An artist’s rendering of the proposed Wilf Hall at Butler College, the third four-year college established at Princeton University. The hall is being funded with a gift of $4.5 million from Mark and Jane Wilf.
Photo courtesy Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
April 03, 2008
With fond memories of his own time at Princeton University, New Jersey philanthropist Mark Wilf and his wife, Jane, have presented the institution with a gift of $5 million to fund construction of a new dormitory and for programming at the Center for Jewish Life/Hillel.
Wilf, a principal of Garden Homes Development, his family’s real estate business, is a vice chair of the board of trustees of United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of North American federations. He also served as president of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey. The family, including the couple’s four children, lives in Livingston.
According to a statement issued by Princeton, $4.5 million will be for Wilf Hall, one of four dormitories planned as part of Butler College, formerly a two-year institution and now the university’s third four-year college.
The remaining $500,000 will be used to establish the Wilf Family Fund, which, according to the statement, “will support programs and initiatives in CJL that foster student leadership and service both on the Princeton campus and in the wider community.”
Among the family’s earlier gifts to Princeton is the main sanctuary at CJL, also known as Wilf Hall, used for services and other gatherings.
Wilf, 45, graduated cum laude from Princeton with majors in electrical engineering and computer science before going on to earn a law degree from New York University. His wife attended the University of Colorado and also NYU.
He said, “Part of what makes Princeton special is its strong emphasis on students. I had a wonderful experience as a Princeton student, and supporting the construction of a new dorm is a way for me to contribute to providing a superlative residential experience for Princeton students of the future.”
With regard to the CJL funding, he said, “Preparing young people for leadership and service to the Jewish community is of great importance to me and to my family.”
Princeton president Shirley M. Tilghman said, “Wilf Hall will help bring the benefits of the four-year residential college system to our students, and the Wilf Family Fund will strengthen the Jewish community at Princeton as well as the experience of all students.”
The fund, said Tilghman, will foster “the qualities of leadership and social responsibility that prepare our students to make positive contributions in the world. We are deeply grateful to the Wilf family for their thoughtfulness and generosity.”
CJL executive director Rabbi Julie Roth said, “Jane and Mark Wilf have been generous supporters of the CJL ever since it was built. He is one of our honorary trustees and comes to campus for our programs.” She said that the new Wilf Fund would expand the center’s ability to provide programs that advance its goal of “inspiring every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to the Jewish future while promoting cross-cultural and interfaith connections among all members of the community.”
Mark Wilf does additional service to Princeton, serving on the advisory board of the Judaic Studies program — a 10-year appointment — and he was a member of the Annual Giving Special Gifts Committee during the Anniversary Campaign for Princeton. Asked about the timing of this latest gift, he said it came about through his connection with the campaign, and with the prospect next year of celebrating the 25th reunion of his Princeton class.
Mark and Jane Wilf have presented Princeton University, Mark’s alma mater, with a gift of $5 million for the construction of a dormitory and for programming at the Center for Jewish Life/Hillel.
Wilf and his older brother Zygi and their cousin Leonard are principal owners of the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings, but the family is probably better known for its role in the Jewish community.
In addition to supporting other organizations both financially and in leadership, Mark Wilf has served as a chair of the United Jewish Appeal’s National Young Leadership Cabinet, and then as the UJC’s national campaign chair. He has also been involved in the leadership of other Jewish communal organizations, including the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth, State of Israel Bonds, the Anti-Defamation League, Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and the Second Generation, a group bringing together children of Holocaust survivors, like his parents, Joe and Suzie Wilf of Hillside.
The Wilf family have been major supporters of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem and were the largest contributors to its new Holocaust History Museum. They are also major benefactors of Yeshiva University in New York. In 2002, they helped fund enhancement of the main campus in Manhattan, which was renamed the Wilf Campus of Yeshiva University.
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