20130731V1 - The Giving Pledge
20130731V1 - The Giving Pledge
20130731V1 - The Giving Pledge
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Tad Taube<br />
February 4, 2013<br />
Dear Warren:<br />
I feel privileged and honored to join you and our fellow <strong>Giving</strong> <strong>Pledge</strong> members who have committed<br />
ourselves to participate in the <strong>Pledge</strong>. Each of us has set forth our respective reasons for participating<br />
in the <strong>Pledge</strong>—I hereby offer mine.<br />
My life began in Poland in the early 1930s, the only son of a reasonably well-to-do Jewish family.<br />
My parents had the foresight and the luck to immigrate to the United States on the eve of the Nazi<br />
invasion of Poland. We lost most of our family, who were not so lucky, and in the early 1940s of the<br />
World War II era, I was witness to my mother and father scraping to make a living and mourning<br />
the losses of those left in Poland. But I never forgot that we were survivors in a land of opportunity—<br />
eventually my parents were the beneficiaries of the American Dream and later I too was able to realize<br />
for myself the opportunity to become a participant in that American Dream.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re has existed in the minds of refugees, who have been embraced by this great country, a level of<br />
gratitude for the opportunities made available to us that is somewhat analogous to a debt that we feel<br />
needs to be repaid. Some of us refer to that feeling as wanting to “give back”—I personally prefer to<br />
call it wanting to “share opportunity”. And in terms of the time, energy, and money already contributed<br />
by me to replicate such an opportunity for others, my family and I have already more than fulfilled the<br />
intent of the <strong>Giving</strong> <strong>Pledge</strong>. However, it is my plan to continue my commitment to <strong>Giving</strong> throughout<br />
my life and eventually through my estate plan.<br />
<strong>The</strong> challenges I perceive today are vastly different than those that drove my earlier philanthropy.<br />
After escaping the ravages of the Holocaust, I was privileged to grow up in a country dedicated to<br />
equal opportunity. A country that admired success, inspired responsibility and rewarded work ethic.<br />
Unfortunately, we seem to have lost our way. We appear to have moved away from such admiration<br />
of success; and our government policies serve to diminish work ethic and personal responsibility. We<br />
took pride in our public education system and one of the world’s best—to what we now perceive to be a<br />
national problem.<br />
Because pride of country and promoting a replication of its successes drove my early philanthropy—<br />
concern with a diminishment of our national character is driving much of my philanthropy today.<br />
Education reform initiatives, public policy programs, advocacy forums, and constitutional education<br />
workshops now represent an increasing level of my philanthropic dollars.<br />
Page 1 of 2