By MYRON LOVE Dr. Howard and Lottie Marcus were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who made their way in the 1930s to New York, met and married there, and lived a relatively quiet middle class life.  After their passing in 2014 and 2016 respectively, it was revealed that they gave the majority of their estate to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).  Their wealth, it turned out, came from having early investors in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fund in the early 1960s.
On Thursday, April 14, 85 supporters of the local chapter of Ben-Gurion Canada  (BGU Canada) gathered at the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue for the Canadian premiere of “Who Are the Marcuses?”, a relatively new documentary by Israeli filmmaker Matthew Mishory. The film tells Howard and Lottie’s story and also provides an overview of the important research underway in numerous disciplines at BGU.

The evening began with greetings from Rabbi Carnie Rose,  Shaarey Zedek’s senior rabbi, who noted Winnipeg’s twin city agreement with Beersheva – which is home to BGU, and Elaine Goldstine, the new president of the Winnipeg chapter.
In introducing the documentary, Andrea Freedman, BGU Canada’s CEO, pointed out that the Marcus bequest  was the largest donation to an Israeli university or institution in the history of the Jewish state.
The first part of the 100-mimute film told Howard and Lottie Marcus’ story. Howard Marcus was practicing dentistry in Germany when the Nazis seized power.  He quickly understood what this meant for the Jews and relocated to Italy.  Later in the decade, an American consul who was one of his patients, helped him get to New York City.
Lottie also managed to leave Germany in the 1930s and make her home in New York.  She was working as a secretary when they met in the early 1940s.
Most of their extended family members were murdered in the Holocaust.
The Marcuses were married for 65 years prior to Howard’s passing in 2014 at the age of 104.

The Marcuses first became involved with BGU in the mid 2000s.  The university was a major component of the long-held vision of David Ben-Gurion that Israel’s long term future depended on developing the Negev – the then sparsely settled southern desert region comprising 60% of the country’s land mass. 
BGU is a world leader in research and the development of new technologies in fields such as cybersecurity, medicine, big data, water, space, and the public sector. With 20,000 students, BGU not only drives regional economic development, it is a model of coexistence with an 18% Bedouin/Arab student population.
 
Ellen Marcus, Lottie and Harold’s daughter was instrumental in encouraging her parents to donate their estate to BGU,  particularly because of its work in desalination and advanced irrigation systems in desert environments. They believed that solving the region’s problem of water scarcity would be an important step toward a lasting peace – and BGU is a global leader in desert agriculture and water security.
An example of BGU’s work in the area of water research is the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at the university, which studies sustainable water usage and desalination, among other important research areas.
Lottie and Howard made their only visit to Israel in 2005, when they spent some time at BGU seeing for themselves some of the work taking place there.

The bulk of the documentary offered overviews of BGU’s areas of expertise, along with comments from Warren Buffett, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, BGU President Daniel Chamovitz, a host of BGU professors and researchers and other relevant interviewees speaking about Howard and Lottie’s generous gift.
In a question and answer session with Andrea Freedman and Ellen Marcus, the latter recounted how she first learned about the extent of her parent’s wealth in the early 2000s when the family began planning the details about their estate. Her parents, she noted, originally were going to leave all of their wealth to Ellen.
“I asked my parents to leave me enough so that I and my daughter would never be hungry or homeless, and to give the rest to charities,” she noted. “We suggested to my parents that that they should leave the bulk of their estate to BGU,” she said, “and decided to accept my suggestion “
Howard and Lottie’s donation to BGU represented almost the entirety of their estate. Consistent with the manner in which they lived their lives, they viewed what they had earned as something modest to hold on to, until the time was right to give back to the Jewish homeland and its people.
In an interview with the Florida Jewish Journal a couple of years ago, Ellen Marcus reported that, in 2005, when the Marcuses first made the decision to gift their estate to the university, they made a down payment of $20 million leading to the renaming of the main campus in Be’er Sheva (there are satellite campuses in Eilat and Sde Boker – David Ben Gurion’s home kibbutz) as the Marcus Family Campus.
“My parents, my daughter and I went to BGU for the dedication of the campus name in March 2005.  The following year, I was asked to join the BGU Board of Governors and, in 2006, I was asked to join the Board of Trustees of the American Associates, BGU (renamed Americans for BGU a few years ago).”
Ellen Marcus has been involved with BGU ever since and is currently a vice-chair of the Board of Governors. She also chairs the Marcus Endowment Advisory Committee  – which she created in 2016 when the endowment distributions began, in order to do whatever she could to ensure that her parents’ gift is wisely used.
“I have gained so much from my own association with BGU,” Ellen concluded.  “As a child of Holocaust survivors, I carry on their trauma.  I firmly believe that, for the Jewish people, Israel is the safest place on Earth.  I believe that we should all support Israel and give what we can.”