 Gersh served on the board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund for many years, and he and his wife Beatrice were benefactors of its retirement home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, as well as the Los Angeles Music Center.Gersh and his wife were avid collectors of modern art, starting from the 1950s, and maintained one of the largest private art collections in the United States.In 1979 they played an active role in the campaign for the foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and have donated artwork from their collection for display in the museum by artists such as Jackson Pollock, David Smith and Edward Ruscha.