Rosette was on a plane from New York to Israel some 30 years ago to visit family when she began flipping through a magazine she found left on her seat. As she perused the pages, she stopped to read a story on an Israeli charity of which she’d never heard – Yad Sarah.

When she landed at Ben-Gurion, she just couldn’t get Yad Sarah out of her head.

“I asked my aunt and uncle (Dorit and Baruch) about Yad Sarah and they raved about it – 30 years ago,” she said. “I thought ‘oh how nice.’ I started to donate on a small level.”

Rosette was drawn to Yad Sarah’s unique model.

“They take care of anyone—money isn’t an issue,” she said. “How many places in this world can you get real support and not have to worry about paying for it?”

Rosette attended a lunch event in NYC to hear more about Yad Sarah’s mission-driven programs and learned that she could turn her appreciated real estate – a rental property upstate – into a tax-advantaged source of lifetime income through a Charitable Remainder Trust. Rosette knows that at her death, the trust will provide much needed support to fund Yad Sarah’s vital work. “What they do is so important on so many levels – on the one hand they supply breast pumps and other hand they design armchairs for old people who can’t get up by themselves – they go truly from cradle to end of life,” she said. “That kind of caring touches me.” 

As a retired teacher, Rosette said, “I never thought of myself as a philanthropist, someone who could make a major gift. The fact that Yad Sarah has so many giving options made it possible. When I realized what I could do for an organization I love and cherish, it felt like I’d won the lottery – that I was getting, not giving.”

“I’m thrilled to donate – because I can,” she said. “If I can, I want to. And I’m smiling while I say it.”