Following last week’s announcement that the estate of Eric F. Ross of Palm Beach, FL, and West Orange, NJ, gifted $17.2 million to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, comes news of a similar size gift to the Golda Och Academy in West Orange, New Jersey.

from New Jersey Jewish News:

Och Academy receives $17 million from Ross estate

Calling it a major “investment” in its future, the Golda Och Academy announced a $17.2 million bequest from the estate of the late philanthropist Eric F. Ross.

Ross, who died in September 2010 at the age of 91, was a major supporter of the Conservative day school. Its upper school campus in West Orange is named in his honor in recognition of a donation he made that led to the opening of the campus in 1991.

In 2007, the school broke ground on a $4.5 million renovation funded largely by Ross.

Joe Bier, chair of the school’s board of trustees, said the bequest would initially be used to support the Lore Ross Neshama Program. Ross provided annual travel grants so that all students who wanted could participate in the program, in which seniors spend their second semester in Israel after a week in Eastern Europe. The program was named in honor of Ross’ wife, who died in 2009.