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From the president, Kenneth R. Heyman
Serving the bread of hope

As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and look forward to the beginning of a new year, we all think about our own hopes and intentions for the future, and, as Jews, we think about the hopes and needs of people around the world—about the Jewish people in particular, but about all people, everywhere they live in sorrow and want.

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UJC:
Did you Know...

Supported by UJC/federations, JDC's AMEN Youth Volunteerism Initiative tripled participation of Israeli youth in eight pilot cities in less than three years. Today, more than 26,000 Israeli teenagers regularly volunteer in 16 locations across the country, helping Israeli society address growing social needs while building its volunteer resources.

Upcoming Events

Click on an event for additional information:

Women's Department Opening Event [Friday, September 15]: Beginning a new year with guest speaker Micah Halpern.

UJA Major Gifts Event [Wednesday, September 27]: Recognizing the trailblazing supporters of the UJA Campaign.

Hineni: Women's Campaign Day 2007 [Thursday, October 5]: Celebrating the power of each woman and her gift to the MetroWest Jewish community.

: Exhibit consists visual artifacts depicting the role of MetroWest community eyewitnesses to the Holocaust.

UJC responds to the needs of an embattled Israel with the Israel Emergency Campaign
More than $4 million raised to date

With the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah early in July, initiated by Hezbollah’s kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, UJC MetroWest NJ in coordination with the entire national family of federations immediately took action to provide aid to Israel and her civilian population.

Focused and dedicated fundraising efforts began within days of the start of the conflict. UJC MetroWest NJ opened a mailbox dedicated to Israeli relief, with every dollar going to help the Israeli population. Initial support was overwhelming.

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Seymour Lehrhoff

Like everything else in his life, Seymour Lehrhoff’s involvement in United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ is all about the people.

“I enjoy the people there,” he explained. “I’ve made a lot of very nice acquaintances and good friends. They’re all good people or they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing.”

to learn more about Seymour, click here

2007 UJA Campaign begins

As preparations are being conducted for the 2007 UJA Campaign, which will be launched officially this month, UJA Campaign chair Gary Aidekman and Women’s Campaign chair Maxine Murnick both acknowledged that this year’s campaign will be more challenging than most but are equally confident that the UJA MetroWest campaign team will be successful.

The new challenge comes from the initiation of the Israel Emergency Campaign at virtually the same time the annual UJA Campaign is being kicked off.

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Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life begins work with community education

As the new Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life initiates its first year of existence, plans are being formulated for an extensive agenda with a clear sense of purpose behind it.

Having replaced the Jewish Education Association (JEA) on July 1, at the start of the current fiscal year, The Partnership is the community’s agency to advance and to enhance Jewish educational experiences in MetroWest, initially for its young people, from early childhood through the teenage years.

click here to read the full story

Young Israeli Reporter Column
A 20-year-old officer

When I was young my mom used to say, "when you will be older, Israel will have peace and you will not have to join the army." Not only did my mom used to say it, but many moms in Israel said and hoped the exact same thing. Years passed by and Israel does not have peace and many girls and boys, like me, get drafted to the Israeli army, hoping our children, in the future, will not have to any more.

Luckily, I joined the army and got to be at a great base, with great people and a job I love. All of that together, with my belief that each person should give the best he can and contribute to the place he is part of, made me want to be more then a simple soldier. After a year in the army I decided to leave my great base, with the great people and the job I loved and I joined officers school.

click here to read the full story

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Serving the bread of hope

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and look forward to the beginning of a new year, we all think about our own hopes and intentions for the future, and, as Jews, we think about the hopes and needs of people around the world — about the Jewish people in particular, but about all people, everywhere they live in sorrow and want.

The MetroWest Jewish community is dedicated to expanding our hopes of having better lives and creating a better world. I invite you to explore the resources we have available to answer your needs, your needs and interests for personal growth and spiritual development. Come by the Waldor Library for a book or a videotape. Go to the JCC to swim or work out. There are adult education classes, lectures, and concerts to attend. The Jewish Vocational Service can provide expert guidance for changing jobs or confronting career challenges, and the Jewish Family Service offers help to those facing difficulties in their relationships.

