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This year, as Rosh Hashanah approaches, we can think back to the High Holidays last year and realize how much things have changed. We can be thankful for how much things have changed. |
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UJC launches your Center for Jewish Philanthropy Our 2008 UJA annual campaign begins again on September 4. With the inauguration of a new year of hope and effort, of needs acknowledged and possibilities created, United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ proudly announces the launching of your Center for Jewish Philanthropy. Jews around the world are better off than we have ever been before. We live in more freedom, have more resources, and have greater opportunities to help those in need. |
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Peter A. Langerman Peter A. Langerman, of Short Hills, is comparatively new as a lay leader of United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ. Even so, he has taken on his role in the community with a clear sense of mission and an expansive set of goals. Langerman’s commitment to being personally involved in the Jewish community through UJC began with his participation on a mission to Israel. |
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A message of 'To Sderot With Love' for the children living near Gaza
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Let us be thankful to have peace in place of war
This year, as Rosh Hashanah approaches, we can think back to the High Holidays last year and realize how much things have changed. We can be thankful for how much things have changed.
A year ago, we had just seen the end of a summer of war with Hezbollah. Here in the MetroWest community, and in Jewish communities throughout North America, we were raising record sums of money for the Israel Emergency Campaign – to move children to safety, to provide food and medical supplies to areas under rocket attack.
A year later, things are different. There has been a year largely of peace and security in Israel. IDF soldiers are not in Lebanon, Hezbollah rockets are not landing on Israel’s cities, and Israeli citizens are not sitting in bomb shelters waiting for the day they can emerge.
The situation is far from ideal, for the peace is not complete and it is not sure. Rockets are still being fired from Gaza in the south, and terrorism continues to occur inside Israel’s borders.
Even so, for the most part we can turn our attention and our efforts to addressing the problems that we will always have to face, rather than the problems people create for each other. We can devote our efforts to addressing problems like disability, difficulties of aging, unemployment, and troubled teens. And we can devote our efforts to preparing for the future, with programs for promoting Jewish education, the continuation of Jewish identity, and religious pluralism in Israel.
On this year’s High Holidays, let’s hope there will be more progress toward peace and security, for Jews and for all people on earth. With peace, we can see to it that the challenges we always have to face will always be addressed, because they will be the only ones we will need to address.
Live Generously! Shana Tova!
Kenneth R. Heyman
President
United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ
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UJC launches your Center for Jewish Philanthropy
Our 2008 UJA annual campaign begins again on September 4. With the inauguration of a new year of hope and effort, of needs acknowledged and possibilities created, United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ proudly announces the launching of your Center for Jewish Philanthropy.
Jews around the world are better off than we have ever been before. We live in more freedom, have more resources, and have greater opportunities to help those in need.
But at the same time, there are more Jews in the MetroWest community, in Israel, and elsewhere around the world who need our help. And the needs are growing.
More than ever before in our history, we possess the resources to become philanthropists, to accomplish the greatest good for the greatest period of time, and to practice the highest of our values: Tikkun Olam, Repairing the World.
UJC understands the unique opportunity we have before us, and so at the start of a new campaign year, we recommit ourselves to the values we have always shared and the goals we have always pursued.
We are here to serve as your Center for Jewish Philanthropy.
No other organization has our breadth of knowledge and experience for gathering support and targeting the needs of Jewish communities around the world. UJC is prepared to help you fulfill your every philanthropic passion by adding to your passion our years of experience and philanthropic know-how. Regardless of the level at which you commit yourselves, regardless of the tools you use to practice your personal brand of philanthropy – planned giving vehicles, endowments, supplemental gifts, annual campaign donations – we are prepared to help you fulfill your philanthropic dreams.
In the end, we are all philanthropists, whatever we give of our resources, our time, ourselves, because all of us give our hearts. And so the future is in our hands, because hope is in our hands. It is ours to give to those who need us today, and those who will come after us tomorrow.
And so, we at UJC along with all of you look forward to a great campaign year, in which, as we do every year, we commit ourselves to a new beginning, in which we all do more than we have ever done before to act upon our highest values, in which we do more than ever before to repair the world.
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Donor Spotlight: Peter A. Langerman
Peter A. Langerman, of Short Hills, is comparatively new as a lay leader of United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ. Even so, he has taken on his role in the community with a clear sense of mission and an expansive set of goals.
