“We feed the hungry in Milwaukee, Israel, the Former Soviet Union, Argentina and elsewhere,” said Marlene Lauwasser, chair of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s 2006 Annual Campaign. “No Jew should go hungry.”
“Com[ing] together to provide for and enhance the well-being of Jews here in Milwaukee, in Israel and around the world” is what makes the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s annual campaign amazing, she said.
Speaking to a group of more than 400 on Monday, Sept. 19, at the Pfister Hotel for the campaign opening event, Lauwasser shared memories and thoughts from a recent trip to the Former Soviet Union.
“We delivered food packages to frail and homebound elderly [Jews]. We met them in their homes and we looked into their eyes. The reflection we saw in their eyes was us. They have no one else to turn to. They are family.”
That need and our “core values of chesed (compassion), Torah, Jewish learning, tikun olam (repairing the world) and tzedakah (justice)” create the strongest reason for our giving, she said. “Tzedakah is not just an obligation. It is a privilege and a joy.”
Joy was indeed part of the evening’s theme, “Laugh Generously, Live Generously. It does a world of good.” The event included a performance by the Chicago-based comedy troupe, “The Second City,” and a dessert buffet. Some 50 people gathered earlier for a happy hour hosted by the federation’s Young Leadership Division.
Debra Katz, event co-chair with Mitch Moser, opened the evening by explaining all the ways that her life intersects with the Jewish community: through her daughter’s camp, as a parent and executive board member at Milwaukee Jewish Day School, by exercising at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center and as a reader and advisory committee member of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
“I love this community, with all our faults, with all our successes. This is our home, the place we are raising our family, the place we feel safe, comfortable and proud of,” she said.
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