H eadlines
Perelman Continued from Page 1
in the Philadelphia area and,
in the 1960s, buying Belmont
Iron Works, at the time one
of the largest structural steel
producers in the Northeast.

All of his interests were even-
tually consolidated as part of
RGP Holding Inc., of which he
was president and chairman of
the board.

He served, at various points,
on the boards of directors for
Temple University Hospital,
the National Museum of
American Jewish History and
the Albert Einstein Health
Center. He had stints as the
chairman of the board for
the Philadelphia Museum of
Art, as general chair of the
Allied Jewish Appeal and as
a trustee at Penn Medicine,
in addition to numerous other
leadership posts.

Perelman was married to
14 JANUARY 17, 2019
Ruth Caplan from 1941 until
her death in 2011. They had two
sons, Ronald and Jeffrey; the
former is one of the wealthiest
men in the world, reported to
be worth more than $9 billion
and a major donor to Chabad,
while the latter was locked in
litigation with his father that
was rumored to have ended
their speaking relationship.

Perelman is survived by his
sons, nine grandchildren and
10 great-grandchildren.

“I am saddened to hear of
the loss of Raymond Perelman,
one of our city’s great civic
leaders and philanthropists,”
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney
said in a statement. “Throughout
his life, he demonstrated an
exceptional commitment to
Philadelphia’s advancement as
a world-class city.”
During his
lifetime, Perelman made a series of
philanthropic contribu-
tions to institutions across
Philadelphia, including to the
Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia. His original
$3 million donation to the
Raymond and Ruth Perelman
Jewish Day School, with
branches in Elkins Park and
Wynnewood, was followed by
additional pledges in excess of
$3 million.

“Raymond was an incredibly
generous philanthropist who
understood the importance of
supporting Jewish identity and
investing in a Jewish future
through the Jewish Federation
and so many institutions in
our community,” said Naomi
Adler, president and CEO of
the Jewish Federation. “He was
an irreplaceable asset to our
community and we were so
fortunate to have known him.”
“Our school and its stu-
dents continue to benefit from
the Perelmans’ philanthropic
vision to this day,” said Judy
Groner, the head of school
at the Perelman Jewish
Day School.

He perhaps made no
greater gift than a $225 mil-
lion donation to the School
of Medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania, now named
after him and his wife. That
was just one among several
gifts he made to his alma
mater, including an endowed
professorship in the medical
school and to the Center for
Advanced Medicine, home to
the Abramson Cancer Center.

“I considered Ray a dear
friend — both to me and the
university — and I am so
gratified to know he will be
remembered for the countless
lives he has touched through
his philanthropy,” said Amy
Gutmann, president of the
University of Pennsylvania.

In 2014, Perelman made a
$6 million pledge for the con-
struction of the Raymond G.

Perelman Center for Jewish
Life at Drexel University (just
two years after a $5 million
pledge for the Raymond G.

Perelman Plaza on campus).

“Ray’s generous contribu-
tion to Drexel University made
JEWISH EXPONENT
Raymond Perelman as a younger man
the dream of a permanent
home for Jewish life on our
campus a reality,” said Rabbi
Isabel de Koninck, executive
director and campus rabbi
at the now-completed center.

“May Ray’s legacy continue to
be a blessing for us, helping
us to provide relevant, engag-
ing and innovative pathways
to Jewish life and learning for
our Drexel students for years
to come.”
In the same year, he
made a $50 million pledge
to the Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia to establish
the Raymond G. Perelman
Campus and the establishment
of three research endowments.

“Thanks to his generos-
ity and advocacy, CHOP’s
Raymond G.

Perelman Campus has become the site
of ambitious breakthroughs
poised to transform the lives
of children for generations to
come,” CHOP President and
Exponent archives
CEO Madeline Bell said. “We
are extremely grateful for
his gracious spirit, enduring
friendship and unwavering
commitment to all children,
especially those living in the
city of Philadelphia.”
“I am saddened to learn
of Ray Perelman’s passing, a
friend to me and a friend to
The Kimmel Center for the
Performing Arts,” said Anne
Ewers, president of CEO of
the Kimmel Center, itself the
recipient of $6 million in gifts
from Perelman. “May Ray rest
in peace knowing his legacy
will bless generations to come.”
“Ray certainly knew the
importance of good timing —
and, of course, Ruth had some-
thing to do with that,” said Gail
Harrity, president and COO of
the Philadelphia Museum of
Art, where the main building
is named after Perelman and to
which he donated $15 million.

