2014 Annual Report JEWISH FEDERATION of METROPOLITAN CHICAGO - 1 - Emergency aid mobilized to support Israelis living Israel Emergency Campaign under fire… As this annual report goes to press, our Jewish It has been an important and meaningful year for the community’s hearts and minds have been in Israel, Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan where the Jewish State has faced missiles from Chicago and the community we serve. above and tunnels from below, battling a terrorist army sworn to its destruction. Elevating Jewish Life and Jewish Lives We stand with Israel and pledge our abiding o encourage strategic growth and innovation in solidarity, now and forever. the Jewish nonprofit sector. JUF launched the Breakthrough Fund, awarding over $1 million in When Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, grantsT to visionary initiatives that meet local Jewish Chicago was the first community to respond to the needs and engage community members Jewishly Israeli government’s request for help. We advanced throughout their lifespans. $1.5 million to help our partner agencies on the ground to ease human needs and opened JUF’s JUF now allocates more than $150 million annually to Israel Emergency Campaign to help Israel’s most support basic needs, create Jewish experiences and vulnerable populations bear the burden of war. strengthen the Jewish community. It is essential for an organization of such magnitude to have a capacity for Through the Israel Emergency Campaign, Chicago’s Research & Development, and the Breakthrough Fund Jewish community is coming together to help tens serves this role, augmenting the yearly funding JUF of thousands of Israelis in the areas of respite, direct provides to uplift the Jewish community. service, trauma care and long-term assistance. Our support has helped to move children, including many Initially, 10 local programs received $5,000 with special needs, out of rocket range; equip people, Breakthrough Fund mini-grants. At the end of the including many Holocaust survivors, with adequate fiscal year, 17 initiatives received full awards ranging safe rooms and bomb shelters; provide trauma care from $25,000 to $150,000—11 of them to help launch for individuals, new immigrants and first-responders; programs or to make new strategic investments and six help homebound and disabled Israelis endure life to help proven programs flourish and expand. under fire; and support families who have paid the ultimate price and lost loved ones. JUF has focused on supporting innovation for many years, highlighted by the 15-year-long Priority Even if the worst of the crisis is past, huge numbers Grants program. But when the recession hit in 2008, of Israelis will continue to need services. These the organization’s priority shifted to addressing services cost real dollars, and we will stand at the fundamental human needs through the J-HELP ready to provide them. initiative. Now JUF once again has the opportunity to focus on innovation, this time A spotlight on the issue of hunger… expanding the grant fund to also support $1 million in innovative funding to elevate Jewish life… programs outside of JUF agencies. Serving Critical assistance rushed to help Ukrainian Jews a range of populations, in crisis… the funded programs cover a broad array of The launch of exciting new outreach programs activities, including: for young families and leadership opportunities creating an online for teens… community resource for families with young - 2 - children; educating day school students about how to respond to bullying and anti-Semitism; helping “...this year yielded LGBTQ Jews to explore their Jewish heritage; and $198,386,439 to support providing grandparents with tools to connect with their grandchildren around JUF’s vital network Jewish values. of social service agencies.” Mobilizing Resources to Uplift Our Community emergency relief efforts, and other sources. his is just one of the wonderful initiatives All told, this incredible generosity from our community made possible by an extraordinarily generous made possible the allocation of $174.73 million during Chicago Jewish community—the community the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014. Highlights include: thatT raised its 2013 Jewish United Fund Annual $25.47 million through the Jewish Federation of Campaign to $81.54 million, $2.2 million more than the • Metropolitan Chicago to fund essential human previous year and the largest annual increase since the services benefiting 300,000 Chicagoans of all faiths economic downturn in 2008. at every stage of life, as well as $28.43 million to fund key Jewish education, continuity, oversight and These funds uplifted the global and local Jewish national programs; community, supporting basic needs, creating Jewish experiences and strengthening the Jewish community. • $28.53 million through the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago devoted to national and The Annual Campaign is the largest piece of a multi- overseas needs benefiting 2 million Jews in Israel pronged fundraising effort that this year yielded and 70 countries across the globe; and $198,386,439 to support JUF’s vital network of • $62.10 million allocated to charitable ventures social service agencies. In addition to the Annual worldwide in partnership with our Donor Advised Campaign, the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation Funds, which include Family Philanthropic Funds and of Metropolitan Chicago raised funds through Support Foundations. bequests, donor advised funds, support foundations, The Centennial Campaign, corporate partnerships, government and foundation grants, donations to Supporting Basic Needs n September, JUF launched a year-long initiative to raise awareness and mobilize volunteers in the area of hunger and food Iinsecurity. Through the JUF Hunger Awareness Project, hundreds of community volunteers of all ages had opportunities to participate in food drives; stock food pantries; serve meals to people in need; deliver holiday grocery packages; pack lunch bags; and work in a community garden. These efforts supported the important work of both secular and religiously- affiliated agencies, including the JUF-funded EZRA Multi-Service Center, JUF Uptown Café, ARK and Maot Chitim, and culminated in a TOV volunteer appreciation event to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the JUF Uptown Café. Community leaders took The SNAP Challenge, - 3 - hosted in the fall and again in the spring, to better understand the experience of a food-stamp recipient, living on the average SNAP food budget for one week. Accounts of their visceral experiences were published in major Jewish and Chicago publications. The JUF Hunger Awareness Project involved community partners, including synagogues, to facilitate documentary viewings and community discussions about hunger. The project also teamed up with the Hillels of Illinois to promote Hillel’s Challah for Hunger program, where students baked and sold loaves of challah to raise funds to fight hunger, and forged a partnership The JUF Hunger Awareness Project engaged members with Metro Chicago Hillel to create a hunger-focused of virtually every JUF division, including the Jewish alternative winter break. Community Relations Council (JCRC), Trades, Industries & Professions (TIP), TIP Young Professionals, The project also fostered JUF’s deeper involvement in TOV Volunteer Network, Young Leadership, Women’s interfaith anti-hunger coalitions, including Bread for “..the JUF Hunger Awareness Project served as a springboard to foster enhanced community relations.” the World, along with secular anti-hunger agencies, Board, Young Women’s Board, Hillel, Teens and Young including the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the Family Engagement. Northern Illinois Food Bank and Top Box Foods. Of course, hunger is only one of the basic needs In addition, the JUF Hunger Awareness Project served addressed by our JUF agencies. as a springboard to foster enhanced community relations. To commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, In 2014, some 26,000 people turned to Jewish Child & Jr.’s birthday, 150 members of the city’s Jewish and Family Services (JCFS) for help with special education, African-American communities came together for a autism, support for advanced illness, individual and tribute to his legacy, hosted at Bright Star Church, a family counseling. JCFS augmented its services with West Side Baptist congregation housed in what once the launch of The Jewish Center for Addiction to more was a synagogue. Immediately before the program, fully assist people impacted by addiction and to help volunteers from both communities prepared and build community awareness surrounding the issue. served a hot breakfast to some 100 local community members in need. JVS Chicago served more than 8,000 job seekers, from entry level to advanced career professionals, as In the spring, the JUF Hunger Awareness Project well as employers and entrepreneurs. This was the culminated in an interfaith Passover Seder dedicated to second year of its successful, comprehensive career hunger awareness. development center, Career Moves, which integrates - 4 - circumstances by JUF’s partners on the ground. Since last fall, the situation for Ukraine’s Jewish community also has been urgent. What started as peaceful government protests snowballed into violent confrontations between Russian-backed police and Ukrainian protestors. Dozens were killed, hundreds injured and the public square in the capital city of Kiev became a virtual war zone. Although the estimated 300,000 Ukrainian Jews were