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Honoring all our presidents

As president of UJC, I can only stand in awe of the presidents we honor this month.

When George Washington took command of the American military, there was no United States. There were only the colonies, fighting for independence from England.

More than half a century later, it fell to Abraham Lincoln to preserve the nation born of Washington’s brilliant generalship.

Washington was a model of decisiveness. He had to be; he was leading men into battle.

Lincoln, who had field generals to lead the battles, struggled in his own mind with the courses open to him, agonizing over how best, and at what human and monetary cost, to bring light to the dreariest places and lives in his beloved America.

Masterful leadership requires the ability to act decisively, inspire confidence, analyze choices, and, perhaps most vital, know when to do which.

It was Lincoln, the empathic thinker, who said, “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.”

And it was Washington, the man of action, who aspired “... to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an ‘Honest Man.’”

Reflecting on these great American leaders and the timelessness of their wisdom, I am proud and humbled by the charge of leading UJC.

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Helping provide choice, future to youth in Ofakim

The Youth Futures operation, a major new funding initiative of The Jewish Agency and a major new presence for UJC MetroWest in Israel, is located in a place where the youth are not accustomed to thinking of themselves as having much choice, or much at all, regarding their future.

The setting of the program is the poor desert town of Ofakim, where Amir Shacham, UJC MetroWest Director of Israel Operations, has given it two enormous charges: 1) providing programs for children and teens at high risk of dropping out of school, and 2) providing adults with any official involvement in education in Ofakim, a new forum -- highly unusual and possibly unique in all of Israel.

A joint enterprise, Youth Futures is based on a matching challenge grant. For every dollar raised in the MetroWest community, The Jewish Agency will provide two dollars, one from its own core budget and one from Israeli philanthropists.

Elementary School
For the 200 or so Ofakim children in grades 1-6 identified by the welfare authorities as at risk of dropping out, the first step is to divide them into groups of 15-20.

Each of these small groups, Shacham explains, “will have a ‘mentor’ belonging to the ‘young community’ that we are establishing in the town.”

The young community is made up of two parts. The first, called Alon, consists of six girls from northern and central Israel who, instead of serving in the army, volunteer in Ofakim. They live in an apartment provided by the town. In the mornings, they work in the schools; in the afternoons, they mentor the children.

The second part of the young community is made up of graduates of the Hanoar Haoved youth movement. These young people reside in Ashdod and come to Ofakim every day to work with the children.

The young community workers, all under the supervision of a Youth Futures coordinator, have some shared activities and joint training sessions that serve their ultimate goal, which is the same: to integrate the children into regular society, where finishing school is the norm.

To this difficult end, Shacham said that the young people work with the children “almost on an individual basis to give them every possible opportunity, to serve as examples, and to monitor the children’s progress together with the schools and the families.”

Junior High
For teenagers in grades 7-9, Shacham said “we work with the municipality to give them ‘informal education’ during the day on Fridays.”

Ofakim is one of the pilot communities in Israel to implement a five-day week for schools, which leaves Fridays the joint responsibility of the municipality and the school system. However, since the town is not yet far enough along to provide its own curriculum for Fridays, Youth Futures is helping.

“We recruited a group of 25 college students from Ofakim,” Shacham said, “to work with these junior-high kids every Friday, giving them enrichment, tutoring, and casual classes. This group of college students will itself become a ‘young community’ that we hope will be able to contribute more to their own community” in time.

The Round Table
“To me, the best achievement is the Round Table,” Shacham added. “This is our own initiative. We gather together all the organizations, foundations, and outside sources that are involved in Ofakim's educational system. Around this table are sitting many [people from these groups]. The goal of this forum is to cooperate in helping the municipality with the major restructuring it is undertaking.

“As far as I know, this is the only cooperation of this kind on a local basis. We hope that it will serve as a model for other localities and the national system,” said Shacham.

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Donor Spotlight: Adina Brownstein

“I have been involved with Jewish philanthropy my whole life,” says Adina Brownstein, subject of this month’s UJC Donor Spotlight. “I grew up in a very philanthropic home. My parents were involved in our local synagogue, Hadassah, Jewish Federation of Cumberland County, and more. My parents are really my most wonderful examples.”

