“What are we here for, if not to help others?” Jean Silber remembers her father, Paul Flah, saying to her as a child. An immigrant from Syria, Paul grew his business from a pushcart in Syracuse, New York, to several women’s clothing stores across the state. His compassion and belief in service to others was ever-present for his daughter as she watched childhood friends struggle during World War II. “It was all we talked about and thought about,” she says. “There was so much rationing.”
Those early experiences left an indelible mark on Jean, who went on to marry Silber’s Bakery president Sidney Silber and found the Jean and Sidney Silber Foundation, supporting dozens of organizations across Baltimore. The two met on a blind date in January 1955 when they were paired with others. “My date was an absolute drip,” says Jean, laughing. “But I ended up dancing with the other guy all night, Sid. He called the next morning and we were married by October!” The marriage changed everything for Jean, who had come to Baltimore with her twin sister Joan to attend Goucher College and trained to be an executive at Hutzler’s Department Store.
One thing that brought Jean and Sidney together was their shared belief in giving back. Like Jean, Sidney was inspired by his father, who fed families from the back of his bakery during the Depression and went on to operate dozens of stores across the Baltimore region. “My parents had a foundation long before you knew their names,” says Jean’s son, Paul Silber. “It was mandatory for us to sit down twice a year as a family to review our giving. We always knew it was their decision, but when we got older, we would opine on causes we felt strongly about and they would really listen.”
While the Silbers made most of their gifts from a private family foundation, they also created a donor-advised fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation in 2003 and gave generously over the years to BCF’s Fund for Neighborhoods, which supports resident-led organizations building more vibrant local communities, and the Civic Leadership Fund, which supports BCF’s operating costs. “It’s so important,” says Jean of BCF. “[The Community Foundation] has connections and can do all of the things that fall through the cracks. There are really good people doing good work, but we need more and we need good guidance.”
In 2013, Sidney passed away and Jean was left to manage the foundation’s giving alone—an immense undertaking given the size and scope of their grantmaking. She asked friends for advice and the group, which included son Paul, current and former BCF trustees Deborah Callard, Paul Wolman and Steve Ziger, and BCF fundholder George Hess, recommended closing the foundation and streamlining all of their grantmaking through BCF. “Both George and Paul were so supportive and instructional,” says Jean. “It was an easy process and it’s made life so much simpler administratively. It used to be a mad scramble of letters and check writing at the end of the year.”
Amanda Silber.
When considering the purpose for the new donor-advised fund, the family kept it simple. “We just said ‘what’s the need?’ There are so many you can’t begin to meet them all,” says Jean. “What we came to was education—so basic and central to the development of any city—and employment.” Those two areas of focus have allowed for expansive grantmaking from the Jean and Sidney Silber Family Donor-Advised Fund since its launch in 2022. Recipients have ranged from Arts for Learning, Teach for America and Wide Angle Youth Media to Parks & People Foundation, Paul’s Place and Turnaround Tuesday to name a few. Among the grants Jean is most proud of are those to Enoch Pratt Free Library, which the family has supported for decades. “It was a revelation the first time I saw the central branch,” she says. “It’s like Shangri-La!”
Jean’s son Paul serves as co-founder and advisor to the fund, helping to steward both the family’s assets and the value of philanthropy for future generations. That’s important to Jean, who remains inspired by her father’s guidance that the purpose of life lies in helping others. The family has already made an immense impact on the lives of countless individuals and the region as a whole, but Jean is determined to do more. When asked about her hopes for the future of the city she loves so deeply, she says simply: “Two words: It soars.”
