Sidebar: Gift of Life founder comes home

The all-day Super Sunday phonathon on Dec. 2 raised $2.4 million for United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, on a day when a blanket of snow provided a quiet backdrop to the hectic pace inside the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany.

Leaders of UJA MetroWest, the fund-raising arm of the umbrella Jewish philanthropy, were pleased with the total, which represented an increase over the $2.1 million raised in 2006, as well as by the pace of community events inside and outside the large hall where volunteers placed calls to potential donors.

"Obviously, we want to raise money. The needs of the community go up. They don't go down," said Ron Silbermann of Randolph, who cochaired Super Sunday with Daniel Ramer of Maplewood and Jean Mandell of Lake Hopatcong. "But we're also trying to make it a community day, to bring people out. And we're hoping to infuse new money into the campaign from new resources."

Super Sunday 2007 kicked off three new programs to stimulate fund-raising. UJC MetroWest offered a $5,000 to the partner agency with the highest percentage of board members participating in the event and the most gifts closed. (Jewish Family Service of MetroWest won for most gifts closed, and the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life won for board members' participation.)

A synagogue 50/50 initiative offered participating congregations half of every new gift. And a three-hour teen program featured training, games, and calling times for young solicitors.

Among the 35 participating teens was Zach Lite, 14, of Summit. "I felt proud of myself," he said after a call he made raised a pledge.

Children played carnival games in the gym. Students from the Bohrer-Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County cornered anyone who would listen with appeals to purchase their discount cards and support their school. Israeli emissaries from MetroWest partner communities Merchavim and Ofakim, fresh from the airport, worked on friendship quilts with children. And representatives of the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation took cheek cell samples from potential donors for testing (see sidebar.)

The 50/50 synagogue challenge brought out not only new donors but new volunteers from the 14 participating synagogues.

"It's a lot of fun," said Gail Barry, ways and means vice president of Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange, who participated for the first time. "We knew it was very important to participate in the greater Jewish community. There's no conflict — our temple benefits as well as the greater Jewish community. It's a win/win situation," she said.

For many volunteers, Super Sunday is a family affair. Eleanor Kramer of West Orange came with her two daughters, Arielle, 18, and Naomi, 16, for the second year in a row. "It's that time of year when they need to see what good the Jewish community is doing instead of feeling so overwhelmed by all the other things that take over the media," said Kramer. "They need to see there are people who step back from all of that and do good work for the sake of doing good work."

Government leaders turned out as well, including State Sen. Tom Kean Jr., Assemblyman and senator-elect Joseph Pennacchio, Maplewood Mayor Fred R. Profeta, West Caldwell Mayor Joseph Tempesta, Livingston Council members Gary Schneiderman and Arlene Johnson, Morris County Freeholder-elect Jim Murray, Essex County Freeholder Patricia Sebold, and Chatham Borough Mayor-elect V. Nelson Vaughn.

"It was a great fund-raising and community togetherness day, enveloping our agencies, synagogues and citizens in the mitzva of asking donors to give to UJA," said Max Kleinman, executive vice president of UJC MetroWest NJ.

---

Gift of Life founder comes home

SITTING AT A table at Super Sunday, encouraging people to sign up to have cheek cells tested and become part of the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation registry was Jay Feinberg, the foundation's executive director.

At one point, he jumped up to greet Rabbi Stanley Asekoff of B'nai Shalom in West Orange and his wife, Cecille.

"They ran the first drive," Feinberg said with a smile.

In 1990, at 22, Feinberg, who grew up in West Orange, was diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors told him his only chance at survival would be a bone marrow transplant. No family members were matches. The drive at B'nai Shalom was the first of 250 drives that were held around the world before he finally found his match; more than 55,000 people were tested.

The drives became an organization, Friends of Jay, and the organization became Gift of Life, one of three internationally recognized bone marrow registries. The Gift of Life has 120,000 donors in its registry and has made over 1,500 matches.

Friends of Jay was launched with the help of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. "Jay Feinberg is a living example of how one person afflicted with a terrible illness transformed it into a worldwide effort to save lives," said UJC MetroWest executive vice president Max L. Kleinman in a statement. "We're proud that he's our own and look forward to carrying out our responsibility with him of helping to save lives."

Next year Feinberg will count 13 years since his transplant, after a drive in Milwaukee yielded a woman who turned out to be his match. "She came to volunteer but was afraid to get tested," Feinberg recalled. "At the very end, she said, ‘Okay, unpack the supplies. I'm going to do this.' And she was the very last person tested."

Feinberg, who now lives in Florida, was asked why he continues with the Gift of Life.

"A complete stranger saved my life," he said. "How could I not do this?"

—

Local stories posted courtesy of the New Jersey Jewish News