Having internalized the example of her parents, she became active herself, starting in her early 20s, when she became involved in the Young Leadership of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and worked on some events there.

Since moving to this area almost seven years ago, Brownstein has been active in UJC, where she is involved in both Young Leadership Division and the Women’s Department in high positions: Livnot chair for Division and Golda Meir Society chair for the Women’s Department.

Recently, she gave her first presentation of a short course called Philanthropy 101 to the moms of the children in the preschool at Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn, which her own two daughters, “the lights of my life,” also attend.

Brownstein does not mention that she wowed her fellow pre-school moms, but she does say that Philanthropy 101 is a necessary course “because it accomplishes two major things. It helps people identify why they give philanthropically, and specifically Jewishly, and it educates people about UJC.”

These objectives are difficult to underestimate because “it is important for people not to just give, but to understand who and what benefit through their gift.

“Many people have heard about UJC,” she says, but they are uncertain when it comes to specifics about what it does.

“These specifics,” Brownstein emphasizes, “need to be made clearer. Philanthropy 101 only clears through the first layer [of this learning process], but I feel that it is a great first step.”

A professional business consultant, Brownstein says that while her knowledge of philanthropy is not directly tied to her work, “I find that my business knowledge helps me look at the areas I work with for UJC, and look at the big picture of how to approach everything from events to donors.

“You learn by example. And then the more you do, the more you want to learn. I started working with UJC because it is what my family did. The more I do with UJC and the more I understand where the money goes, the more important the work becomes to me.”

Another important avenue of learning is “seeing first hand the beneficiaries of the work we do.”

In September, she visited Israel on a UJC Leadership Mission. What stands out in her memories of that trip “is how thankful people are to UJC MetroWest for what we are able to provide them with. We live in a strong and thriving Jewish community and I am so happy to be a part of such a warm community that does such great mitzvot!”

How does Brownstein balance family life, motherhood, and a full-time career with such active participation in UJC?

“It’s not really how I find time to work with UJC. It’s why -- because it is so important.”

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Lichtman named head of Jewish education entity

“I am, first, a lifelong Jewish learner,” Robert Lichtman says, without the slightest hesitation. “That’s the most important thing.”

And when Lichtman talks about learning over a lifetime, he means not just the course of his own years, but the time of life on earth.

“You cannot be a lifelong learner without other lifelong learners in the generations before you were born and those that come after.”

In other words, the transition of the former Jewish Education Association into what is temporarily being called the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life is in the hands of a straight-talking original thinker who takes seriously his professional inheritance.

“The JEA has been around for decades,” he says. “It has a strong and proud history of providing expertise to educators in the community.”

So why is it changing?

“To focus on specific cohorts. Teenagers, for example. We need to find how many teenagers there are in MetroWest and then figure out how to reach them, even if it means reaching them in the malls and online.”

And how do you reach teenagers in the malls and online?

“With experience and opportunities.”

Such as?

“Trips to Israel, weeks or weekends of camping, family activities, and humanitarian volunteering.

”Volunteerism is big in the Jewish heart, but when Jewish youngsters volunteer in a Jewish milieu, they learn that volunteering is not just an American ethic; it is in the Jewish tradition.”

And if the parents are not much involved, or not involved at all, how do you involve their kids?

The short answer is: you don’t. So the work Lichtman plans for the new education partnership is perhaps, in his delicate phrase, “not always exactly in sync” with parental messages. He is quick to illustrate what he means by this.

When he was an executive with Hillel in New York City during the second intifada, “parents would call and ask how we, at Hillel, were reaching out to their kids, Jewish kids who knew nothing, but who suddenly needed to be knowledgeable given the anti-Jewish sentiment on campus. And after I would describe our creative and effective approaches, I would also say, ‘You know, we’ve had kid your kid for one year. Where were you the previous 18?’”

That explains why Lichtman envisions his new enterprise as having “parallel tracks with teens and parents. I’d like to see students volunteer, but this is not enough. I also want to see volunteering modeled by the parents.”

Simultaneous with outreach to teenagers will be a focus on early childhood and pre-teens. “The child is the gateway to the family,” Lichtman says simply.

