Linda, of blessed memory, and I want to be remembered for the joy and the purpose of life that we shared with each other, our daughters, our grandchildren, our friends, and our Lehigh Valley Jewish community. We want to be remembered for caring about others and doing good deeds. We have enriched our lives by participating in and developing wonderful relationships from the many volunteer activities we enjoyed in our community. Linda and I also shared a lifelong journey of learning more about our Jewish heritage. I love going to Friday night services every week at Congregation Keneseth Israel (Kl). In fact, I even enrolled in the Frequent Prayer program where I go to five services and get the sixth one tor free. My journey continues with going to Torah study every Saturday morning, reading the Torah from cover to cover, and now exploring the Prophets. The camaraderie with our class and the Rabbi is priceless. I also love the warm feeling of community I find at the JCC Friendship Circle (FC), and the JFS Schmooze & Schmear (S&S) and Musical Moments get togethers. I was especially rewarded by being asked to speak about Jewish Humor for the JDS Middle School students, the JCC FC, and the JFS S&S.
Linda's Jewish experience included being confirmed and having an adult bat mitzvah at Kl, as well as being a President of its Sisterhood and the first woman President of the Congregation. She loved teaching second grade at the Jewish Day School tor 15+ years and loved her students. They loved her as well, and many of them, and their parents, told me that in later years. My Jewish experience included being on the Boards of the JCC, the Jewish Federation, Kl, and the Kl Endowment Fund, as well as being chairman of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Foundation (Endowment) and its Investment Committee. We always had a wonderful feeling of belonging in our Lehigh Valley Jewish community and a strong desire to give back. In order to help our community continue to thrive after we are gone, we created a Designated Fund known as the Linda and Mike Miller Family Fund (Fund) with the Lehigh Valley Jewish Foundation (LVJF). The fund was established to provide perpetual support to the following Jewish organizations in the Lehigh Valley: (1) the Jewish Community Center, (2) the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley, (3) Congregation Keneseth Israel, (4) the Jewish Family Service of the Lehigh Valley, and (5) the Jewish Day School. At the same time, we created a Deferred Charitable Gift Annuity administered by LVJF. This annuity provides for annuity payments over our lifetimes, with the remaining balance going to our Designated Fund, with annual distributions going to our five designated beneficiaries. Because of the excellent investment results of LVJF, our fund has been getting larger every year, which should result in even larger distributions to our designated beneficiaries.