Rusty Cooper
Rusty Cooper was born on December 26, 1956, in Hicksville, Long Island, and moved through northern New Jersey before settling in Rochester, New York, in second grade. His parents, Arthur Cooper and his mother, grew up in and around New York City, in Brooklyn and Washington Heights; his father served in the Navy. Rusty grew up in a Reform Jewish household, attending the JCC's Camp Seneca Lake for six years as a camper and five as a waterfront staffer, an experience he treasured and stayed connected to throughout his life. He remains close with his brother Michael and with childhood friends he still sees annually.
Rusty met his wife, Liz, who grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, while attending the University of Buffalo. After graduating with a business degree and computer science background, he was recruited by General Electric Computer Services and moved to Dallas at the end of December 1979. He and Liz raised three children, Sophie, Hannah, and Eli, all of whom attended Indiana University and later settled in the Chicago area. The family belonged to Temple Shalom, and their children attended preschool at Solomon Schechter, now Levine Academy. Rusty and Liz became close friends with Rabbi Stefan and Wendy Weinberg, a friendship that shaped much of his later community involvement.
Encouraged by his friendship with Rabbi Weinberg, Rusty helped launch Congregation Anshai Torah in 1998, serving on its steering and executive committees and becoming president within three years. He guided the merger with a smaller congregation, oversaw the purchase of a new building in Plano, and helped establish its programs and staff. A lifelong guitarist and singer, he performed for nearly 15 years as one of the Mazak Brothers with his close friend Jim Schwartz, playing hundreds of gigs and many charitable events, and helped found the BYO Musicians nonprofit and the men's a cappella group Kol Rina. Rusty also served as chairman of the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation, where he championed philanthropy, legacy giving, and community grants.
He remembered Jim Schwartz, who died in May 2018 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, as a beloved friend and musical partner.
Full Transcript
and we're rolling my name is Elizabeth fader today is June 11th I mean July 11th 2018 today I'm interviewing rusty Cooper we go ahead and tell me your full name along where you are from and when your Warren Russell a Cooper but he calls me rusty born December 26 1956 in on Long Island Hicksville Long Island which is where Billy Joel is from moved away from there pretty early moved to New Jersey northern New Jersey Bergen County but then moved up to Rochester New York when I was in second grade so really grew up in Rochester New York which is way upstate in between Syracuse
and Buffalo Long Lake Ontario what are your parents names where are they from Maryland and Arthur Cooper grew up in and around New York City Brooklyn and Washington Heights they both went to college my father was a navy that are both passed and I have a brother Michael Michael is married with two kids he moved back to Rochester New York and so it's just my brother and I very small family how did you go from New York to dollars so I was going to school at University of Buffalo met my sweetheart there December 1979 looking for a job you know that's when I graduated I
was on the four and a half year plan through people you know one person to another was interviewed in Dallas from General Electric Computer Services I've got a computer science and finance degree business degree and so got a job with General Electric in Dallas and you know flew down here literally how to get the map out you know you live in New York it's you know you're not really sure where sir so I had to figure out where Dallas was and we moved down here on 12 12 31 79 had to be on site before the you know before the end of the year was
over so you grew up in New York were you part of a synagogue or so Rochester New York reform very reformed - my parents were Jewish we identified Jewish Lee went to the JCC camp of Rochester New York which is called camp Seneca Lake Seneca Lake being one of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York absolutely beautiful there not so much in the winter it's pretty brutal winter but went to that camp very young went there for six years as a camper and then worked on the waterfront for five years running around the waterfront you know teaching waters skiing sailing canoe tripping taking kids up
the Adirondack Mountains for trips Jewish Jewish co-ed camp so on some of the best years of every Jewish person's life should be a sleepaway camp what else about my childhood I had a brother we are as close as could be a lot of good friends it was a great place to grow up its Rochester being very far from New York City you know we're closer to Ohio than New York City where it's kind of Midwestern Hansberry you know when I went to the reformed temple of their birth kodesh I think there were some youth but not much so little I think I don't remember he
