Janice Block: LOJE to Support the Future of Her Jewish Community

For Janice Block, it was camp that did it. Her Lion of Judah Endowment (LOJE) can be traced back to her six years at Camp Council, a Jewish overnight girls’ camp in Phoenixville.

Janice says, “The religious elements of camp filled in a missing part of my Jewish experience. To this day, I maintain relationships with friends made at camp.”

Janice’s LOJE was years in the making. She reflects, “Because of the generosity of camp supporters, I was able to attend at a discounted cost—otherwise, my parents would not have been able to afford to send me.”

She has since looked for opportunities to give back to the Jewish community. Janice and her husband Arthur have made annual commitments to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia for many years. Janice became more involved, eventually becoming a Lion of Judah—a national society of women who make an annual $5,000 gift in their own names.

Says Janice, “I am proud to wear my lion pin. For me, it represents the culmination of my efforts to repay those unknown people who made my camp experiences possible.” And now, through her LOJE, she is able to ensure the causes about which she is passionate—like camp scholarships—are supported well into the future.

A LOJE is created with a charitable gift of at least $100,000. This is used to make an annual gift in your name forever, providing ongoing support to the Jewish community for generations to come. A LOJE can be established through a will, a life insurance policy, an immediate contribution, or through many other methods.

It is 25 years since the first LOJE was established; and in honor of that anniversary, the Jewish Federation has a goal of helping 25 women establish a LOJE gift. Janice was the first—and we are eager to meet the rest.