Obituaries

Myra Kraft, was active Jewish philanthropist

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Close to 2,000 people, many of them from the worlds of sports and philanthropy, turned out on Friday, July 22, at Temple Emmanuel in Newton, Mass. to bid goodbye to Myra Hiatt Kraft, the wife of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who died on July 20 after a long battle with cancer. She was 68.

Myra Kraft

Widely known for her philanthropy, Kraft served at the helm of the Robert and Myra Kraft Family Foundation and as president of the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation, which contributed millions of dollars to charities in the U.S. and Israel. Long active in communal affairs, she served twice as co-chair of the annual campaign for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Boston’s Jewish federation. She also served on the boards of Brandeis University, where she graduated in 1964, as well as the American Repertory Theatre, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The Krafts have also given millions of dollars to the Kraft Stadium for American football in Jerusalem.
In 2003, Boston Magazine named Myra Kraft as one of the 20 most powerful women in Boston.
“Myra didn’t only write checks,” Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz said during the 80-minute service.  “All the pictures that we see of her show her in the trenches, serving food in the kitchens, packing the bags full of clothes that are going to be donated.  In the trenches, doing real work with real people that is helpful to real people.”
“Her acts of gemilat chasadim [individual, anonymous, personal acts of loving kindness] were an essential part of who she was as a person,” said CJP President Barry Shrage. “No one in need was turned away.”
Born in Worcester, Mass., Kraft was the daughter of Jacob Hiatt, who grew up in Lithuania and moved to the United States in 1935. He became president of the E.F. Dodge Paper Box Corp. in Leominster, Mass. in 1938 and stayed on when it was bought by Whitney Box. The company, now known as the Rand-Whitney Group, was purchased by Robert Kraft in 1972. He serves as its chairman and chief executive officer.
She married her husband in 1963 while in her junior year at Brandeis. The Krafts have four sons, Jonathan, Daniel, Joshua and David.

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