And as we look forward to getting together with our families for the Rosh Hashanah celebration, I invite you also to add your support to our UJA MetroWest Campaign. To Jews locally, in Israel, and in 60 countries, your contributions help bring the spiritual sustenance of hope, the bread of the soul. Together, we can help sustain Jews around the globe and people of all persuasions by giving the light of possibility for a better future, the light that feeds the heart of the spirit. Together, we can reaffirm the values and tradition that we celebrate with each new year — Tzedakah (Righteousness), Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World), and Klal Yisrael (Jewish Peoplehood).

Live Generously! Shana Tova!

Kenneth R. Heyman
President
United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ

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UJC Responds to the needs of an embattled Israel with the Israel Emergency Campaign
More than $4 million raised to date

With the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah early in July, initiated by Hezbollah’s kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, UJC MetroWest NJ in coordination with the entire national family of federations immediately took action to provide aid to Israel and her civilian population.

Focused and dedicated fundraising efforts began within days of the start of the conflict.

UJC MetroWest NJ opened a mailbox dedicated to Israeli relief, with every dollar going to help the Israeli population. Initial support was overwhelming. In addition to the fundraising efforts, methods were established for keeping MetroWest residents informed of events in Israel, including website updates and email notices. Steps were taken to provide means for writing to elected representatives to urge their support of Israel, to thank officials for support they had given, to sign petitions, and to travel to Israel to engage in hands-on volunteer work.

Once the war went beyond its first week, the realization came that the toll on Israel would be far greater than was expected at the start of the hostilities. The fundraising efforts then were transformed into a coordinated national effort: the Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC). The IEC is a major fundraising campaign that is scheduled to last through Yom Kippur, with a national goal of raising a minimum of $300 million, and a goal for UJC MetroWest NJ of a minimum $9 million.

At UJC, a direct mail program was initiated, and advertisements in support of Israel were taken out in secular newspapers and in the New Jersey Jewish News. Several fundraising parlor meetings were held for major donors, at one of which, former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres spoke to the attendees. Two rallies were organized and held in Morris and Essex Counties, and another is scheduled to be held in New York City, at the United Nations, on September 20 at noon. Synagogues have been contacted to enlist the financial support of their congregants, most particularly during a Rosh Hashanah IEC appeal.

At the time of this writing, late in August, $262 million have been raised nationally and more than $4 million locally by UJA MetroWest.

The toll on Israel has been enormous. This war is the largest in Israel’s recent history. The IDF suffered 80 fatalities, with 391 wounded. Hezbollah hit northern Israel with 3,310 rockets, and 41 civilians were killed in the rocket barrages. Another 3,635 were wounded — of these, 2,301 are trauma victims. In all, 1.5 million Israelis were under threat, and it is estimated that somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 civilians were displaced by the rocket assaults.

The costs of rebuilding are currently expected to be in excess of $500 million — an estimate that has been constantly rising in the weeks since the cease-fire went into effect. The reduction in the Israeli GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is one percent (approximately $1.27 billion). The Bank of Israel estimates that the weekly damages to the economy have been $166-$244 million, and the total damage to all business sectors at $445-$667 million. In all, the cost to Israel of the confrontation is estimated to be $1.5 billion.

The allocation of funds has been oriented on alleviating the most direct needs of the civilian population. During the crisis, support was devoted to bringing children in the north to summer camps in relatively safer areas in central and southern Israel; trauma counseling; providing activities for children in shelters; emergency assistance for the physically and/or developmentally disabled; food and medical assistance to elderly dependent on home services that had been suspended; special support for recent immigrants; equipping shelters with air conditioners, TVs and other necessities; temporary housing for those uprooted; and emergency medical services.

