In 2018, the Hebrew Educational Alliance was fortunate to have been selected to participate, along with 27 other local Jewish organizations, in Live On | LIFE & LEGACY™, a program that supports Jewish organizations in securing legacy gifts. Live On: Build Your Jewish Legacy, an initiative of Rose Community Foundation, and LIFE & LEGACY™, a partnership program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, joined together to strengthen the Greater Denver/Boulder Jewish communities by encouraging endowment building and legacy giving.
Since then, more than 70 new legacy donors who are congregants just like you have committed to ensuring that our spiritual home based on ruach, relationship, and community remains vital and strong for future generations. Long-time member Jeff Auerbach shared his reasons for becoming a legacy donor:
“My hope is that by being part of the HEA Life and Legacy team, we will ensure that the HEA will be around for years to come. Just as the HEA was there for my dad when he graduated from the HEA Talmud Torah in 1946, God willing, it will be available and accessible for all of our kids, grandkids, and great-grandchildren for years to come!”
Please join us, along with the many others who have made such forward-looking commitments, as a member of the Legacy Society, HEAroes for the Future. You can do so by considering including the HEA in your will, trust, retirement account, or life insurance policy. Contact Carol Abrams at or the HEA office, (303) 758-9400 for more information.
We have been members at the HEA since 1998. We joined because we wanted to belong to a synagogue where our daughters could grow up and feel a part of a community. We didn’t know how important the HEA community would become in our lives at the time, but we both knew our Jewish traditions were a key part of our marriage and family and the HEA was the right place to belong. Our daughters attended the HEA Preschool and Religious school. They made friends and we made friends with their classmates’ parents. Twenty-five years later, we are still friends with a number of those couples and families. It is these friendships that Bill and I hope young families today will create and hold onto for the next 25 years. Bill got involved as a religious school teacher and Jr. Congregation leader when our youngest daughter, Alissa, was in elementary school. Our daughters became B’nai Mitzvah, Confirmands, blessed before their IST trips, and were given send-offs to college at the HEA. Jessica, our oldest, had her wedding in the beautiful sanctuary in 2021 and her daughter was named there too. Now we get to attend Tot Shabbat with Jessica, Ian, and Adina and see the next generation growing up beautifully, making friends and carrying on our important Jewish traditions. It is due to all of this that we are a part of the Legacy Society, HEAroes for the Future. We hope you will join us and all the others who give generously.
My dad had a collection of silly sayings. I am reminded of them all the time. I see lettuce in the grocery store, and I hear him say, “Lettuce, turnip and pea.” (Pun intended.) To the phrase, “We’re in good shape,” my mind echoes his typical response: “For the shape we’re in.” I look West towards the mountains, and his voice utters, “G-d’s country,” where our family has always enjoyed skiing, hiking and fishing. When I walk into the HEA sanctuary, I look right and see him in his tallis, davening near his favorite seat in the south section under the stained-glass windows. Along with my mother, he loved the Alliance, where our family has celebrated and commemorated the circle of life from the most beautiful milestones to the saddest goodbyes. This has always been our family’s sacred community. My parents were Westsiders, and all four of my grandparents were founding members from the HEA’s inception.
My dad included the HEA in his will to strengthen the congregation’s rainy-day fund, which is critical for financial stability. We all know the importance of having reserves to save for the future, meet unforeseen needs, and build an enduring resource to support creativity and nimbleness to adapt to change and challenges. Who would have thought that the world would come to a standstill in 2020 and that life would look so different after a three-year worldwide pandemic? COVID-19 has caused so much disruption, grief and loneliness for so many as well as issues for organizations. The HEA has always risen to the challenge. It moved from the Westside to its current location when its membership no longer lived near its Stuart Street neighborhood. It transformed from a traditional orthodox shul to an egalitarian congregation offering many unique services and chavruta to make everyone feel welcomed, included and connected. To honor my parents and the community that means so much to us, David and I have made the HEA a percentage beneficiary of our retirement fund. We hope you will also consider a gift to the HEA in your will, retirement fund or life insurance.
Every time I think of my dad, I can’t help but smile even as I well up in tears. I feel in my heart of hearts the truth of what we say upon the passing of a loved one, “May their memory be for a blessing.”
