February 4, 2013

 

RE: My Commitment to Giving

Dear Warren:

I feel privileged and honored to join you and our fellow Giving Pledge members who have committed ourselves to participate in the Pledge. Each of us has set forth our respective reasons for participating in the Pledge—I hereby offer mine.

My life began in Poland in the early 1930s, the only son of a reasonably well-to-do Jewish family. My parents had the foresight and the luck to immigrate to the United States on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Poland. We lost most of our family, who were not so lucky, and in the early 1940s of the World War II era, I was witness to my mother and father scraping to make a living and mourning the losses of those left in Poland. But I never forgot that we were survivors in a land of opportunity—eventually my parents were the beneficiaries of the American Dream and later I too was able to realize for myself the opportunity to become a participant in that American Dream.

There has existed in the minds of refugees, who have been embraced by this great country, a level of gratitude for the opportunities made available to us that is somewhat analogous to a debt that we feel needs to be repaid. Some of us refer to that feeling as wanting to “give back”—I personally prefer to call it wanting to “share opportunity”. And in terms of the time, energy, and money already contributed by me to replicate such an opportunity for others, my family and I have already more than fulfilled the intent of the Giving Pledge. However, it is my plan to continue my commitment to Giving throughout my life and eventually through my estate plan.

The challenges I perceive today are vastly different than those that drove my earlier philanthropy. After escaping the ravages of the Holocaust, I was privileged to grow up in a country dedicated to equal opportunity. A country that admired success, inspired responsibility and rewarded work ethic. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost our way. We appear to have moved away from such admiration of success; and our government policies serve to diminish work ethic and personal responsibility. We took pride in our public education system and one of the world’s best—to what we now perceive to be a national problem.

Because pride of country and promoting a replication of its successes drove my early philanthropy—concern with a diminishment of our national character is driving much of my philanthropy today. Education reform initiatives, public policy programs, advocacy forums, and constitutional education workshops now represent an increasing level of my philanthropic dollars.

I have high hopes that we are witnessing a cycle where even great morally strong nations stumble for a time. I share a strong belief with other similarly minded philanthropists that, in part through our effort, our great American experience will survive and prosper stronger than ever.

 

Respectfully,