Langerman’s commitment to being personally involved in the Jewish community through UJC began with his participation on a mission to Israel.
“I was on the Business and Professional Mission last year,” he recalled. “I got to know Gary [Aidekman] and Michael Katz, and I became more familiar with what UJC does. I had made contributions over the years, but I was not an active participant. But what I saw, and what Gary said about what UJC is trying to accomplish, resonated with me.”
Langerman’s active participation to the Jewish community has, in fact, been developing over the course of his life.
“We had been members of Temple Sinai in Summit for a number of years,” he noted, “and my involvement was what I’d call normal, not particularly extensive. My involvement ramped up during our capital campaign. I was willing to become more involved in the governance of our temple. I felt it was an important institution, an important part of our community, and a meaningful part of my life and my family’s life. I realized it was the right thing to do, to give back. I became a member of the board and went on to serve as president.”
With his trip to Israel, Langerman decided to expand his involvement in the community, and has become a member of the board of UJC.
“I thought UJC would be a good extension of my involvement in the community,” he explained, “beyond my own congregation and into a broader forum and with a broader platform – that makes sense to me. I was impressed with the Israel connection and the specific programs UJC funds and participates in. You can see the concrete results. There are individual congregations that actively support programs in Israel, but I think there’s a limit to what a single congregation can do, given the local demands on the temples.”
What Langerman is looking to help UJC accomplish shows the range of his ambition for supporting the Jewish community locally and in Israel.
“One of the greatest challenges we’re facing,” he explained, “is to make UJC relevant in people’s lives today, to make it fit with the rest of their lives, so that they say, ‘I’m Jewish and I want to be supportive.’
“We can do that by focusing on specific things that we can accomplish as an organization, and by letting people see what is being accomplished. People want to see that the time, money, and effort they contribute have an impact, that they’re not just adding to a general, amorphous contribution, to a black box. They want to see results and the steps that are being taken to achieve those results.”
Range of effort is also imperative for reaching and gaining the trust and commitment of donors and participants. “UJC is never going to be able to satisfy every constituency. But UJC has to cast a broad enough net to capture a lot of common interests and common desires in our community. At the same time, we have to educate people regarding what we think are the issues of today. We want people to see UJC as an organization that is thoughtful about the challenges facing the Jewish community, and as a vehicle through which they can have an impact on those challenges.”
Despite the broad range of challenges facing the Jewish people, Langerman is optimistic about our future as a people. He said his trip to Israel showed many reasons for that optimism.
“The trip was a wonderful experience. People often say that, each time you go to Israel, you seem to find something new, different, and equally exciting. Of course, you also see all the troubles Israelis face every day. But somehow, they get through it, and we get through it together. We’ve survived for thousands of years. There’s a certain essence or spirit that carries us through as a people. There’s something that drives this community, and that won’t change.”
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A message of 'To Sderot With Love' for the children living near Gaza
For many years, there has been a constant barrage of Kassam rockets fired from Gaza into the Western Negev region of Israel. To this day, IDF forces maintain continuous aerial radar surveillance, and have to issue regular warnings for Israeli residents in the area to rush to bomb shelters, often with only minutes to spare.
Over the years, there has been a continuous outpouring of support from United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ, along with federations throughout North America. Numerous programs that help to alleviate the suffering of Israelis in Sderot, the Israeli town nearest the Gaza border, and the surrounding area have been developed and presented through the Jewish Agency for Israel, an overseas partner agency of UJC.
Over this past summer, a program administered through the Jewish Agency focused on the well-being of the children of the region.
On July 1, the Jewish Agency began providing day and overnight camp opportunities to all the 8,200 youth between the ages of 6 and 17 living in Sderot and the area, taking them to camps or on field trips outside the zone which has been under continuous rocket attack.
Every day during July and August, there were some 4,000 children and teens participating in a variety of Jewish Agency-coordinated camp activities. Titled “To Sderot With Love,” the summer camp project cost $4.79 million and was funded by the federations of North America, United Israel Appeal of Canada, Keren Hayesod, the IDB Group, and Israeli donors, with the cooperation of Israel's largest daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot and its YNET internet site.
"On any given day, there was a camp activity available to each and every child in the Sderot area, which took place out of the range of the missiles,” said Yael Raz, the Jewish Agency coordinator of the summer camps.
Camp activities included visits to Israel’s nature reserves, amusement and water parks, zoos and the safari, entertainment performance, and a stand up comedy club. There was even a miniature American Indian village set up in a camp near Beersheva.