was more you know Sunday School oriented social stuff you still keep in contact with friends back in childhood today I keep in touch with so many friends from childhood every year I go skating with a balance between five and eight guys that I grew up with went to camp with all those years and we are still in touch they come down for my kids you know simcoe's etc and we're very very close my wife grew up in Manhattan by the way which is a whole different deal she grew up in Manhattan Upper East Side her parents are still alive her been Lucille my wife's name
is Liz she's very important to this scenario obviously had our eye on each other for a year or two and you know we had different significant others and then you know there was an opportunity you know where we started where I pursued her and she pursued me and so that and then we moved down here together and we got married what did you major in you said you majored in business with computer science minor why did he go in that particular direction my father was in sales my uncles were in sales everybody's in sales you know you're not a professional and you're Jewish you better
start selling so I just seem like the right way to go I was not much the academic in high schools or early college a bit of a wild child and my brother said look better get it together and said you know you're gonna get a go into computers it's the wave of the future this is in the mid late 70s wave of the futures computers you're gonna take computer classes and get a business degree and that's what I did what on how many German do you have in where their names I have three children two girls and a boy Sophie Hannah and Eli all three
of them went to Indiana University which seemed like a good idea but they all live in you know it's very Chicago soon so the oldest graduated Kelly School of Business went to work for JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs got married they moved to South Bend Indiana just 90 minutes away to for her husband Jordan new was for last is their name Jordan Jordan Sophie knew so Jordan news family Jewish family in South Bend they have a nice business and he is incoming president you know he's gonna take over the family business with his older brother they're both it's a really legit business and so they
moved bet so they moved in number two is Hannah and I went to Indiana University she was on the five-year plan because she wanted to be a nurse got in a little bit late it's a very hard curriculum she said I'm not gonna rush this so she did in five years move to Chicago became an oncology nurse Northwestern Memorial one of her dear friends she finally said you know you may take me on a date now cuz my daughter was one not to date guys very like never had it really never had a long-term boyfriend on the world all the Jewish boys here in Dallas
I mean you know Mary anyway she finally when she was done and was working so she and Jordyn Sheamus so we had Jordan knew now we got new Jordan so she and Jordan Sheamus hooked up and are married they are November will be two years but she is due to have a little girl next month so let me back up Sophie and Jordan knew had a baby we have a special needs grandson he is three and a half a mile before in October and you know that's a full-time hands-on situation has got a rare unknown genetic anomaly you know you think of evolution genetic accidents
and you know it's exactly what it is really no there's no play the playbook they don't know but he's developmentally behind his name is Cooper have a grandson named Cooper everybody says Cooper Cooper know my daughter was that Cooper yeah so Cooper Nick Cooper Axl News like a rock and roll you know guys name but Cooper's the love of everybody's life I mean he's just adorable my kids are just think he's the greatest thing in the world and so the love is there the support is there you know if a special needs person was gonna be married you know brought into a family we're good
and he we are lucky he's just awesome so Hannah and Jordan are you know very very happy living in the city Hannah's now switched over to gastro nursing she's got silly act disease so that's you know kind of right up her alley with you know gastro issues that come along with gluten issues so yeah and all that stuff he comes from a real estate family Jewish family shame this last thing you think he was Irish but you know the Shabbos right so I don't know how the Seamus Thomas thing but a great Jewish family from Northbrook Illinois very close with all of them real estate
family so Jordan Seamus and his brother Matt work for dad Neal they have a younger daughter named happy happy and my son Eli are together they will presumably get married today so we got a brother sisters a brother sister sister brothers and now and they are all just best of friends and adorable Eli graduated Indiana University of just over a year ago moved to Chicago of course and just finished his first year of MBA school at Roosevelt University which if you're from Chicago you've heard of it it's legit outside Chicago you know must be nobody's ever heard of it but it's real rock and a
4.0 also plays in a band and he was our bass player while he was in high school he's a he's a sick musician he's a ridiculous bass player in guitar player but for the masak brothers he was our bass there for four or five years while he was in high school and Jim Schwartz who we'll talk about later you know when I said you know because he was playing jazz band and he was number one seed and his school bands I said let's give him a shot you know and he said well I guess would be amusing to have a fourteen-year-old you know playing a
