When Al Ashley first began peeking inside Los Angeles’ Jewish day schools to review their business practices, it was partly for personal reasons: He wanted to make sure his three children would get a sound education.
“I thought, hopefully, it would be a benefit to our children, our friends’ children and the community,” recalled Ashley, 88, a Brooklyn-born CPA.
That was 30 years ago. Since then, Ashley’s volunteer efforts with BJE — Builders of Jewish Education have blossomed into a pro bono second career helping day schools reform and strengthen their financial systems. Over the past three decades, Ashley has spent thousands of hours creating fiscal and operational guidelines that the BJE has compiled into two editions of its “Guide to Governance, Finance and Tax Issues for Jewish Day Schools and Yeshivot,” which is now distributed nationally. His work has made a profound and lasting impact on Jewish education in Los Angeles and beyond, colleagues say.
Just don’t praise Ashley too publicly (he initially shied away from being interviewed for this article). “I’ve always liked to stay in the background,” he said with a dismissive wave and a smile.
Ashley honed his expertise in money matters during a 45-year career in the entertainment industry — first, as treasurer of the Ashley-Famous Agency (now ICM Partners), founded by his brother, Ted Ashley; then, as chief financial and administrative officer of Warner Bros. television distribution operations. When he began joining his wife, Hilda, at BJE meetings in the early 1980s, he brought with him a principle upon which he had come to rely: Always do things correctly, the proper way.
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