Why has Emanuel (Manny) Katell been giving faithfully to UJA for 45 years?

"I was brought up in a Jewish home," he replies. "My father came from Russia, my mother from Poland. We spoke Yiddish at home. I knew Yiddish before I knew English."

His father, who came to the United States in 1913, was an ardent Zionist. During the First World War, the British, who were fighting the Turks in Palestine – then part of the Ottoman Empire – decided to form a Jewish Legion. They recruited men from the United States, as well as other countries.

"My father went and fought in Palestine for two or three years," says Katell. "He returned in 1919. He belonged to B'nai Zion, a Zionist group, and was a very active member. He always contributed to UJA. That all rubbed off on me."

Katell, who was born in New York City and grew up in The Bronx, but just before his bar mitzva moved to New Jersey with his family.

He was a member of MetroWest's original Holocaust Remembrance Committee, which met every month. "We sponsored Yom Hashoah and Kristallnacht programs every year. The Yom Hashoah programs were in a synagogue and the Kristallnacht programs alternated between a synagogue and a church."

As coordinator of the committee's oral history program, Katell interviewed Holocaust survivors, their children, and liberators. The interviews were videotaped and made available to teachers, students and journalists through the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest.

"I'm very Jewish and proud of it," declares Katell. "God must have asked me before I was born what religion I wanted to be, and I said I wanted to be Jewish."

If you, like Manny Katell, have given to UJA for 25 years or more, the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest would like to recognize you as a Ner Tamid Achiever, with a listing on the Ner Tamid honor roll and invitations to special events. If you are already a Ner Tamid Achiever, JCF encourages you to share your thoughts and feelings about UJA at .