Since the initiation of the cease-fire, funds have been directed toward trauma services; the Fund for the Victims of Terror (a dedicated fund); rebuilding the communal infrastructure (community centers, libraries, day care centers, and homes for elderly); temporary housing while homes are rebuilt; updating bomb shelters; aid to low-income families without home insurance; scholarships and assistance for their children; training for the newly unemployed; small-business loans; scholarships for university students whose studies were interrupted by the conflict; upgrading emergency vehicles like fire trucks and ambulances; restoring meals-on-wheels and other services; and assistance to vulnerable populations: seniors, the disabled, recent immigrants, and low-income families.

To support UJA’s Israel Emergency Campaign and learn more about all we are doing to help Israel, visit www.ujcnj.org.

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Donor Spotlight: Seymour Lehrhoff

Like everything else in his life, Seymour Lehrhoff’s involvement in United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ is all about the people.

“I enjoy the people there,” he explained. “I’ve made a lot of very nice acquaintances and good friends. They’re all good people or they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing.”

Seymour is in a position to know — he’s been doing what he does with UJC for more than 50 years. His first position of leadership in fundraising occurred in 1952.

“The rabbi of my congregation in Milburn, Rabbi Gruenwald, asked me to take a job I knew nothing about,” recounted Seymour, who is now a resident of South Orange. “He asked me to be co-chair of the UJA. Rabbi Gruenwald had a way of asking you that you couldn’t say ‘no.’

“I was co-chair with Sam Friedman on UJA for Milburn, Short Hills, Irvington, and Springfield. We did pretty well.” Seymour continued as co-chair for a total of two years, and he has remained involved in UJC ever since. The roles he has fulfilled at UJC have been numerous. “I have been on most committees of UJC,” he observed, including his service as a member of the board for the Daughters of Israel for three years.

Seymour’s involvement extends beyond his volunteer efforts. He has made a point of remaining in the major donor category in the MetroWest community. “I spend four months a year in Florida, and I give there,” he explained, “but I made my money up here.”

One of his most distinctive contributions was created for Jewish Family Services. He built three dollhouses for them.

“There was one psychiatrist’s office that had a dollhouse for the patients to use,” he said, “and there were three that didn’t have any, so I built dollhouses for the other three.” When he talks about this unique contribution, it’s clear that it was a labor of love for him.

“In high school, I loved manual training and woodwork,” Seymour recounted. “At the time, our apartment had a big kitchen but no cabinets. I said to my mother, ‘I’ll make cabinets for you.’ She asked, ‘how are you going to do that?’ I told her I’d been taking shopwork in high school and that if she gave me the money for the lumber, I’d make her the cabinets.

“That started me off,” Seymour said about a lifelong passion. “If I wanted something done in the house, I did it myself — masonry, electrical work, everything but plumbing.”

Seymour now lives in an apartment in South Orange, with his second wife, Pearl, “a wonderful lady,” he observed with pleasure in his voice. The greatest pleasure in his life remains the people around him, and particularly his large family.

He has siblings, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren living around the country. Nevertheless, they remain close, and he speaks with each of his children regularly by phone. “Every conversation ends with ‘I love you’,” he said.

Now 88 years old, his health is not what it once was, of course. “I wake up every day with pain in my back and in my left leg,” he admitted. And the way he deals with it is characteristic of Seymour Lehrhoff and of his entire life. “Love of family keeps the pain out of my system.”

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2007 UJA Campaign begins

As preparations are being conducted for the 2007 UJA Campaign, which will be launched officially this month, UJA Campaign chair Gary Aidekman and UJA Women’s Campaign chair Maxine Murnick both acknowledged that this year’s campaign will be more challenging than most but are equally confident that the UJA MetroWest campaign team will be successful.

The new challenge comes from the initiation of the Israel Emergency Campaign at virtually the same time the annual UJA Campaign is being kicked off.

“We are faced with an emergency campaign that starts at the same time as the general campaign,” said Aidekman. “This is the second IEC in five years. The first one came after the 2002 Natanya bombing, at a time of year when the major gifts for the general campaign largely had closed. But Hezbollah doesn’t consult us, and the timing now makes things more difficult.”