band with us but we let him do a a set and he you know he he's really good so he played with us for years so much fun but he lies just is in MBA school he's doing summer MBA class now he's working for Morgan Stanley which is who the company that I work for we'll get into that later interning and you know just kind of trying to figure out what he's gonna do when he gets out of college and what he's gonna do with the rest of his life what's it so when the kids were younger what's around you guys belong to with a
family we belong to Temple Shalom and you know attend we only moved here so I grew up sailing we moved here Liz and I bought a sailboat on Texoma we lived on that boat like 45 weekends a year so we spent a lot of time up there and then the kids started coming concurrent with that we lived near what was called Solomon Schechter at the time now Levine Academy I'm gonna live near there and our kids went to preschool at Solomon Schechter at the time one by one they would go through after kindergarten and we you know mainstream them into secular school is over and
in that process became very very close friends with our neighbors rabbi Stephan and Wendy Weinberg and their three daughters Danielle Jordana and Adina for the same they were from outside the city we were from outside the city they were he was a rabbi at sheriff we were really not very affiliated or involved in the Jewish community we were up at the lake every weekend I was working my butt off during the week and going to the lake became very close friends with Stephan and Wendy which is interesting because you know I kind of grew up wild I was you know sex drugs and rock and
roll and he's arriving you know but we the chemistry was there we were safe because we were not involved the Jewish community and everywhere stuff and Wendy went you know wherever we go with them you know rabbi you know but you know when they were with us it's like do they can just be themselves and relax so we did all our holidays together fast-forward rabbi Weinberg's situation at sheriff rabbi offsider was leaving rabbi Weinberg asked to be given the senior position they were like yeah not so fast we're not sure he said well let me at least develop the what was called Beit Rea which
was Friday night sending services that Solomon Schechter and they said yeah no not so fast either in fact we're gonna we're gonna stop that so Stefon started to look for a job outside the city he was going to move our dear friends we're gonna move in fact I hook him up hooked him up in Rochester and they offered him a job at the conservative synagogue there where you know some of my family goes to and but it wasn't the schooling wasn't right and Wendy cut it and said no so where they were having dinner at our house one night so I said stuff and I
said why don't you start a synagogue up here in Plano you've got hundreds of people to come to Friday night services everybody knows you they love you there's nothing up here yeah and I didn't say why don't we start with synagogue I said why don't you start a synagogue you know where reform maybe and he's conservative ox so he's like just like starting any business you know but you gotta get 15 families in somebody's home give them your vision see if there's any buy-in and I think you've got a huge following I think you've got it shot a feeling in you otherwise you're gonna leave
sheriff you're gonna leave Dallas and you're gonna move somewhere else and then you got to start all over again but you've got so fast-forward we talked about his agenda the night before the meeting we're out to dinner and he looks at me and he says would you come to the meeting tomorrow night and I remember looking at list Conal why would I come to the meeting and he said I just need you to be my eyes and ears you know it's gonna be dynamics going on it can just be my eyes and ears open right yeah so I go it was at Michael Roy's house
a room full of people I didn't know Michael I didn't know all the people room I only knew my buddy stuff and I'm so proud of him he's just you know doing his thing and then all of a stupid questions started me you know I started you know opening my mouth and I came home to Liz and I said I'm on a steering committee and she's like why you know I don't know we'll see where it goes you know long story short we were in a pressure cooker we started what was called an Shay show Marie Tora at the time we headed in this are
mine so we're gonna start the synagogue then we ran into another little synagogue that I didn't know anything about it was called on che on that little synagogue off of Plano Parkway Stefan called me up he said hey we got a problem what there's a little synagogue over there and I know some of the people that I do know just didn't think about it we need to address it we need to talk to him see we can't open up in their backyard and compete not cool so we had a meeting you know people on our side that we were getting going you know I was
