A gift made once. Giving for every generation.
Some Gifts Answer This Year’s Need. Some Answer Every Generation’s.
A gift made once keeps a promise made long before us.
Ninety years ago, a handful of San Diego families built something meant to outlast them. They gave what was needed year after year, and their conviction built Federation into the institution this community still turns to.
When newcomers needed resettling, when Israel needed building, when people in crisis needed help within days, Jewish San Diego’s answer ran through Federation. The whole community, whatever the need.
The annual campaign has carried that answer one year at a time. Alongside it, this community created something meant to last beyond any single year: an endowment of 23 named funds, holding $18 million entrusted by families across generations. Today, that endowment needs to grow.
Jewish life is being tested in ways earlier generations would recognize and in ways they never imagined. So in our 90th year, we are asking this community to make a commitment worthy of its first 90: to double Federation’s endowment.
What we build together can serve generations we may never meet.
What If One Gift Lasted Forever?
An endowment gift is never spent. It is invested and held permanently, and each year its earnings go out into the community, the way your annual gift does now. Some families endow now, with a gift of cash, appreciated stock, or other assets, and watch their gift take its place in the community’s life. And some make their gift in a name they carry in their hearts: a husband or wife, a mother or father, a leader this community has not forgotten. A forever gift is how a name keeps giving.
You already have a way of giving to this community: a gift each year, to the campaign, to the causes you love. A legacy gift asks a simple question. What if that gift never stopped? Many families make it with a single sentence in their will, or by naming Federation alongside their children, as a beneficiary of a retirement account or insurance policy. It costs nothing today. Nothing changes in your life. But something changes in the life of the community: your gift now has no end date.
Your gift, made for every generation.
This year, next year, in 90 years.
Legacy gifts of every size matter.
What Your Gift Makes Possible.
A legacy gift means that whatever comes, Jewish San Diego can meet it. It is why a child goes to Jewish summer camp, why a chaplain sits at a hospital bedside, why Sha’ar HaNegev knows this community stands with them. And when something no one foresaw arrives, Federation is ready, because someone decided in advance that it would be.
With your legacy gift, you join the Legacy Society, a community of families who have made the same decision. Federation partners with Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego so your purpose holds as the community’s needs change.
How it works
- 1
Tell us.
A short declaration of intent joins you to the Legacy Society.
- 2
We make it permanent.
Federation, JCF, and your advisors document the gift together, often in one meeting.
- 3
We keep it current.
As your life changes, updating it is a conversation.
- 4
You choose where it goes.
The whole of Jewish life, or the corner your family loves most.
Six ways to leave a lasting gift
Each year, Jewish San Diego is sustained by people who put Federation in a will, an IRA, or an endowment. None of these require you to be wealthy. Open a card for the details. We will sit with you and your advisors and design something that fits your family.
Bequests
Name Federation in your will or living trust, a specific amount, a percentage, or what remains.
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Endowments
Create a fund that generates support year after year, so a gift you make once can keep showing up.
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Donor-advised funds & family foundations
Recommend a grant from your DAF or foundation, and invite the next generation into the giving.
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IRA / qualified charitable distribution
From age 70½ you can make a qualified charitable distribution directly from an IRA to Federation.
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Charitable gift annuities
Make a meaningful gift and receive fixed payments for life.
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Lion of Judah Endowment
Sustain your Lion gift at your level, every year, forever.
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“Andy (z”l) and I always felt strongly that we needed, and wanted, to support the Jewish community in any way we could. It is one thing to give money yearly. It is altogether something else to leave a legacy for after we are gone.
We hope this will help ensure the survival and growth of our community, and guarantee that the Jewish community will be there for our children and our grandchildren. Kol Yisrael arevim zeh la-zeh. Taking care of others is one of our core Jewish values. And what better way than leaving a legacy to guarantee that the Jewish community will be able to take care of others.”
It Begins With You.
90 Years, in Their Own Words.
As Federation marks 90 years, we are creating a book of biographical profiles of the philanthropists who have shaped Jewish San Diego, alongside a history of 90 years of Jewish philanthropy here, written in partnership with historian Joellyn Zollman. It will honor our Legacy Society and the families whose named funds already carry this community forward. Everyone who documents a legacy gift as part of this campaign will be invited to be included in this commemorative work.
