After years of pulling garlic mustard from her garden, Idy Goodman is finally reaping the rewards. This year she expects to fill only two to three bags, as compared to some 30 in past years.
But after working in her yard on a recent weekend, she drove downtown and spotted slopes covered with the noxious weed. “My working alone in my back yard finally yielded results for my yard, But it really would take the community weeding together to clear [those big common spaces].”
And for Goodman, that awareness connects to Jewish values and the work that she does in the Jewish community.
“We are a people, working together as community, who, … [among other things] shall leave the edges of the field for the poor and the stranger; shall provide for the widow and the orphan, and shall and shall and shall.”
Goodman, incoming campaign chair of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Women’s Division, shared her reflections with a group of over 125 at the group’s annual meeting on Thursday, May 5, at Brynwood Country Club.
Connecting her thoughts to last week’s Torah portion, Kedoshim (Holiness), Goodman said, “Holiness is something which belongs to the community — working together — combining our sparks, our talents.”
In that spirit, Goodman announced that the Women’s Division campaign has raised $2,147,328 so far this year, which makes up 32 percent of the $6,678,643 raised to date for Community Campaign 2005.
Calling it a “phenomenal year,” outgoing president Marlene Lauwasser praised the involved women. “We set high goals for ourselves this year, collectively and individually, that have challenged all of us and enabled us to give so much to the community.”
Noting the Women’s Division’s theme for the year, “Finding Strength Through the Generations,” Lauwasser said, “I am filled with pride at the way each generation has come together to learn from one another to use its particular talents and strengths to help fulfill our mission.”
Lauwasser, who will be general campaign chair for Community Campaign 2006, then passed the gavel to Sue Strait, who now begins her two-year term as president.
‘Through the generations’
Cindy Kazan, the winner of the 2005 Ann Agulnick Young Leadership Award, echoed that praise for intergenerational cooperation as she described her amazement upon returning to Milwaukee and “see[ing] the span of generations involved in the Jewish community” here.
And she feels that strength in her home, as her children are already getting involved in the community, she said. Her two daughters have volunteered for Super Sunday and the Women’s Division’s Shalom Baby project, which she co-chaired.
Kazan said that she learned the importance of giving back to the community from her parents and she wants to pass that legacy of commitment to community volunteerism on to her children. Receiving the award, she said, “sends a wonderful message to my children on philanthropy.”
Kazan is an officer and member of the executive committee of the Women’s Division and board member of the federation. She is co-chair of the Young Women’s Campaign.
She serves on the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center’s board and marketing committee and is president of the Maple Dale-Indian Hill Educational Foundation.
She is also president of Communi-K, her own marketing and public relations firm.
Featured speaker at the event was Adele Azar-Rucquoi, an author and founding member of the Foundation for Mideast Communication, who talked about the blessings and curses of money.
A former nun and daughter of an Arab immigrant, Azar-Rucquoi said that her goal is to inspire women of diverse backgrounds and ages to recognize money’s multifaceted meaning and to make peace with the “almighty dollar.”
She offered “three take-home points: First, “You can love money” — it does not have to be “the root of all evil” — an idea she ascribed “to Catholics maybe more than Jews.” Second, “Money can buy happiness” — for the good it can do in the world.
And, finally, “Money is never finished with us”: We must all deal with money almost up to our last moments.
In other business, a slate of officers was approved. They include: Sue Strait, president; Idy Goodman, campaign chair; Ruth Wallace, Presidents’ Conference chair; plus Susan Angel Miller, Audrey Bernstein, Laura Eder, Ali Ruvin, Andrea Schneider, Marci Taxman and Stephanie Wagner.
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