The Blue Card, a national non-profit organization dedicated to aiding destitute Holocaust survivors, is announcing the implementation of the Siggi B. Wilzig “Fighting Cancer Together” Program to provide Holocaust survivors suffering from cancer with assistance through four main avenues: co-pays, transportation, nutrition, and support group services. The program was made possible by a gift from Sherry Wilzig Izak, chairman and CEO of Wilshire Enterprises, Inc. (a New Jersey-based real estate investment company).

Izak is the daughter of the late Siggi B. Wilzig, a Holocaust survivor, renowned businessman, active philanthropist, founding member of the U.S. Holocaust Council, advisor to Elie Wiesel on the U.S. Holocaust Commission, and a founding director and fellow of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. Wilzig was revered for his dedication to Holocaust-related philanthropy; he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1998, was appointed to the Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington, was the first Holocaust survivor to lecture at West Point, and was even awarded the Prime Minister’s Medal of the State of Israel for raising more than $100 million in Israeli bonds. Wilzig Hospital in Jersey City, open to all regardless of means, was also named after him to honor his lifelong concern for the less fortunate.

Record-breaking $5 million Jewish Camping Gift for MetroWest NJ Community’

(JNS.org)—The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest NJ (JCF) on July 3 announced that it had received a $5 million Jewish camping gift, representing a record-breaking amount for North America.

Given in support of a permanent Jewish camping fund, the gift “will create the first endowed full-time Jewish camp position in a federation in North America,” according to a press release from the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, of which the JCF is the planned giving and endowment arm.

“[The gift] will also provide ongoing support for several related programs: as many as 250 incentive grants for first-time overnight campers each summer, more affordable camp options for families, a ‘pipeline’ program to encourage Jewish day campers to transition to Jewish overnight camp, and ‘innovations; funding for programs that bring the power of Jewish camp to the community year-round,” the press release said.

Jeremy Fingerman, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, said in a statement that the Greater MetroWest community’s Jewish camping efforts “will set the standard for others across North America.”