the one that said like you at that meeting I'm like Roy's you gotta set up committees you're gonna need real estate you're gonna have to get those prayer books you're gonna have to get you know desks and teachers you need you know various committees so one of the committees was the Membership ritual and real estate you know the employee committee all that stuff but we met with on Shay and Matt and they kind of took the attitude look you know here's our forms you know to to join the synagogue and you know hook us up we'll we'll interview your rabbi and we're like oh you
know just like you told us the story about it you started on Shay I met Sean retort we're gonna start a synagogue we're not joining your synagogue here so you know good luck and we left our ways couple nights later we're having a meeting in my house again and the phone rings mr. Andy Farkas who was their president said look you know we had a meeting and you know I think we're singing from a different seed or now and I think we'd like to meet maybe talk about what the synergies are so we went you know they're so different we didn't think it was gonna work out but the fact was is that they had a little building they had infrastructure they had experience they had a school Jack Malad was head of their school very well-known at Jewish educator they had lay leadership who could conduct services they didn't never rabbi they didn't have a rabbi they didn't have
a seemed like they were struggling they didn't too much money and we might have been a little bit more of a professional group so we had a rabbi we had energy we had a little seemingly potential money although at that time it hadn't happened yet so we decided to move forward you know with the rest of our group and we had a boat and long story short all right let's go back and talk and another meeting which I conducted with Dominus you know we're not gonna use your name you know this one woman in tears we started this your blood sweat tears we can't change
now I'm like look look our name is Sean rate or yours you know protectors of the Torah yours is on Shay Annette on Shay people of truth right we'll use your first name and our last name okay I'm Shay Torah just you're that you got the first name you the first scene they were like okay so that's how that's how the name came about they probably had 6065 legit families we brought a hundred families to the table so we started at about a hundred and sixty hundred seventy somewhere in there and we were in that little building I was on the executive committee I was
a financial guy so I think I was you know I'm just treasurer financial secretary one of the other so I was on the fast track I was one year's financial secretary one year as EVP something else and then it was time I became president within three years on che Ora and we bought and we were growing and we outgrew that little building and we bought a church going out of business which is the current site on Parker just east of Plano high school West Plano West we bought a church going out of business was very controversial you know oh yeah my kids aren't going in
there cuz then across on the only way to get the Mason of the eye up there on this big you know machine the day before we march the Torah use up that night he was up there kind of thing off cuz they you know but we marched the Torah from the old building to the new building under the football is very very exciting times as we moved forward into this you know large building I negotiated the deal we bought eight acres and no twenty five thousand square foot building five million prime property and Plano moved in but we still weren't quite there yet we I
was the formed hired the first executive director you know business manager we formed a preschool summer camp Kazak the old folks you know we had men's club women's club this is you know elder statesman club and pressure cooker for a number of years but we raised the money and we made it work and you know 20 years later that was the summer of 1998 20 years later I think we are 35 20 families you know which we're kind of poster children in America most synagogues are burying more people than they you know and they're bringing in s members and some you know and where we
have more you know more births and babies and a huge school and I think the bell curve of our population is younger than most synagogues bell curve of a July 1 1998 just just 11 days ago 20 years ago so this is July 11th so my story in the Jewish world of Dallas yeah okay so concurrent with that I grew up playing guitar playing and singing a very dear friend Jim Schwartz Jim and Susie Schwartz Jim is guitar player he and I would get together in jam once or twice a year for you know a couple years several years we met at a party and
my house friends of ours did a 40th birthday for patty diamond I written patty diamond they're now split up but patty diamonds 40th birthday party at my house and Jeff and Susie go way back with Patty and Ira so that's when I met Jim Jim called me we had lunch we just hit it off pretty well right away became good friends they ended up joining that must've been 1996 I'm gonna say we started on Shane 98 we had been friends with my guitar now and then 98 you know was the the whole starting of the thing I was president between oh one and O three
