Ner Tamid Legacy Giving

Harold Levine is a longtime CBST member and Ner Tamid legacy donor.

It’s important for me to be a part of legacy giving because it’s the best way for me to make a transformational gift to CBST.

Becoming a Ner Tamid legacy donor was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. Do you know how long it took to do? It was like 20 minutes to go online, fill out the form, and press submit. 

And becoming a Ner Tamid legacy donor doesn’t have to involve writing or rewriting your will. There are ways to do it through beneficiary clauses and investments, as I did, that truly take less than half an hour to do.

As a longtime member, I’ve seen how powerful legacy giving can be. It’s particularly helpful with CBST’s educational programming, but also with the more every day but critical things like paying off debt and the mortgage.

You know, we stand on the shoulders of the previous generations who funded the synagogue. And regular membership dues do keep the synagogue doors open, but they don’t allow us to develop new programs or make transformational growth as we go forward.

I have come to realize how important unrestricted giving is. That’s why the gift I’m leaving CBST is unrestricted. We need those unrestricted legacy gifts for things like hiring additional clergy and staff, and creating additional programming, and for securing the future of the synagogue.

With restricted gifts, sometimes there’s an urgent need in the community—who could have seen the pandemic coming, for example—and those restricted gifts often can’t help CBST when it needs it most.

I have no idea whether the synagogue gets my gift tomorrow, or 30 years from now. And I have no idea what the needs of the synagogue will be like when that day comes. But I trust the synagogue leadership to know how to spend the money, and my gift allows me to still be a part of CBST, and the mission of CBST, even when I’m no longer here.

If we, as a community, can work together and say, “Okay, here’s what I can do in terms of legacy giving,” it will make a significant difference in securing the future of the synagogue.

I hope you will join me in becoming a Ner Tamid legacy donor. You can learn more about Ner Tamid legacy giving at CBST here.

—Harold Levine, longtime CBST member and Ner Tamid legacy donor