Hebrew University recently received a very unexpected gift. But the real surprise came when the school learned the identity of the gift’s unlikely benefactor – a homeless woman.
Curiously, the Holocaust survivor lived out of shopping cart on the streets of New York City until her death two years ago. The Associated Press reports Yefet Ozery, Hebrew University’s director of development and public relations, describing the generous donor as, "She lived as a very poor woman. And when she died at the age of 92, it was discovered she had accumulated close to $300,000."
Very little is known about the anonymous philanthropist, which is perhaps exactly what she wanted. Despite having no known ties with the university, the woman asked that the $100,000-plus donation fund scholarships to support medical research students. Even more baffling however, is how she saved this nice little chunk of change. To the best of anyone’s knowledge her last job entailed moving a man’s car around New York City so he could avoid parking tickets. But, she didn’t get cash for that either. Her services were in exchange for a hot meal and room. And while this will likely come as little surprise by now, she also left some of her savings to that very same employer.
Ozery ventures a guess as to how it all went down: "… she probably lived penny to penny. She probably saved it to do good for the world and for the Jewish people." We’ll take it.
Photo by Tracy O, courtesy Creative Commons via Flickr
From Lisa Germinsky of Tonic.com. Lisa Germinsky is a writer and editor in New York City.
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