The Gotlibs' Gift of Education
By Amy Schwartz Kimlat
From the classrooms of Baghdad to the halls of Harvard, Samra Gotlib’s journey is a testament to the power of education and the resilience of the human spirit. Now, at 93, Samra and her husband Dr. Bernard Gotlib, 96, are giving back in a big way – with a major donation to Jewish Academy of Orlando. In fact, it’s one of the largest single gifts in the history of Central Florida’s Jewish community. Find out how a young girl’s love for learning, a family’s tragic loss, and a passion for investing culminated in a transformative gift that will impact our community for generations.
A Childhood Love for Learning
loved school. Math, science, reading, English, French... Everything at the Laura Kadoorie School for Girls in Baghdad, Iraq, fascinated the diligent student. She studied hard all year, always ranking in the top three of her class of 50. She spent her summers reviewing the material she’d learned.
This educational foundation was instrumental in the life of Samra Shamash, now Samra Gotlib. Together with Bernard, a retired ENT physician, the 93-year-old mother of five and grandmother of four is transforming Jewish education in Central Florida with the family’s gift – a significant, sustaining investment in what will now be known as the Gotlib Jewish Academy.
The rigorous education Samra received at her academically intense school in Baghdad shaped her life. It was “the best school in the world,” she says. “I enjoyed all the school and all the education. And the good part was that my parents felt very strongly about education, too. They really, basically, wanted it for themselves, except they couldn’t in a country like that, way back. And so they wanted us to really be educated, the whole family.”
Samra’s life in Baghdad was comfortable. She was one of nine children, and her family was well-off, though like all Jewish families in Baghdad, they lived separately from the Arab population.
Pictured above, from left to right: Before going to Harvard, Samra graduated from Southampton University in England. She is believed to be the first Iraqi woman to ever leave the country on her own to attend college, and Asher Wildman, of Spectrum News 13, interviews Samra, moments after the school was renamed to the Gotlib Jewish Academy
“We lived in a very beautiful, big house,” says Samra. “We had our own gardener who lived with us. We had a servant who lived with us.”
Samra credits the business acumen of her father, who she described as “a brilliant businessman.”
“And the good part was that my
parents felt very strongly about education, too.”
Samra’s parents were also passionate about Judaism and the Torah, so passionate in fact they built a synagogue in Baghdad, Baruch Shamash, so that Jews could pray together. The synagogue stood proudly until it was forcibly closed in 1972.
“It was a big, modern, beautiful building,” says Samra. “They built it for the Jewish community to have a place to be together and pray.”
The couple also built a Jewish Community Center in Israel, also named Baruch Shamash (with a synagogue inside), which still exists today.
Her father also invested in real estate – apartments, office buildings, and even a private tennis court where Samra played.
In 1951, he bought a large office building in Jerusalem. The family was safe from the Nazis in World War II, and business was excellent for her father as Allied Forces passed through Iraq.
Pursuing Higher education abroad
At 21, Samra put her education to impressive use. She applied for a visa and enrolled at the University of Southampton in England, a school her teacher recommended due to its small size.
“I was the first girl to have ever left Iraq on her own,” according to Samra.
There, she excelled in organic chemistry and graduated with honors. When she told a professor she wanted to pursue graduate studies in Israel, the professor said, “The best professor in organic chemistry in the world is at Harvard, and you are going there.”
“She’s been saving every penny for the school.”
Not only was Samra accepted to Harvard, but she received a scholarship to attend.
Samra and Bernard on their wedding day.
In Massachusetts, Samra met Bernard Gotlib, a talented clarinet player, at his sister’s wedding. After they married, Bernard volunteered for medical military service. The couple spent their first two years as husband and wife in Wiesbaden, Germany.
After completing his service, Bernard returned with Samra to Massachusetts where they lived most of their adult lives together – Bernard running his ENT practice and Samra raising their five closely-spaced children.
Tragedy Strikes
Samra’s parents remained in Iraq with her oldest brother, Shaul, and his family. Shaul felt responsible for caring for his parents after his father had gone blind at 55 due to a retinal detachment.
