Checks and Balance

Susan and Henry Samueli, their three children in the car, had driven right past the temple once, twice, three times and still didn’t see it. Temple Beth El, housed in a small cluster of trailers in Aliso Viejo, was easy to miss.

“It was a shock to me that the only Reform temple [in south Orange County] was in trailers,” said Henry Samueli, who moved with his family to Orange County from Los Angeles in 1995. “So in the back of my mind I said, ‘Gee, we have to do something about that someday.’ But obviously at that point I had no idea what would happen.”

What happened was that Henry Samueli struck it rich. Broadcom Corp., the computer chip company he co-founded, went public in 1998 and made him one of the wealthiest men in America. Forbes magazine estimates his fortune these days at $5.1 billion.

Immediately, the Samuelis--both engineers who met 18 years ago at a synagogue dance in Los Angeles--began to give back. And they started with their temple. The Corona del Mar couple’s $3 million gift last spring to Temple Beth El will help the congregation move in September from its home in trailers to a $15-million, 65,000-square-foot building a block away.

That project is one of many in Orange County and across the globe to benefit from their largess, which springs from their religion but does not end with Jewish causes. Since 1999 the couple have donated $27 million to UC Irvine, $25 million to UCLA and $5 million to Opera Pacific. And they have also given smaller sums to other causes.

The Newport Beach-based Samueli Foundation now gets more than 20 requests a week for money. Executive Director Mike Lefkowitz and his small staff sift through the proposals and present the most promising to the Samuelis.

Because Henry Samueli is an executive of a hot public company, much about his life--especially his finances--is common knowledge, which is the reason for some of the very public gifts.

“It’s not because we want credit for the giving,” he said. “We are constantly in the papers, so our wealth is out there. I’d feel awkward if the only stories that were written about us in the papers were how wealthy we are. We want to balance it a little bit.”

Said Susan Samueli: “The first thing that entered our mind when we went public was how to give some away.”

The couple also hope to inspire others--Jewish or not--to help erase Orange County’s well-documented record as an affluent community that is less than generous.

“Many people in Orange County who have a lot of money don’t give,” said Allen Krause, rabbi at Temple Beth El.

Before the Samuelis’ gift, Krause said, he figured his 550-member congregation could raise $2.5 million for a new building. Inspired by the $3-million infusion, temple members have already matched that sum.

“The Samuelis’ donation gave people added faith in the future of the congregation,” he said.

Both Samuelis were brought up in the Jewish tradition, which teaches tzedakah, the Hebrew word for justice. It often is translated to mean charity.

“You have an obligation to give,” Krause said. “Hopefully, it also comes from the heart. Henry and Susan have absorbed this lesson. They’ve been tremendously helpful in getting the community to grow more religious by knowing what tzedakah is. They give not only to Jewish causes, but they’ve set a fine example everywhere. I hope others will follow.”

Giving to the temple was an easy choice, the Samuelis say.

“It’s a great synagogue with great people,” said Susan, who said she fell in love with the extensive education program for both children and adults.

“The motivation is to make sure we have a good, healthy Jewish community here,” she said, “To make sure we have the right infrastructure to support the children’s education and to make sure Jewish culture is thriving.”

Henry, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, added: “The trailers had the implication of nonpermanent. And that’s what bothered me.”

The couple also wanted to give permanence to the emerging Reform movement in Israel, where of the estimated 20 Reform temples only four have their own buildings. After a trip to Ra’anana near Tel Aviv, the couple quietly gave $2.5 million to the Reform temple there. The 15,000-square-foot building, named Merkaz Samueli (the Samueli Center), will be completed sometime next year.

“They are a most generous family,” Rabbi Michael Boyden said in an e-mail from Israel. “I believe they recognize the importance of religious pluralism and offering alternatives in Israel to the large segment of our population who are not attracted to Judaism by the orthodox religious establishment.”

A number of Orange County organizations also have benefited, including the Jewish Community Center, two Jewish day schools, and the Jewish Federation. The Samuelis are also major sponsors of the Orange County Religious Diversity Faire.

Just two weeks ago, the Samuelis made a gift to the Orange County chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice, a nonprofit group that promotes “understanding and respect between all races, religions and cultures.”

Said Bill Shane, executive director of the organization: “Members of the Jewish community in Orange County can feel extraordinarily proud that the Samueli family is making it possible for Jewish life in Orange County to be enriched in a way that will benefit people--particularly the Jewish children--both today and in the future.”

Henry Samueli, 45, describes himself as “very much a moderate in all aspects of my life.” When he speaks of his religion, his voice rises in passion only on the subject of fundamentalism.

“Broadcom is probably the most multicultural company on the planet Earth,” he said. “We have every race, creed, color, religion, which is great. I love that.

“One of the things I like most about Reform Judaism is that it promotes tolerance of various religions and cultures. I’m very much against orthodox religions of all kinds, including Judaism. They don’t have their heads on straight.”

With an engineer’s mind that wants to analyze every biblical detail, the former UCLA professor has trouble making leaps of faith.

“For me, it’s more a cultural tie than a religious tie,” he said. “But I feel a very strong tie to the Jewish culture. Religion is more challenging for me.”

Susan Samueli, fortysomething, grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. For her, religion comes more naturally. She is a frequent volunteer at Temple Beth El and serves on the temple’s board of directors, though she describes her family’s attendance at services as “haphazard, but we go.” She spends her time bringing up the couple’s children and supervising the family’s foundation.

Her strong faith, a constant since childhood, has made instant wealth easier to handle. “It keeps you grounded,” she said.

William Lobdell writes the “Getting Religion” column for The Times Orange County edition. His e-mail address is bill.lobdell@latimes.com