Chicago industrialist Theodore Perlman and his wife, Harriette, pledged $25 million to BBYO, making it the largest single donation to a Jewish youth group in the United States.
The couple announced the $25 million gift on Thursday in Denver at the organization’s international conference, which was attended by more than 5,500 teens and adults.
The Anita M. Perlman Women’s Leadership Initiative was named in honor of Perlman’s mother, who founded B’nai B’rith Girls, a division of the organization, which marked its 75th anniversary this year.
“The mindset of youth are set back in their youth, both with the ability to listen, to understand and to develop your innate capabilities to lead or to support the right causes,” said Perlman, the founder of The HAVI Group, an worldwide distribution firm.