"He came to see me in my office in Manhattan – he was a 25-year-old young man who looked like he was 16. 'I want to give you a present,' he said. He reached into his knapsack and he took his dog tag and he started to put it around my neck, and I said, no, no, I can't take it, it's too valuable, and he was insisted, 'this is for you.' And I finally took it because it meant so much to him, and I have it sitting on my desk ever since," attorney Sandor Frankel said, recalling the moment a young man he had never met arrived at his office to thank him for a scholarship he received from the Helmsley Charitable Trust, which sponsors combat veterans from economically disadvantaged circumstances.
The former soldier told Frankel that thanks to the scholarship, he has been able to improve his position in life and exit the cycle of poverty.
"On the one hand we had given an $18 million grant that will help many people's lives in ways that we cannot imagine right now, but on the other hand it all boils down to a single individual and when you help a single person's life it really helps you feel good," he said this week, during a visit to Israel in which he got a first-hand look at the project to which the Helmsley Charitable Trust contributes.
Frankel is one of the three trustees of the renowned Helmsley Charitable Trust, which funds philanthropic projects around the world, including a large part of projects in Israel. While the foundations is not well-known to the general public in Israel, it is difficult to find a health-care, research or Zionist institution in Israel or in the Jewish world that has not received a grant from the HCT – from hospitals and universities (including scholarships) to projects promoting the connection between Diaspora Jews and Israel, such as Taglit-Birthright and Friends of the IDF.
In some cases, the foundation's support goes far beyond its original purpose and helps Israel's international images. For example, many Syrians who have been wounded in the civil war are able to receive first-rate care in hospitals in northern Israel thanks to the HCT's support of these facilities.
Another example is the support given to the Volcani Center for agricultural research and other technological institutions that have led to Third World countries benefiting from Israeli innovations, which assist them help them eradicate poverty and hunger.
But above all, the Helmsley Charitable Trust makes sure that the money reaches the exact right places rather than ending up as another line in a particular institution's budget. Frankel and his small team carefully scrutinize where the money is going. He is also assisted by his wife, Ruth, who grew up in the central Israeli city of Petach Tikvah and can offer a unique understanding of Israeli society and business sectors.
Last will and testament come alive
The Helmsley Charitable Trust was founded by Leona and Harry Helmsley, who owned a hotel and real estate empire in U.S., which at some point even included the Empire State Building. After Harry's passing in 1997, Leona ran their empire on her own, until she died in 2007. She left nearly their entire estate – billions of dollars – to the Helmsley Charitable Trust, with one clear, albeit vague instruction: to do good.
Frankel, who was her personal lawyer, was appointed one of the HCT's trustees, along with two others. As a Jew and avid Zionist, he saw her amorphous will as a true Zionist mission.
"We have given projects in Israel over $239 million, roughly 12% of the giving of the trust – overall we have given over $2 billion. … We are close to the 10-year mark of active grant-making and I think the Israeli program will continue as it has been continuing with the same scope," he said.
Q: Do you think American Jews are primarily associated with philanthropy in Israel, perhaps unjustifiably so?
"That's a pretty large question. A little bit too big for me. What we try to do is just help where we can give help. Americans obviously help Israel in a lot of ways but we just try to be specific and particular and focused on what we try to do, finding areas where the trust can be helpful and just doing it.
"We don't really look at comparative philanthropies or whether Americans in general as a society or as a Jewish community give more help to Israel politically than philanthropically. Our focus is on giving money where it can be best used by the Israeli people, where we can be most helpful. It is really focused on helping particular institutions help people," he said.
Q: Why have you focused on emergency services and health care in Israel's northern and southern peripheries?
"You have to pick and choose where you have the biggest impact. That is what we try to do, to have an impact, to help people's lives. Help in the areas of health seems like a better place where we can have impact than, for example, sports. There is a difference. You feel the difference when you go to hospitals in the periphery and you can help save lives."
Q: Have you encountered any problems by anti-Israel elements that tried to stop you from donating to Israel?
"I don't know if there are forces out there that we don't know about but we are pretty focused, we do what we have to do. We don't have corporate bloat, so there is no palace intrigue, we just look at potential projects that have potential for real impact. We don't have a representative in Israel and we run across instances where people try to give the impression that they are responsible for things that we do."
Q: Some say American Jews should stop supporting Israel because it allows the government to shed responsibility from issues like health care and education.
"That American Jews shouldn't donate money to Israel is a silly proposition. Israel is surrounded by people who are committed to its destruction, it is constantly at war, some would say, and yet it flourishes and survives," he said,
"If you look at the percentage of Israel's GDP, that is dedicated to defense and compare it to other countries you see how it sucks so much of the economic wherewithal of Israelis into the defense of the country, because it is surrounded by people who don't want it there. But it is not just the percentage of the GDP that devoted to defense – take a look at the areas where we are involved. Look at the hospitals – we help fortify institutions that shouldn't have to be fortified. … So every dollar that is spent doing what should be unnecessary but is life-saving is not spent on other things."
Q: When you make a donation, do you think there should be any strings attached, politically speaking?
"No. The Helmsley Trust has no political agenda whatsoever. We are completely apolitical. Period, full stop. My own view is that the people who should be expressing political views about what Israel should do about the security problems it is confronted with – the people who have a right to do that are the people whose sons and daughters serve in the IDF. The people whose blood is literally on the line, in a my personal view, are the people who should have the right to decide what risks Israel should take, how it should deal with some of the intractable problems that have been thrust on them."
Q: What do you think of Israel's international political standing following Donald Trump's election as president of the United States?
"You have to blind not to recognize that the Trump administration has been very friendly toward Israel, for good reason."
Q: Ten, 20 years from now, what would your legacy be?
"Peace. That's what Israelis want, peace. Let the country and the people go about their business of flourishing and thriving without having to worry about rockets landing on their kindergartens and hospitals and communities. And in the meantime we try to do what we can to help the country, the people of the country."
Frankel, 74, grew up in New York City and visited Israel for the first time in 1961, just as he was finishing high school. The visit coincided with the trail of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, which left a strong impression on Frankel. In 1990 he became Leona Helmsley's personal attorney and saw her through her legal troubles until her death.
Helmsley was a controversial figure, who was accused of abusing the staff at the hotel she owed, and many took her decision to leave her huge estate to a philanthropic trust as an attempt to atone for her actions. Today, Frankel tries to make her vision come to life.
It is no coincidence that Frankel, who feels a close bond to Israel, is the one that encourages the HCT to repeatedly invest in Israel (the two other trustees focus on other projects worldwide). He believes that even though Helmsley never visited Israel, she would want him to do so.
Q: Do you think this is what Mrs. Helmsley had in mind, that you are fulfilling her vision?
"I hope she would be proud of what we are doing. She gave us the discretion to do what we thought was right and good for the world. And both the Israel program and the other programs do that," he said.