“The fact that there is a second-line campaign makes things especially hard this year,” agreed Murnick, observing the importance of conducting both campaigns at once. “There are desperate needs in Israel. We know how important it is to help, and every year is a challenging year in some way.”

For both chairs, the principal objective for the coming year is to increase participation.

“The issues have been out there for a while,” noted Aidekman. “The World War II generation is getting older and moving to other locales, the baby boomers have not stepped up to the plate as fully as we feel they’re capable of doing, and it’s too early to tell where Generation X is at.”

“Thirty percent of the MetroWest Jewish community supports federation,” Murnick pointed out,” and we’ve got to reach beyond that 30 percent.”

The answer is seen as education, in small groups and one-to-one situations.

Aidekman sees opportunities in the use of missions. “Gregg Russo is the new chair of missions,” he said. “Gregg is putting together new initiatives to bring new people in and have the right kind of follow up.” He pointed to what he considers a particularly successful recent mission as a model of what is possible in the future. Last March, 10 business professionals were involved in a mission that, in recognition of their reluctance to leave their families and their offices for long, was organized to keep them away for only three business days.

Aidekman also remarked upon “a model the Young Leadership Division [YLD] is using that we should consider using more broadly.” The model is a “Philanthropy 101 program,” which was developed and initatied by Women's Department last year and involves two or three parlor meetings, set up not as fundraising but as educational events. The educational and discussion components address both philanthropic planning and the Jewish value of tzedakah.

“I think we’ve lost some of this since the World War II generation,” Aidekman suggested regarding the issue of Jewish values. “YLD is facing that and making headway.”

Murnick emphasized the need for broad community involvement, as well. “We have to bring in the synagogues, the country clubs, the community at large, and get people to realize how many people they know benefit from programs that federation supports.”

Regarding a target goal, Aidekman observed, “I’d like to see us introduce 25 to 50 new major donors to our rolls over the year — introduce new people or move people to more significant giving. I think we can achieve that — maybe do a little better. Additionally, we should continue our efforts to add new donors to our system regardless of the size of their pledges.”

“We all know the challenges,” Aidekman also noted, “but as fundraisers we do a lot of good, and doing good should be fun and rewarding. Maxine and I plan on having fun, and we hope the campaign team will join us.”

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Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life begins work with community education

As the new Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life initiates its first year of existence, plans are being formulated for an extensive agenda with a clear sense of purpose behind it.

Having replaced the Jewish Education Association (JEA) on July 1, at the start of the current fiscal year, The Partnership is the community’s agency to advance and to enhance Jewish educational experiences in MetroWest, initially for its young people, from early childhood through the teenage years.

“This is a planning year,” said Robert Lichtman, The Partnership’s first executive director. “The agenda is huge. It’s a huge thing to close down one agency and create the vision and the reality of a new one. We’re going to be strategic about what we’re doing and do a lot at the same time.”

The organization of the agenda is led by a sense of mission that is embodied in the name of the new agency: Jewish Learning and Life. “Our goal is to bring Jewish learning to life,” observed Lichtman, “the informed life is joyful and provides meaning and brings peace to the world.”

The core idea of the agency’s mission is to impart Jewish knowledge to inspire action, to help repair the world, to enact Tikkun Olam. For Lichtman, the knowledge that Jewish learning brings is indispensable to acting for the improvement of the world. “Action with knowledge has a purpose and won’t dissipate,” he noted, “but action without knowledge won’t be sustained.”

Action is being taken immediately to bring the revamped agency to life and have its initial elements in place by the beginning of the fall. The first effort is to identify a board of directors for The Partnership. “We’re being careful,” said Lichtman, “you only get to create a new board once, and we want to start this well.” In addition, three advisory councils are being formed: for early childhood, pre-teens and teens, and special needs. It is expected that the board and the councils will be in place by some time in the fall.

