NETWORK NEWS / Summer 2019 NETWORK NEWS SUMMER 2019 5779
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1 / NETWORK NEWS / Summer 2019 NETWORK NEWS SUMMER 2019 5779 JEWISHFEDERATIONS.ORG/NETWORK 2 / NETWORK NEWS / Summer 2019 3 / NETWORK NEWS / Summer 2019 NETWORK NEWS 25 Broadway, Suite 1700, New York, NY 10004 JewishFederations.org/Network facebook.com/JFNANetwork A FROM Network News is a publication of The Jewish Federations NOTE OUR LEADERSHIP of North America. It helps to inform Network Jewish communities and their leadership on the issues, opportunities and available resources to help strengthen and sustain Jewish life and Jewish peoplehood. MARK WILF Chair, Board of Trustees JODI J. SCHWARTZ Vice Chair, Board of Trustees DAVID BROWN Chair, National Campaign SHELLY KUPFER Chair, National Women’s Philanthropy HAROLD GERNSBACHER Treasurer JULIE PLATT Secretary JERRY B. SILVERMAN President / CEO DANIEL H. NATHANSON Executive Director, Network of Independent Communities LESLIE DANNIN ROSENTHAL Advisory Committee Chair, Network of Independent Communities NETWORK ADVISORY COMMITTEE Lauren Bandari Julie Bercow e are all connected. That’s why I visited Puerto Rico in January with leaders from the Jewish Federation of ne of the strengths of the Network is our willingness to partner with others to Susan Weiss Firestone Greater MetroWest NJ. It was an amazing opportunity to see the difference that a small number of people can Cheryl Fishbein W Orespond to the critical needs of the Jewish people. When poor elderly Jews in the former Daniel Frankel make when they are determined to engage in tikkun olam, repairing the world. Our expert and scholar-in-residence was Soviet Union are desperate for help, we work with JDC to secure funding for them. When it’s urgent to Beth Grode Edward Finkel, a regional director for the Network, who has worked tirelessly with the Puerto Rico Jewish community for years. rescue Jews living in distressed places like Venezuela and Ukraine, we collaborate with The Jewish Sharon Janks Sam Kimelman We arrived with duffels filled with medical supplies for clinics in remote, impoverished areas, as part of our partner Afya Agency for Israel to raise the dollars to bring them home to Israel. When the Network community of Linda Klein Foundation’s Luggage for Life program. We first worked with a team of marvelous young volunteers from NECHAMA, Puerto Rico is ravaged by major hurricanes, we reach out to IsraAID, NECHAMA, the Afya Foundation Tom Kramer Ann Pava an American-based Jewish organization that responds to disasters in the U.S. They are still repairing homes across the and the Foundation for Puerto Rico to provide assistance (see Leslie’s column). Steven Roosth island, many of which are covered with blue tarps. NECHAMA’s work is funded in part by a grant from the JFNA Caryn Rosen Adelman Hurricane Maria Emergency Relief Fund. When security issues emerge in states like Virginia, we meet with the local Federation and Secure Don Sawyer Andy Schneider We headed with IsraAID, an Israeli NGO that works in disaster relief around the world, to Patillas, a small community Community Network to come up with solutions. When colleges and universities in Network communities Marc Slotnick are challenged by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, we cooperate with local Hillels and Steven Slutsky that had no electricity or clean water for over six months after Maria. Immediately after the hurricane, IsraAID distributed Howard Stein home-use water filters to about 1,400 people whose homes are not connected to the Puerto Rican water system. IsraAID, the Israel Action Network (IAN) to deal with the problem. We work with Moving Traditions to engage Andre Tarraf a grant recipient of JFNA’s Emergency Relief Fund, is now working on a long-term solution. Jewish teenagers, and connect our kids with their counterparts in Israel through The Jewish Agency’s Gwen Wallace Global School Twinning Network. I could go on and on, from partnering with Birthright Israel to Elliott Weinstein At Temple Beth Sholom in San Juan, we were briefed by Rabbi Norman Patz, one of its visiting rabbis, who was in Julie Wise Oreck transform Jewish lives to collaborating with the Jewish Community Legacy Project to help synagogues Mark Wright Puerto Rico with his wife Naomi when Hurricane Maria hit just before Rosh Hashanah. The synagogue’s rooftop water thoughtfully plan for the future. cistern blew off, and they lost electricity—right before Rosh Hashanah, making the facility nonfunctional for many NETWORK STAFF weeks. A JFNA grant, in part, helped fund a new solar energy system. CONTACT INFORMATION: Partnership is in the Network’s DNA, which is also why our fundraising efforts have been so successful. Daniel H. Nathanson, Executive Director On our final day, we took a look into the future with Jon Borschow, founder and chair of the Foundation for Puerto Rico We don’t only partner with agencies, organizations and programs, we partner with our donors and 818.219.7948 [email protected] and a leading member of the local Jewish