The Aaron Gutwirth Fund

For Applying

The Aaron Gutwirth Fund (a company for the public good) was founded in 1972 by the late Mr. Aaron Gutwirth.

Since its establishment, the Fund has provided support to entities and organizations that work for the benefit of society throughout the State of Israel, in such areas as education and academia, healthcare, aid to people with disabilities, culture and art, welfare, etc.

The Fund is certified pursuant to section 46 of the Income Tax Ordinance.

The Fund’s policy is to approve donations for specific projects related to its areas of activity as mentioned above. The entity applying for a donation must demonstrate that the project is significant to its own area of activity and that it makes a meaningful contribution to Israeli society. The project can be new or a continuation of an existing project, and it can also be a multi-year project. The Fund attaches great importance to demonstrating the project's effectiveness and its long-term impact on the community or individuals it aims to serve. All this in accordance with the details provided under “Application Guidelines”.

The Fund has absolute discretion to approve or deny applications for support, according to its policy and to the decisions made from time to time by the Fund's managers. The Fund does not elaborate its decisions.

Donations will be given solely to non-profit organizations and other associations incorporated in Israel, and not to individuals.

In exceptional cases, the Fund will approve donations intended for the general activities of the applying entity. This will be possible only when such general support for the applying entity constitutes a meaningful contribution to Israeli society. An entity requesting support for its general activities rather than for a specific project must specify the exceptional reasons for this request in its application.

Areas of Activity

Education & Academy

Civil Sociaty

Culture & Art

Assistance to the disabled

Welfare

Medicine

Special guidelines due to the current state of war in Israel

Due to the current state of war, when selecting projects of support in 2024, the Fund will prioritize projects that meet the guidelines detailed herein and which can directly assist Israeli society in its current situation.

Among others, it will consider projects that help build and maintain the national resilience of the Israeli population, rehabilitate areas or communities that have been severely damaged by the war, assist evacuees from conflict zones, provide emotional support to victims including members of the IDF and the defense establishment, etc.

Application Guidelines

Applications for support from the Fund will be reviewed by the Fund's management.

Applicants will be asked to provide details, data, information and certain documents relating to the applying entity as well as to the specific project for which the support is requested.

Public entities such as universities, publicly-funded colleges, hospitals, institutions established by law etcetera are not required to answer questions marked with * in the guidelines below. In case of any doubt as to whether the organization is considered a public entity for the purpose of submitting the application, applicants may contact Mrs. Eti Agihon for clarification at [email protected].

When an application examined has been approved by the Fund's management, the applicant will be notified by the Fund and required to submit all the details, data, information, and documents specified in the Instructions for Applicants that will be provided.

The Fund shall be entitled to demand any additional information or document which it deems necessary at any stage of the application review process.

By submitting an application for support from the Fund, the applicant agrees to the conditions detailed above as well as to all the other instructions and guidelines determined by the Fund from time to time with regard to its activities and provision of support.

Applications should be submitted to Eti Agihon at [email protected].

For Applying

Aaron Gutwirth

Aaron Gutwirth (February 23^rd, 1907 – December 5^th, 1980) was a Jewish-Belgian businessman of Polish descent. Aaron Gutwirth was born in Antwerp, Belgium to a Jewish family that emigrated from Krakow, Poland. Following the expansion of the family business in the early 1930s, he settled in Southeast Asia for the subsequent 20 years.

Upon the outbreak of World War II, his parents fled to the United States, while Aaron stayed in East Asia to continue running his business. He joined a resistance movement and was captured by the Japanese secret police. Following interrogation, he was held in solitary confinement for ten months. At some point his health began to deteriorate, and he was transferred to a detention camp in which he was held with other, mostly European, foreigners.

At the end of World War II, he was appointed a colonel in the Red Cross where he assisted the victims of war, an activity for which he received awards and decorations from the Queen of the Netherlands. A few months later, he immigrated to the United States to reunite with his family, while continuing to oversee his business in Southeast Asia.

His Belgian citizenship was restored after the end of the war. In April 1951, he traveled to New York, USA, where he married Miriam Friedman, a Czech Holocaust survivor who survived the Auschwitz extermination camp where her entire family perished. The newly-wed couple resided in New York. They never had children.

In 1958, Aaron visited Israel for the first time in his life. In 1962, he came to Israel again on the advice of Minister Pinchas Sapir and began engaging in business there. However, he never lived in Israel for a long time-period nor did he become an Israeli citizen.

Among his other activities and businesses, in the 1960s Mr. Gutwirth established the Champion Motors Israel Ltd. Company, which imports cars from the German Volkswagen concern. He also founded Allied Investments, which was later divided into Allied Real Estate and Allied Holdings. In 1972, the Gutwirth Building was erected in the Technion, funded by Allied Group with the purpose of housing emergent hi-tech companies.

Mr. Gutwirth was fluent in seven languages: Dutch, German, Yiddish, English, Chinese, Indonesian, and French. Interestingly, though, he never acquired a formal academic education.

His wife Miriam passed away in 1977, and Aaron passed away in Tel Aviv in 1980 following a long illness. In accordance with his will, he was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. His tombstone reads: “Contributed greatly to the building of the State of Israel”.

During his lifetime, Gutwirth awarded hundreds of scholarships to students, an act of philanthropy which the Gutwirth Fund continues to this day.