Growing up in a traditional home on Long Island a generation or two ago, he himself did not have to fulfill this gateway role. He went to day school through high school and then, before college, he studied for six months in Israel at a yeshiva.

“Yeshiva study,” he says, not missing a chance to teach, “is not [necessarily] to become a rabbi; it is just Jewish education.”

It was Jewish education that he wanted, and got, and is now prepared to serve with a deliberateness that marked even the date he selected to start his new position.

“I chose to start my present job on Hanukkah because of Iosif Begum, whom I met in Moscow on Simchas Torah in 1982. He had been imprisoned four times for teaching Hebrew. I had asked him in advance what I could bring him. And he said a copy of Exodus!”

In Russia at that time, photocopying, like everything else the state saw as information control, was illegal.

“So I said, ‘One copy? How will the study group read it?’

“And he said that he would photograph each page. And that’s how the group would read Exodus together.”

So that year, at the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, which Lichtman represented, “we dedicated Hanukkah to those brave teachers who were bringing the light of Jewish education to the dark of Russia. We honored eight different Russian educators, one each night.”

Without having to photograph anything, Lichtman recently finished reading a one-time best-seller called Who Moved My Cheese?

“It’s about organizational change,” he said. “Its simple but important message is that ultimately it’s better to adjust to change than to resist it.

“But I intend to lead change, real change, not change for its own sake.”

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Travel abroad, bringing it home: UJC Mission reflections

[Editor’s Note: The following is the first article in an occasional series featuring the remembrances and reflections of some of the 18 participants in a leadership mission to Israel in September 2005. The purpose of the trip was to enable campaign leaders and emerging leaders to see for themselves the projects that UJC is funding, and then to translate those first-hand experiences into powerful presentations on behalf of the UJA Campaign.]

What first impressed Greg Russo during his week in Israel as part of a UJC leadership mission last fall was what he saw as “a desire throughout Israeli society to have normalcy.”

One highlight, he said, was visiting people who had been relocated because of the Gaza disengagement. “It was a person-to-person look at their experience, their desire to lead a normal life,” said the Randolph resident. “They weren’t asking for money. They want to get their children in school and go back to work. What they are suffering from most is the dismantling of their community.”

Russo was particularly gratified by UJC MetroWest’s immediate action to help re-establish a community by providing funds for a community center and a youth director.

He also will not soon forget the special reunions he observed between parents and their adult sons and daughters who, as children, had emigrated alone from the former Soviet Union and who currently serve in the Israeli army. Some of the soldiers and parents had not seen each other for years.

Wherever he went, Russo saw Israelis trying to make life as normal as possible, in spite of hardships and the intifada.

“We saw a bomb shelter that also served as a play space,” he said. “They try to make it feel normal, so that when the kids need to use it, they won’t be upset.

“When we went out in the evening to a café or pub, we saw lots of Israelis out there. Life goes on.

Participating in the mission “made me even more committed” to the work of the UJA Campaign, he said. “To see how the funds we raise affect people’s lives is very powerful. It was great to be part of a trans-generational mission that included senior leadership, middle-aged and younger people. It was a very positive experience of passing on the mantle of leadership from generation to generation.”

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JFS helps families navigate the adoption adventure

It can be a roller coaster.

It can be sad at times.

But, says Sheila Muster, “I tell my families that I really believe if they are serious about becoming parents, they will. They just have to be patient. And when they get the child, it’s wonderful and you’re thrilled.”

Muster is director of operations for Jewish Family Services and director of adoption services.

She needs the two titles because the second one “makes New Jersey happy.” When the subject is adoption, New Jersey requires a state license to provide services. Thus, Muster has two titles and two business cards.

The present adoption program, which operates at JFS in Florham Park, started in late 1993.

How does it work?

“A couple calls. They don’t have to be Jewish. A lot of our families are not Jewish and a lot are intermarried. This is a non-sectarian service, and clients pay for it to cover the costs of the home study, post-placement supervision and court reports.

The couple that calls “knows zero. Maybe they have been doing in vitro or fertility treatments with no success. They have started thinking about adoption.

