Growing Our Endowment

8th graders beneath the Tallit

Scholarship Endowment Fund Update

Looking to the Future

Growing our endowment fund has been a priority for our school’s board and professional leadership. In the 2021/22 academic year, we were blessed to add nearly $3 million to the endowment fund thanks to the generosity of supporters including Laura and Gary Lauder, Gary’s father, Leonard Lauder, the Families of Hausner Class of ‘21, and Zahava and Yoram Cedar. 

Lisa Friedman, former Board member, and parent of Hausner alumna Franny (class of ‘21) led the effort to create a Class of ‘21 endowment fund. “When our younger daughter, Franny, was set to graduate from Hausner in 2021, Jim and I wanted to do something to express our gratitude to the school,” Lisa shared. “We also wanted to build upon Hausner’s tradition of giving, and to commemorate Franny’s wonderful class. The answer was a class endowment fund to support scholarships, thus extending the extraordinary benefits of a Hausner education to families who might otherwise not be able to attend. We hope that future graduating classes will be inspired to launch similar efforts – in this way, our good fortune would be compounded by future endowment campaigns. Our class enthusiastically came on board; our six-week campaign raised nearly $240,000.”

Hausner grandparents, Zahava and Yoram Cedar, chose to support the endowment fund because of the impact they see on the lives of their own grandchildren. According to Yoram, “We moved to the Bay Area from Israel in 1985 as a young family of five. Our family has grown to 14 immediate members including six grandchildren. On a personal level it is very important to us to pass on our cultural values to the next generation as well as the love of Israel, and a strong connection to Israel. On the social level, since Hausner is a community Jewish Day School it is important to us that such an excellent education will be available for all.”