okay we've been friends since 96 97 started the synagogue 98 I was in pressure cooker as president between really 98 303 but six months before I was done being president jim says to Liz you know when Rusty's done with that we're gonna get our [ __ ] together and we're going to play out you know guitar we're gonna get gigs you know unbeknownst man I had no idea six months later you know about to be done being president Jim's like hey you know I got us a gig on August 3rd was the first day August 3rd 2003 almost 15 years ago we paid our first gig at
a borders book which is NOLA no longer exists at Preston and royal Preston Forest precedent Royal borders books was on a Sunday afternoon 3:00 to 5:00 45 people showed up I have spoken to in front of thousands of people before many many times this guitar thing in front of people never been so scared in my life so scared I was like a mechanical machine I you know I couldn't couldn't loosen up it took me years to really get comfortable we started we did that gig then we did a gig at home at a wine bar downtown across from a big restaurant which no longer exists
another that's kind of our history we play at places and then they've shut down because of us cuz we genuinely pack a place so it was a wine bar and we played there pack the place learn my first lesson the business of the music business the end of the night Ernie Ernie's wine bar we going into the kitchen Ernie we're done packed the place you know you could barely keep up with the food and the alcohol you know you pay us the $200 you promised us he said look I have only got you know hundred dollars and I need to you know write somebody a
check Jim said I'll take the money I took the check the check bounced so so I had to pursue him he actually did pay me from then on we played on average once a month for 14 years so for many years we were playing 15 and 18 times a month a year playing out you know like every three weeks and then the last three or four years we kind of dropped down between maybe eight and twelve I think we figured that we have played 200 gigs and 600 plus practices at my house in the studio because we would practice once a week and we did
on average about once a month so we did gigs many many charitable gigs we played the Dallas kosher chili cook-off we just did our fourteenth year on may 18th of 2018 and 13 years before that we were the the sound of the chili cook-off for many years and the kind of music that the Mazak brothers played you know what Mazak means you know what Mazak means Mazak is a Yiddish word which is it's a kind of a Derick term of endearment like about when you want to smack your kid for being a Hellraiser you know oh he's a mosque he's been the literal translation I
believe is the devil's help okay like a little devil he's a little devil he's a mazak okay and like to my philosophy is that you you never want to grow up too much you know I'm a guy we're all guys for all the you know down you got a little devil side to us and you know former fashion and it's just the fun turn now I didn't know what a minute Jim said why do we call ourselves the mazak bros i was like great you know I thought it was a combination of music and magic behold then I find out that it's a Yiddish word
so four or five months into it we've done you know six seven gigs already and Jim comes to me says we got to change the name it's it's just too Jewish I said it's too late it is what it is it is what it is so we played you know there's so many synagogues at the JCC multiple multiple times we played a cherith we opened up for Kinky Friedman claim to fame for Kinky Friedman I think that was a Dallas Jewish Historical Society event probably six seven years ago at sheriff my son Eli was there so he was it has to be six years ago
at least but we opened up for kinky we did a gig at my camp JCC camp and Rock Jail you know that Seneca Lake I had this crazy idea that the camp was falling apart and that we should get the alumni together and we should start a capital campaign and raise money so I spoke to somebody who was on the board they ran it up the ball we raised we invited all the alumni we have something called Woodstock camp stock because we weren't far from Woodstock New York we had camp stock we'd have the kids lit would sleep out on the field and we'd have
the truck and if you had any musical talent you got up and we mic you up and we'd sing and play you know crosby Stills Nash and young and you know all the old camp music and I said we got a do camp stop this is the easiest thing I've ever you know I had this crazy dream that we had camp stock and we raised a million bucks on the spot kicked off a an ongoing capital campaign to this day that they have rebuilt that camp they've raised millions of dollars and it's got a life of its own so what else all kinds of Jewish
organization would you cover so if we played 60 70s pop rock Beatles Eagles Billy Joel Clapton employed a lot of one-hit wonders you know brandy she's a fine girl all kinds of one-hit wonders and probably had a repertoire of 140 songs but all stuff everybody knows well unfortunately Jim Schwartz my best friend passed away two months ago yesterday May 10th and it was one year the Battle of pancreatic cancer last May of 2017 for a couple months you kept saying oh I don't feel well something's wrong something's wrong I started Pesach 2017 and you know we'd be in practice and I'd look over any be
