Mary Jaharis, the Greek-American philanthropist and widow of Michael Jaharis, recently donated $50 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York City.
Jaharis is a longtime supporter and friend of the Met and an Honorary Trustee.
“Whether through her generous contributions or her infectious enthusiasm for art, Mrs. Jaharis has been a vital figure in reshaping the Museum into what our visitors experience today,” a spokesperson of the Met notes.
“She has been instrumental in bringing to life gallery renovations, acquisitions, exhibitions and programs related to Byzantine and medieval art, Greek and Roman art, American art, modern and contemporary,” the spokesperson says.
“Even inspired by her devoted support of our work, the Met is excited to embark on this next chapter, aiming to create a space that will reflect the diverse cultures and ideologies that fuel the landscape of modern and contemporary art,” it was added.
The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture
Through The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture Jaharis is dedicated to promoting and advancing knowledge about the rich heritage of the Byzantine Empire, which lasted for more than a thousand years and spanned three continents.
The Center’s mission is to create academic and educational resources that engage the wider public, scholars, and the Orthodox Christian community. Its programs encourage awareness and appreciation of Byzantium and its legacy.
Founded in 2010 through a generous gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation, the Mary Jaharis Center is established at Hellenic College Holy Cross, an Orthodox Christian institution of higher education in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The Center’s association with Hellenic College Holy Cross provides a singular opportunity to address Byzantine culture from the perspective of Orthodox scholarship, theology, and the arts.
Mary Jaharis continues the legacy of her late husband
Greek-American pharmaceutical leader Michael Jaharis, one of the most important figures in the history of the Greek Diaspora and an impactful philanthropist, passed away at the age of 87 in 2016.
His assets amounted to 2.2 billion dollars, and he was number 307 on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest people in the US for 2015.
Jaharis contributed enormously to strengthening the Greek Diaspora. In 2013, he and his wife, Mary, donated two million dollars to the Orthodox Theology and Culture “Archbishop Demetrios” seat of Fordham University.
That same year, the Jaharis Family Foundation pledged to donate another two million dollars for the alleviation of hunger and poverty in Greece.
He was an Archon Exarchos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as the Vice-President of the Archdiocesan Council of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and led the effort to see New York City’s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, the sole church destroyed in the 9/11 attacks at Ground Zero, rebuilt near its original site.
Jaharis made remarkable charitable contributions to the DePaul University College of Law, Columbia University Medical Center, the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, the Tufts University School of Medicine, and the Metropolitan Opera.
He was a founder of The Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment Fund, and Faith: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism.
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