Appeared in the Jewish Press:
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/obituaries/arthur-marcus-ztzl-the-man-of-great-chesed/2017/11/15/
Arthur Marcus ztz"l - The Man of Great Chesed
Ha-Rav Shlomo Aviner,
Rosh Yeshivat Ateret Cohain in the Old City of Yerushalayim
Few people
in Eretz Yisrael heard of Arthur Marcus, Avraham Zev ben Moshe Yitzchak
ztz"l, despite his great merits.
The reason was not only the fact that he lived in America, but on
account of his humility and modesty.
Forty
years ago, this man established the Central Fund of Israel, which allowed
transferring donations to Israel, and to receive a tax-exemption, which is
essential for donors there. Everything
was obviously performed in full accordance with the law. The donor transfers the donation to the fund,
and the money is passed along to a non-profit organization in Israel.
In this
way, he transferred close to 20 million dollars a year to 300 non-profit
organizations.
He did all
of this on his free time, together with his wife, who was with him in this holy
work. He worked tens of hours each week,
without receiving a penny for himself, and even paid for the expenses from his
own money. At the beginning, he did not
even have an office, but rather did everything from his home. Much later, he did have an office, which was
his private office at work.
He did not
distinguish between people, but rather transferred donation to any cause which
had an idealistic purpose: humanitarian aid, educational institutions, communal
projects, Shuls, Yeshivot, projects to build Eretz Yisrael, medical and
security projects. And he did not
distinguish between different parts of our Land. In his eyes, the Shomron and Tel Aviv and the
Negev were all the same.
This
reminds us of the three great wealthy men who displayed self-sacrifice for
Israel during a time of distress: Nadimon Ben Gurion, Ben Kalba Savu'a and Ben
Tzitzit Ha-Keshet. Arthur Marcus ztz"l
however was not wealthy himself, but nonetheless succeeded in transferring
hundreds of millions of dollars.
Regarding such things we say: "The act is greater than the one who
performs it". And this was all done
in simple and modest ways.
We owe a
great debt of gratitude to this great man, and all of those who faithfully busy
themselves with the needs of the community, may Hashem grant them a reward,
both them and their families, and may they lay in their resting places in
peace, with all of the Tzadikim.
