BEATRICE BREINER
BEATRICE BREINER ENDOWMENT FUND AT THE TOWERS
“In our community, it is very common to create a tribute to a parent after they are deceased,” says Linda Cedarbaum. “I asked myself why my mother shouldn’t feel the appreciation of a tribute in her lifetime? My brother Myles and sister-in-law Fon in Hawaii joined me and my husband in establishing the Beatrice Breiner Fund at the Towers this year. “It was especially important that the fund be at the Towers, because that is the center of my mother’s connection to CT.”
Shortly after Jesse and Linda moved here, they recognized that newly widowed Bea, who was a lifetime Midwesterner, might be more comfortable relocating nearer to their Woodbridge home instead of in “beautiful,” yet “isolating” Hawaii with her son and daughter-in-law. No sooner did Bea move “directly into the Towers, she found a home and a community ready-made, arms open,” Linda recalls. “The Towers is the heart of the Jewish community of New Haven, even if you have no family members there, because it puts into practice so many core Jewish values: Honor your mother and your father, dor l’dor, tikun olam, welcome the stranger, and heal the needy. The Towers is the Jewish conscience of our community in action.”
The Cedarbaum family was pleased by the collaborative process set in place by the Foundation, Vivian Kantrow and the Towers 50th celebration committee that allowed them, “the option of creating named endowment funds that could be funded by multiple family members over the course of several years; a specially designated fund that truly reflects my mother’s life and spirit.” While Linda feels certain that her mother “has designed the perfect tribute to her lifetime of doing for others,” Bea Breiner is thrilled to know that this fund is earmarked to cover special activity fees for her fellow Towers residents. Linda concludes, “It gives her mother great pleasure to know that she is the vehicle for delivering care to the Towers community…one that opened its arms to her when she felt displaced and disconnected from her previous life, and made her feel at home once again.”
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Towers has embarked on an endowment campaign. To date they have 14 new endowment funds.