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birthright israel registration opens backed by exciting new initiative
United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ is sponsoring its third 10-day Taglit-birthright israel trip, which is scheduled to begin in late December, during winter break. Birthright israel provides first-time, peer-group, educational trips to Israel for Jewish young adults, ages 18 to 26 (post-high school), at no cost to the participant.
Registration for the next Taglit-birthright israel trip will open on Wednesday, September 5, at 9 a.m. Those who are interested can register online or by calling Orli Dudaie at (973) 929-3070.
The new year of UJC MetroWest Taglit-birthright israel trips is being accompanied by a new initiative in support of the project.
The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies have created a new initiative called b3: building birthright israel brand. b3 is a new venture among The Bronfman Philanthropies, The birthright israel Foundation, and UJC. The b3 mission is to engage in projects that will further enhance birthright israel’s resources and community development. UJC MetroWest has been selected as one of nine UJCs across North America to be supported in the initiative and, as a part of it, to have brand managers. The work of the brand manager is to coordinate community outreach about birthright israel, relay the impact of the Taglit-birthright israel trips on the identities of young Jews who participate in them, and significantly enhance the program’s financial resources.
has been named the Taglit-birthright israel brand manager for UJC MetroWest.
The b3 initiative also provides funding to the birthright israel program, which is supported by the government of Israel, major philanthropists, and UJC. The first gift from a UJC MetroWest donor under the initiative has been made by Steven Glass, in the amount of $24,000, paid over two years, which will send 10 young adults (a minyan) to Israel.
The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies is a family of charitable foundations operating in Canada, Israel, and the United States. The mission of the Bronfman Philanthropies is to encourage young people to strengthen their knowledge and appreciation of their history, heritage, and culture, as well as to support programs to improve the quality of life in Israel.
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Taglit-birthright israel shows a young lady her true mission in life
Donna Nesser of Parsippany is a young lady who took a Taglit-birthright israel trip, exactly as more and more of the young people in our community are doing. Her experiences in Israel were typical of those who take the 10-day trips, but her response was something more than usual. In Israel, she found not only the homeland of her heritage; she also found a career path. As a result of her trip, she has decided to work in the field of Jewish community service, and ultimately she would like to work for United Jewish Communities (UJC) of MetroWest NJ.
“Coming back from Israel,” Nesser explained, “being so in love with it, I felt I had to do something related to Israel and Judaism.”
Nesser traveled to Israel with a Taglit-birthright israel group from UJC MetroWest this past May. It was not her first trip to Israel, but as with all participants, it was her first peer-group trip, and she found the scope of the traveling to be breathtaking.
“We started in Jerusalem,” she recalled, “and spent a lot of time there, going to the Old City, to the Western Wall, to Yad Vashem, and a lot more. Then we traveled to the Golan Heights, explored the area around the Sea of Galilee, went to Safed and studied a little of the Kabbalah there. We went on Tel Aviv, then on to the south. We stayed at a Bedouin camp in the desert. We hiked to the top of Masada and saw the sun rise. And we swam in the Dead Sea.
“When I got back, I felt that birthright israel was the most extraordinary thing, that it’s a gift, that we’re given this astonishing trip for free.”
Nesser’s father was born in Israel, and she had traveled there with her family when she was 11, a trip she barely recalls. “All I remember is being there for a few weeks, coming home, and having the feeling that I needed to go back.”
It took Nesser 13 years to get back to Israel, because her father felt it was too dangerous for her to go. But last summer, she finally returned.
“I had the trip planned for that summer, and, as it turned out, I went during the war. But I didn’t care. I was going. I knew I had wanted to go back for years, but only when I got there, I found out what the reason was.
“Immediately, when I got there, it felt like home. The country is beautiful, I love the people, I love the language. I don’t really know how to describe it, but from the start, I felt like I was home. Once I came back here, I realized that I needed to get back ASAP, so I applied for the birthright israel trip.”
Her trip this past May just reinforced the impression, and Nesser realized that she wanted to work in the kind of organization that makes trips to Israel possible for young adults, and that helps to make the country of Israel itself possible, and to keep it secure.
Nesser currently is working at the Jewish National Fund. And she is beginning to investigate opportunities for coming to work at UJC. In fact, ideally, “I’d like to do something working for birthright,” she said.
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