Iconic comedienne Joan Rivers generously left her enormous wealth to family, friends, and even members of her staff but she also made sure to leave money to charity groups as well, including several Jewish organizations.
Rivers, a proud Jewish woman, was caught on film this past July by TMZ, giving her opinion on about Israel’s counter terror Operation Protective Edge and the “killing of civilians” by the Israeli army in Gaza.
“Let me just tell you if New Jersey was firing rockets into New York we would wipe them out. If we heard they were digging tunnels from New Jersey to New York we would get rid of Jersey.”
Rivers, 81, lost her life in September due to cardiac arrest after a minor elective procedure on her vocal cords in a Manhattan clinic.
She named her only daughter, Melissa, as executor of her will and manager of her trust.
Rivers’ 2014 will was filed in New York State Surrogate’s Court and gave her daughter “the broadest and most absolute permissible direction” over some $150 million.
Among the Jewish organizations to whom she left bequests were the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jewish Guild Healthcare, Jewish Guild for the Blind, and the Jewish Home and Hospital Foundation in Manhattan.
Feisty to the end, Rivers added a provision to her will that anyone who tries to challenge either the will or the trust would be disinherited.