“Business, Football, and Tzedakah: A Tiger’s Journey”

Mark Wilf, a principal of the family-owned Garden Homes real estate firm, owner/president of the Minnesota Vikings football team, and a member of Princeton’s Class of 1984, spoke on “Business, Football, and Tzedakah: A Tiger’s Journey” on Tuesday, April 21 in McCormick 101 at 7:30 p.m. His talk was followed by a reception.

The Hebrew word Tzedakah refers to the obligation to do what is right and just, which Judaism emphasizes as a vital part of spiritual life. This concept is especially important to Wilf, who is involved in local, national, and global efforts to ensure the welfare and vitality of the Jewish people. His parents, Elizabeth and Joseph Wilf, are Holocaust survivors, and the Wilf family is a longtime and generous supporter of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, a center of documentation, research, education, and commemoration of the Holocaust, and its Holocaust History Museum. The Wilfs are also key benefactors of Yeshiva University in New York; its main campus has been renamed in honor of the family.

After majoring in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton—and serving as the radio voice for Tigers football and basketball—Wilf earned a law degree from New York University Law School in 1987. He serves on the boards of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life and Varsity Club and on the University’s Capital Leadership Committee, as well on the boards of the NYU School of Law and the Vikings Children’s Fund.

Wilf and his wife, Jane, are supporters and leaders of numerous charitable and communal organizations, and he has served as chair of the Jewish Federations of North America’s national campaign and chair of the men’s UJA-Federation National Young Leadership Cabinet. In 2008, they funded the construction of Wilf Hall, a dormitory in Butler College at Princeton, and established the Jane and Mark Wilf ’84 and Wilf Family Fund for Jewish Life to support programming in the University’s Center for Jewish Life.

This event was co-sponsored by Princeton’s Office of Career Services and Department of Athletics.