In the early 2000s, Ellen Marcus suggested to her aging parents, Howard - well into his nineties - and Lottie - in her late eighties - to hire an attorney to review their estate plans and ensure everything was in order. Shortly after, the lawyer in San Diego invited her for a conversation with her parents.
“On that occasion, I found out for the first time that my parents' wealth was worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” she recalled. “I almost fell off the chair. And I immediately said that they should give it to charity.”
Fast forward a few years, the Marcuses would endow the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) with half a billion dollars. Their donation not only marked the largest individual charitable gift ever received by an Israeli institution but also surprised the world: How could a family of whom nobody had ever heard of, who lived a comfortable but in no way extraordinary life, give such a high amount of money?
Howard and Lottie’s secret, and their mission to change the world for the better while strengthening Israel are the focus of the documentary “Who Are the Marcuses?” which debuted at the Newport Beach Film Festival last year. Among others, the film was screened at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27. It is scheduled to be screened at Goucher College and at several Jewish film festivals in the United States in the upcoming months.
Americans for Ben-Gurion University (A4BGU) — which showcases BGU’s academic excellence and groundbreaking research through educational programs and events, as well as other initiatives, across the United States — raises awareness for “Who Are the Marcuses?”
“The Marcuses were humble visionaries who saw the importance of water research not only as vital to Israel’s self-sufficiency but as a strategy to achieve peace through shared natural resources. Their transformative generosity will be felt for generations to come,” said Doug Seserman, CEO of A4BGU.
Directed by Hollywood-based Israeli filmmaker Matthew Mishory, the documentary features interviews with several prominent figures, including President of Israel Isaac Herzog and American business magnate Warren Buffett.
“My parents were among Buffett's earliest investors and for their whole life they kept on saving and investing,” Ellen Marcus said. “The moment we walked out of the attorney's office I turned to them and I told them to just leave me enough to make sure that me and my child are never hungry or homeless, and to donate the rest.”
Asked what persuaded her to give up over 99% of her inheritance, Ellen responded “I was always taught to give rather than to take.”
“This concept was embedded in me from as early as I can remember,” she said. “My parents lived modestly and I didn't know at the time that they had already donated quite a bit of money to several institutions.”
As highlighted in the documentary, Howard and Lottie’s lives did not have an easy start.
“My father was a young dentist in Hindenburg, Germany, near the Polish border,” Ellen said. “One day in 1933, two Nazis came to stand by the door of his office. He pushed past them and he waited all day, but no patient came. That’s when he realized that he had to leave Germany.”
In the 1930s, young Howard moved to Naples, where he found a job, while he studied at university to receive a degree in dentistry also in Italy.
“He was so poor that he slept in a bathtub and could not afford proper meals,” Ellen said. “He became very malnourished and sick, contracting first tuberculosis and then typhoid fever.”
A few years later, after Italian dictator Benito Mussolini started persecuting Jews following Hitler’s lead, Howard managed to flee Naples thanks to the help of the US consul general in the city, who was a patient of his and falsified the date that he had requested the visa to backdate it.
“America had already closed its doors to Jews,” Ellen explained. “That man saved my father’s life.”
In 1939, Howard found himself in New York, free but forced to start his life all over again for a second time.
“In New York, he met my mother, who was also from Germany and had managed to flee leaving her parents and brother behind, whom she would never see again,” Ellen said.
Having survived the Holocaust and experienced being refugees themselves, Howard and Lottie felt very connected to Israel as the home country and the refuge of the Jewish people.
“They were liberal Jews, they were Zionist, and they believed that Jews needed a place where anyone could go and be safe,” Ellen recalled.
The couple also believed in the important role of Ben-Gurion University and its research in the field of water technology.
“They understood the issue of water scarcity in the Middle East, and the struggles that Israel was having at that time with having enough water, and this was long before scientists started to talk about climate change,” Ellen said.
“I believe that they realized that Israel could use help to discover ways to find drinkable water,” she added. “They thought that perhaps if Israel could solve its water problems, then that might help facilitate peace in the Middle East.”
Ben-Gurion University is one of Israel’s leading research institutions, including in developing groundbreaking science and technology in the fields of water, agriculture, renewable energy and biotech.
Ellen maintains a strong relationship with the university. She joined its Board of Governors in 2006 and today serves as Vice Chair.
“For my parents, supporting Israel was important, and they thought very highly of BGU,” she concluded. “This has absolutely been the right decision.”
The article was written in cooperation with Americans for Ben-Gurion University.