The Harry and Martha Cohen Foundation finds a new home at Jewish Community Foundation of Calgary

by Maxine Fischbein

(AJNews) – The Harry and Martha Cohen Foundation has found a new home at the Jewish Community Foundation of Calgary (JCFC). With charitable assets of nearly $2.3 million, the former foundation – now known as the Drs. Harry and Martha Cohen Memorial Fund – is one of the largest contributions in the history of the JCFC, which was established in 1990 with 10 funds and initial assets of $80 thousand.

To date, successive leadership groups have helped to grow the JCFC to 270 funds and total assets of approximately $43 million, which bodes well for the future financial viability of Jewish Calgary.

The trust in the JCFC demonstrated by Harry and Martha Cohen’s children – Philip, Cheryl, Faye and David – and the Harry and Martha Cohen Foundation board of directors, reinforces the JCFC’s proven track record as a prudent choice for philanthropists.

Harry and Martha Cohen’s daughter Cheryl – who served for 35 years as the executive director and secretary of her parents’ eponymous foundation – told AJNews that until very recently, she was unaware that fund holders at the JCFC could designate charitable funds to registered charities in support of both the Jewish community and the community at large.

“As an example, people send money in support of health care, the philharmonic, and the United Way,” says veteran community leader Gerry Barron, a long-serving JCFC board member.

Like that famous New York ad campaign during the 60s and 70s – You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy Levy’s Real Jewish Rye – one does not have to be Jewish to be a fundholder at JCFC.

Cheryl Cohen had been contemplating retirement and considering options for winding down her parents’ foundation and finding a new home for its charitable assets when she got to talking with Barron late in 2024.

“My parents were huge supporters of the arts and volunteered in a lot of non-Jewish organizations,” says Cohen of her late parents, whose generosity and voluntarism helped build the Jewish community too.

So, it makes sense that Cheryl and her siblings – who also explored the possibility of partnering with other community foundations – found a home for their parents’ foundation at the JCFC.

The Cohen clan has historical roots at the JCFC, where a fund bears the name of their grandmother, Rebecca Block, daughter of Canmore’s first Jewish settler, Philip Diamond.

Block had earmarked charitable funds in the hope of supporting a Jewish retirement home in Calgary. While that vision has not yet been realized, the interest on that fund has been allocated to other worthwhile causes over the years on the advice of the Cohen family.

Harry B. Cohen (1912-1990), the son of poor immigrants, grew up in Winnipeg’s North End and moved to Calgary in the 1930s where he initially worked for Warner Brothers first as a shipper and later as a general manager. He and his five brothers later formed General Distributors, which expanded over time to include Saan and Metropolitan Stores, the Sony Canada franchise, and distribution rights for Paper Mate pens.

They later diversified, most noticeably with interests in oil and gas and real estate.

Cohen – who married Martha Block in 1945 – grew in prominence, becoming a well-respected community leader and philanthropist. He was an ardent supporter of B’nai Brith, and he and Martha were among the builders of the Beth Tzedec Synagogue, established in the mid-1980s with the amalgamation of the Beth Israel and Shaarey Tzedec synagogues. Countless simchas and community events have since taken place in the Drs. Harry and Martha Cohen Social Lounge at Beth Tzedec.

On the civic scene, Harry Cohen was a proud supporter of the Boy Scouts.

“My dad loved being a Scout. His scoutmaster was like a second father,” said Cheryl Cohen, adding that her father paid his happy experience forward as one of the founders of the Chinook Scout Foundation, the second-largest organization of its kind in Canada.

Cheryl followed in her dad’s footsteps, supporting the work of the foundation as its first female chair.

Other organizations that benefited from Harry Cohen’s leadership and/or philanthropy included State of Israel Bonds and the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. Cohen’s civic passions included the Calgary Stampeder Football Club and various arts and culture initiatives.

Martha Cohen (1920-2015) was a force in her own right, her accomplishments legendary. A woman ahead of her time, she was the driving force behind the establishment in 1960 of the Jewish Family Service Bureau (now Jewish Family Service Calgary) where, armed with a social work degree from the University of Toronto, she served as inaugural social worker, never drawing a paycheck.

