'An unexpected blessing': Highland Park nonprofits benefit from retired officer's estate

Ida Kushner will long be remembered in Highland Park and neighboring towns, thanks to the unexpected and exceptional generosity of her son Leonard.

Ida Kushner's name will soon appear on a police department fitness center, a baseball field, a diaper bank and a garden, as part of her late son's insistence that any funds 11 local charitable organizations receive from his $4.4 million estate also honor his late mother.

Funds will go to the Highland Park Police Department, Fire Department and First Aid Squad, as well as the school district, public library, food pantry and other organizations. Among the items the funds will pay for are three police support vehicles; a new pumper fire truck, the department's first in 25 years; a new ambulance and a greenhouse in the outside courtyard at Highland Park High School, according to the borough.

"As mayor, I often hear about individuals who are quietly working to make our borough a better place," said Highland Park Mayor Elsie Foster. "Mr. Kushner is a role model in this regard, both for his service in our police department for twenty years and now, for his exceptional bequest to many groups in town. His gifts will enhance first responder services, increase educational and recreational activities, and make Highland Park a more welcoming place. Mr. Kushner's gifts, in memory of his beloved mother Ida Kushner, are a magnificent and unexpected blessing and we are very proud to have inspired his warm feelings for our town."

Leonard Kushner, a long-time borough resident who lived on South Second Avenue, died in November 2021. He is survived by some relatives in Texas.

Known by neighbors as a private person, Kushner would assist them with landscaping projects.

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Kushner had served as a mechanic in the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s and in 1968 became an officer with the Highland Park Police Department, retiring in 1988. Kushner also was a very successful day trader, according to the borough.

Kushner never married but was very close with his mother and traveled with her in his mobile home to visit friends and relatives. As she got older, Kushner took care of his mother until she went to live in the Jewish Home for the Aged in the Somerset section of Franklin, where she died.

In the spring of 2022, retired Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Barnett Hoffman learned Kushner had named him the executor of his will. Hoffman had met Kushner but did not know him very well. He was surprised to learn he had been named executor from Jeffrey Hyman, a North Brunswick attorney who assisted Kushner in writing his will. Hoffman asked his wife Diane to assist him in the executor role and they recruited community leader Lee Livingston to assist them in managing Kushner's estate, borough officials said.

The Hoffmans and Livingston cleaned out Kushner's home, made repairs and prepared it for sale along with his mobile home. They received assistance from friends Derek Wenskoski and Ted Pardo. Kushner's clothing was donated to a men's shelter in New Brunswick, the borough said.

In his will Kushner made some bequests to family members and friends, but the bulk of the $4.4 million estate was left to the discretion of the executor, with the condition that the funds be given to nonprofit organizations and that any organizations receiving money from the estate must honor Kushner's mother.

The Hoffmans and Livingston invited local nonprofits to submit proposals for how they would use any funds and honor Kushner's mother. Eleven organizations were selected to receive funds from the estate.

The police department through the Highland Park Civic Association will purchase three support vehicles, a trailer and refurbish the gym at police headquarters which will be renamed the Ida Kushner Fitness Center. The fire department will purchase a new pumper truck and the first aid squad will get new lifesaving gear and enhance security at the squad building in addition to the new ambulance, the borough said.

The Highland Park Education Foundation will create a greenhouse in the courtyard of the high school including a hydroponic biolab and vertical gardens. The Highland Park Public Library will upgrade the community room, acquire technology and refurbish the kitchen and bathrooms.

The Highland Park Community Food Pantry and Highland Park Gives A Hoot both received an initial disbursement and established a custodial fund at the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey which will provide an annual allocation to fund community food pantry activities.

The Highland Park Special Education Parents Advisory Committee received an initial disbursement to fund scholarships for professional development courses at Rutgers for Highland Park school teachers and others involved in the group. The Highland Park Athletic Teams Boosters will create the new Ida Kushner baseball field with dugouts, stand and fencing in the recreation complex behind Highland Park High School.

The Central Jersey Diaper Bank in New Brunswick, a program of the Anshe Emeth Community Development Corp. , which distributes more than 400,000 diapers annually to families in need, will get an allocation and will be renamed the Ida Kushner Diaper Bank and the Oscar and Ella Wilf Campus for Senior Living in Somerset will refurbish the garden outside Jaffa Gate, the designated memory unit, and will be renamed the Ida Kushner Garden.

All the programs, projects, and facilities that have not been renamed will have an inscription on the vehicle or sign posted in memory of Ida Kushner.

In the spring of 2024, a public event is being planned for the agencies that received funds to showcase their programs, services, and spaces benefitting from Leonard Kushner's estate.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Highland Park NJ nonprofits benefit from retired officer's $4M estate