Shalom Milwaukee! I am grateful and humbled by the trust you have placed in me by naming me as the CEO/ President of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. You are at a crossroads as a community, and I appreciate the important role a new leader will play in moving Jewish Milwaukee forward. At this moment, our paths come together, and I look forward to the coming weeks and months with passion, wonder and eagerness.
My whole life has been devoted to Jewish life and Jewish values. I have been fortunate in my life to work in the federation system, in federal and state government, in a foundation, at a Jewish school, in rabbinical school. I have been so lucky to meet and work with passionate people who are committed to making the world a better place. Sometimes that sounds hokey, but frankly, that is what it is all about. And in all my work, no one has more commitment to support the Jewish community and Jewish values than the people I already know in Milwaukee, and those I will get to know when I get to work at MJF.
We live in times that are not easy for Jewish people, with anti-Semitism on the increase worldwide and a disturbing trend toward conflation of anti-Semitism with anti-Israel sentiment. At the time of this writing, I just visited Germany, where my sister and I honored the memory of our father, who was a rabbi in Mannheim Germany when he was arrested on Kristallnacht and send to Buchenwald. Through the help of a Lutheran pastor, he was able to escape, and was the only member of his family to survive. This reality in my life is central to who I am and what I believe in and fight for. It is never far from my mind and heart.
I also was in Berlin and participated in a major Holocaust education program and then went to Hungary to confront the dramatic – and very troubling – increase in anti-Semitism there. I am now in London, launching a major initiative as part of the 2012 Hours Against Hate campaign. The Olympics have adopted our campaign as their tolerance initiative for the summer games. 2012 Hours Against Hate is a virtual campaign to stop bigotry and promote respect across lines of culture, religion, tradition, class, and gender. It is all on Facebook and twitter, asking young people around the world to pledge their time to stop hate—to do something for someone who doesn’t look like them, pray like them, or live like them. We are asking the next generation to work together to build a stronger, more pluralistic world. No one group can do it alone. This work is inspiring and meaningful to me, and has caught on all over the world – from Turkey to Uruguay, from Amman to Albania, from Cordova to Buenos Aires, from mosques to churches to synagogues. And I hope the young people in Milwaukee will find it a useful tool to bring people together to fight all sorts of hatreds.
And I am inspired by the tasks that lie ahead of me in Milwaukee. Learning about Jewish Milwaukee is a joyous endeavor from which I am already drawing strength For example, hearing about Milwaukee’s J-Help campaign and the way you live out your Jewish values by supporting people in need is so moving and a profound example of Jewish values in action.
One of the passions I bring to my new position is a love for the interpersonal experience of fundraising because it’s based on personal relationships and shared values – meeting with people, learning about their passions and nurturing their dreams. I look forward to this crucial part of my new life.
I was drawn to this position for many reasons. I have family and strong roots in Wisconsin, and in taking this position I will be coming home to a place and people I love. I know that Jewish Milwaukee is an amazing Jewish community – filled with committed people with a boundless feeling for Jewish life. I love the commitment and the passion that I see everywhere in this community.
Another major draw for me was the strong commitment to transformational change that was expressed by the CEO Search Committee and demonstrated in the Reimagining documents that were shared with me. You want change, and I want to share in that process and nurture the positive growth that change brings with it.
The life journey that has brought me to Milwaukee at this moment has been filled with unexpected twists and turns, but I have the deepest feeling that this is b’shert, that this is where I’m supposed to be. I understand and accept the strongly held beliefs that contribute to the power of our community. As Jews I know that the ties that bind us together are stronger than any differences that may threaten to pull us apart.
I look forward to beginning my new life in Milwaukee, and to working with you to move our community into a strong future based on the best of our past. I hope to meet as many of you as possible at our Celebration of Community event on August 30!
Loading ...