Martha also gave generously of herself to the National Council of Jewish Women, as a donor and volunteer – eventually ascending to the presidency of the organization.

On the civic front, Martha was the first woman to chair the board of directors of Mount Royal College (now Mount Royal University). She later co-chaired Old Sun College in Gleichen, Alberta. She is, perhaps, best known for her tireless efforts toward the establishment, in 1985, of the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts – now known as the Werklund Centre – where the Martha Cohen Theatre is an enduring tribute to her arts legacy.

Among numerous other awards and recognitions – too many to mention in these pages – the Cohens were the first married couple to receive the Order of Canada, Harry in 1974 and Martha in 1975.

“They grew up during the war and the Depression. I find that generation very charitable because they can relate to hard times,” said Cheryl Cohen, herself an avid volunteer.

“It came from my parents’ example,” explains Cohen, who joined her first board at the age of 28.

In 1988, Harry established the Harry B. Cohen Foundation for the Arts, later the Harry B. Cohen Foundation and eventually the Harry and Martha Cohen Foundation.

Sadly, Harry passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in 1990, a loss felt throughout the Jewish community, the City of Calgary, and well beyond. At that time, Cheryl took over the running of the foundation, inheriting its board of directors, mainly friends of her father.

Martha served on the board and remained a generous donor until her passing in 2015, when the community mourned the loss of a matriarch.

“Martha was very involved in many of the meetings up until the last little while as she aged. She was a clear, outspoken force on the foundation,” recalls Brian Rogers, who chaired the Harry and Martha Cohen Foundation from 1993 to 2006, remaining active on the board as past president until 2025.

Rogers remains deeply moved by letters the foundation received over the years from grateful grant recipients including “…a young artist who could not make ends meet and [for whom] the foundation made a difference.”

Harry and Martha Cohen’s philanthropy touched multiple segments of the Calgary community and beyond, recalls Rogers, including grant recipients whose lives had been upended due to violence against women.

“People would write and be appreciative of being cared for and protected,” Rogers said. “Though I don’t come from a very religious family, it sure made me think about the principle of tzedakah…there is an inner warmth when you give to the most vulnerable.”

“It always made me feel better if I could leave a meeting feeling that in some small way I’ve left the world a better place. The Foundation did that for me for many years,” Rogers said, deeply moved when reflecting on “…all the people whose lives were made just a little bit better.”

The composition of the Harry and Martha Cohen board of directors morphed as Cheryl Cohen brought on new people, including Rogers.

“I ended up with my dream board,” Cohen recalls.

“[Cheryl] was really the glue. She had a tireless commitment and contributed greatly to the foundation. She was the one…reviewing all the grant applications and did a fabulous job. She really honoured her family,” Rogers said.

But after running the foundation for 35 years, Cohen thought the time was right to find a new home for its charitable assets.

“Cheryl told me that she was thinking of retiring. I said we should talk, that maybe the Jewish Community Foundation could be of assistance and play a role,” said Gerry Barron.

“When someone has their own private foundation, they have a lot of obligations they have to fulfill, from filing their charitable returns with CRA to fulfilling audits and managing investments,” says JCFC Philanthropy Director Joey Tappenden.

“It is not uncommon for private foundations to seek out community foundations in order to fulfill their objectives…. In the grand scheme of things, bringing a private foundation over to an organization like the JCFC is a great way to fulfill your philanthropic objectives in an efficient and cost-effective way,” Tappenden adds.

All fund holders benefit in a similar way.

“When you consolidate all your gifts in an organization like JCFC, you only have to manage one tax receipt, which is issued by us. Giving in this way, you can support many charities while using your time effectively,” Tappenden said.

Cheryl Cohen and her siblings did their due diligence, exploring community foundation options, among them the Calgary Foundation, a well-respected organization that their father helped to found. Cheryl – who speaks highly of the organization – served on one of its granting committees for six years.

She began to seriously consider the JCFC when she learned that fundholders there can give to both Jewish and civic causes. And she felt an especially strong pull to strengthen Jewish organizations, especially in the wake of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists and, subsequently, a rising wave of antisemitic acts worldwide.

