By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Jack Benaroya was a first-generation American. Having felt that this country had given so much to him, he wanted to give what he had in return.
“He always felt that there were so many opportunities here,” said Becky Benaroya, Jack’s wife of 70 years. “He always felt that life had been good to him. He wanted to share.”
Jack Benaroya, 90, died May 11 due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease.
Jack was part of a generation of philanthropists who made Seattle what it is today, yet shaped the city’s Jewish community even more. As anyone who knew him would attest, however, Jack could have done without the recognition.
“He was a leading philanthropist and he was an unusual person because he was very humble. He really did not need any acknowledgment or accolades,” said Richard Fruchter, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. “That was not his style.”
His style, according to Ken Weinberg, CEO of Jewish Family Service, was plain and simple: Recognize where he could help, and then commit to it.
“He knew we needed help to help other people,” Weinberg said. “I never had to go through extensive explanations and expensive rationales. He got it, he got it right away.”
The Benaroyas tended to focus their giving on JFS’s food bank and Emergency Services department, “those services who help people who are really down on their luck,” Weinberg said, and will continue to do so.
Judy Neuman, CEO of the Stroum Jewish Community Center, last saw Jack in the fall during a tribute program for Althea Stroum, whose own family’s contributions were just as significant in building Seattle’s Jewish community. The event took place in an auditorium for which the Benaroyas had provided major support to build, in the JCC building that Jack’s company had constructed in the 1960s.
“I’m in awe of what he did for our community,” Neuman said.
While the Benaroyas were always happy to lend their financial support to help build the Jewish community — and to push their peers to join them — honoring Jack because of his good fortune misses the point of Jack’s
generosity.
“If I were to sum up Jack’s life with one word, it would be a Yiddish word: mensch,” said Josh Gortler, a longtime friend of the Benaroyas and former CEO of the Caroline Kline Galland Jewish nursing and retirement facilities. Speaking at a memorial service on May 14, Gortler told how Jack’s negotiations to purchase the land on which the Jewish retirement community The Summit at First Hill was built, and Jack and Becky’s lead gift on the Summit, led to the most successful capital campaign in Seattle’s Jewish history. The Benaroyas also made the lead gift in the Kline Galland Foundation’s endowment.
“In the Jewish tradition, we have the idea of tikkun olam, improving the community and the world we live in,” Gortler said. “Jack lived that idea: That it is everybody’s responsibility to leave this world a little bit better than we found it when we arrived.”
Jack’s granddaughter, Renee Herst, said that while her family didn’t always discuss its charitable giving, “I observed it as a way of life.”
To her that meant choosing causes she’s passionate about, including several within Seattle’s Jewish community.
“Leadership to me means showing up, contributing and encouraging others to be involved as well, and I saw that,” Herst said. “I saw my grandpa working with his peers as a team within the Jewish community to be able to create significant impact, whether it was the Jewish Federation or Jewish Family Service or the JCC.”
Gerard Schwarz, the recently retired music director of the Seattle Symphony, conducted the musical portions for the memorial service at the concert hall that bears Jack and Becky’s name.
“He was a regular fixture [at the symphony],” Schwarz said. “So much so that when I asked the orchestra to volunteer for the memorial service, everybody wanted to participate.”
Given the Benaroyas’ involvement with the symphony and in taking the lead to build Benaroya Hall, Schwarz said convincing Jack to name the building for his family was not as easy as it may have sounded.
“He didn’t want to give the money so that he could get his name on the building,” Schwarz said. But Schwarz explained to Jack that “by not allowing your name on the building, it means you’re not giving us the opportunity to thank you,” he said. “You represent the Jewish community, and isn’t it wonderful that we, the Jewish community, are being so generous in this way.”
Rabbi Daniel Weiner, senior rabbi at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, saw Jack as thoughtful, with a gravitas that made people listen.
“When he spoke you knew that it wasn’t superfluous. You knew that it just wasn’t for the sake of hearing his own voice,” Weiner said. “There was a real quiet strength and concerted sharing of ideas that I really appreciated.”
Though he wasn’t religiously observant, Jack served on the boards of Temple De Hirsch Sinai and Congregation Ezra Bessaroth. Both Jack and Becky are of Sephardic descent.
“He certainly imbibed and embodied some of the best cultural, communal and ethnic aspects of being a Sephardic Jew,” Weiner said.
While the Benaroyas’ charitable contributions were often quite public, Weiner pointed to the lessons their philanthropy gave to their own family.
“Certainly what his children and his grandchildren have done, are doing, and will do for the Jewish and broader community will be very directly linked and go back to what Jack and Becky have done,” he said.
Herst, Jack’s granddaughter, agreed. “I feel like their example of involvement is action speaking louder than words,” she said. “They’re very humble and quiet about their giving.”
And when it came to family, the Benaroyas were more than willing to give. When Jack’s grandson Michael Benaroya was diagnosed as diabetic, there hadn’t been much research on juvenile diabetes. Jack changed that. The Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason Medical Center has been a strong catalyst in creating treatments that have benefited diabetic children worldwide — and this effort came even as Jack began to see the effects of his Parkinson’s Disease.
Herst said her grandfather always made sure he knew what was happening with his grandchildren.
“My grandpa’s presence was paramount in my young life…. Spending time with him was always an incredible treat for me,” she said. “I’d always like to sit next to him at the table and be able to talk to him and just absorb whatever he had to say.”
What he said, and what he did, impacted his community and his family.
“We had a very wonderful life,” said Jack’s wife Becky, adding, “I hope that his giving has taught other people that there’s more to life, that there’s a lot of enjoyment out of giving. It’s very gratifying.”