Glorya Kaufman is an American philanthropist.

Early life

Glorya (Pinkis) Kaufman was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

during the Great Depression.A Patron With Passion in Los Angeles
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', January 11, 2013 Her father worked as a production manager for ''

Automotive News ''Automotive News'' is a weekly newspaper written for the automotive industry, predominantly individuals corresponding with automobile manufacturers and automotive suppliers. Based in Detroit and owned by Crain Communications Inc, ''Automotive ...

'' and her mother volunteered for Jewish charities. Her parents could not afford dancing lessons for her.

Philanthropy

In 1994, Kaufman made a donation for the construction of the 10,040-square-foot Donald Bruce Kaufman branch of the

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the large ...

Brentwood, Los Angeles Brentwood is a suburban neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles. History General Modern development began after the establishment of the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors in the 1880s. A sma ...

. In 1999, Kaufman donated US$18 million to the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

, which named Glorya Kaufman Hall in her honor. However, she admitted to being disappointed in the way UCLA handled her donation. In 2009, Kaufman donated US$20 million to the Los Angeles Music Center to establish the Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance series. She has also donated millions to the

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate ...

and the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 2011, she donated several millions to the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

for the establishment of the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, which enrolled its first cohort of BFA majors in 2015, and the construction of the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center. A year later, in 2012, she joined the Board of Trustees at USC.

Personal life

Kaufman is the widow of

Donald Bruce Kaufman Donald Bruce Kaufman (1922 – 1983) was an American home builder and entrepreneur who with Eli Broad co-founded Kaufman & Broad, now known as KB Home (NYSE: KBH), in 1957. Early life Donald Bruce Kaufman was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1922, ...

, who with

Eli Broad Eli Broad ( ; June 6, 1933April 30, 2021) was an American businessman and philanthropist. In June 2019, ''Forbes'' ranked him as the 233rd-wealthiest person in the world and the 78th-wealthiest in the United States, with an estimated net worth of ...

co-founded Kaufman & Broad, now known as

KB Home KB Home is a homebuilding company based in the United States, founded in 1957 as Kaufman & Broad in Detroit, Michigan. It was the first company to be traded on the NYSE as a home builder and was a Fortune 500 company from 2000 through 2008. It ...

(), in 1957. Broad's wife, Edythe Lawson, is Kaufman's first cousin.Los Angeles Times: "To Glorya Kaufman, the art of dance is a gift on several levels" By Deborah Vankin
December 01, 2012 They had four children, Curtis, Gayl, Laura and Stacie Lyn. Donald and his son-in-law, Eyal Horwitz, both died in a plane crash in 1983; afterward Glorya turned to charity work. She raised her family in a sprawling Brentwood ranch house. Kaufman currently resides in a US$18.2 million Italian-style villa in Beverly Hills, California with

Erté Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, from the French pronunciation of his initials (, EHR TEH). He was a 20th-century artist and designer in an a ...

tables and Louis Icart prints.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaufman, Glorya Living people People from Beverly Hills, California Jewish American philanthropists University of California, Los Angeles people University of Southern California people 20th-century births Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American Jews