Minna Schachter Fund

Minna Schachter, according to her cousin, Hope Alperin Hirsch, was a bit of an enigma. Even after receiving an inheritance from Ms. Schachter’s estate, Mrs. Hirsch, whose mother was a first cousin of Ms. Schachter’s mother, was unable to learn much of substance about her relative, whom she never knew.

“She was invited to our wedding,” shares Mrs. Hirsch, “but did not attend.” According to Mrs. Hirsch, Minna was a factory worker in a facility that produced maternity clothes. She lived in Queens, New York. “I felt this was not really my money,” says Mrs. Hirsch, who established this fund at the Foundation along with her husband, Foundation Board Chairman David Hirsch [see story, page 12, on the Hirsch’s Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence Fund]. “So, I decided to do something with the funds that would allow her name to live on, and that would help women and children.”

A community champion and longtime hands-on volunteer for a diverse group of local nonprofit organizations, including Community Prep, the Jewish Community Center, Temple Emanu-El, and the Wheeler School, Mrs. Hirsh has always kept her ears tuned to the needs of the community at large as well as those of specific groups. Diane Newman, executive director of the YWCA of Greater Rhode Island in Central Falls, fortuitously reached out to Mrs. Hirsch about their serious need for support and Mrs. Hirsch decided, “We can make a match here.” Minna Shachter’s name will indeed live on, as the Fund in her name is used to purchase equipment for the Y’s children’s and women’s programs.

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