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Living Legacy: March 2004

Family is of the utmost importance

By Shelley Leveson

Patricia and Alan Werba have made a life together out of giving – literally. The two met while serving on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Clara County. Pat became involved after her son from a previous marriage benefitted from being a “Little Brother.” Alan joined through a friend on the board. On the board they served as president and vice president. The pairing worked so well they decided to make it permanent.

Since the beginning, the couple has made giving an important part of their union.

“Tzedakah is a vital part of our lives. We have enjoyed success and prospered in this valley and it’s important to give back to that community,” says Alan. Pat distills it down to a simple truth, “What goes around, comes around. My son benefited from Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I wanted to, felt honored to, return in kind. In the same way, we need to support the organizations that have supported us and our community so that they will be there for others.”

The Werbas have made the Living Legacy program of the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley a cornerstone of that giving. “We have a responsibility to our community not only now, but to future generations. The Federation will be here long after we have gone and can continue to fulfill that responsibility on our behalf.”

Alan also believes that the Living Legacy endowment fund is critical to the future vitality of Jewish life in the region. “As an accountant, I take a strictly pragmatic view. The Federation needs — as do all non-profit agencies — financial reserves and an endowment fund to be secure. It allows them to better ride out dips in the economy and takes pressure off the annual campaign.” He cites the San Jose symphony as an example of a worthwhile organization that could not survive due to lack of such financial security.

Alan grew up in Baltimore, Maryland in an Orthodox home. He has fond memories of going to shul with his grandfather. “My grandfather was a kibitzer. He knew everyone, he was friendly with the rabbi, the synagogue was his social center,” says Alan.

After he left home, through his college years at the University of Virginia and as a young adult, Alan was basically uninvolved in Jewish life. In 1974, Alan moved to Silicon Valley with the accounting firm he then worked for to experience California for “a year or two.” He never went back.

Pat was born in Chicago and moved to Santa Clara County when she was ten. She received a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State and began working for a law firm – the same firm she worked for, with an eight-year break to raise her children, until her retirement four years ago.

Pat converted to Judaism about a year before she and Alan married. Rabbi Danzig, then rabbi at Congregation Beth David, led Pat’s conversion class and officiated at their marriage. “We were married in the old classroom building since there was no sanctuary yet,” recalls Pat.

Pat’s explorations into Judaism were also the beginnings of Alan’s return to it. As their family grew to include one, then two daughters, they became increasingly involved with the synagogue. Pat helped wherever needed – from classroom work to helping with holiday celebrations to running the gift shop and serving on the Sisterhood board. The death of Alan’s grandfather during this period also inspired him to become much more active. He put his talents to where they were most suited – serving on the board for four years as treasurer and running the capital campaign.

Alan then moved onto the Federation board, where he served as endowment chair for four years. Pat also has assisted the Federation in various capacities, including co-chairing a Super Sunday. Currently, Alan is on the Federation endowment committee and working with the investment committee in addition to serving on the board of Hillel of Silicon Valley. Pat is helping out in the office of Kehillah High School.
The Werbas feel it is important to set an example for their children, whom are now both in college. “The Living Legacy endowment is a commitment we made as a family,” says Alan.

Their older daughter Elizabeth, or Libby, has taken up the gauntlet. Currently attending the University of New Mexico, she is the co-President of the campus Hillel, teaches several Hebrew classes at a local synagogue and organized the region’s first community-wide Mitzvah Day. Their younger daughter Jennifer, 19, is at USC and is interested in theater. “So far she hasn’t been very involved in the Jewish community other than joining a Jewish sorority,” says Alan, “but then neither was I at her age.”

Both Pat and Alan want there to be a viable, healthy Jewish community in the South Bay for their children to come back to. They look forward to seeing the campus project completed, to offer the kind of community hub Alan remembers from his youth.

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