the often dreaded hofesh hagadol, the long, unstructured summer break.

The chef, cookbook writer, mother of three sons, and board chairperson of the Morris and Rosalind Goodman Family Foundation was inspired to share the magic of sleepaway camp with large numbers of Israelis, so she founded Summer Camps Israel to provide camp opportunities to Israeli children over the summers. Now she offers these camp experiences to Israeli children impacted by the current war.

While the upbeat, always positive Shawna always loved Israel, she was in many ways an unintentional olah.

She grew up in Montreal in a family that “stacked the deck,” she says, in favor of the children falling in love with Israel. They attended Jewish schools and camps, participated in the community, visited Israel regularly, and had tremendous pride in being Jewish.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaking at 2009 Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill. (credit: KASHMERA/CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)/VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

“My father woke up and went to bed with the news of Israel, but we were Diaspora Jews,” she notes, “Israel was ‘over there’ and no one ever encouraged me to move – not rabbis, not school, not camps.” She enjoyed her junior year of college in Israel, but aliyah was not in the plans.

In contrast, her husband, Todd Sone, grew up in a very Zionist family in Toronto and always had aliyah on his mind.

When Todd was in ninth grade, his pharmacist father spent a sabbatical in Jerusalem with the family, and Todd enjoyed an incredible year in French Hill, attending the Himmelfarb School. His friends left glowing comments in his yearbook, complimenting him for fitting in so nicely and for being such an important part of the class.

Todd dreamed of returning to Israel and finally did for his junior year of college at Hebrew University. Shawna playfully notes that Todd “had aliyah in his blood.” There is some friendly disagreement about whether his desire to make aliyah was disclosed on their first date. “He claims he told me he planned to move to Israel. I think I wasn’t listening.”

The two married in 1996. At around the 10-year mark, the idea of aliyah started nagging at Todd. The family began spending a month every July in Israel, where the kids attended Ramah’s Jerusalem Day Camp. They then returned to Ramah Canada for the second month.

The couple began to realize just how good their kids had it in Montreal. Family, community, and friends “ticked every box.” They began thinking about ways to get their children out of their comfort zone – something “adventurous” to “build resilience,” Shawna says. She considered “random countries, like Belize,” but settled on relocating for a year to Israel.

They set out for their furnished Ra’anana rental apartment with “14 hockey bags” and “pretended to live here.” Todd continued working with his North American-based employer.

Meeting Canada’s prime minister and then making aliyah

In January of their Israel year, then-prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper came to Israel for a visit.

“My mother of blessed memory was a huge fan of his,” Shawna says. “She used to say we will never live through a time when we will have a prime minister who is so pro-Israel.” Shawna was excited that her parents would be in Israel, as they were invited to be part of the trip and the opening of KKL-JNF’s Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary Visitor and Education Centre.

Sadly, her mother, Rosalind, was diagnosed with lung cancer and was unable to make the trip.

Shawna and Todd were offered the chance to join the prime minister’s delegation. “The country was lined with Canadian flags. I realized you don’t have to hate something to love something. I can be a bissel [a bit] of both. My identities could be aligned with one another.” She smiles, recalling, “Bibi was singing ‘Let It Be’ with Harper at the David Citadel on karaoke night! Why are we leaving so fast!?”

THE SONES decided to stay, moving back to Israel “for good” the following year.

At the time, their boys were in grades 4, 7, and 11.

“There is never a perfect age,” Shawna admits, crediting her community for what soon became a successful aliyah experience. Friends “took our phones and put in their numbers.” At first, she found this a little aggressive but soon came to appreciate these were the important go-to people to find out “what time school ends, how to fix a flat tire, where to find a guy to do this and that. Those numbers were lifelines!”

She credits her friends and community for helping: “Everyone was once where you are, and they want you to succeed.” She considers this a “unique experience” in Israel, where “everyone pays it forward, is authentic, genuine, and kind. There is an attentiveness to others here.”

Shawna also credits Todd for being “the driver.”

“Todd had this insatiable itch to be part of the story. He didn’t want to ask ‘Where was I?’ when we had this opportunity.” She adds, “You need a driver. I was willing to go for the journey – and were both on the same page at the end of the day.”

She acknowledges that you “have to come with 500% of will” – everything can knock you down. Fluency in Hebrew, she says, is crucial – even in a community with many Anglos. “Language is the most important thing – and Todd had it. I am still in ulpan – and will be until the end of days!”

Even without the language, Shawna has found her purpose in philanthropic work, with its base in summer camps. She met Todd at Ramah, and her deepest friendships came from her camp experience. “I am beholden to camp,” she says.

