Dach, an exuberant man whose appearance only slightly hints to his age or traumatic experiences, will speak of his experiences in SSU’s Advanced Technology Center, Room 134, at 10:30 a.m. on July 25, delivering his story of surviving the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau and prisoner coal mine at Janinagrube. 

“The one reason I’m here is to tell the truth,” Dach said.  His goal is to stand up to those who would assert that the Holocaust did not happen.  The Columbus businessman has been speaking in front of the weeklong workshop, provided collaboratively by Shawnee State University, the Holocaust Foundation, and Portsmouth’s B’Nai Abraham Temple in conjunction with Kent State University and Ohio University Southern Campus, for 12 years.   

Dach, an eyewitness to the horror of genocide, shares his account of survival during the Final Solution in hopes that others will learn to love and not hate.  Dach was only a teen when his family was sent to live in a ghetto, a part of the city Jews were forced to live in under German surveillance.  Even then, Dach resisted what he was told and credits his survival to his refusal to follow the rules. 

“I was a rebel.  I think that is why I survived,” he said with a spirit that comes through in his voice and gestures.

           “For the Shawnee State University campus and Tri-State communities, the truth will be impossible to forget,” said Ginnie Moore, director of the Office of University Outreach Services at SSU, the office coordinating Dach’s presentation.  “Books and movies can educate, but Morris Dach’s account imprints the realness of what happened in the not so distant past.” 

The presentation is free and open to the public.  For more information, call (toll free) (866) 672-8778.

           Beth Haney, president of the Development Foundation, explained, "The motivation for the Donor Advised Funds and Flexible Endowments is to give our University benefactors more flexibility and a bit more input in how their monies are directed whether to scholarships, special projects, or more general support."

           The two endowment options offer new benefits, but every donation helps the university. Jim Jividen of Charter One Bank and the chairperson of the Development Foundation Finance Committee said these and all donation options are ways to "build relationships between donors and the university."

           The first new option, the Flexible Endowment, is a way to give a long-term gift but still see short-term benefits. To understand Flexible Endowment, one must first understand what an endowment is. An endowment is an instrument whereby donors give money that is invested and from which only the earnings are spent. In that way they are assured that their funds will remain intact forever and thus their gift will also remain forever. At SSU the minimum endowment is $10,000 of which 5 percent is normally spent. Thus when a donor creates, for example, a $10,000 endowed scholarship, the recipient will receive a $500 award. However, because the SSU Development Foundation gets a better than 5 percent return, the fund grows over time allowing the award to grow as well.

          Susan Warsaw, executive director of development at SSU, explained that some of the donors do not contribute the $10,000 all at once but instead give it over as many as 10 years. When this happens, however, it does not allow them to see their philanthropy go to work for 10 years. The flexible endowment will change that in that it allows donors to make two kinds of donations in one year. They give a minimum of $1,000 toward the endowment and give an additional gift in the amount of the scholarship award.

           Jividen noted that not all people can come up with the $10,000 at once but they still want to help and be able to see their award put to good use right away.

           "That's why the Flexible Endowment is so great. It allows them to do both," he said.

           The second new endowment option, the Donor Advised Fund, allows donors to help choose how their funds are used yearly as opposed to allocating them for one purpose or general use at the time of the initial gift. Whereas before donors may have been drawn to a specific project or scholarship or simply gave an unrestricted fund, the Donor Advised Fund allows them to select from among the outlined needs and special projects of the university annually, thus giving them a strong voice in how their money shapes the university each year.

           "A Donor Advised Fund invites the donor to become part of the process,” Warsaw said. “A donor who gives a minimum of $10,000 will be invited to meet with the president of the university or me to help determine the use of their funds. It may be that the money is used for one thing one year and another the next, but in any case, the donor can be assured that their money is being used following their input."

           Either option, as with any donation, is important to the growth of the university.

           "The University depends a lot on the both the monetary support of the community and its continued interest in activities and prosperity,” Haney said. “It really goes both ways with SSU and Portsmouth-that is the mutual support and interest. An investment in Shawnee State University is an investment in the future of our community."

           Both new options are currently available and prospective donors need only contact Warsaw in the SSU Office of Development for more information or to discuss a donation at (740) 351-3257.