The New York Community Trust administers seventeen funds varying in size from $1,000 to $2,000,000, according to a summary of its resources published for the first time. Their total exceeds four and a quarter millions. The income from approximately a million and a quarter is now being devoted to charitable purposes; the proceeds from the remainder will be similarly applied at the expiration of “life uses” presently in force. In the Westchester Welfare Foundation, a division of The Community Trust, funds aggregating $153,780 are in hand.
The larger funds of the Trust include a half-million dollar Memorial to the late Jacob H. Schiff established by his daughter and applied in furtherance of visiting, nursing service, and a trust of $500,000 founded by Mr. and Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, primarily for the benefit of the University of Jerusalem.
Twenty-five banks and trust companies are associated in the Community Trust as eligible custodians of its funds and a central Distribution Committee, containing members named by the Senior Judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and the Presidents of the Bar Association, Academy of Medicine, Chamber of Commerce and Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, supervises all disbursements of income. The Distribution Committee is empowered to amend the purposes for which any fund is employed in case originally designated objects should become impractical or obsolete.
Mrs. Rosebel G. Schiff, wishing to establish a memorial honoring her former teacher, Teresa E. Bernholz, of Manhattan Public School No. 9, created the first trust fund of the New York Community Trust by placing (Continued on Page 4)
$1,000 in the custody of the United States Mortgage and Trust Company on February 4, 1924. In June and January of each subsequent year, the net income of this fund, in accordance with the wish of its founder, has been transmitted to the Principal of Public School No. 9 for the making of scholastic awards in the name of Teresa E. Bernholz.
The sum of $500,000 was entrusted to the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, as Trustee for the Community Trust, on November 6, 1924, by Mrs. Frieda Schiff Warburg in memory of her father, the late Jacob H. Schiff. “It is the desire of the founder,” the trust agreement states, “that the income shall at all times be used in some manner for the relief of individual distress” and, more specifically, “for the support and maintenance of the Nursing Service of the Henry Street Settlement.” The Distribution Committee has carried out this statement of purpose.
Mr. and Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, as a memorial to the parents of Mr. Warburg, established a fund of $500,000 on September 24, 1925, in the custody of the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, for administration through the Community Trust. The preferred beneficiary designated by the trust agreement is the University of Jerusalem. In carrying out the terms of this trust, the Distribution Committee has had the assistance of an Advisory Committee consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Warburg, Dr. Judah Magnes, Chancellor of the University, and Dr. Cyrus Adler of Philadelphia.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
