Chicago industrialist donates $25 million to B’nai B’rith youth group

Contribution by Theodore and Harriette Perlman will allow group to launch and expand new programs to empower young Jewish women

By JTA 16 February 2019, 10:09 pm

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Harriette and Ted Perlman, with BBG’s International N’siah, Noga Hurwitz. (Courtesy of BBYO/JTA)

A Chicago industrialist has pledged $25 million to a national Jewish youth group to promote initiatives for young Jewish women and teens.

Theodore Perlman and his wife, Harriette, announced their donation to BBYO (or B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) on Thursday night at the group’s international conference in Denver.

The gift, one of the largest single financial commitments to a youth-serving organization in modern history, will allow BBYO to launch and expand new programs and provides endowment funding that will support the programs in perpetuity.

The funds will be used for the Anita M. Perlman Women’s Leadership Initiative, named in honor of Perlman’s mother, the founder of the B’nai B’rith Girls, or BBG, a division of BBYO.

More than 5,500 teens and adults are attending the international convention, which is marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith Girls.