The Landenberger Family Foundation is donating $1 million to the IDF Widows & Orphans Organization to endow scholarships for children who lost a parent serving in the Israeli military or security forces, the groups announced on Wednesday. The first scholarships will be awarded at an IDFWO event this spring.

The donation comes as Israel marks three years since the Oct. 7 terror attacks. In the attacks and the wars that followed, IDFWO said that more than 1,000 children have lost a parent who served. Most are under 21, which makes assistance with college costs after army service a growing priority for the organization. 

“[It is] a great opportunity for us to have an endowed gift in the name of the Landenberger family that will last in perpetuity,” Joseph Glyn, president of the family foundation, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “If we spread it out, it doesn’t have a lasting impact.”

The foundation is named for William Landenberger, the last of a family whose Philadelphia roots predate the United States’ founding and whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution, according to its website. Glyn, who is currently visiting Israel, said he did not know Landenberger personally, though his father was involved with the foundation as a trustee. Its giving has centered on Philadelphia-area causes, and it also supports veterans and people in poverty in Israel and the Jewish world, with widows and orphans falling within that mission, Glyn said.

The gift reflects what Glyn called a critical moment “to show support for the [people] of Israel.” It also carries a cost for the foundation, he said: “It takes away a substantial sum of our assets.” The foundation gives away roughly $400,000 a year, Glyn told eJP. The $1 million gift equates to about two and a half years of giving.

IDFWO told eJP that the scholarship is worth NIS 9,000 ($2,950) and is meant to cover part of a bereaved student’s costs at an Israeli college or university. IDFWO expects the endowment to fund scholarships for more than a dozen students a year. Tuition at Israeli universities runs far below U.S. levels. The Council for Higher Education puts the average annual cost at about NIS 12,000 ($3,934).  

In a statement to eJP, Shlomi Nahumson, CEO of the IDF Widows & Orphans Organization, praised the Landenberger Family Foundation’s generosity. “We are deeply grateful to the foundation for recognizing that honoring those who fell means taking lasting responsibility for the families they left behind,” Nahumson said. 

More than 1,000 children in Israel have lost a parent serving in the IDF or security forces in the past three years, Nahumson said, and the endowment gives the organization a way to keep its promise to bereaved families. “When we promise the families of Israel’s fallen that we will stand beside them for life, we must build the means to keep that promise,” he said.