With an eye to the future, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City made history on September 24: at the largest-ever “Foundation for Our Future” event, the JCF’s biannual celebration of legacy giving, leaders unveiled the most significant financial initiative since the Foundation was established in 1959.
At The 1900 Building, nearly 200 people gathered to applaud the relaunch of the Bushman Community Endowment program, which includes a record $5 million matching grant from the Stanley J. Bushman Charitable Supporting Foundation to encourage legacy giving and early realization of existing commitments, as well as another $1 million for new incentives, grants, and professional development to help partner organizations build sustainable planned-giving programs.
A noted businessman and real-estate investor, Stan Bushman launched the first Bushman Community Endowment program in 2007. Over nine years, the program incentivized more than $40 million of legacy gifts to 18 congregations and organizations in Kansas City, Lawrence, and Topeka. Bushman passed away in March 2025.
“When [we] sat down to decide where our first grant should go after Stan’s death, there was no question,” said Merilyn Berenbom, Bushman’s close friend and president of the Bushman Supporting Foundation. “Developing the next iteration of the Bushman Community Endowment was our priority because we knew how much this work meant to him and how it strengthens every agency and synagogue across our community.”
Now, more than 1,000 donors have made legacy gift commitments, representing more than $180 million—building on $131 million in legacy gifts already realized.
“[Stan’s] belief that each of us has the power—and the responsibility—to create a lasting legacy continues to inspire,” said JCF President and CEO Josh Stein, adding that a legacy gift “affirms that tzedakah is not simply a single act of giving, but an ongoing obligation we carry into the future, even beyond our own lifetimes.”
The Bushman announcement was the capstone of a multimedia evening that included a ceremony to welcome new signers to the Foundation’s Endowment Book of Life, and a rather high-profile opening act—Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who joined JCF board chair Joe Hiersteiner for a candid conversation about the priorities of Jewish philanthropy (along with other provocative topics, such as rising antisemitism, Israeli politics, and the best Kansas City barbecue).
Stephens was blunt in his critique of initiatives that allocate millions to memorializing tragic history instead of building Jewish identity—for example, the $40 million for a Holocaust center that he believes could have endowed a day school—yet ended on an optimistic note. “We have to be particularly thoughtful about how we invest in our future rather than our past,” he said. “And if we can do it with the same enterprise and creativity and willingness to take risks that we use in our professional lives, then we’re going to be okay.”
Kara Kahn Bush, who joined the Foundation staff earlier this year as the inaugural Bushman Legacy Initiative Director, presented the evening’s Endowment Book of Life signing ceremony. Donors who commit $10,000 or more to the permanent endowment of a Jewish agency or synagogue are invited to add their names, photos, and memories. Since its introduction in 2003, hundreds of people have signed the Book. This evening, seven more individuals, couples, and families would add their own pages.
“There’s a reason this book is called the Book of Life—and it’s because every one of us has a story to tell, and a reason to choose to give the way we do,” Bush said. “Each of those stories matters.”
As Bush introduced each signer, they told their story via pre-recorded video.
Robert Cohn explained how his parents, who separately fled Germany before the World War II, met in the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai, and fled to San Francisco, arriving one day before he was born as an American citizen. “I owe my Jewishness and my life to my parents’ determination and the United States of America,” he said.
Sophie Shafter dedicated her legacy gift to Jewish Family Services and Jewish Federation to the memory of her grandfather, Melvin Earl “Bill” Maron, a World War II veteran who helped raise her after her mother passed away. “I will forever be grateful for their extraordinary sacrifice and the lifechanging gift that they gave me.”
The ceremony concluded with a moment of silence for the Book of Life members lost since the last signing in 2024: Ronnie Baker, Stan Bushman, Martin Eisenman, Michael Klein, Golda Mayer, and Blanche Sosland.
The announcement of the renewed Bushman Community Endowment program was preceded by a video tribute to Bushman himself, and the “principles, purpose, and promise” that shaped how Stan lived and how he gave.
“I think this is the best investment I ever made in my life,” Bushman said in 2016. “Every dollar I put in has been returned fifty times. It’s incredible what this community has done, and this is just the start.”
In concluding remarks, Berenbom, together with Bushman Community Endowment Chair Andrew Kaplan, emphasized the sense of purpose at the heart of the evening—expressed through Bret Stephens’ call-to-action, the Book signers’ commitment to continuity, Bushman’s vision, and the collective giving of the hundreds gathered.
“Tonight reminds us that legacy is not measured by what we leave behind,” she said, “but by what we make possible for those who come after us.”