like you know you know what the hack you know I'd get a check down so he goes into the hospital and they're like oh my god you got a mass on your pancreas but don't worry mr. Schwartz it's probably not cancer I'm like oh yeah right so we got him out of the hospital we did a gig that was planned you know it was on the schedule January the June 3rd got about the hospital for that gig he said you know shows got to go on and then chemo and radiation started and it was just it was pitiful I mean he just I didn't think he was gonna make it to Thanksgiving he was just cold up there he couldn't do anything he was just beautiful so he certainly didn't think he was gonna make it to Christmas but he kind of did
he was kind of stable for a little while and we did a little set little small gig up and up in Plano did a 25-minute set during Christmas time it was phenomenal and he got up and rallied I got these unbelievable pictures from that night we see we also start of a not-for-profit music organization called BYU musicians bring your own musician were abused issues with business people go play music I mean how many guys like me you know our doctors and lawyers are you know have careers but play music on the side and don't get to you know play and don't know who to play
with you know so we started this musical organization it's 501 C 3 it's it's about playing it's about networking it's about giving back so Jim started this morning monthly networking breakfast that we'd always have a speaker go around and you know introduce ourselves and what we do for a living but we would also have a speaker it could be around music to be around about recording or it could be about cloud marketing or you know anything but you know there's it was networking and we'd also have a happy hour which you know that's all about and eating and drinking and partying and talking music and
you know what do you do and you know doing music and and networking to do music together I mean to do to do business together to make money as well and then once twice a month we'd have these gigs that you'd sign up for what you're playing we'd have a theme the Beatles or Blues or country and you we'd have songs you sign up whether you're playing drums or saxophone or you're singing harmony or playing guitar you know so nuts and the giving back part is out of pure a not-for-profit and you need a band we put a band together for you so I pay
play cancer runs multiple times a year with other friends and you know guys like Jim Rosenthal and Bob Rose and Eric's Spomer as a lot of a lot of Jewish guys involved and Terry Spock Jim the rest of the Mazak brothers band Rob's rel Joel Futterman are very active in it so so Jim so they said that the the the Christmas 2017 gig was a part was it be why it was a carve out from the BYO group they said yeah you want to set you know would it look how much can you do I'm like you know no more 30 minutes Jim Jim's got
nothing you know energy fast-forward Jim kind of rallied and was stable for a while so he kept talking like in October you know from from his bed he's like we got to talk about the chili cook-off and I'm like really you know you know I mean he just didn't seem like it was going to happen around that time his daughter also got engaged and said she was gonna get you know married June 3rd now I don't know if you know Jim Schwartz but Jim Schwartz is the past the current the past president before Stuart Rosenfield Stuart who we you know Stuart president above your board
Stuart sings with us we all sing in a men's acapella group that on show you are called coal Rena which I'll get to in a minute and but before that Jim Schwartz was president for four years and kind of reinvigorated I like the Historical Society it kind of was kind of a tallow and not much was happening he got back in reinvigorated it came up with the let's do annual events based on important meaningful families in the Judy the Dallas Jewish community which has been a very very important fundraiser and community coming together it's been phenomenally successful so Jim was Jim was a rock star
for for the Jewish Historical Society but so we did the kosher chili cook-off because Jim rallied and got up and was one of our best gigs I mean we hadn't practice in months we hadn't played since Christmas and we rocked it out I mean it was amazing out there doing Bruce Springsteen grass roots just all kinds of fantastic music but that was March 18 so fast-forward Jim had problems who same at the hospital we were with him today and listen I left and we're like oh my god his daughters getting married in three weeks he might not make it which was not coming back when
she got engaged in October and said I'm getting married in June I wanted to throttle her because like what's wrong December January because we didn't know when Jill was gonna leave us and anyway past that Thursday and I was with him his wife it was Susie his two brothers one of the wives his two brothers his mother and me pretty quickly and peacefully actually so that was tough and still very tough for me because it's a part of my life playing music for the last 15 years it's just been so much fun in such a large part of my life so much fun and a
great way to give back yeah tough guy he was a music he had a music year like you know so we started he and rabbi Weinberg started Cole Reno which is a men Jewish men's Jewish ala cappella group we sing every Friday night every Saturday for you know services and we sing it a lot of community events and Jim was the driver but Jim you know was a taskmaster I mean we would be in the middle of a gig house singing you know both playing guitar you know I'm doing melody he's doing harmony and he your B string his flat who hears that what you
