The positive influence Dick and Lois Gunther exert on the world around them spans numerous involvements in Israel, helping the world’s poor through micro-finance, plus local and national Jewish, public service and political activities. Lois’ fist love, however, is Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, having served as president and a life member of the JFS Board. Together, the Gunthers are among the founders of the JFS Endowment Fund.

“JFS operates very close to the bone,” observes Lois. “The quality of service they provide for clients is incredible.” Both Dick and Lois agree that … “strengthening the Endowment Fund is more important than ever as it allows JFS to look to the future with confidence.”

Heinz Jacobson finds that he is a philanthropist- even though he is retired on a modest teacher’s pension.

When Heinz was only 8 years old, he and his parents fled to France in the wake of the Nazi invasion of Poland. By the age 20, his family was again in flight, coming to America to escape anti-Semitism in Colombia.

In America, JFS helped Heinz’s father get a job. Heinz became a U.S. citizen, served in Korea, and later taught third grade for 30 years at Beverly Vista Elementary School.

“I’ve been very lucky,” he says. “Now I’m in a position to give something back, remembering my family’s roots as immigrants and saying thank you to JFS through a bequest in my will. I want to be sure JFS can continue to help people in similar circumstances.”

Through a life insurance policy, Larry and Linda Rauch found a way to show their commitment to the future of the Jewish community and make a more significant gift to Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS) than they could have otherwise done.

As a past president of JFS and a leader in the Jewish community, Larry sees the agency as the most important one in the federated system. With their gift, Larry and his wife Linda demonstrate their commitment for caring to their three children and help to ensure that JFS continues its vital work for another 150 years.

“Opportunities such as life insurance are ways we can perpetuate what we do and enable us to sustain the caring from generation to generation. Those who have a strong sense of what the Jewish community needs, have to step up to the plate and become part of the future.”

“Making a real difference in the lives of families.”

When my wife and I sat down to consider how much we wanted to contribute to the Jewish Family Service (JFS) Endowment Program, we decided to stretch because at JFS, money is put, not into rhetoric, but into programs that make a real difference. JFS touches the community’s most vulnerable people, and that touches us. We knew we wanted to make a current cash gift to the endowment so that the corpus would grow, but we also wanted to put something into our Trust naming an amount for JFS in the future. We are pleased that through our family’s support of the JFS Endowment Program, we are going to make a real difference in the lives of other families for generations to come.