Our History
“We all must do our part.”
It all started with eddie...
The first Jewish charitable fund in Charlottesville was started in the early 1980's by Ed Eitelberg. Upon arriving in 1978, "Eddie" was surprised to learn that there was no central organization of Jewish philanthropy in the area. Eddie sprang into action and started the first iteration of the UJFC.
Eddie's fund became briefly inactive in the 1990s but was renewed by Ruth Hanft in 2002, and with the help of Bill Gray, Sonia Haimes, Vikki Bravo, Faye Rosenthal, Rob Capon and numerous others, UJFC came into being as a 501 (c) (3) tax-deductible fund in 2003. It raised more than $25,000 in its first year and has prospered ever since.