know see he just you know he turned me into quite performer and we were good and we had just amazing times so back to the dollars repeating foundation all right so the Dallas community Jewish Community Foundation so I'm I'm a financial professional I've been with Morgan Stanley for 34 years now I came one of the spokespersons we have a professional advisor seminar every year which 300 lawyers and cpa's and financial professionals common and we educate them but it's a fantastic commercial for the for the foundation not necessarily much of the fundraiser kind of thing but it's community fast forward the executive committee says came to
me and said look you gotta be chairman and I'm like I'm good Lisa Lisa Newman she's an attorney you know she you know she and I are both on the say she should be she should be chairman I'm good I'm you know leave me alone don't know you got to be doing you know this so I said you know what I don't know if I'm a guy okay you know not like you know you guys on the executive committee I didn't sell my company for 80 million dollars you know younger than you guys are I play in a band I like to drink I'm like
that you know I'm likely to drop the f-bomb and you know in an executive committee yeah just not like you guys they're like nah you're the guy you got the energy we need to you know we need to grow this thing so they say you know they they said you know it's a two-year term of which I'm in my third year of the two-year term because they didn't you know they didn't let me have it you know they just kept me out for one more year so we've gone through lots of changes there we have hit milestones that we never thought were possible and 15
years ago we're probably 80 million we are now at two hundred and thirty million dollars in assets under management last year we granted over 17 million dollars and about a million and a half dollar budget do the math we are extremely lean for every dollar that we spend we $11 it's very very low expense to over 800 agencies this past year where the backbone of the philanthropy of this Jewish community we backed the bonds that helped build Levine job that Kiva and go on and on and on we just did we just under out the some of the leaders on the road for legacy the
new Legacy building project we help them with their financing we are the best kept secret in the philanthropic world the house we don't do a lot of marketing we are all about privacy we don't know you know I don't even even eyes chairman don't know who our donor advised fund holders are only the professionals at the foundation we believe in you know privacy is extremely important we don't list the roles of people however we do ask that every agency that receives money from us if so if a donor advised fund holder grants 118 dollars to on chitara that if they so choose that anti Torah
has an asterisk and down below you know received from as a donor device you know from from a grant from the Dallas Jewish community Community Foundation so that's a little bit of marketing and and it's it's legal it's appropriate I mean that family did not give that money directly to OJ they gave that money to the foundation who owns it they got their tax write-off and they requested grants which you know village it 501c3 we always honor so it's a little different planning PNA plenty of and allocation methodology although we do grant from other discretionary funds that we are responsible to carry out the missions
like college scholarships we just gave 50 scholarships away to for college scholarships we do that every year it gives camp scholarships very proud of the things we do we've helped seven Jewish babies born to couples who had infertility problems for fertility problems I'm not sure what the right way to say it is we have we bring in we train guide dogs to servicemen who come back problems we help build homes for servicemen you know the city's Gary Sinise project we help fund to that we just do a lot I make sure I get to do I get to and I get to give money away
the bear fund may be for the bear fund grants so we get to you know calling the agencies and you know give them each you know between five and thirty thousand dollars doing that for 30 some odd years so I get to do a lot of really cool things granting you know giving money and helping agencies and it takes a lot of time but it's it's been it's been a good run I'll be done this I think October of this year stepping off Andy drop Guinness my incoming Lisa Newman will be behind him you know it's been enjoyable it's been interesting what I've learned and
how I've grown from all these experiences it's mine nobody can take that away you know and it's so I mean we've already into this but do you think the Dallas Jewish community has come a long way in rights to organization events like you said like from where it was when you first started where it is now it's the foundation foundation on a Torah has come from nothing to a thriving Jewish community but I couldn't be more proud of we live a mile and a half from it of course I bought the property so it's really nice it's so close but a thriving community with you
