Bequest Established Three Endowment Funds

Rose FineRose Lillian Fine, who passed away in 2009, left a bequest that included instructions to establish three Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation endowment funds to benefit Omaha's Jewish community. The decision to establish the funds was made jointly with her husband, Nathan, who died many years ago.

The Nathan and Rose Lillian Fine Fund for the Education of Students of the Jewish Faith is an endowment fund providing undergraduate and graduate tuition grants to further the education of students of the Jewish faith who are in need of financial assistance, who qualify scholastically and who are residents of the Omaha metropolitan area. Preference is given to students who are interested in becoming Jewish communal professionals, such as rabbis, cantors, Jewish educators, or Jewish social or communal workers.

The Fine bequest also established the Nathan and Rose Lillian Fine Jewish Family Service/Tzedakah Endowment Fund. This fund is used to provide food, medication and other necessities for financially needy Jewish families, as determined by Omaha's Jewish Family Service (JFS). "Sometimes there are urgent needs that arise for people in the community who are encountering financial difficulties," noted Karen Gustafson, former JFS Executive Director. "If we don't have the necessary dollars in our budget, we turn to endowments such as the one established by Rose Fine. We've used the fund to help individuals in the Jewish community who were about to be evicted, who were about to have their heat turned off, who couldn't get to work because they couldn't afford vehicle repairs, and so on. We're so grateful to Rose and her late husband, Nathan, for leaving such an important legacy."

The third Foundation endowment that Rose established is the Nathan and Rose Lillian Fine Endowed Teacher of the Friedel Jewish Academy. The endowment partially supports the salary and benefits of one full-time teacher at Friedel, Omaha's Jewish day school, and supports the educational purposes of the school.

The Foundation can work with you and your financial advisor as you make arrangements to leave a bequest to benefit specific Jewish agencies or organizations and/or address particular needs that exist in Omaha's Jewish community.

For more information, please contact the Foundation's Executive Director, Howard Epstein, at 402-590-2156 or hepstein@jewishomaha.org