It started the summer between ninth and 10th grade, when instead of signing up for another season at his beloved Camp Ramah, Adam Klazmer decided to travel to Israel to work on a moshav. “I fell madly in love with Israel,” Adam remembers. In 11th grade, he returned to Israel and his affection only grew — so much so that he came home with an announcement: He would one day move to Israel and join the army. Five years later, after graduating from Babson College, that’s exactly what Adam did.
Adam proudly served as a “lone soldier” in the Israel Defense Force from 2010 to 2012. His service with the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Infantry Brigade took him from the West Bank to the border with the Gaza Strip. He loved the experience, and after his return to Philadelphia continued to think of his friends who were still serving in the Israeli military. He remembered how, as a lone soldier, day-to-day life was difficult when off base; he hadn’t always had time to wash his sheets or cook a hot meal, and with his family so far away he’d had limited support. Adam was struck by his sense of duty to his fellow lone soldiers. “Whatever I can do to make their lives easier — to remind them that somebody appreciates them, cares about them, and respects what they’re doing — then that’s my job.”
So Adam got to work. As a financial planner, he knew he could use a life insurance policy to make a profound impact on our Jewish communities. When he learned that he could direct his planned gift specifically toward supporting lone soldiers through the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, he knew he’d found the perfect fit. He wasn’t deterred by the fact that he was only 27 years old.
“Using the leverage that life insurance provides, I’m able to make an impact that is so much greater than I otherwise could,” Adam explains. In time, he promises, “there will be more,” and cites as his reason the famous phrase Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh – “all of Israel are responsible for one another.”
For information about how you can establish your legacy through a planned gift to the Jewish Federation, click here or contact rgross@jewishphilly.org.