JEWISH SENTINEL

8 JEWISH WORLD • NOVEMBER 18-24, 2022 build an emergency medical cen- ter, and is currently on the board of Music for Autism. P articularly close to his heart is his own nonprofit, Bear Givers – originally called Bears 4 Kids, and of which he is the chairman and founder - the group which donates teddy bears to children’s hospitals throughout the metropol- itan area. One of the things that inspired him to launch the pro- gram was a visit to Israel during the second intifada in 2002. “No one was on the streets -- tourists weren’t coming to Israel during that difficult time, and I felt it was important to visit the country. To generate enthusiasm for others to join me, I came up with the idea of making visits to children in Israeli hospitals. That’s how it started. I got about 20 peo- It was an early indication of his interest in the needs of people in poor health. He graduated from Touro Uni- versity in 1977 with a degree in economics and was elected to “Who’s Who Among Students in America.” Four years later he became a Certified Public Ac- countant after receiving a sec- ond degree from Bernard Baruch Graduate School. As a child of immigrants who suffered persecution, it’s not sur- prising that, as a newly minted CPA, his first involvement with a non-profit organization was for The North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ). The group was founded in 1982 to help Ethiopian Jews emigrate to Israel and become assimilated into Israeli society, as well as to support those who remained in Ethiopia. ple to join me on the trip and we visited about eight different hospi- tals. We bought the stuffed bears in Israel and traveled all over the country giving them out. “I saw the benefit of our vis- its. It wasn’t just the stuffed bear that meant something to the kids, but that someone cared enough to spend time to be with them. It was a very, very positive experience, not just for the kids, but for the visitors as well.” All that mat- tered was that the sick children and their families could come together in a moment of joy, providing a wel- come and much needed distrac- tion,” Joe said. Sprung credits his friends, Gloria Kaylie and her late husband, Harvey, for bringing his Bear Givers proj- ect to the United States. After they introduced Harvey to Schneider Chil- dren’s Hospital (re- named Northwell’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center) in New Hyde Park, N.Y., it “opened up the gate”: he made a commitment to give the teddy bears to young patients of all backgrounds, nationalities, and religions, recognizing that a welcome gift and a friendly smile could bring both comfort and reas- surance. As the need for teddy bears grew, the organization continued to evolve and new programs were created. Sprung realized that it was not only children who were cheered by a teddy bear, but that Dispensing Comfort And Joy Bear Givers founder Joe Sprung: philanthropist, humanitarian By MERYL AIN W hen people look at Jo- seph Sprung, they see a successful, self-made entrepreneur. A member of both the Fifth Avenue Synagogue and The Hampton Synagogue, he has homes in Manhattan and Westhampton. His company, JBS Financial Services, which he founded in 1994, has an illustrious client list. He humbly low- ers his voice when he talks about his three children and six grandchildren. But beyond the surface of his im- pressive accom- plishments lies a passion, a thirst for helping those who suffer from illnesses and dis- abilities. “I’m blessed that I have healthy children and g r andch i l d r en ,” he explained. “It’s important for me to give back.” A child of Ho- locaust survivors, Sprung was born in Brooklyn and had a yeshiva edu- cation. His parents rarely spoke about their wartime ex- periences. “They were very close- mouthed about it,” he recalls. “They would throw snip- pets at us. They talked about how horrible it was, but they never painted an overall picture of what happened. So my sister and I figured out a lot of what they endured.” His parents avoided talking about their past, but they spoke openly about their concern for the Jewish future, instilling in Joseph and his sister an abiding love for Israel. When he was in college, he expressed that passion in a high- ly practical manner – by “play- ing basketball marathons to raise money for ambulances in Israel.” Since then, he has been involved with a host of children’s charities. He is a former President and Chair- man of Chai Lifeline, a Regional Chair of Children of Chernobyl, served on the Executive Business Committee member of AMIT - a network of 96 religious schools and programs in Israel. He funded an Amit afterschool program for the children of Sderot, a city in south- ern Israel that is less than a mile from the Gaza Strip and into which Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired rockets that have killed and wound- ed Israelis and caused millions of dollars in damage. Sprung’s pro- gram is designed to keep children in a safe environment at the end of the school day, keeping them busy with computers and sports, and for some giving them their only hot meal of the day. Joe has also chaired a project to COVER STORY Sprung on a 2003 visit to Beit Hayelad - Midreshit Amit in Jerusalem. Before visiting Israel during the second intifada, it occurred to Sprung to comfort hospitalized children by giving them teddy bears. Joe Sprung: “All that mattered was that the sick children and their families could come together in a moment of joy.”