Sustaining and strengthening Jewish life across the Berkshires, in Israel, and around the world

PITTSFIELD – Jewish Federation of the Berkshires will host its annual Major Donors Celebration on Sunday, July 26 at 9:30 a.m. at the Berkshire Hills Country Club. The event honors the individuals and families whose leadership gifts to our Annual Community Campaign help sustain and strengthen Jewish life across the Berkshires, in Israel, and around the world.

This year’s celebration is chaired by Mimi and Ken Heyman, longtime supporters of the Federation, Legacy supporters, and champions of the Berkshire Jewish community. Together with a dedicated host committee, they are helping to bring donors together to celebrate the impact of Federation’s work and the power of collective giving.

“Our major donors are dedicated leaders whose generosity, vision, and commitment help shape and sustain a vibrant Jewish community in the Berkshires,” says Federation’s president Arlene Schiff. “At a time when the needs are growing and challenges are becoming more significant, that kind of dedication and support has an extraordinary impact. We are grateful to Ken and Mimi Heyman for stepping up as co-chairs. they are helping ensure that Jewish life in the Berkshires continues to thrive today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.”

The Major Donors Celebration is an opportunity to bring together community members who care deeply about the future of Jewish life in the Berkshires — from year-round residents to those who spend their summers here and remain strongly connected to our community. The gathering offers a chance to reflect on the collective impact of Federation’s work, exchange ideas, and deepen understanding of the unique role the Federation plays in sustaining Jewish life in a smaller, rural community with significant and growing needs.

Guests will gain a closer look at the extraordinary breadth of what this community makes possible through Federation support: essential care and connection for older adults, Jewish education and family programming, camp and Israel experiences for teens and young adults, security enhancements and training for congregations and institutions, advocacy and efforts to confront antisemitism, and cultural and community programming that fosters Jewish identity, belonging, and engagement across generations.

Attendance is open to all community members who make a household commitment of $1,000 or more to the Federation’s 2026 Community Campaign. Advance registration is required at jewishberkshires.org/celebration.

Guests will also enjoy a special behind-the-scenes sneak peek from RUTKA the Musical, the acclaimed new indie rock musical currently on its path toward Broadway. Inspired by Rutka’s Notebook, the diary of teenage Rutka Laskier written in the Jewish ghetto of Bedzin, Poland in 1943, the musical brings her story powerfully to life through an innovative contemporary score and emotionally compelling storytelling.

Praised by The New York Times as one of the “15 Shows to See on Stages Around the U.S. This Fall,” RUTKA is an uplifting and deeply moving story of hope, courage, love, resistance, family, and community in the face of unimaginable darkness — and of a young girl determined not to be silenced.

Berkshire Hills Country Club is located at 500 Benedict Road in Pittsfield.

“We Weren’t Waiting to Be Found”: Meet Our Major Donors Celebration Co-Chairs, Mimi and Ken Heyman

Taking on the role of co-chairs of Federation’s Major Donors Celebration is just one expression of Mimi and Ken Heyman’s commitment to giving back to the Jewish communities in which they have lived. Over the past four decades, both have assumed leadership positions at large Federations and other philanthropies to build community, and together they have left three separate legacy commitments to sustain Jewish continuity into the future.

Second homeowners in the Berkshires for more than 30 years, Mimi is a retired speech pathologist who owned a clinic in Livingston, NJ, and Ken worked as a certified financial planner and wealth advisor. Both are “roll-up-their-sleeves” contributors to the organizations they have supported over the years – most recently, they hosted one of Federation’s mid-winter get-togethers at their home in South Florida. They hope their work as co-chairs of one of Federation’s most impactful annual events in the Berkshires “will start a conversation,” says Ken, “about the importance of an organized Jewish community to the future of Jewish life.”

“I think of the Berkshire Federation as a jewel,” says Mimi “It's small, it's intimate. The fact that it offers outreach and programs open to people outside the Jewish community, as well, is a wonderful aspect of its approach. I appreciate the difficult job they have in in raising funds and keeping the community vibrant, and I really admire how they accomplish what’s necessary.”

The Heymans path in Jewish philanthropy is one that is easier to access from a large Federation such as the one in which they started, the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ. Mimi was newly single and a business owner working full-time; after a friend invited her to get involved, she became a member of that Federation’s Business & Professionals Network (BPN) for women, and subsequently became its president. She went on her first Yachad young leadership mission to Israel in 1982, “and that really grabbed my heart.” Mimi says she gradually increased her involvement and became the president of Women’s Philanthropy, chair of numerous MetroWest committees and missions, in addition to being a member of National Women’s Philanthropy.

Mimi’s volunteer work with MetroWest allowed her to recognize, “that almost every beneficiary agency that my family participated in or benefitted from – a nursing home, Jewish Family Services, the JCC, and other community resources – received funding from a Federation. A lot of people don't realize the impact that Jewish Federations have on our communities – or the opportunities that are there for them to participate. You will see firsthand impactful and disturbing things on a mission, but also the very significant steps Federations are taking to address them. So, through my family and also through the missions, and then doing work in the community, I began to understand the full impact of Jewish Federations’ work.”

