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Robert and Myra Kraft
Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh ba-Zeh Heroes: Robert and myra Kraft
MeetBo b Kraft
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Robert Kraft was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on June 5, 1941. He is the son of an Orthodox Jew who wanted him to be a rabbi. Instead he went to Harvard Business School. He married Myra Hiatt, whose father ran RandWhitney, a packaging company. Kraft joined the company and bought it in 1972. The same year he started International Forest Products. He owns mills and he manufactures and distributes paper and packaging products in eighty countries. In 1994 Kraft bought the New England Patriots. They won the Super Bowl in 2002, 2004 and 2005.
Ahavat Yisra el
Kraft has a longstanding love of Israel and its people. Kraft addressed the 2005 graduating class of Columbia College regarding the driving forces in his life: “Family, faith, philanthropy, and football.” Mr. Kraft termed this combination the “Four Fs.” Robert and Myra have donated tens of millions of dollars to a variety of causes, including education, children’s and women’s issues, health care, youth sports and Israel. Among the many institutions the Krafts have supported are Columbia University, Harvard Business School, The College of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Tufts University, the Belmont Hill School, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Robert and Myra have donated millions of dollars to all sorts of Israeli charities, including Hadassah Hospital. They helped renovate an after-school program for Ethiopian immigrants. One of their projects is the Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem. Built in 2000, it is host to a thirtythree-team flag football league as well as to other sporting events.
Visiting Isra el
The Krafts love to bring groups of people with them to Israel to showcase what they see as the positive aspects of the country. In recent years he has brought Patriots players. Kraft speaks out for Israel: “It is hard for people in America who have never been there, even people who are Jewish, but especially non-Jews, to understand what Israel is about. The way it’s represented in the media is sometimes so far from what the truth is. It is such a rich place in terms of history. It’s the cradle of all the western religions. So much history has happened.”
American Foot ball in Isra el
Israel is a soccer country. When it is not soccer, it is basketball. Still Kraft is funding and creating an American-style football league there. Kraft said, “I just love the sport of football, because it requires intelligence and people pulling together. For me, it is the highest form of competition, which is what makes people great.” He also said, “The teamwork in football was a perfect fit for Israel, where we have people from all over the world working together: Russians and Ethiopians, Arabs and Christians.” Robert and Myra Kraft live tzedakah, tikkun olam, and Kol Yisrael aravim zeh ba-zeh. They take care of the world, take care of the Jewish people and take care of Israel.
Myra Kraft, chair of Combined Jewish Philanthropies Board of Directors, gave an interview to The Boston Globe. Here are some of the things she said about her connection to Israel.
[1] “My feeling, and Robert’s, too, is if you’re fortunate enough to have acquired wealth, then it’s an obligation on you to give back… This is what I see as my occupation. I don’t know how to play bridge, nor do I want to learn how to play bridge. This is what I do.”
[2] Myra’s first memory of a commitment to help Israel goes back to the Holocaust. In 1948 her father visited the displaced-persons camps of Europe and went to Palestine. And while he was away Myra, then five years old, decided to do something to help. She disappeared before her afternoon kindergarten was scheduled to begin. She says, “I went door to door in my neighborhood, and I asked people to help the poor children in Europe in the displaced-persons camps. My mother got a little frantic until the neighbors started calling. It was just part of the way I grew up, I think.”
[3] “I’m not a religious person, and my father wasn’t really religious. It’s not religion, it’s peoplehood. If we don’t take care of ourselves, no one is going to take care of us.” 1. What do Myra’s words teach us about the Krafts as philanthropists? 2. What do Myra’s words teach us about them as people who live the value Kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh?
Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh ba-Zeh
A Hasidic rabbi taught:
The many letters in the Torah represent the many souls of the Jewish people. If one single letter is left out of the Torah, it is unfit for use. If one single soul is left out of the union of the Jewish people, the Divine Presence will not join them. Like the letters, the souls must join together. Rabbi Uri of Streslik
1. What is your connection to the Jewish people? 2. What is missing from the Jewish people if you are not there?