“He always seized the day, as
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Raymond was an incredibly generous
philanthropist who understood the importance
of supporting Jewish identity and investing in a
Jewish future.”
NAOMI ADLER
a businessman, as board chair
and in countless initiatives
over the course of a lifetime
that was as remarkable as it
was long.”
“The National Museum
of American Jewish History
mourns the loss of our trustee
emeritus and generous patron,”
museum CEO Ivy Barsky and
chair Phillip Daviroff said in
a statement. “May his Only
in America legacy live on at
NMAJH and may his memory
be a blessing.”
“Raymond Perelman is
an individual, in my hum-
ble opinion, that symbolized
and reflected a very import-
ant part of the period of prior
to, and during and after,
the Holocaust,” said Rabbi
Avarham Shemtov. Shemtov,
a leader in the worldwide
Chabad movement for decades,
is a close friend and confidante
of Ronald Perelman.

“I was there yesterday,”
the rabbi said, “just before he
passed, and I looked at him,
and I saw in him a reflection
of a very important part of our
history, of Jews in America.

And that’s how we saw him off,
just now in the funeral.” l
Furlough as a single mother, it’s gonna be
a very difficult thing for you to
not have your paycheck come
in on Friday.”
What’s more distressing for
him is the work left undone.

As a contracting officer, Ozer
issues contracts to evaluate the
level of contamination at haz-
ardous Superfund waste sites
in Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Delaware, Virginia, West
Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Pennsylvania alone, home to
92 of the 1,338 total Superfund
sites in the country, requires an
inordinate amount of attention
from the EPA.

Continued from Page 1
be built along the U.S.-Mexico
border. Trump has said that he
was prepared to wait “months,
or even years” for Democrats to
relent. As of now, there doesn’t
seem to be an end in sight.

Sidney Ozer, 61, grew up
on West Oak Lane and has
been an EPA employee in
Philadelphia since 1987, one
of 800,000 furloughed federal
workers. He’s thankful that
his savings and his relatively
high pay grade have given
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Raymond Perelman was “one of our city’s great civic leaders and philanthropists,” Mayor Jim Kenney said.

Jacques-Jean Tiziou/jjtiziou.net
have on the federal government’s
ability to attract labor to its ranks
in the future.

“People come to the federal
government because we want
to serve, we want to protect
public health and the envi-
ronment. But you’re going to
question it if you don’t have
the security of knowing that,
y’know, I’ll be able to feed my
family, pay the rent, send my
kids to school, etc.,” he said.

In the meantime, he said,
all he can do is support the
Local Federation of Federal
Employees 3631, which rallied at
Independence Hall on Jan. 8 and
I don’t think the public understands what the service is that we
provide.” Dec. 24, one that would’ve been
paid. Now, she said, she’s off
of work, but without compensa-
tion. (Last week, Congress and
the president agreed to give fed-
eral employees back pay from
the beginning of the shutdown,
but the government would have
to end the shutdown first.)
Snoparsky’s ability to help
out on student loans for her son,
a translator and cybersecurity
expert living in Israel, is com-
promised, and she had to ask
her synagogue to defer payment
of dues. Like Ozer, she’s worried
about the work left undone.

“It’s not easy to just go back
in and pick up where you left
off,” she said.

She looks forward to return-
ing to her post if and when the
issues surrounding the shut-
down are resolved; she enjoys the
regulatory aspect of her work at
the EPA, and while she’s worked
in private industry before, it’s
just not for her anymore.

“I don’t think the public
understands what the service
is that we provide,” Snoparsky
said, “and they just think, ‘Ah,
they’ll get paid, what’s the
big deal?’”
In the meantime, she’s try-
ing to keep busy. She went to
the union rally at Independence
Hall, for one. There’s also her
new hobby.

“Talking to reporters,” she
laughed. l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
MINDY SNOPARSKY
him a cushion with which to
absorb the blow of receiving a
half-paycheck for the last pay
period, but he knows he’s an
outlier in that respect.

“I’m a little bit older, and I
happen to have some savings,
so the immediate impact is not
there,” he said. However, “if
you’re making $50,000 a year
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM “It feels very bad,” said Ozer,
“because we’re not able to pro-
tect the health and welfare of
the people of the mid-Atlantic
states and across the country.”
Beyond the immediate impact
of letting hazardous waste sites
fester without constant attention,
Ozer said, he worries about the
impact that the shutdown will
at the AFL-CIO building in D.C.

on Jan. 10 in concert with more
than 30 other unions affected by
the shutdown.

Mindy Snoparsky, 62, has
been an EPA hydrogeologist
for 32 years, also working in
the Superfund program. The
Roxborough native intended to
take a vacation beginning on
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