community. In the days following Maria, the Foundation’s building had electricity community leadership. When our campaign was down in 2018, we all felt the loss of funds. When we Andrew Feuerstein, Regional Director and internet and was able to host Jewish community organizations and other NGOs to enable them to get in contact with were incredibly successful in 2017, we all shared in the accomplishment. We can be proud that our 212.284.6734 [email protected] those needing assistance, providing JFNA with a way to get emergency cash assistance to displaced Jewish families. The combined total for 2017 and 2018 was $10,445,000 in annual and supplemental giving, $3,836,000 Edward J. Finkel, Regional Director Foundation also received an Emergency Relief Fund grant. 212.284.6530 [email protected] in planned giving and endowment commitments, and $158,000 for hurricane relief. Partnership really Abby Levine, Regional Director We later visited a very moving Holocaust memorial, built opposite the capitol building on land given by the government. does matter. 212.284.6746 [email protected] We could feel the determination of the Puerto Rican Jewish community and government to zachor, to remember and Rachel O. Levy, Regional Director 917.533.8097 [email protected] never forget. We ended by visiting the beautiful new Chabad of Puerto Rico, where Rabbi Mendel Zarchi and his wife, I want to welcome our two new regional directors, Abby Levine and Andrew Feuerstein. Abby, a Jacquelyn Shapiro, Regional Director Rachel, gave us a tour. The building, which was completed months before the hurricane, sustained significant damage. former day school and synagogue executive director, is based in Charleston, SC. Andrew comes to 212.284.6727 [email protected] The Zarchis described how they, their children and members of the community huddled in a storage closet as the wind us from BBYO and AEPi and is based in NYC. Both are deeply committed to Jewish communal Erica Heisman, Network Assistant pounded the building. JFNA provided assistance to replace the destroyed external security camera equipment. work and have already made a positive impact on their communities. 212.284.6584 [email protected] Erica Loiacano, Accounting Assistant Although Puerto Rico is currently a recipient, this Network community has a proud history of helping itself and 212.284.6602 [email protected] donating to our overseas partners. Each of the extraordinary people we met in the course of our short visit took action, On behalf of all of us at the Network, I wish you a Shana Tova U’Metukah. and their individual acts combined to bring repair to Puerto Rico and to the world. It was a privilege to encounter them, NETWORK NEWS to work with them, and, in some small way, to make a difference ourselves. Lisa Kleinman, Editor Jeanine Davis, Designer Danny Erica Loiacano, Christina Long, Leslie Daniel H. Nathanson, Executive Director, Network of Independent Communities Mara Silver-Smith, Proofreaders Leslie Dannin Rosenthal, Advisory Committee Chair, Network of Independent Communities For general inquiries about the Network, email [email protected] or call 212.284.6595 On the cover: Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia mission participants volunteering in Puerto Rico, a Network community. 4 / NETWORK NEWS / Summer 2019 5 / NETWORK NEWS / Summer 2019 GREETINGS JEWISH AGENCY PROGRAMS FROM THE HAVE GLOBAL IMPACT VOLUNTEERING BUILDS COMMUNITY NEW CHAIRMAN BY NIR BUCHLER, VP, ISRAEL & GLOBAL PHILANTHROPY, THE JEWISH AGENCY FOR ISRAEL AND IN THE OF THE LIFTS SPIRITS FSU THE JEWISH AGENCY OPENS NEW JEWISH AGENCY PROJECT TEN CENTER IN PUERTO RICO BY ALEXANDRA SHKLAR, DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE FOR ISRAEL In May, a group of 22 Cornell students, accompanied by 5 Israeli volunteers, headed to Puerto Rico to spend three months helping at-risk children on the island. They are the first cohort to staff a new Project TEN center in San Juan. Project TEN, a Jewish Agency for Israel program, empowers young adults to create sustainable change for vulnerable communities around the world. espite working for more than 40 years as an economist, 67-year-old Liliya Braga struggles to survive on a Dear Friends, The Jewish Agency is partnering on this project with PR4PR, a nonprofit group founded in Dmeager pension of just over $2 a day. She lives alone in Rybnitsa, Moldova, one of the more than 98,000 It has been exhilarating to become part of a 2004 by a Jewish philanthropist to help break the cycle of poverty in Puerto Rico by working Jews who rely on JDC for lifesaving assistance in the former Soviet Union (FSU). truly incredible organization, The Jewish with children from low-income and high-risk communities. Agency for Israel. “If not for JDC, I wouldn’t survive,” says Lilya, who turns to the organi- The Project TEN center is located 30 minutes from San Juan in the Loiza district, home zation for medicine, winter relief, holiday food and a bank card to I embark on this mission with a deeply to many young families who are among the poorest in Puerto Rico.