“I invite them in and give them Adoption 101,” a presentation of the various ways that “they can reach their goal of becoming parents.”

Adoptions can be domestic or international. In international adoptions, “the most popular countries are Russia, Guatemala, and China.”

Once the couple makes a decision, Muster gives them information.

For domestic adoptions, she gives them the names of appropriate resources, including attorneys and agencies.

For international adoptions, she gives them books, websites, and assignments with instructions “to go home and do their homework and call me back with questions.”

Before any adoption can take place, there must first be a home study which, Muster says, “is not casual. When you finish, you have a 10-14 page report. You want to capture who they are, their strengths, weaknesses, upbringing, education, jobs, hobbies” and any potential problems.

What might be a problem?

“Anger. If you could conceive, nobody would be prying like this. So sometimes there is anger, and some counseling for that ahead.”

Adopting couples need not be rich, “but should be comfortable,” Muster says. International adoptions can run up to $35,000, and domestic adoptions tend to be about two-thirds of that.

“We do about 40 home studies a year,” Muster says. “If we start [the process] in January, a couple might have a baby by December. The average wait is around 18 months, and we have many repeat customers.”

Currently, the program is supervising about 50 children post-placement.

Last April there was a party at the Lautenberg Family JCC in Whippany to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the adoption program.

“We had over 120 people,” Muster recalls. “Couples, families, kids. The kids looked great.”

For information about adoption, call Muster at 973.765.9050, ext. 305.

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Springboard helps immigrants overcome IDF limitations

When Ayubu, a bright 17-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli, was facing enlistment to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), he did not lack motivation or desire to serve. He was determined to serve in Golani, one of the IDF’s top infantry brigades — especially as pre-military testing had revealed that he met the requirements for this intense three-year commitment. However, as a student in a boarding school unequipped to help advance his aspirations, and unlike his veteran-Israeli peers with families who are familiar with pre-army procedures and can help prepare for this seminal experience, Ayubu lacked the support and know-how to navigate this often confusing process.

For young Israelis, military service is a key stepping stone in determining the course of their adult lives. Service in the IDF has the potential to influence their future and often provides direction for higher education and employment. It also fills a social function by bringing together young Israelis from a range of backgrounds in what is an integral part of the collective national experience.

For immigrants, like Ayubu, a positive and fulfilling army experience is even more crucial, as it is a prime factor towards their integration into mainstream Israeli society. Unfortunately, due to the same factors that make this integration so essential — lack of family support or familiarity with the workings of Israeli society — many young immigrants fail to meet their potential during their army service. Whether they fail to enlist, obtain menial jobs, or just simply drop out in the middle of their service, the end result is the same — drastically reduced education and employment opportunities in their adult lives.

Indeed, as Ayubu's draft date drew closer, despite his abilities he found himself assigned to a two-year menial service track, with less responsibility, challenge, and prestige… and ultimately less promise for the future. Fortunately for Ayubu, JDC was there to help.

Aware of the needs of immigrant youth and the IDF's limitations to tend to them, JDC has launched the Springboard Initiative to help compensate for the challenges encountered by these young adults. Working in partnership with the IDF, Springboard combines JDC's expertise in developing services for immigrants with existing army educational and support infrastructures to meet the special needs of young adult immigrants and their families. It provides key intervention in three phases — before enlistment, during service, and prior to demobilization.

For Ayubu, this pre-enlistment intervention was precisely what he needed to achieve his infantry aspirations. Nagista, the local Springboard coordinator, set up meetings with key staff of the IDF induction base to discuss Ayubu's reassignment. Asher, a program volunteer and former Golani officer himself, put Ayubu in direct contact with a Golani unit in order to inspire them to act on Ayubu’s behalf and support his transfer request.

Springboard staff anticipate that Ayubu will soon be accepted into Golani, and will be on track for a more fulfilling and successful army service. As he does, Springboard will be there to provide further assistance including preparatory courses, regular meetings with soldiers, their families, and the appropriate IDF personnel, as well as proactive information resources and access to services pertaining to employment, vocational training, and higher education. This assistance will ensure that Ayubu and many like him not only succeed in their service but are also set for a promising future afterwards.

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