Many of the institutions in the Baltimore Jewish community have been around for many decades, and boast a long tradition of contributing to Baltimore Jewry at large.
Take, for example, the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds. Last month, the Jewish Museum of Maryland announced that the Meyerhoff Funds contributed a gift of $2 million to help enhance the museum’s core exhibit gallery and administrative workspaces.
The dollars weren’t quite the same, but the same impulse was at work with another Meyerhoff contribution 39 years ago. In the Dec. 12, 1986 edition of the Baltimore Jewish Times, The Meyerhoff Family Funds were praised for awarding a $11,063 grant to the National Coalition Building Institute for a new leadership clinic with Black and Jewish adults and teens in Baltimore.
“The Fund … was established by Lyn and Harvey Meyerhoff on behalf of their children who sit on the advisory committee. It annually distributes $100,000 primarily in the area of community relations for local projects that show potential for enhancing understanding and relationships between Jews and non Jews,” the article from 1986 reads.
The NCBI grant went towards training sessions and clinics with local Black and Jewish folks, with Har Sinai (Now Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom) Congregation and the Browns Memorial Baptist Church leading the charge.
“The goal of the leadership clinic,” the 1986 article reads, “is to reduce prejudice among Blacks and Jews by providing systematic assistance in breaking down age-old barriers between the two communities.”
Today, the Funds’ work is more general, as their website says that they work to improve quality of life in Baltimore, and in the local, national and Israeli Jewish communities.
“The majority of our funds benefit the Jewish community here and abroad, because we believe in our covenantal responsibility to take care of our fellow Jews,” says the Funds’ website.
Regarding the recent gift to the Jewish Museum of Maryland, Misty Gibson, the Meyerhoff Funds’ deputy director, said that the gift “will provide a bright space to showcase the new core exhibit, ‘Jews at the Crossroads.’ This exhibit is designed to draw both longtime supporters and new audiences with content that is engaging and thought-provoking.”
The basic idea: strengthening the Jewish community. Not much has changed in that sense since 1986.
Thirty-nine years after the ‘86 article, the Funds are still helping Baltimore Jews. If all goes to plan, in another thirty-nine years, they’ll be up to more of the same.