know just a lot of really great people I think we're known as being a warm a Mischa group welcoming everybody for minyan or Friday night services or for whatever their needs are we're there for them the Jewish foundation you know was part of the Federation for many many years the Federation being a very very big and just has a big presence and really overshadow the Foundation's work and what it did the vision of the elders many years ago was to make it a independent foundation and not just a committee within the Federation so they they you know to help it become stronger so a number
of years ago it was decided that we should not just be separate but completely separate and we physically moved to a different location so that we could grow our brand our recognition or you know our independence and and that has worked really well because it's interesting you know we have three different types of Jewish synagogues you have reform conservative and Orthodox and you know various points in between and that gives people choice you know we don't want people to not have choice because then they just may throw up their hands and go away Federation has one approach to being the backstop and the backbone of
the Jewish community and supporting agencies and that is by the annual campaign taking the money in having planning allocation and and and supporting all the agencies but they tend to have certain you know certain areas that they focus on we our mission is to help her but families and businesses accomplish their philanthropic goals within their values through a community foundation by setting up their donor advised funds and setting up legacy funds I failed to mention that we have 230 million under management we also have 280 million in expectancies in legacy gifts we started something many years ago called create a Jewish legacy okay you give
every year generation and to Jewish Family Services and your synagogues but when you pass away wouldn't you want that to continue in some form or fashion so can you carve out a piece of your insurance policy or create a you know a trust you know specifically to endow the future and so we started that and Stuart Prescott headed up for many years we're now of over two hundred and eighty million dollars in expectancies you know fortunately or unfortunately for the agencies people aren't dying so you know we're you know but that's that's a labor of the foundation we don't get paid for we set it
up we do the legal work for them we have so many for people that volunteer to do that and when they pass that money will pass through the foundation to the Federation - sheriff - you know hi house - you name it and so we have created that you know that the foundation the Community Foundation model resonates with many people and the Federation model resonates with other people and I don't care who they give to as long as they support the Jewish community and as long as they help pass on their values and their legacy to their children hopefully Jewishly if that's a word and
their children's children that you know it's a part of who we are then you have to give back you it's it's it's not a choice whether we give sadaqa it's a commandment and it's even if you're destitute you've got to help others in some form or fashion it's what makes us hold people and I'm just a big believer that that both the Federation and foundation are extremely important to the Dallas Jewish community and one resonates hopefully both you know a family will embrace both for different reasons because there they accomplish the same things two very very different models that makes sense like one major piece
of advice for younger generations like when they watch this like kids and be White House of this bigoted teenager so to speak and how they could make an impact on the Jewish community having an impact all together any kind of mr. business give me a majoring in business in college and what they would do with that degree what would that be one piece of advice would be fun it's not one piece of advice but the advice is you know I see the BYO kids and I see the kids of today and they are so very involved in in the Jewish community which itself is has so many opportunities to help others so embrace those opportunities because not only is it fun but to help others is the is the greatest thing you can you can be doing and as I said earlier you know when you help others
you get more out of it you get more you get as much of more than than they do and it makes you a better person stronger person and the relationships you create will help you be successful personally because you're happier you're you know gratitude is very important but also in business I mean people know who you are they know you're a good person people like to do business people do business with people whether you're a doctor whether you're a lawyer and I you want to do business with people who do do good things for others and who you know you know that they're reliable and
they're responsible and you know so when you go to college you know seek out Hilla get involved in the Jewish community in big ways small ways and and stay involved in the Jewish community because here the rewards to you are as much as the awards to the others that you're helping and that's