Testimonials
 Manfred
and Hilda Schweitzer
They met in the firestorm of Berlin in 1938. He was 27. She was
20. For the next two years, through separation and hardships, through
terror and flight, that which could not be extinguished between
them flourished. Fleeing Germany separately, they were reunited
and married in Baltimore in 1941.
Central Scholarship Bureau played a critical role in the lives
of Manfred and Hilda Schweitzer in their first years here, helping
them create their future in a new country. With CSB’s help,
Manfred received a Masters Degree in Spanish from Middlebury College.
He became a gifted, legendary teacher and administrator at Park
School, loved by generations of students. A Central Scholarship
loan also enabled Hilda to earn a Masters of Social Work at the
University of Pennsylvania. She spent her career leading people
through the most difficult periods of their lives.
Perhaps what they experienced when they were young gave them the
ability to enter into the lives of people in such meaningful and
powerful ways. Perhaps they were each born with a rare generosity
of spirit that would have manifested itself under any circumstances.
There are people from whom light emanates – these are two.
We feel privileged to have been part of their extraordinary lives.
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 Deborah
Udzinski
Deborah Udzinski created her career and her life through her ability
to focus on her goals and do whatever was necessary to achieve them.
One of six children, whose father died when she was two, Deborah
always knew that her education was her own responsibility, and she
was never afraid to work hard for it.
After high school, she went to Essex Community College. Even with
the help of a Pell Grant, she still had to work many hours each
week at a card store. When she transferred to Villa Julie College,
she continued to work while she pursued her training as a nurse.
But she needed more help. During her second year, even though she
was working, she could not meet all of her expenses. That was when
she found Central Scholarship Bureau. Our loans made the difference
between her staying in school and having to drop out.
She is a nurse now, doing exactly what she always wanted to do.
She comes to children when they are lost in the terror and uncertainty
of a grave illness or injury. In these swirling moments of crisis,
she is a calm center of strength and compassion.
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 Rabbi
Arthur Hertzberg
Arthur Hertzberg cannot be defined by his accomplishments, although
his accomplishments are significant. He is an internationally known
scholar and writer. He is a teacher who has challenged students
at Columbia, Dartmouth and NYU. He is a rabbi. And for nearly sixty
years, he has been a vibrant center of intelligence and conscience,
unafraid to shake established beliefs if they were obstacles to
the pursuit of the truth.
But there is so much more. When he walks into a room, the room
suddenly seems too small. When he speaks, his voice seems to come
from a deeper source of conviction than most people ever know. When
he laughs, the walls shake. Arthur Hertzberg has the huge presence
of a great man.
But before this man attained his immense stature, when he was simply
a very bright, nineteen-year-old student at Johns Hopkins, a “poor
kid from the east side,” he says, he came to Central Scholarship
Bureau. Without a loan, he would not have been able to continue
his education.
It is difficult to imagine him then. Where in the midst of this
thundering personality and powerful mind is the uncertain teenager
he once was? Where is the young man who sat before Mrs. Guttmacher,
proud, self-conscious about needing help? He is still in there of
course, and Arthur Hertzberg still thinks of Mrs. Guttmacher as
a “holy woman” because of the respect with which she
treated him. He still remembers that in 1937, two hundred dollars
stood between him and all that he burned to become.
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 Francisco
Ward
For Francisco Ward, the confidence to reach for his highest goals
grew slowly over years. Growing up in West Baltimore, he always
wanted to be a doctor, but he never thought it was possible. He
never knew anyone who went to medical school. He didn’t think
he could get accepted, and even if he were accepted, he didn’t
know how he would finance it.
In his last year at the University of Maryland Baltimore County,
Francisco didn’t apply to medical school because he couldn’t
afford the application costs. Taking a job in a laboratory at Johns
Hopkins, he worked with researchers who came to recognize his ability
and his drive. They encouraged him to apply to medical school. He
finally decided to take a chance and do it, but he could only afford
to apply to one school. He was accepted.
At the end of his first year, with debts accumulating, with his
dream in jeopardy, Francisco came to Central Scholarship to seek
a loan to continue his studies. We were able to give him $8,000
in no-interest loans. It was the critical difference in allowing
him to continue his studies.
Today, the boy who never thought he could realize his dream is
a doctor specializing in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He
has a career he did not believe he could have. He has a wife and
a wonderfully loud house full of children.
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 Leonid
and Yevgeniya Goldentayer
They left their country for the old reasons that have pushed people
into new lands for centuries – more freedom, more opportunity,
a better life for their children. Born in Moldova, Leonid and Yevgeniya
Goldentayer grew up hearing about democracy and a free-market economy.
They grew up wanting to live in such a country.
