Bernard “Bud” Levin, former vice president of family-owned Midwest Petroleum Company, philanthropist and lifelong Jewish lay leader, died on Memorial Day. He was 88. 

Russell Robinson, CEO of the Jewish National Fund-USA, worked with Levin for over 50 years, first at the United Jewish Appeal and later through the JNF-USA. He described Levin as a “gentle giant,” whose looming stature was overshadowed by his generosity, leadership and people skills.  

“He was one of the great listeners,” Robinson, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “And I learned so much from him because he learned from listening to people.”

Levin was born and raised in Richmond Heights, Mo., son of Midwest Petroleum Company founder Louis Levin. Levin was heavily involved in the family business from a young age, sweeping the floors at age 6 and driving a gasoline truck at 13, according to an online obituary. 

After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Levin joined the U.S. military, serving as a captain in the U.S. Army 6th Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment.. Later, as vice president of Midwest Petroleum Company, he went on to grow the business into one of the largest gas station companies in the Midwest.

Levin married his high school sweetheart, Charlene Blumberg Levin, with whom he had three daughters. They were married for 30 years until she died in 1989. He went on to marry Judith Mandelkorn Levin, with whom he had a son. 

Levin was heavily involved with a number of national Jewish organizations, most notably JNF-USA.

Levin served as vice president and world chairman of JNF-USA’s national board and as national chairman of endowments and special projects. He was also a chairman for JNF-USA’s national campaign, as well as Go North and Blueprint Negev, projects meant to support communities in northern and southern Israel. After moving to Los Angeles in 2007, he also served as president of JNF-USA’s Los Angeles regional board.

“He was my hero, a mensch and Tzadik of a man, who thought nothing of himself but simply lived to give back to others,” wrote his son, Max Levin, in a post on Facebook. “He loved Israel and the Jewish people and showed his support through his dedication to Jewish National Fund.”

Rick Krosnick, chief development officer at JNF-USA, said he first met Levin in 1994, when he was still starting out and Levin was “already a giant, one of the great major-gift fundraisers in the Jewish community.” He said Levin became “one of the most important mentors in my life,” whom he still regularly quotes to his team. 

“I recall a lot of Bud-isms,” he said. “The first is, ‘Don’t let creativity get in the way of action.’ I repeat that phrase a lot to my team when they get bogged down in thought and trying to make something perfect rather than moving forward and doing. The other Budism, which I think tells you everything you need to know about Bud Levin as a human being, is: ‘In fundraising, the personal contact is more important than the money.’ That has been a guiding principle for who I have become as a fundraiser and how I coach and teach my team over more than two decades with the Jewish National Fund.”

Krosnick recalled when Levin and his wife were beginning to prepare for Max’s bar mitzvah, they wanted to connect other children from their community not only to Israel but to the Jewish people more generally. “They came up with an idea to link [the bar and bat mitzvah] kids with a child who perished in the Holocaust,” Krosnick said. Through the program, which is still going strong, St. Louis kids raise money for JNF-USA and a plaque is added to a wall in Israel’s American Independence Park with their name and the name of a child who was killed in the Holocaust. “The first tile is that of Max Levin,” Krosnick said.

According to Robinson, Levin’s involvement in JNF-USA stemmed from a desire to aid Israel and world Jewry at a time when the Jewish federation system was more focused on domestic issues. Impacted by the Holocaust, he has a strong desire never to be silent, said Robinson, which manifested in him taking trips to Israel during wartime, and wherever else he could to aid global Jewry. 

“Bud had a business. He had a family. Why did you have to put yourself in that kind of situation? Because he never wanted to be silent,” Robinson said.

Specifically, Robinson and Levin took several to the former Soviet Union to aid refuseniks. The two would often bring contraband — blue jeans and kosher meat — to Azerbaijan and other countries in the U.S.S.R. 

On one trip, Robinson recalled, Levin and others drove to Azerbaijan with a suitcase of salami. Bud was hungry, and jokingly commented — throughout the drive — that his dedication to the cause was the only thing keeping him from the salami.  

“We got there, we delivered some salami to some people, which for them was a month’s worth of food,” said Robinson. “I tell that story because that was Bud. He was hungry. He wanted salami. He might tell everybody how much he wanted to eat, but he never touched it.”

Levin also served on the national board of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and assisted with fundraising for Partnership for Excellence and Jewish Education and Birthright Israel. 

In the early days of Birthright Israel, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg remembers, Levin was instrumental in fundraising alongside him and Michael Steinhardt. Levin, then still a layperson, taught Greenberg how to fundraise. 

“He was a perfect exemplar of the emergent Jewish vision and teaching that guided the community and led the rise of philanthropy and the federations’ care for Israel,” Greenberg told eJP. “He understood [that Israel was] a restatement of our right to live and the importance of our value system.”

As the federation system was becoming the heart of North American Jewish life, Levin represented a generation of lay leaders who shaped Jewish organizations as they expanded to consolidate and represent Jewish interests, according to Greenberg.

“This was the holy work and something that Bud represented personally — the philosophy that became the central core of Jewish life in that generation,” he said. “He was really a warm, kind mensch, and a core example of the vitality of Jewish life, Jewish living and of lay leadership.”

Levin was also active in his local Jewish community, serving as a board chair, campaign chair and Sunday school teacher at United Hebrew Temple in St. Louis, as campaign chairman for the Jewish Federation of St. Louis and as chairman of the St. Louis Center for Holocaust Studies.

“Bud Levin’s passion for the Jewish people, for Israel and for the future of Jewish life was matched only by his generosity and humility. Bud did so much more than give through dollars. He gave through his vision and time, always leading, inspiring and building,” said Danny Cohn, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. “His legacy lives on in the institutions he strengthened, the leaders he mentored and the thousands of lives his philanthropy uplifted. We are deeply grateful for the meaningful role he played in our St. Louis Jewish community and in the Jewish world.” 

Levin’s son remembers him for his generosity, interest in Jewish history, and role as a Sunday school teacher, according to a post on Facebook. 

“More than anything my father was a constant student, avid reader, lover of history, Israel and the Jewish community,” his son wrote in a Facebook post. “With his knowledge, he taught Sunday school students, myself, my sisters, his grandkids, and all those that he came in contact with. He had the biggest heart and gave the shirt off his back if it would help someone else.”

Levin is survived by his four children, nine grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.