“Especially in these times, I just felt way more comfortable going into the Jewish Community Foundation of Calgary, knowing the people who are involved and knowing that they are trying to benefit and engage future generations.”

The official transfer of the charitable assets in the Cohen Foundation took place toward the end of October, following months of dialogue that included Zoom meetings with the geographically distant Cohen siblings, who were supportive of the transition.

“It wasn’t a hard sell,” recalls Cheryl.

The board of the Cohen Foundation – composed of both Jewish and non-jewish members – was similarly supportive, as they had been when the foundation opted to make substantial grants to Beit Halochem and Magen David Adom in 2025.

“I think it is really an appropriate transition,” said Brian Rogers. “Supporting the vibrancy of our own community, with Cheryl’s focus, is really appropriate at this time.”

Cheryl also spoke at length with her former Calgary Hebrew School classmate Darlene Switzer Foster, a fundholder and board member at the JCFC, who assured Cheryl that the Harry and Martha Cohen Memorial Fund would be in good hands.

“I don’t have kids, and my nieces are in Toronto,” said Cheryl, for whom succession planning was top of mind.

Harry and Martha Cohen’s descendants will still be in the picture, helping to ensure that the donor-advised memorial fund will continue to honour their parents’ philanthropic objectives.

Donors can set up donor-directed and/or donor advised endowment funds. According to JCFC Chair Stuart Myron, philanthropists with donor-directed funds designate charitable organizations as the beneficiaries of their fund’s annual income. Those with donor-advised endowment funds make recommendations for grants to charitable organizations throughout the year. Both of these types of funds preserve the fund’s capital in perpetuity.

The Cohen fund has come to the JCFC during a period of tremendous growth with the JCFC poised to take another leap, thanks to the promise of future gifts. The lion’s share will come from donors who have provided letters of intent promising after-lifetime gifts via the Life & Legacy Program, co-administered by the JCFC and Calgary Jewish Federation.

One need not be wealthy to participate in Life & Legacy, which has attracted participation from Jewish Calgarians across the economic spectrum.

“With Life & Legacy, nobody is asking for money right now,” explains Tappenden. “We encourage potential donors to consider an after-lifetime gift to support in perpetuity the organizations and causes they care about.”

“Calgary Life & Legacy commitments currently total approximately $19 million,” said Stuart Myron, who played a pivotal role in making Calgary the first Canadian Jewish community to join the program.

A couple of other commitments of at least $1 million each are also in the offing, Myron said.

In addition to having grown the assets managed by the JCFC, the foundation’s leaders have steadily professionalized in terms of governance, policy development, and stewardship.

“JCFC is competitive with much larger foundations in terms of investment returns, administration fees and more,” said Myron, adding that “community members have, in turn, demonstrated their confidence in the JCFC.”

Cheryl Cohen is thrilled that she and her siblings can continue to honour their parents’ memories and shared legacy of giving both within and beyond the Jewish community.

“My dad always said that Calgary was good to him and his family, recalled Cohen, adding that her mother shared that feeling of gratitude.

“They believed that if you want to have a viable city, you have to give back.”

“The Cohen family bringing their foundation over is a real vote of confidence in the Jewish Community Foundation of Calgary,” said Gerry Barron. “As directors we are very pleased to support their vision.”

“As elected by the donor, whenever a gift is given, we recognize their names. Thus, the names of Harry and Martha Cohen will be honoured in perpetuity,” Barron added.

When leaders of charitable organizations see charitable gifts coming via the Jewish Community Foundation of Calgary, they are witness to the commitment of many in the Jewish community toward the betterment of society in general.

This is particularly important in times like these, says Brian Rogers.

“I’m so concerned about antisemitism…. The more we get the messaging out about gifting, not only to the Jewish community but beyond, I think the better we are for our community,”

“Hopefully the fact that the Cohen family has moved their foundation to JCFC will be an inspiration to others to follow their lead,” Gerry Barron said.

“Harry and Martha Cohen had a vision for their community,” says Joey Tappenden. “Their family still has that vision. We are very proud that JCFC will help to perpetuate their legacy.”

Maxine Fischbein is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.