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Pledger Spotlight
Meet Marty Taylor, a 44 year old entrepreneur from Baltimore, MD who, with his wife, Vered, recently signed the Jewish Future Pledge.
 What did you think when you first heard about the Jewish Future Pledge and why did you ultimately sign?
It’s a no-brainer. I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t sign it. While my financial contribution may not be as impactful as other signatories, I am happy to contribute my ideas, inspiration, and leadership in the meantime. By signing the pledge, me and my wife, Vered, know that we’re serving as an example for others, showing how everyone in the Jewish community has a stake in its future.
What conversations have come up since you have signed the pledge?
Signing the pledge gave us the chance to sit down with our two teenage children to discuss signing the Jewish Future Pledge and explain why we wanted to do it. We were prepared for a tough conversation, but our children’s responses stunned me and Vered. Our son asked, “Why only 50%?” and our daughter chimed in with, “Why don’t we commit to 90%?” We couldn’t believe what we were hearing. This was a beautiful wakeup call that we’d done something right as parents. After talking with our children, we felt reassured that they will carry out the Pledge and help me and Vered leave our family mark on the Jewish future. What is one Jewish value you carry with you in your daily life?
As a graduate of the 18-month-long Shoshana Cardin Acharia Fellows Program, we were challenged to find our leadership style and find the Jewish value that we can take with us into every aspect of our community leadership. Mine is L'dor Va'dor - Connecting Generations.  My grandparents were Holocaust survivors. They struggled to give their children a better life in America. My parents worked hard to give my sister and I an even better life, and my wife and I work tirelessly to show our children that we are lucky and should continually give of ourselves so that all future generations of our People can live without the threat of another Holocaust. A friend posted this picture for Yom HaShoah with the caption "Today I make sure that my walk down memory lane starts on these tracks." I try to remember that every day when I wake. Today is possible because of what my grandparents did for me. What can I do to make sure that future generations say the same of me? |
Legacy Planning Resources
Every month, Jewish Future Pledge will bring you a helpful article on a topic related to philanthropy and legacy planning. This month, we’ll talk about writing a legacy letter. A Legacy Letter is a place where you can voice your deepest convictions to a child, spouse, or dear friend about what values you want to leave behind. Penning a letter of such great significance can be daunting; here are a few ideas to help you get started: 1. Talk about why you’ve decided to write this letter. 2. Tell the recipient what you love about them and how much they mean to you. 3. Share your family’s unique narrative and history. 4. Reflect on the values you’ve imbibed from your family’s story. 5. Impart what Judaism means to you and why.
No matter how you decide to approach your Jewish Legacy Letter, know that you are giving your loved one the most precious gift: a piece of your soul. They will cherish your words and wisdom forever. To read our full guide on how to write a legacy letter, written by prominent Jewish scholar and author Dr. Erica Brown, click here.
New and Newsworthy
Behind a Pledge to Mobilize Billions in New Giving for Jewish Causes, Inside Philanthropy
It’s been more than a decade since billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates launched the Giving Pledge, a campaign that encourages the most affluent people in the world to join Buffett and the Gateses in donating most of their wealth to charity. Enter the Jewish Future Pledge — a new campaign that’s based in part on the Giving Pledge but geared toward Jewish philanthropists of all income brackets.
Donor-Advised Funds Are the Future of the Jewish Future Pledge, Jewish Insider/EJewish Philanthropy
Securing commitments from the people who have led Jewish philanthropy for decades was the opening gambit, however, said Mike Leven, a co-creator of the pledge. Now the focus has shifted away from established leaders and toward younger donors and professionals who can amplify the pledge by talking about it with their networks.
The first stage is a partnership under the auspices of the Jewish Federations of North America with 12 local federations, including those that serve Jewish population centers including Miami, South Palm Beach County, Dallas, Atlanta, and Greater MetroWest, in New Jersey.
Talking To Your Children About Jewish Giving, eJewish Philanthropy
The Jewish Future Pledge is not just a way to ensure the stability and growth of the Jewish community of tomorrow. It isn’t just a medium to practice one of the most central Jewish values, the value of giving. And it isn’t just a commitment to secure a warm and welcoming Jewish community for generations to come. The Jewish Future Pledge gave me and my wife the tools to sit down with our children and begin a conversation about giving, about the future, about what is important in life, allowing us, in our own way, to write the next chapter in our family’s Jewish story that goes back thousands of years.
Ethical Will: How to Tell Your Tale to Convey Your Ethical Values, Jerusalem Post
Thoughts, feelings, missed opportunities and events that shape our lives are not always apparent to those around us. By writing these things down we can express our innermost thoughts, dreams, beliefs and moral values; values that are important to us and that we believe should be important to the next generation. These experiences, like all experiences, shape us and give us wisdom, a special kind of wisdom – the wisdom of hindsight. It is not for nothing that we say elderly people are graduates from the university of life.
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