The billion-dollar donor’s mother was a philanthropist, too: She helped Jews fleeing Hitler
Ruth Gottesman, whose $1 billion gift eliminates tuition at a medical school, grew up in a family known for altruism
orphan
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Fast Forward Famed Holocaust Orphan Is Now A Loving Bubbe — With Many Ghosts
Ruth Saperstein Jaffe, of Sleepy Hollow, New York, was once Bela Raphael, an orphan of the Holocaust who brought hope to the world in the aftermath of the war. Brought to New York by a Jewish G.I. who pledged to raise a child orphaned by Hitler’s killing machine, Jaffe’s largely forgotten story is retold in…
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News Anne Heyman’s Son Gets Poignant Welcome at Rwanda School
A groundbreaking Rwandan school for genocide orphans has welcomed the son of founder Anne Heyman with open arms — just three weeks after the Jewish philanthropist was killed in a tragic horse-riding accident in Florida. Jonathan Merrin, 19, arrived at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village this week as part of a month-long service trip with other…
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News Anne Heyman’s Sudden Death Plunges Rwanda School Into Mourning
A trailblazing Rwanda school for genocide orphans was plunged into intense mourning Saturday by the death of its founder Anne Heyman — revered by students as a “second mother.” Heartbroken students at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, who lost their parents in the 1994 killing spree, wept openly after learning of the tragic death of the…
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Life Coming Out of the Orphan Closet
It’s the beginning of another Jewish year, holidays are bookending each week, and death is in the air. Two of the Yizkor prayers — the mourner’s prayer, which is recited on four different holidays throughout the year — are said this month alone. If that weren’t enough to put death on my mind, my father’s…
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