Ken says his parents were active Jewish leaders with Jewish Federation’s precursor, the United Jewish Appeal, as well as with the YMHA, Jewish Family Service, and as a founding family of the first Reform synagogue in Monmouth County, New Jersey. However, as a young adult he had little involvement in the Jewish world until 1984. Like Mimi, he found himself once again single when he was invited to participate on a Federation mission to Auschwitz and Israel. “From there, I jumped in heavily,” he remembers, becoming involved in what became the Young Leader Division of MetroWest and then joining Jewish Federations’ National Young Leadership Cabinet for four years. Ken first served as campaign chair and then, from 2006 to 2008, he served as president of Jewish Federation of MetroWest New Jersey. Later, he led its gifts and endowments arm, Jewish Community Foundation, managing assets from donor-advised funds supporting foundations, life insurance gifts, and other vehicles.

The couple did not initially meet through their Federation work – “we got fixed up,” says Mimi – but, Ken says, “doing that work together and enjoying it and supporting each other helped us continue to feel passionate about our work within the Jewish community.”

“And it opened up our world,” adds Mimi. “We have such wonderful friends who are like family that all came through Federation. That’s a big part of it – connecting with like-minded people.” Both remarked on how important it was that individuals within that community whom they liked and respected invited them to participate and encouraged them to get more deeply involved. Raising consciousness among their peers about what Jewish Federation of the Berkshires accomplishes is part of what has motivated them to take on the role of Major Donors co-chairs.

They say they understand that many people who are second or third homeowners in the Berkshires “choose not to have the Jewish community find them,” says Ken, “or stay kind of quiet in order to do their own thing, even though they might be very, very involved in other communities.” Additionally, due to the size of this Federation and the seasonal fluctuations in the Jewish populations, there are not as many entry points as there might be in larger communities. Nevertheless, the needs of the community are not inconsiderable and, in the absence of other Jewish organizations locally, Federation addresses many of those needs by offering social services, meals on wheels, outreach to seniors, security initiatives, family programing, cultural events, political advocacy, and funding for young people like religious school subsidies and camp and Israel scholarships. 

The Heymans encourage others to make that call to Federation and participate in the life of the Jewish Berkshires. “We weren’t waiting to be found,” says Ken, and he urges others in the community to invite friends to Federation programs and events so that all can learn about the scope of Federation’s essential work. “We hope that part of what we can do is to encourage at least a handful of people to at least get started,” he adds, “as others did for us”.

A strong example of the Heyman’s commitment to Jewish continuity is their ongoing gifts and legacy endowments of the three communities to which they have been closely connected – Jewish Federation of MetroWest New Jersey, Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County (FL), and Jewish Federation of the Berkshires.

“Some people who, when they leave a community, take their gift to where they relocate,” says Mimi. “We definitely do not believe in that, and so we continue to support all three. Because we have a house in the Berkshires, that's also our home and we should be there to support our Jewish community. I mean, that's a given.”

Based on their long-term involvement in Jewish communal affairs, the Heymans recognize the imperative the older, established generation has to leave a lasting legacy. “Given the changing demographics in this country,” says Ken, “succeeding generations since the Baby Boomers are not as connected to Jewish organizations and Jewish brick-and-mortar institutions, nor are they as tied to the State of Israel.

“There might be an institution or service of some type created by people who came before us we would like to preserve. On our own, we also might want to create the same opportunities for a strong and vibrant Jewish life in the future that we enjoyed. But I think it is important to acknowledge that the next generations are, writ large, just not as Jewishly connected. There's no way we can assume that they're going to be giving a gift, especially as major donors, to keep things going.”

Ken adds: “I think the importance of legacy giving is that an organization will know that it has a certain percentage of its annual campaign that will be there in perpetuity. That was important 10 and 20 years ago also, but certainly grows in importance as we go through all the problems in the Jewish world that we're seeing today.”

“Investing in a legacy gift is relatively easy if you have the resources,” says Mimi. “You can include it in your will, you could arrange it through an insurance policy, as well as other instruments. A lot of it has to do with educating others to realize that when we're all gone, what we give is going to still make a tremendous difference in the community. It really is not complicated.”

Thank You, Host Committee!

Federation is deeply grateful to this year’s host committee, made up of both full-time and part-time residents who share a strong commitment to Jewish life in the Berkshires and to the work of Federation. Their leadership, enthusiasm, and generosity are helping make this celebration possible and reflect the strength and spirit of our community.

With gratitude, we recognize:

• Jan and David Ball
• Marjorie and Barry Berg
• Helene Berger
• Nancy and Steven Bernstein
• Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner
• Cindy Chazan and Jay Leipzig
• Phyllis Cohen and Jeffrey Lazarus
• Ada Beth and Charles Cutler
• Hon. Amy Dean and Alan Kluger
• Terry and Melvin Drucker
• Marsha and David Edell
• Elisa Schindler Frankel and Larry Frankel
• Jane Glaser
• Marilyn and Elihu Katzman
• Pommy and Gerald Levy
• Nancy and Norman Lipoff
• Ellen and Stuart Masters
• Penny and Claudio Pincus
• Arlene and Gary Schiff
• Anne Schnesel
• Carole Siegel
• Hope and Gene Silverman
• Carol and Irving Smokler
• Carol and Steven Targum
• Judy and Mark Usow
• Harriet and Mel Warshaw
• Lisa Wendell and Ken Fishman