Among the various organizations and programs receiving recent gifts from the Rose Frances Glasser and Bernard Glasser Philanthropic Fund, was Jewish News. The distributions were determined by the late couple’s family.
“My mother was a very astute businesswoman and quite visionary, and I am certain I am aware of her intentions as I worked closely with her and on her testamentary plans,” says Michael A. Glasser. “Rose Frances and Bernard were an outstanding team. My mother worked for decades at our law firm aside my father and later with my brothers and me.
“We can honor their memory and also elevate those she would intend,” he says.
According to Glasser, the reasoning behind the gift to the paper, is that Jewish News is an “essential connection to the greater Tidewater Jewish community and is extremely critical while Jews and Israel are targeted with harassment.”
Ross Glasser, a grandson of Rose Frances and Bernard, notes that Jewish News “connects us all.”
Rose Frances Levinson Glasser, who lived to be 101, is said to not have wasted a moment.
According to her obituary, “When Rose Frances would speak, people would listen. She could be feisty when the circumstances required it and everyone knew where Rose Frances stood – always on the side of her family.”
She graduated from Maury High School (Class of 1932) and Ohio State University (Class of 1936) with a degree in social work and took graduate courses at ODU. Her first full-time job after college was working for the City of Norfolk assisting families in need during the Great Depression. She dated and then married Bernard Glasser, a young Norfolk lawyer.
After Bernard’s death in 1983, Rose Frances spent three consecutive winters in Israel volunteering on various projects including knitting clothing for the Ethiopian immigrants, working at the Israeli Ministry of Justice, and at Israeli libraries binding books.
The generosity and vision of Rose Frances and Bernard Glasser continue to be honored today and for future generations.