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Ner Tamid donor stresses importance of a woman's gift

When Judith Heyman began giving to UJA – about 50 years ago – many women thought that charitable giving was something for their husbands to decide.

"Women were still saying ‘My husband gives,'" she recalled. "It was difficult to get women to feel liberated and make their own contribution. I used to tell them, ‘when you go to the store, you buy things and don't ask your husband's permission,' but there was a tremendous amount of resistance."

At the time Judith first became involved with UJA, in the early 1950s, she was living in Verona. She was chair of a luncheon at a home in Upper Montclair, with a minimum gift of $25 – a pioneering effort to educate women to the importance of giving on their own. This has always been important to her. When she lived in Florida, she was the first chair to start a woman's gift campaign.

Judith is a Lion of Judah in the Women's Department of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

Her late husband, Kenneth Heyman Sr., was the first securities chair of the newly formed Securities Division in one of the predecessors of UJC MetroWest. Her son, Kenneth R. Heyman, who also works in the securities field, just completed his term as MetroWest's UJA campaign chair and is president-elect. "I'm very, very proud of Kenny," she declares. She is also very proud of her other two children, John and Pattie.

While she was raising her three children, Judith also went back to work, entering the field of computers when most people didn't even know what a computer was. She was an assistant analyst in computers at New York University, and although she's retired now, she still keeps her hand in by doing volunteer work on computers for Jewish Family Service of MetroWest.

If you, like Judith Heyman, have given to UJA for 25 years or more, the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest would like to recognize you as a Ner Tamid Achiever, with a listing on the Ner Tamid honor roll and invitations to special events. If you are already a Ner Tamid Achiever, JCF encourages you to share your thoughts and feelings about UJA at .