“The reasons we did it are pretty straightforward,” explained Philip Darivoff. “This is a situation in which the children lead the parents.”
What was done by Betsy and Philip Darivoff of Short Hills was the dedication of The Darivoff Family Foundation to supporting Holocaust education, and in particular, the work of the Holocaust Council of United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ.
“When our daughter Sarah was in eighth grade, she took a Holocaust studies course,” Philip recalled. “She and a few of her friends were inspired to put on a prom for Holocaust survivors. It was a wonderful event that was completely student run, and they ended up hosting 200 survivors at the Crystal Plaza.”
The Holocaust Council helped the students put together a list of survivors to invite. “That’s when we were introduced to the council’s work,” he explained, “and all it is doing to reach out to survivors and to make the community of survivors an educational resource. We realized the council’s own resources were limited, and we wanted to help them do the work of educating the community, preserving the memory of those who were lost, and working to see that it will never happen again.
“It was our daughter’s work that inspired us and said to us that there’s much more her parents should be doing.”
What Betsy and Philip Darivoff discovered was that the Holocaust Council had lots of ideas and plans but needed further support to put them all into action.
“We thought the council must be an enormous organization with offices and a large staff,” Betsy said. “When we saw how much they accomplished and how little they had to work with, we realized the need for additional programming and the need for support to make it happen.
“We wanted our gift to be used specifically for enhanced programming. We wanted to make sure that the council will be able to plan for the additional programming that’s needed without having to fear that the funding won’t be available.”
The Holocaust Council is in the midst of planning a year-long agenda of events to celebrate its 25th anniversary. A portion of the funding needed for the events will be coming from the gift of The Darivoff Family Foundation.
“We are enormously proud of what Barbara Wind achieves as the director of the council,” observed Philip. “She and the dedicated volunteers immerse themselves in Holocaust education, and the community benefits so much from their intelligence, talent, and commitment.”