2021 Spotlight Gala @ Home Journal

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and supported the Damon Runyon
Cancer Research Foundation.
Their recent gift to Jewish Services
for the Developmentally
Disabled helped fund its new
headquarters building.
They established the Cooperman
College Scholars program,
which offers not just academic
scholarships but funding for books
and computers, plus counseling
and support, to ensure that
students from Essex County could
go to college and succeed there.
Toby and Lee have shared their
philanthropic spirit with their whole
family, who are now also engaged
in finding new ways of helping.
Among many other charitable
projects, their son, Wayne, and
his wife Jodi, joined Toby and Lee
in establishing The Cooperman
Family Fund for a Jewish Future at
the Jewish Community Foundation
of MetroWest in New Jersey, which
supports mitzvah projects, Birthright
Israel trips and camp for Jewish
youngsters. Their other son, Michael,
is the founder and principal of
PlusFish Philanthropy, which designs
and funds science and capacity
building to protect the fisheries
of the developing nations of the
tropics, an essential food supply for
hundreds of millions of people.
And a whole new generation of
Coopermans — their grandchildren,
Kyra, Courtney and Asher — are
poised to join the family’s efforts.
At NJPAC, the Cooperman
family’s philanthropy has been
transformative. Loyal supporters of
Toby and Lee
have shared their
philanthropic spirit
with their whole family,
who are now also
engaged in finding new
ways of advancing the
wellbeing of others.
the Arts Center since they attended
their first NJPAC Spotlight Gala in
1997, they contributed every year
to its programs, and in 2004, they
established an endowed fund to
support the Arts Center’s beloved
Kwanzaa Family Festival, making
this annual community celebration
possible in perpetuity. Lee served on
the NJPAC Board of Directors, and
to this day serves as an advisor to
the Board’s Investment Committee.
Lee even brings hundreds of New
Jersey’s executives and thought
leaders together at NJPAC several
times each season when he
personally hosts Conversations
with Cooperman, a series of talks
with CEOs, politicians and other
national leaders, at NJPAC.
In 2019, the Cooperman Family
made a foundational gift toward the
next step in NJPAC’s evolution as an
anchor cultural institution —
a brand-new facility on the
Arts Center campus to house its
arts education and community
engagement programs and more.
Above: Leon, center, chats with David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder & Co-Executive
Chairmen of The Carlyle Group, left, and NJPAC’s John Schreiber, right, at one of the
much-anticipated discussions of business and finance he hosts at the Arts Center,
Conversations with Cooperman. Below: Toby and Leon have become regulars at NJPAC’s
Spotlight Gala celebrations, having attended the very first event in 1997.
The Cooperman Family Arts
Education and Community Center
will be a new, purpose-built home
for NJPAC’s extensive performing
arts education initiatives, which
serve tens of thousands of children
and families every year. The Center
will also be a site for bringing
the arts to the entire Newark
community, through free community
engagement programming, new arts
and wellness initiatives, interactions
between professional artists and
the community, and community
arts group performances. High-tech
digital classrooms, rehearsal space
for professional arts groups, and
arts education programming for
children, preschoolers, seniors
and others will keep the Cooperman
Center open and bustling seven
days a week, bringing new life
and energy to Newark’s downtown
arts and education district.
We celebrate the Cooperman
family for their myriad good works,
their passion for philanthropy,
and especially, for their
transformational impact on NJPAC.
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