Life had grown more difficult for Iraqi Jews after the 1941 Farhud (an outbreak of violence against Jews in Iraq) and the 1948 establishment of Israel.
“The minute Israel became a state, the Arabs became very hostile to the Jews because they felt that the Middle East belongs to the Arabs, and there should be no other country that was not Arabic,” Samra says.
In 1972, tragedy struck when Iraqis kidnapped Shaul and tortured him to death.
“They didn’t know what was going on,” Samra says of her parents. “They really did not know this would happen. And then they hanged nine Jewish people in the marketplace with everybody looking and cheering. That’s how bad it got.”
Immediately after Shaul was taken, Samra and another brother arranged for Shaul’s wife and children to come to the United States, fearing they would target Shaul’s son next. Samra’s parents eventually came, as well.
“I, myself, will never forgive [those who killed Shaul], and I’m not going to allow them to get away with it.”
To ensure this, Samra donated money to the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, Israel, which is naming a permanent exhibit room in Shaul’s honor. It will be focused on Jewish heritage in Iraq. Museum staff visited the Gotlibs to gather the family’s story and artifacts.
“They wanted to know about Shaul, about his life, how it ended up,” Samra says. “And this is the best thing I ever did.
“They can’t get away with it,” she continues. “We will survive, and his name will be forever. And this room of his, as part of the contract, is never allowed to be taken over by the museum for something else. This is forever.”
Giving Back
After her children went to college, Samra became a beloved Hebrew teacher at a Jewish day school in Massachusetts.
“They loved me because I introduced the science, and the children were so fascinated with the chlorophyll and with the plants and with the signs,” Samra says. “And I had always enjoyed teaching our heritage. Our heritage is very important for the children to learn – and the language and the writing and the science.”
In 2014, seeking to escape the frigid Massachusetts winters, Bernard and Samra moved to Central Florida – home to their son Daniel, his wife Stacy, and their children Emma and Benjamin, who attended Jewish Academy of Orlando. Our community became the Gotlibs’ actual home and philanthropic home.
So, how did the ENT and schoolteacher become some of Orlando’s biggest Jewish philanthropists? In her 70s, Samra became interested in the stock market.
“How did I make my money?” Samra asks rhetorically. “I watch people. For instance, I look at Bill Gates, and he’s brilliant. So I say, how can I lose with him? I don’t gamble. I buy something top-notch and keep it. So I put it in Microsoft. Lo and behold, Microsoft split and split. And I have a pile of money.”
Samra explains her investments are diverse, mentioning index funds, Apple, Amazon, and AI.
“I’m putting my money in people who are not going to be bankrupt,” she says.
Investing in the Future of Jewish Education
The Gotlibs have established endowments for Shalom Orlando benefiting the festivals for Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Hanukkah, and Purim, ensuring those holidays will be celebrated by the community in perpetuity. They’ve also endowed a speaker series at Congregation Ohev Shalom.
After those gifts and their descendants’ trust funds, “whatever is left will go to the school,” Samra says. “I’m giving it to the school to give back for what was given to me as a young kid. And as a young kid, it was the day school that made me become who I am.”
“Samra has been planning and saving to give this gift for years,” says Bernard, who takes special pride in the couples’ 2002 Honda. “We live a frugal life. Samra doesn’t get her nails done. She doesn’t buy new dresses. She’s been saving every penny for the school.”
The Gotlibs’ prudence will pay dividends in our community for decades to come.
“The transformative generosity of the Gotlib family’s gift not only secures our present but propels us into an even brighter future,” says Chana Ben-Abraham, head of school. “When Samra came into my office and shared her intentions, I was blown away. The Gotlibs’ extraordinary generosity will help to educate countless Jewish students for generations, creating an ever growing impact on our community.”
“The transformative generosity of the
Gotlib family’s gift not only secures our present but propels us into an even brighter future.”
“We always wanted to give back for education,” Samra says. “Because what I am is what my Jewish school made me, and I want the children to have the opportunity to fulfill their dream through the day school.”
The Gotlib family at grandson Benjy’s bar mitzvah: Emma, Samra, Bernard, Benjy, Daniel, and Stacy.
This story was originally published in print in Summer 2024.