Jewish Responsibility, and Keeping an Eye on the Future
Sanford “Sandy” Hollander grew up in the rural town of Newton in Sussex County, where he still lives today. His father, an immigrant from Czarist Russia (now Belarus), settled there because he liked the bucolic landscape. He built a family and a small house painting business. There were a handful of Jews in the town– most of them poor. But on the High Holidays, Sandy recounts, the congregants in the small shul would bid for the honors during the services.
“The biggest honor of them all,” he said, “was to open the ark during the Yom Kippur afternoon service. Year after year, that honor went to Schmya, a poor but pious rag trader in town.” One year, when Sandy was eight or nine years old, there was a rumor that Nathan, the nonobservant wealthy baker, was going to bid against Schmya. In the bidding war that ensued, Sandy’s father outbid Nathan and paid $100 – an astronomical sum at that time – then handed the honor over to his friend Schmya. That evening at home, Sandy listened as his mother scolded her husband for spending money they couldn’t afford. His father calmly responded, “What better thing could I do with our money?”
This was the first time he saw an example of “Jewish responsibility” – he prefers this phrase to “philanthropy” – demonstrated by his father. Sandy uses this, along with many other memories and his phenomenal gift for storytelling, in one of his proudest roles: as a volunteer fundraiser for Jewish Federation for more than 50 years.
After graduating from Columbia University, becoming a lawyer, and meeting his wife Roz, Sandy moved back to Newton to build his own family and career. He discovered the UJA Annual Campaign when he took on legal representation of a local Jewish businessman who conducted the campaign in their area. When this man died, Sandy inherited the role, and, as with any responsibility he’s faced, he took it very seriously. In his first year, 1967, he raised $13,000 in Newton, making him “a bit of a legend” in the New Jersey Jewish community. This promising young fundraiser was invited to participate in the Young Leadership Cabinet Mission to Israel, launching his life-long love of the country.
As a small-town attorney, Sandy often felt intimidated by the large gifts many of his colleagues, major donors, were able to make, but he soon realized that each person is responsible for making a quality gift within their own means. As long as he was doing so, he felt comfortable asking others to do the same.
Sandy served in many Jewish communal leadership positions, including on the Executive Committee of National UJA and as a member of the Jewish Agency for Israel Board of Governors. He was also one of the founding members of the Morris Sussex Jewish Federation, working with Seymour Epstein and Dan Drench to build the small organization that merged into the much larger Federation of MetroWest in 1983.
When Seymour passed away, the Epstein Fund was established, dedicated to developing a leadership mission in Israel to engage the next generation of community leaders. Participants learned the value of sharing personal stories when soliciting gifts. Sandy participated in each of these missions, teaching the next generation to take the reins of leadership.
Throughout his 50+-year involvement in our Federation, and now, as a proud member of the Ner Tamid Society, Sandy Hollander has always kept an eye on the future. He’s passionate about his work with future leaders and about his involvement in the Ness Foundation, which is dedicated to the development of the Negev region in Israel and is critical to the future of Israel. And he is passionate about endowing his gift.
“Roz and I decided to endow our gift to Federation as an extension of what we’ve always been doing. We are committed to the Jewish community. We are committed to the survival of the Jewish State and of the nearly 9 million Jews living there. We are committed to taking care of the Jews still living in the former Soviet Union. We are committed to a thriving and creative Jewish life in the United States. As Jews, we have a responsibility for all of these things.”
Sandy’s endowed gift will ensure his impact on the Jewish community for generations to come.
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