Out of a life of books, a new endowment rises up

By Andrew Adler
Community Editor  

Evie Topcik was steeped in Judaism’s eternally resonant pages. If Jews are the “People of the Book,” she built a personal and professional life defined – literally – by books themselves. And when she passed away on May 7, 2025, at age 82, she had planned bequests that included a cause worthy of Louisville Collegiate School’s much-beloved former librarian: helping establish a PJ Library Endowment at the Jewish Federation of Louisville – with her gift as seed money. 

A partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, PJ Library is a program that sends Jewish-themed books free of charge each month to children from infancy to age 8. The Grinspoon Foundation underwrites a portion of the costs, with local Federations responsible for the balance. Here in Louisville, there are additional related components, such as Musikgarten, which PJ Library funding helps support. 

“This is a unique opportunity,” said Frances Skolnick, who directs Planned Giving & Endowments at the Federation. “The Grinspoon Foundation has agreed to match up to $380,000 in donations to this new PJ Library Endowment Fund. We are so fortunate to have Evie’s gift to launch this. And now we hope others will also want to participate and help support PJ Library in Louisville in perpetuity.” 

It’s an exciting new component that will bolster one of the nation’s most successful programs for young Jewish children. And the fact that this is a local initiative makes it all more relevant. 

“We applaud the Louisville Jewish community for securing this impactful lead gift for their PJ Library Endowment,” said says Lara Knuettel, Chief Philanthropy Officer for PJ Library. “We are proud to provide a match for this gift from our PJ Library Endowment Initiative, furthering its impact. These joint efforts will help preserve PJ Library for future generations and ensure a joyful Jewish future for the children of Kentucky’s largest city.” 

Topcik’s bequest was in two parts. One portion was designated for the Trager Family JCC, specifically for any library that might arise in the building that replaced the old JCC. The second part was an unrestricted gift to benefit the Federation. 

“Evie purposely gave some general directions about what she wanted the use to be,” Skolnick explained. “But knowing that we were in a new building, she deliberately was flexible as to how we applied the gifts,” Skolnick said. 

In conversations among Federation professionals and Evie Topcik’s three daughters, the idea of establishing a PJ Library Endowment began to take shape. It was, after all, a natural extension of their mother’s core sensibilities. 

“Mom would always buy books for the library at the JCC when she was a volunteer,” Carolyn Bleicher, her eldest daughter recalled during a recent Zoom interview from her home in Boulder, Colo. Her two sisters – Jeanne Aronoff in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio, and Deborah Topcik in Washington, D.C. – also participated. (A fourth daughter, Laura, died in 1974 shortly before turning 5.) 

One of Carolyn’s closest friends is Sara Klein Wagner, President & CEO of the Federation and the Trager Family JCC. 

“I had the privilege of knowing Evie first as Carolyn’s mom, spending countless hours in their home,” Wagner recalled. “When I had the opportunity to work in the Jewish community, I also was fortunate to see Evie’s passion for people, Jewish life, and purpose. She loved books and libraries – including those at the JCC and Collegiate – and she brought that enthusiasm to everything she did.” This passion followed wherever she traveled. I led a mission to our partnership region in the Western Galilee in 2006, Evie and Chuck were on the solidarity trip following the war with Lebanon. When we visited a local school Evie bee lined straight to the library and instantly befriended their librarian.“ 

In that context, it’s hardly surprising that Evie Topcik took it upon herself to “downsize, organize and promote the Israel T. Naamani Library in the (former) JCC,” she wrote in the August 2012 issue of Community. “It was difficult discarding about 5,000 books, but I made the decision to let them go to Louisville residents, rather than to sell them to an out-of-state wholesaler.” 

Topcik was very much a Louisvillian. Born Evelyn Lou Cohen Rosen (“Evelyn” soon fell to the wayside in favor of “Evie,” or, on some occasions, “Evie Lou”), she attended Atherton High School, did her undergraduate work at The Ohio State University, and earned a master’s degree in library sciences from Louisville’s Spalding University. In 1988 – after a stint as children’s librarian at the Bon Aire branch of the Louisville Free Public Library – at age 50, she began a two-decade stint as Collegiate’s librarian. 

Keneseth Israel Congregation became her spiritual home, though she also attended Adath Jeshurun because – as a Conservative synagogue, it was more egalitarian than KI, which used to be Traditional. 

It was at KI in 2000 (by then it was affiliated with the Conservative movement) that she celebrated her adult Bat Mitzvah, a place where she could be found bounding up the center aisle on any given Shabbat morning. 

Married for 57 years to Charles (Chuck) Melvin Topcik (they met while students at Ohio State; he died in 2020), she embraced her Judaism with fervor and the perspective of a woman who found joy in her faith. 

Her daughters followed suit. “The three of us are fourth-generation KI,” Deborah Topcik said. “Jewish traditions have always been something we’ve grown up with.” 

One might say that Evie Topcik was an instinctive literary creature. “It seemed like anytime you brought up any subject, Evie would be quick to say, ‘Oh gosh, I read a book about this, but you (can) just read the first two chapters because it isn’t any good,’” Kevin Bleicher, Carolyn’s husband, recalled with a laugh. 

“She always had opinions and was a voracious reader,” he said, and she was so proud of the work she did in the libraries.” 

Evie “kept a little journal, where she would write down every book she’d read,” Carolyn said. “Sometimes she’d write a couple of sentences; sometimes she would just say ‘Good’ or ‘Bad.’” 

A characteristic image might portray Evie Topcik lying down, book on one side, her notebook on the other. “When mom retired from Collegiate, we made a custom cake for her,” Jeanne Aronoff recalled. “It was her with her slippers, reading in bed.” 

“When she worked at the Naamani library, I remember her bringing in authors, and a couple of them stayed at our house,” Deborah said. “There’s an endowment at Collegiate to bring in authors to speak to students – it was something she was passionate about.” 

That passion became a multi-generational, ‘L’dor V’dor’ thing. 

“My kids loved getting books autographed by the authors,” Aronoff said. “I have a whole stack. As your kids age, you kind of go through and donate books. But my kids refused to get rid of the signed ones.” 

Evie’s will deliberately spread the wealth, library-wise. She left money to Ohio State, Spalding, the Louisville Free Public Library and, of course, to Collegiate. 

In that spirit, channeling Evie Topcik’s bequests to help launch a PJ Library Endowment makes perfect sense. Call it the truest reflection of who she was, and what was so close to her heart. 

“It’s something I think Evie would love,” Skolnick emphasized. “It exactly fits with what she was all about, and it will have such tremendous benefits for the community, especially as we continue to grow this endowment. Being the one who is the first donor to the endowment, I think, would have made her very proud.” 

“Evie always shared new ideas and was ready to roll up her sleeves to make things happen,” Wagner added. “Her lifelong commitment to sharing great stories is synonymous with PJ library, and we are so appreciative that she left this legacy.” 

 

If you’d like to donate to the PJ Endowment Fund, you can get information about Federation giving by going online at jewishlouisville.org/federation/ways-to-give/, by emailing Frances Skolnick at [email protected], or by calling her at 502-238-2735.