Ira Riklis and Important Charities

It was seventeen years ago when Arieh, a two-year old boy from a broken family, was fortunate enough to have been taken in to the Emergency Shelter at the Emunah Bet Elazraki Children’s Home. Recently the home was proud to e-mail Ira Riklis and other donors to announce that Arieh has achieved his dream of becoming a paratrooper in the Israeli Army. And not only was he accepted into the paratroopers’ corps, he was named the platoon top soldier, a title reserved for only the very best soldiers.

His life could have taken a much-different course. There are far too many horror stories of children raised in orphanages who never receive the love, guidance and support needed to overcome the dire circumstances of their early lives. It was a visit to Bet Elazraki some years ago, that convinced Ira Riklis that this home was different. Children taken in there become part of a caring, extended family. It’s a connection that begins the moment they arrive and continues throughout their lives, even after they’ve grown and moved out on their own. And like a true family, they welcome successes like Arieh’s enjoyed with familial pride and joy.

By the time you finish reading this sentence, three people, somewhere across the U.S. will have needed a pint of blood to help save their lives. And as Ira Riklis knows, that means three people will have had volunteered to donate those three pints. And he also knows that just one donation can help save the lives of up to three people. But in spite of that, just one in twenty of those of us eligible to donate blood actually do so.

Why don’t more people donate? The two most common reasons cited by people who don’t give blood are: “I never thought about it” and “I don’t like needles.” Ira Riklis, who’s been making regular blood donations for many years now, hopes that by blogging about the need for blood donors, we can get people to think about donating, and get them to realize that they’ll leave feeling good about helping others. And as far as the fear of needles, he can testify from his experience that the process is fast, easy and painless!

“Getting old is hard,” said Mary, citing an old Italian saying. Many of us experience that feeling as more and more time passes in our lives. But for some of us, such as Mary, an elderly New Yorker who lives alone following the passing of her husband of 59 years more than a decade ago. It was the stories of people like her, aging and alone, isolated and poor, that have made Ira Riklis a long-time supporter of Citymeals On-Wheels, an organization that provides both meals and a lifeline for New York City’s homebound elderly.

For people like Mary, who find it hard or impossible, to leave their homes, it’s not only the meals—more than 2.2 million in a recent year—that make a difference. It’s also the connection with the organization’s dedicated and caring volunteers who deliver the meals. Through Citymeals “Friendly Visitors” program, a volunteer, Pete, visits Mary several times a week, helping her with errands and providing much-needed companionship. Ira Riklis and his family have been provided significant funding that has earned them the rank as some of the group’s “Very Grand Patrons.” But rather than feeling “very grand,” they feel grateful that they’re able to help. You can help too, through donations of money or time. Even if you don’t live in New York, you can likely find similar programs operating near you.

Dr. William Zucker

Deeply appreciative of the education he received at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Ira Riklis has long been a contributor to the University. Recently, he increased his support through an endowment—the Dr. William Zucker Entrepreneurial Intern Fellowship—named in honor of his advisor, mentor and dearest friend. The fellowship provides paid internship opportunities for outstanding students who plan to spend the summer in an entrepreneurial setting. Following their internships, the students are expected to serve as Ambassadors of Entrepreneurship who work with staff to promote the entrepreneurial career path to other Wharton students.

The fellowship is a fitting tribute to the memory of Dr. Zucker, who passed away in 2006. His classes were known for bringing studies from the academic arena into real life. Two classes, in particular, “Entrepreneurial Decision Making and Land Development” and his Entrepreneurial Inner-City Housing Markets course, were legendary for both the exhaustive requirements they placed on students and for their blend of practical and academic principles and practices. Ira Riklis credits Dr. Zucker for much of what’s he’s learned about being a successful entrepreneur. And through this fellowship, he hopes a new generation of students can enjoy similar successes.

In 1969, Loren Eiseley—a poet, scientist and philosopher—published “The Star Thrower,” a 16-page essay about a man on an early morning walk along a storm-wracked beach. As he walks he discovers the remains of innumerable sea creatures washed ashore by the night storm’s fury. “Long-limbed starfish were strewn everywhere, as though the night sky had showered down.” And on the lonely beach he encounters another man who is throwing those starfish back into the sea. That story became the basis of a modern parable that Ira Riklis first heard from his Rabbi. The parable seeks to impart hope and inspiration that even in the face of great need in the world and seemingly innumerable challenges to overcome, that each of us can make a difference, even if it’s just one starfish at a time.

In the story, Eiseley’s character at first feels doubt—the same doubt that Ira Riklis has felt at times in his life, the same doubt that perhaps we all feel at times. “I gave it up a long time ago,” he says, “Death is the only successful collector.” Yet, as he walked away, he turned and saw the star thrower again at his work. “For a moment, in the changing light, the sower appeared magnified, as though casting larger stars upon some greater sea. He had, at any rate, the posture of a god.” And in the end, he becomes a star thrower himself. “I picked and flung another star…. I could feel the movement in my body. It was like a sowing—the sowing of life on an infinitely gigantic scale.  I looked back across my shoulder. Small and dark against the receding rainbow, the star thrower stooped and flung once more. I never looked again.  The task we had assumed was too immense for gazing. I flung and flung again…” And he concludes that, “The task was not to be assumed lightly, for it was men as well as starfish that we sought to save.”

In Jewish tradition, it’s not only what you give, but how you give that has meaning in terms of living a spiritual life. Some people refer to giving unto others who need support as “charity.” But Ira Riklis believes that word gives a somewhat condescending impression, as if it were a voluntary, magnanimous act that confers greatness on the giver. While gifts given with this attitude can still benefit those in need, they are considered a lower form of giving.

Instead, gifts should be given with a joyous heart and the realization that what you area actually doing is restoring fairness by returning to others what is rightfully theirs. That’s because Judaism holds that people in need have a legal right to food, clothing and shelter. And Ira Riklis knows that—in terms of “rightness”—there are levels of giving. The lowest of these is giving begrudgingly; the highest is giving joyfully and with gratitude in a way that enables the recipient to rise above their need and become self-reliant.

In a world that seems to be becoming increasingly polarized, Ira Riklis is grateful for the work of Aish HaTorah. An apolitical network of Jewish educational centers with thirty-five branches on five continents, the organization is based on Orthodox practices and principles. Yet instead of excluding or looking down on non-Orthodox Jews (or non-Jews), it welcomes and offers guidance to all who come to learn about Judaism.

It’s this spirit of openness and inclusiveness that has made Ira Riklis a long-time supporter of the organization. Over the years he has enjoyed the opportunity to study with one of the group’s Rabbis, David Clyman, and has always been able to turn to him for support in times of personal need or doubt. Millions of others around the world have found similar support through the organizations educational programs and website as they’ve sought answers to questions of faith and of how to make their way through the complex issues which face us in these modern times.