It is written for the historical record, so that whoever opens it next might wish to see themselves in the next edition. We hope it will reflect how our community’s philanthropists built the institutions and initiatives that have made San Diego a thriving Jewish community for decades, and will sustain it for generations to come.
If you would like to be interviewed for this project, or have a family story you would like included in the archive, write to info@jewishinsandiego.org.
When you’re ready to explore a gift, we’re here to talk through your options.
Michael Rabkin
Endowment Opportunities
Every opportunity below is a piece of Jewish San Diego’s future, funded with a current gift or through your estate plan, named once and giving forever.
Signature Opportunities
- $5,000,000
Center for a Secure and Resilient Community
Coordinated security for our institutions, a whole-community stand against antisemitism, and a Jewish voice that carries in civic life.
- $5,000,000
Center for Leadership
The experiences every professional and volunteer leader of Jewish San Diego needs before and after stepping into roles of responsibility.
- $5,000,000
Center for Belonging
Program design expertise, innovation grants, and recognition awards that build belonging across Jewish life in San Diego.
- $3,000,000
Mosaic and Emerging Generations
The front door to Jewish life for the next generation of San Diegans.
- $3,000,000
Sha’ar HaNegev Partnership
San Diego’s living bond with a region in Israel’s south, unbroken through war and rebuilding, for every generation.
- $3,000,000
Israel Emissaries
Young Israelis living, teaching, and building bridges in San Diego, every year, forever.
- $3,000,000
Chief Executive Officer
An endowed chair for the top professional leadership of Federation.
- $2,000,000
Young Families
Jewish childhood, from the first bedtime story to the first summer at camp.
- $2,000,000
Immersive Travel Experiences
Life-changing journeys to Israel and Jewish communities worldwide, backed by the trip design, safety, and logistics expertise that makes them possible.
- $2,000,000
Executive Director, Legacy of Light Goldberg Institute for Holocaust Education
An endowed chair for the professional leadership of Federation’s nationally renowned Holocaust education work.
Federation staff can also work with you and your family to develop a customized signature opportunity for a program or project close to your hearts.
Named funds
Your own annual giving can become a permanent fund carrying your name or honoring the memory of someone you love. Many women choose to endow their Lion of Judah gift this way, sustaining it at their level, every year, forever. Because an endowment pays out about five percent of its balance each year, it takes roughly 20 times your annual gift to fund it in perpetuity: a $100,000 endowment sustains a $5,000 gift every year.
Current and planned gifts that are not directed to a named fund or signature opportunity go to the unrestricted Endowment for Federation.
To explore naming a fund, talk with Michael.
Named Once. Giving Forever.
Twenty-three families have already said yes to forever. Their gifts are invested and held by the Endowment for Federation, jointly governed by Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego. With deep gratitude, we honor every name below.
- Denise Clare Breitbard Lion of Judah Endowment
- Lillie Breitbard Lion of Judah Endowment
- Sophie Brody Lion of Judah Endowment
- Sunshine Brooks Endowment
- Betty Cohn Lion of Judah Endowment
- Jennifer Dolin Lion of Judah Endowment
- Esther Fischer Lion of Judah Endowment
- Foster Endowment
- Murray Galinson Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment
- Trude Gitler Lion of Judah Endowment
- Beverly Glickman Lion of Judah Endowment
- Dorothy Goldberg Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment
- Miriam Katzin Lion of Judah Endowment
- Homer Kripke Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment Fund
- Rebecca Newman Lion of Judah Endowment
- Ratner Lion of Judah Endowment
- Shirley Ravet Lion of Judah Endowment
- Rae Samiljan Lion of Judah Endowment
- Lillian Scharlin Lion of Judah Endowment
- Sarah Tiano Lion of Judah Endowment
- Jan Tuttleman Lion of Judah Endowment
- Erna Finci Viterbi Lion of Judah Endowment
- Jacqueline Woolf Lion of Judah Endowment
No named funds match that search.
Legacy Society
These members have already made their legacy commitment to Jewish San Diego: through a bequest, a beneficiary designation, or a gift already at work.
No members match that search.
Ready to put Federation in your plan?
Michael will meet you where you are, a first conversation, a note for your attorney, or a gift that starts this year.