“I started asking questions about what kids do here in the summer. Why are the lights off in June? Why was summer break dreaded by all?” She knew she wanted to help grow sleepaway summer camp in Israel.

In 2019, she started the Forum for Summer Camps to bring informal education professionals together under an umbrella. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, two 10-day camp programs – one of which was My Piece of the Puzzle, a program that integrates children and youth at risk and those with disabilities – opened in 2020. They continue to grow. There are currently 28 camps. They served 15,000 campers last summer.

“We are trying to be reflective of the diversity of Israel,” notes Shawna proudly as she describes one camp serving Jewish and Bedouin girls. “We hope that camp will become part of the journey of becoming an adult in Israel. We hope that every Israeli who wants it will have a 10-day camp experience and feel it for life.”

The current situation in Israel has led Shawna and her team to offer Winter Boost Camps, three-day camp experiences for children who have been evacuated from their homes. To date, they have served 600 children.

While Shawna’s camp work continues to fill her time and renders great satisfaction, the professionally trained chef finds ways to combine all of her interests.

She has led Shefa, a women’s trip to Israel “to celebrate Israel’s abundance” and to be inspired by Israeli women making an impact.

Shawna, who also teaches cooking classes, reports, “I use food mixed with philanthropy.” For example, she teaches a class at Leket, Israel’s National Food Bank, on how to cook with leftover food, and to raise awareness about the organization’s mission.

She offers parting wisdom for potential olim: Surround yourself with a familiar environment, even in a foreign country. She notes that there is something for everyone in her Ra’anana community, such as English-speaking mahjong groups, yoga classes, and Torah study.

She sums it up: “Find your comforts!” ■

SHAWNA GOODMAN SONE, 52 FROM MONTREAL TO RA’ANANA, 2015

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Original Article Is Published at JewishDisabilityInclusionNews

I had the rare and moving experience of visiting a severely wounded Israeli soldier this week at the Samson Assuta Hospital in Ashdod. Y, a Special Forces soldier, was nearly killed when a bomb detonated near him and his unit.  A doctor in Gaza determined that Y would not have made it if transported to a more distant trauma center in Israel.  Fortunately, the doctors and medical staff at this amazing hospital essentially, in the words of his mother, brought him back from near death.  

What makes this story personal is that I have known Y since he was a young child, coming to one of our Ramah camps with his parents who worked on staff and with our Israeli shlichim for many years.  As a teenager, Y would train hard at camp in the hopes of being accepted to an elite unit in the IDF.  He succeeded and he and his comrades having been doing what is necessary to assure Israel’s survival and safety for years.

Thank God, Y has left the ICU.  He has had over 20 surgeries; he is now able to speak and eat regular food and he will soon move to a rehab hospital.  He hopes to return to his apartment, girlfriend and a future career, though he notes that “sometimes life takes a different path than planned.” (He wishes he could have served more than four weeks in Gaza, that he can return to Gaza, and that he would do it all over again).  Y also joins the expanding ranks of Israelis who are now considered disabled.  Y is now an amputee.  He feels “lucky” that his leg was lost below the knee and that he will soon be fitted for a prosthetic leg.  He is incorporating this new aspect of Y—his disability—into his already multi-faceted character.  He is determined NOT to let his disability define him.

Y is not alone. Israel is “welcoming” new members in to the disabilities community almost daily.

According to the Times of Israel, the Health Ministry reports that as of the middle of December, an extraordinary number of Israelis–10,580–have been wounded in the war with Hamas in Gaza, attacks by Hezbollah along the Lebanon border, and terrorist attacks in the West Bank. The latest figures provided by the Defense Ministry indicate that 6,125 of the wounded are IDF soldiers and members of the Israel Police and other security forces. Of these, 2,005 have already been recognized as permanently disabled.

A Jewish News Syndicate report notes that “around 2,000 Israeli civilians, soldiers and police officers have had limbs amputated or become disabled in other ways since Oct. 7.” 

Due to previous wars, Israel has some experience in addressing the needs of mainly young people who have become disabled.   Israel has a very active NGO, Negishut Israel/Access Israel, which has been advocating for the needs of the elderly and those with disabilities for decades. Organizations like Israel Para Sport Center introduces people with disabilities to sports.  

This postage stamp is from 1968

In many ways, Israel is doing a great job addressing the needs of people with disabilities.  The current war poses great challenges and opportunities to becoming a world leader in offering services guided by best practices for people with physical disabilities and mental health challenges. I pray Israel will continue to be a pioneer and leader.

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