Coopermans offer record $1.3 million gift to Daughters of Israel facility

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

Toby and Leon Cooperman, the Short Hills couple who have endowed projects and supported institutions in and outside the Jewish community, ranging from JCC MetroWest to the Kwanza Festival at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, have presented the Daughters of Israel nursing facility in West Orange with a $1.3 million gift for its new building expansion.

Their donation to the facility’s capital and endowment campaign is the largest single contribution the home has ever received.

“We should respect and treat with dignity our senior citizens,” Leon Cooperman said in an interview. “It is a very vital service the Daughters of Israel provides the community. I’ve made a good living, and I would like to share with the community our good fortune. I think Daughters performs an absolutely vital service to the elderly in our community.”

Cooperman is a financial manager; founder of Omega Advisors, Inc.; and former general partner of Goldman Sachs, the brokerage and investment firm. He grew up in the south Bronx as the son of a plumber.

“I’ve given away probably $100 million in my lifetime,” said Cooperman. “I read a quote 20 years ago by Sir Winston Churchill that said, ‘We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.’ I worked very hard, and now I want to recycle some of what I’ve earned back into the community.”

Cooperman’s wife agreed.

“You get great pleasure from giving,” Toby Cooperman said. “You get great pleasure by being able to give something back.”

“The Coopermans are a leading family of philanthropy in our community,” said Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey, “and this is the latest evidence of their generosity. They will enable Daughters to upgrade its physical plant to better serve its residents.”

Daughters of Israel has embarked on a two-year, $12 million construction project designed to improve decor, expand wheelchair accessibility, and enhance amenities. The effort will upgrade living conditions in one of the facility’s two wings, expanding renovations to reach all of its 298 residents.

The project coincides with the center’s celebration of its 100th anniversary, which will include commemorative events and an exhibit curated by the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest.

Daniel Kram of West Orange, who cochairs the nursing home’s capital and endowment campaign committee, said he is “deeply appreciative” and hopes that the Coopermans’ generosity “will be an inspiration to others who will want to participate in this important community project.”

Along with other donors who have given $100,000 or more to the campaign, the Çoopermans will have their names inscribed on a mural of Jerusalem that was recently installed in the home’s lobby.

The Coopermans are major benefactors of the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC, Ross Family Campus, in West Orange. Leon Cooperman is also a trustee of Saint Barnabas Medical Center and chair of the Saint Barnabas Development Foundation. They are also major contributors to the UJA campaign.

“The Coopermans are pillars of our community,” said Kleinman.