Last year, the light shining upon the world dimmed ever so slightly with the passing of a special soul—Ellen Koplow, z”l, a devoted Board Member at AMIT and one of the kindest people one could ever meet. Fortunately, her legacy lives on with the dedication of a landmark program named in her honor, known as Ellen’s Kids, thanks to a $6 million endowment made by the Koplow family. This is the largest gift made in AMIT’s 90-year history, and it will affect not only the current generation of Jewish children and adolescents living in Israel but generations to come. To understand how this gift will have such far-reaching effects, one must first understand how Ellen’s Kids came into existence.
Ellen came originally from the Greater Philadelphia area. She attended college at Boston University, where she met her future husband, Meyer Koplow. Meyer transferred to Brandeis University, and they were married the week before his college graduation in 1972. They then moved to New York, where he attended NYU School of Law. Following his graduation in 1976 from law school, Meyer was hired at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where he has remained at until today—38 years later.
A few years later, the Koplows moved to New Rochelle, N. Y., where they joined the local AMIT chapter after becoming friends with some of the chapter members in the community. They had three children, all of whom are adults now, and all are active with AMIT in their respective communities. Meyer is proud of his five grandchildren and is expecting a sixth grandchild (due next spring).
Over time, Ellen became increasingly involved in AMIT as she learned more about the important work AMIT accomplished with Israeli children. She joined a mission to Israel, where she saw the success AMIT achieved firsthand. As AMIT moved higher on Ellen’s list of priorities, it also rose to the top of the Koplow’s contribution list. Then, approximately 10 years ago, Ellen and her husband Meyer led the AMIT President’s Circle dinner as co-chairs.
At the dinner, Ellen addressed the need to form different levels of giving opportunities within the President’s Circle in an effort to increase overall support to AMIT. That dinner marked the beginning of what would become the multi-tiered President’s Circle.
To demonstrate their commitment to encouraging different levels of giving to AMIT, Ellen and Meyer spontaneously offered to match all increased President’s Circle contributions that the dinner attendees would make in a three minute period. Well over $100,000 in new contributions were made by attendees at that dinner, which the Koplows matched dollar for dollar. The contributions immediately advanced the donors into new levels of recognition within the President’s Circle.
During a recent interview, Meyer Koplow recalled one of his fondest AMIT memories when he traveled to Israel alone in 1995 and visited the AMIT Nordlicht Technological High School in Jerusalem. Seeing the appreciation from AMIT students who were learning skills that would help them lead prosperous lives and make a positive impact on Israeli society made him feel elated to be supporting AMIT’s work. “I remember the hugs I received from these high school boys— it was such a great feeling to see how they were being empowered to lead happy and successful lives despite the challenges many of them were facing,” Meyer recalled.
Ellen and Meyer later helped establish the Harvey Goodstein Sports Complex at the AMIT Kfar Batya youth village in Ra’anana in memory of Ellen’s father, Harvey. They considered periodically how they could make a larger gift to AMIT that would have a broader impact. For a number of years, they were at the top level of AMIT’s annual donors. And for a time, Meyer was very involved with getting a new synagogue built in his community, where he invested significant funds and time.
When Ellen became ill, Meyer asked her if they were ever to underwrite a major project at AMIT what she would want it to be. She expressed that she wanted it to be used toward programming that would directly affect the lives of AMIT schoolchildren because, “Ellen not only cared about the little cute children who were easy to get attached to but all the kids at AMIT,” noted Meyer. Both were interested in AMIT’s Tochnit 80 program, which aims to enable at least 80% of the students at every AMIT school to earn a bagrut (matriculation) diploma.
Ellen and Meyer were impressed by AMIT’s ability to conceive and execute a program for these kids, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, so that the bagrut success rate in the schools could be moved from the 50% to 60% range to 83%. Earning a bagrut is a sine qua non for living a comfortable and rewarding life in Israel. Those who do not pass the exam cannot become officers in the army or receive a post-high school education; their futures are markedly different from those who do.
After Ellen’s untimely passing, Meyer decided that securing and expanding the Tochnit 80 program with a $6 million gift and dedicating it as “Ellen’s Kids” would be the ideal way to memorialize Ellen and her unlimited generosity. She was known for her extraordinary kindness and generosity to everyone—she wasn’t particular regarding those she helped. She treated everybody with the same kindness and respect. One of Meyer’s hopes is that the students will ask who Ellen was and that her spirit of kindness will be conveyed to generations of AMIT kids.
According to Meyer, “Given the difficulty of educating children who come from very different backgrounds, elevating the bagrut pass rate well above [that] of the national pass rate is nothing short of astounding—and to be able to know that, by supporting this program, Ellen and I will help ensure that not only this generation but future generations of kids who otherwise might not pass the bagrut exam have every opportunity to do so, is really a privilege.”
Meyer sees Ellen’s Kids program as potentially having a much broader impact on not only the future of Israel but the world. “Given the advanced research and technology developments that have originated from Israel, it is highly conceivable that one of these kids may even find a vaccine against cancer one day,” suggested Meyer. And he recalled a popular advertisement that declared that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. “That’s what happens when kids don’t get the type of attention and extensive support that enables them to excel in school,” said Meyer.
He is hoping the lessons that AMIT has learned in developing this program will be shared and transferred to communities in the U.S. that face similar educational challenges. Meyer thinks it likely that his gift will inspire other people to make similar contributions to AMIT and toward an endowment to further the AMIT educational system. His fond expectation is that others will be motivated to join him by adopting Ellen’s Kids program in their own names within individual schools throughout the AMIT reshet (network of schools).
By making gifts toward the program, donors will join him in experiencing the great joy of directly affecting AMIT kids and seeing the outcomes of their support on a regular basis. Said Meyer, “There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you visit Israel on an AMIT mission or on your own, and someone in medical/law school or in an officer’s uniform comes and tells you that they never would have been able to accomplish this without the special attention from AMIT. You have impacted their lives and their kids and grandkids and impacted contributions toward the greater Israeli society. Given the things that regular Israelis contribute on the education and research front, the potential to change lives around the world is enormous.”
Meyer concluded the interview by mentioning that Ellen passed away on erev Rosh Hashanah last year and that the funeral was held after the conclusion of the three days of Yom Tov and Shabbat. After the funeral, people told him that, after listening to the story of her life, they realized that they could “do better” and that they were inspired to perform more acts of kindness. And Meyer affirmed that “It’s not only easy to be kind, but it’s the right thing to do, and it’s contagious.” He hopes that by renaming the program Ellen’s Kids, people will be reminded of, and influenced to emulate, Ellen’s kindness.
Ethan M. Segal is the Director of Marketing and Communications for AMIT.
