A Place to Call Home
Pictured: Jeremy and Debbie Brown
For Jeremy Brown, supporting student housing at the Technion was a personal and deeply meaningful decision — one rooted in his family’s values, his admiration for Israel’s spirit of innovation, and a desire to recognize his father’s legacy.
“I wanted to do something to honor my father, and the idea of making housing more affordable or more available … that’s sort of a gateway to being able to attend an institution like the Technion or any institution of higher learning,” Brown said.
That ideal of access and inclusion echoed the life of Brown’s father, M. Harvey Brown, whom the gift memorializes. Born in 1909, Harvey was the youngest of six siblings, the son of immigrants from Germany and Austria. He attended City College of New York, earned his CPA, and was hired at the largest and most prestigious CPA firm in the world, based in New York City — a remarkable achievement for a Jewish man at a time of widespread employment discrimination in the 1930s.
Harvey went on to help resettle Jewish refugees through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and later worked for the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Europe after World War II.
“Education was always very, very important,” Brown said, a value that shaped his decision to make a donation to the Technion to support broader access to higher learning in Israel, where cultivating the next generation of scientists and innovators is essential to economic growth, national security, and global leadership in technology.
The gift from Brown and his wife Debbie supports the Technion Undergraduate Student Village dormitories, a modern complex near the University’s main gate designed to accommodate both singles and couples. The dorms help alleviate one of the most significant barriers to higher education: the cost of living
“Making housing more available and affordable really resonated with me.”
– Jeremy Brown, Fintech Entrepreneur and Technion Supporter
An entrepreneur in the fintech world, he first learned about the Technion seven years ago, when a longtime acquaintance invited him to a local event. “We were just kind of blown away learning about the University and everything that it did,” Brown said.
Brown was especially energized by the Technion’s role in shaping Israel as the “Startup Nation.” Its culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, translating bold ideas into real-world solutions, resonated with his own professional background. He also found a strong endorsement from a close friend who works in venture capital. “Most of the people that my friend backs in Israel or companies he works with, they’re all run by Technion graduates,” he said.
But beyond the innovation, Brown was inspired by the Technion’s ethos. “It’s not just this elitist institution catering to a small segment of Israeli society. It’s bringing in the best minds. It’s creating an institution where people are exposed to a broad range of opinions, thoughts, people, and cultures. And I thought that was just great.”
His gift to the Technion reflects this vision, providing students from all walks of life with not just a place to live, but also a foundation for success. His gift is already making a difference — helping to ensure that more students from more backgrounds can live, study, and thrive at the Technion.