After ten years of trying, the Goldentayers were finally permitted
to leave. And when they left, they were ready, having learned basic
computer skills which were in demand in the United States. Other
Russian immigrants had told them about the help they received from
Central Scholarship Bureau.
The money the Goldentayers received allowed them to enroll in a
computer training program, and soon they both had jobs in the field.
Today, after nine years, they have the life they wanted for themselves
and their children.
At Central Scholarship Bureau, we speak frequently of the trust
we place in the people to whom we lend money. But imagine being
in a new country less than two months, with a tenuous grasp of the
language, and signing loan papers. Leonid and Yevgeniya Goldentayer
trusted us, as they trusted so much in leaving an old life for a
new life.
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 Patricia
Richardson
Dr. Patricia Richardson holds first life in her hands. As an obstetrician,
she has the privilege and the responsibility of bringing newborns
into the world.
Her passion is the health and welfare of women and children. A
second-year resident in Ob-Gyn, she has both a medical degree and
a Masters in Public Health. Her intention is to continue to acquire
skills and experience in this work, then to bring what she has learned
to people who do not receive the medical care they need.
Originally from the British West Indies, Patricia’s family
came to Baltimore when she was twelve because her parents wanted
a better life for their children. Patricia came to Central Scholarship
when she was in medical school, and we were able to help her significantly
– lending her the maximum amount to help her complete her
training. We
were also able to arrange for her to receive a scholarship designed
to aid women in high education.
Now Patricia Richardson wants to give back. She wants to study
ways of improving the care that women and children receive. The
combination of her two degrees makes her ideally qualified for this
work. And the combination of her intellectual power and her compassionate
drive will benefit women and children throughout the country.
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 Jacob
Cohen
Jacob Cohen is a gracious, welcoming man with an easy laugh, but
there is steel within him. There is within him something firm and
unyielding – a concentration of energy, will and intellect.
It is this that sustained him when he arrived in the United States
from Egypt at the age of 20. It is this that allowed him to rise
in a new country. But there are other things as well.
There was a man, Henry Burke, who opened Jacob’s mind to
much broader possibilities. A partner in a CPA firm where Jacob
was doing an internship, Mr. Burke was a former board member of
Central Scholarship Bureau. He encouraged Jacob to apply for a Central
Scholarship loan. And later, because of his example, Jacob Cohen
pushed himself further than he might have gone. He earned a CPA,
then a law degree, then an MBA. Today, he is a managing partner
with American Express Tax and Business Services.
From his position of success it is difficult to remember that Jacob’s
rise was by no means assured- there were years of struggle, deprivation
and part-time jobs. He needed all of his internal strength. He needed
the interest and encouragement of people who could see not just
who he was, but who he might become. And there was a moment when
he needed $1000 from Central Scholarship Bureau to be able to pursue
his studies full-time.
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 Nancy
Weimer
What courage, what drive does it take to return to school after
being out for years and taking on family responsibilities?
At age forty, her name was read at the Towson University graduation:
“Nancy Weimer, magna cum laude.” How could anyone in
the audience know the years of struggle and doubt she had endured?
At the end, she was raising two girls alone, working and trying
to finish her credits so that she could do something she had wanted
to do for years: teach children.
She remembers the day she came to CSB very clearly. She remembers
asking for five hundred dollars to cover tuition. After a review
of her expenses and finances, she was told we could not lend her
five hundred dollars. Her heart sank. Then she was told that Central
Scholarship Bureau would lend her more to cover all of her expenses
for the last year.
Nancy remembers the exact amount - $1167. She remembers how much
it helped that last year. And best of all, perhaps, she remembers
walking into her classroom that fall as a teacher – the beaming,
trusting children’s faces that made it all worthwhile.
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 Bruce
Taub
He is a lawyer and a community leader. His mind has been sharpened
by the intense discipline of law school and by a career spent finding
and manipulating the smallest pieces of fact in service to larger
goals. It is a mind that is complex and active. It thrives on challenge
and change. But within the complexity of his mind, there is a place
made up of memory and thanks, a place of gratitude. When Bruce speaks
of Central Scholarship, he speaks from that place and a smile comes
to his face.
He remembers going to see Frances Cohen at Central Scholarship
Bureau when he had been accepted to law school but did not have
the funds to attend. He remembers that he had only four weeks to
arrange all of the financing. Frances Cohen not only helped him
get a Central Scholarship loan, but she went much further, personally
helping to arrange federally guaranteed loans from a local bank.
And so he was able to go to law school, and then when he wanted
to pursue a Masters in Tax Law, Central Scholarship Bureau helped
again.
Bruce long ago repaid his loans. And each year he remembers Central
Scholarship because he cannot forget what it was like to be young,
ambitious and in need of a helping hand.
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