On May 28, United Jewish Federation (UJF) of Stamford, New Canaan, and Darien celebrated its first year of the Life & Legacy, Legacy Plus program. Life & Legacy promotes legacy giving as a cultural norm and is a communal effort to help Jewish organizations build their endowment funds to ensure their future in perpetuity. UJF successfully launched the program five years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic and with ten local agencies and synagogues has experienced tremendous success in all aspects of the program.

The ten organizations taking part in Life & Legacy include Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy, Chabad of Stamford, Congregation Agudath Sholom, Friendship Circle, Stamford Jewish Community Center, Schoke Jewish Family Service, Temple Beth El, Temple Sinai, and Young Israel of Stamford. To date, the Stamford, New Canaan, and Darien community has formalized over 60 percent of their 610 legacy commitments.

World-renowned Israeli Chef Moshe Basson was the featured guest speaker and was interviewed by Dr, Linda Gornitsky, not just a wonderful cook herself, but mom to Chef Marc Weber, owner of OnTheMarc Catering. Basson spoke about legacy through family recipes and prepared samples of two dishes that attendees were able to taste. Leon Hanna and Aviva Maller also shared stories about the importance of food in their middle eastern households and legacies.

 “Nothing says heritage like food. They are interchangeable,” Maller stated. “Our food was inextricably connected to our heritage. My food, now that I am far removed from where I was born, has even become more important.” 

To learn more about how to make your legacy commitment, please contact eric@ujf.org.