Continuing, as well, is Project Moreh, a program for training and mentoring novice teachers. The project has received renewed funding from Paula and Jerry Gottesman Family Supporting Foundation. It has been operating throughout the summer and will be run again from September through May.

Merkaz, a learning center for teachers that has been housed in the JEA, is being set up as an electronic learning resource. During the summer, the Jewish High Holiday Program was put on computer disks for mailing to day schools and congregational schools and is being shared with the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, to be set up on their web site. The objective ultimately is to have the most significant Merkaz holdings available to educators everywhere online.

Plans are also under way for refocusing the early childhood and teenager efforts of The Partnership.

In its early childhood efforts, The Partnership’s objective is to involve a child’s entire family in Jewish education, to bring the parents into the engagement with Jewish ideals and values under the guiding principle of “Teach the Child, Reach the Family.”

“We’re looking to grasp the opportunities every childhood educator gets to embrace the family,” said Lichtman. “We want to bring more Jewish content to both formal and informal educational experiences, to use the teachable moment, infuse it with Jewish content without being heavy-handed.” Seeking to maximize the chance for such educational experiences, The Partnership’s staff is planning to spend a lot of time in the field.

“Around 30 to 40 childhood groups are networked through us,” noted Lichtman. “For the first time, we are going out into the field to learn how our agenda fits or doesn’t.”

The approach to teens is specifically an orientation on action, on bringing Jewish learning to life by creating opportunities for Jewish teenagers to help change the world. The Partnership has just hired its first full-time Teen Educator, who will be charged with developing new programs for teenagers, largely in community service.

“Teens get this,” said Lichtman, with regard to the ideal of repairing the world. “They want to change the world. They get jaded as they get older. We want to prolong the process.”

As the efforts of The Partnership progress, teens will have the opportunity to create their own programs for creating social change, programs such as literacy projects, soup kitchens, advocacy for Israel, or Big Brother / Big Sister programs. They will also have the opportunity to create their own sub-site on The Partnership’s web site, a sub-site run by teenagers and tailored to their interests.

The common thread uniting the ambitious set of programs The Partnership is setting into motion is the goal of turning ideals into actions, directed by Lichtman’s belief that each is necessary to the other. “There are two problems,” he observed, “knowledge that is not understood effectively, in which learning is missing, and knowledge that is not implemented in the right way, in which that knowledge has not been brought to life.” The goal of The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life is to address both problems.

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Young Israel Reporter Column
A 20-year-old officer
by Keren DiCastro

When I was young my mom used to say, "when you will be older, Israel will have peace and you will not have to join the army." Not only did my mom used to say it, but many moms in Israel said and hoped the exact same thing. Years passed by and Israel does not have peace and many girls and boys, like me, get drafted to the Israeli army, hoping our children, in the future, will not have to any more.

Luckily, I joined the army and got to be at a great base, with great people and a job I love. All of that together, with my belief that each person should give the best he can and contribute to the place he is part of, made me want to be more then a simple soldier. After a year in the army I decided to leave my great base, with the great people and the job I loved and I joined officers school. Six months of training, studying, crawling, navigating and more passed by. I got my rank and was sent back to my great base, with new people who have no idea who am I, a job that is so different than what I did before and many responsibilities.

Now it is official, I am a-20 year-old officer at the Israeli army! I have eight soldiers of which I am responsible for. They check my every move, come to me when they need and want something, don’t understand something and more. I have to be there mom and dad, teacher and friend.

Being an officer means that in four months all the friends that joined the army the same day I did are going to take off their green uniforms leave the army and become citizens. I, on the other hand, will be staying in the army longer, doing my job the best way I can and hopefully make as many soldiers as I can enjoy their service, look back and say "I had a great base, with great people and a job I loved!"

Keren Dicastro served UJC MetroWest for one year immediately after finishing high school, deferring her army service. Keren, together with Yotam Guetta, were the first teenagers to serve as Rishonim in UJC MetroWest in 2003-04.

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