Federation is here to celebrate and leverage what we all share in common – that we are Jews - children of a timeless people, bound by a timeless faith, linked to a timeless land.

As such, I believe a strong Jewish Federation is both an indicator of the strength of our community, and a critical factor in building a strong community.  We are seeking to fulfill this role more and more.

Change is good
This has been a year of tremendous change for the Jewish Federation. We have a new Executive Director. We have many new staff. And we have embarked on many new approaches to connecting and strengthening our Jewish community – from convening and communicating with our partners regularly, to new approaches to grant-making, to focusing on investments with impact in the community, to changing how we approach programming and addressing service needs.

In recent Torah portions, we learn that change is to be planned, change is to be expected and change is good.  But more than that… change is, in fact, required.  You cannot do the same thing for too long – everything needs to be reset and re-examined from time to time.

And we are in an environment today where we, as a Jewish community and a Federation, need to change.

The challenges are significant.

• We face a growing Jewish identity gap, where many are comfortable with being Jewish, yet have little understanding of what being Jewish actually means;
• We continue to face problems of assimilation, not just of Jews moving out or marrying into other religions, but Jews who have assimilated and equated fundamental Jewish values with secular concepts of social justice as if they were always the same;
• We speak of a Jewish community, but I am pained by how often our conversation uses “we” and “they” instead of "US."
• And lastly for many, the land of Israel has become a political issue for debate, rather than an asset to cherish as a fundamental core of our peoplehood.

I believe the Jewish Federation is the only institution able to address these issues on a community-wide scale. Our challenge – and charge – is to leverage what has worked in the past, but concurrently seek new and innovative ways to address our community’s needs.