Federation celebrates year’s feats, faces ‘extreme times’
“These are extreme times for Israeli and American Jews,” said Richard Ruvin, Milwaukee Jewish Federation 2006 annual meeting co-chair with Suzy Ettinger.
Speaking to some 130 volunteers and Jewish community members and professionals at the opening of the 104th annual meeting of the MJF, held at Brynwood Country Club on Wednesday, Aug. 16, Ruvin identified one of the community’s main challenges, and he also alluded to its accomplishments.
Although the Israel Emergency Campaign has raised more than $530,000 in just one month, Ruvin said, “much more is needed, much more work needs to be done.”
And to illustrate some of the concrete ways the federation-supported programs have helped Jews locally, Elana Rubin, Judy Strauss and Yonatan Zvi shared some individual stories.
Rubin, of Mequon, told of a traumatic pregnancy in January 2002, when she was so ill she was hospitalized at St. Michael Hospital on and off for 10 weeks. Feeling miserable and disconnected, she said, she began to lose hope.
Eventually, a nurse suggested contacting the Milwaukee Jewish Federation for help.
“And a day later, a wonderful rabbi came to my room clutching a candelabra. He sat beside me and listened to my fears, to my frustration to my sadness. He put things into perspective for me and gave me hope,” Rubin told the audience. Subsequently, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Shoshana Golda, who is now almost 4-years old.
In caring for her, Rabbi Leonard Lewy, director of the Jewish Chaplaincy Program of Milwaukee, embodied MJF’s commitment to build and care for the community and enhance the quality of Jewish life, Rubin said. JCP is a program of the federation in cooperation with Jewish Family Services.
Speaking for JFS, Judy Strauss, vice president for exceptional needs, told of several individuals in crisis who were helped with emergency assistance funds provided by the federation’s Jewish Community Foundation and JFS.
In one example, a severely disabled 53-year-old man, dependent on an oxygen generator for breathing, was in danger of having his electricity cut off because he had fallen behind in his payments. “JFS was able to avert the crisis by forwarding the payment to WE Energies,” Strauss said.
And Israeli-born Milwaukeean Yonatan Zvi spoke of his integration into the community through his volunteer work with the federation. After marrying in Milwaukee and later returning to Israel for several years, Zvi said that his family returned here in 1995.
He urged those present to help people see that the federation is all about “spirit and neshama,” not only about raising money, he said. And it’s about action, “a little here, a little there. There is always something to do, someone to help or something to give for.”
And Zvi, a former member of the elite Israel Defense Force Golani Brigade said, “You taught me what the word community means. I learned that the difference between the power of one and the power of many does not only apply to the battlefield, but also to the community we live in.”
Arbit elected president
Commending the audience on the leadership role that “our partnership agencies and donors asked us to take and we assumed was ours,” executive vice president Richard H. Meyer said that the Community Capital Campaign has raised more than $42 million dollars. “It wasn’t easy and it’s not over,” he added.
Meyer, who said he was in Jerusalem during the first days of the war, thanked Jane Gellman and Moshe Katz, who “literally knocked down [his] door” to initiate the Israel Emergency Campaign.
He thanked Marlene Lauwasser, 2007 Annual Campaign chair, for her enthusiastic support of the linking of the Israel Emergency Campaign to the Annual Campaign.
“The goal is to raise more than $2 million and also increase our Annual Campaign goal to meet the needs of our community and Israel,” Meyer said.
After Stephen E. Richman gave the Nominating Committee report for chair Penny Deshur, who was unable to attend, the board elected Bruce A. Arbit as MJF president for a two-year term.
Arbit thanked outgoing president David J. Lubar for doing the “heavy lifting” in the capital project, which will result in the rebuilding of virtually the entire infrastructure of the Jewish community.
Lubar will now be working on two new tasks; he will be researching MJF governance and the parameters of Jewish day school funding.
Remarking that he stands on the shoulders of giants, Arbit spoke of his passion for Jewish values — for feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and clothing the naked.
“Most people want passion in their lives. They want to make a difference. And [the MJF does] make a difference when we recreate and restore the dignity of Jewish life,” Arbit said.
Officers assuming new positions are: John Cohn, treasurer; Jody Kaufman Loewenstein, assistant secretary; Daniel Bader and Jane Gellman, officers-at-large.
New board members serving a two-year term are: Craig Adelman, Jenni Chudnow, Howard Frankenthal, Barbara Glazer, Rabbi Jacob Herber, James Hiller, Judi Ketten, Michael Maistelman, Laurance Newman, Sharyl Paley, Andrea Schneider, Jeffrey Schuster, Amy Berkovits Stein, Eric Zall and Yonatan Zvi.
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