JEWISH FEDERATION OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY 2015 Annual Report THE JEWISH FEDERATION funds & supports a comprehensive network of organizations that do two things: CARE FOR PEOPLE IN NEED here at home, in Israel and around the world. NURTURE & SUSTAIN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY today and for future generations. By working with a broad cross-section of helping the unemployed, from supporting families community members to raise and distribute funds, with special needs to funding Jewish education we ensure that the programs, institutions and and Israel experiences and advocacy, the Jewish values that enrich our Jewish community remain Federation is focused on addressing the most vibrant and strong. From feeding the hungry to pressing issues facing our community every day. 2 A MESSAGE from our leadership Dear Friends, Educating students at the Jewish Day School; providing a central place for Jewish life at the When you are raising money for pressing JCC; caring for our most vulnerable through needs year after year, it’s true that not every- Jewish Family Service. thing can be an “emergency.” Yet, right from the start, the needs this year just felt more Our Jewish Senior Life Connection program urgent. expanded this year to include PrimeTime at the J, which provides a broad range of activi- We had barely closed our 2014 campaign ties to keep seniors active in mind and body when rockets began raining down in Israel. and connect them to Jewish life. Our Young We quickly switched gears and, within days, Adult Division also expanded in both capacity opened an Israel Emergency Campaign. For and activity, and reinvigorated its tikkun olam Mark H. Scoblionko seven weeks during Operation Protective initiative, collecting food for families in need President Edge, we sent nearly daily updates to the at Thanksgiving and participating in a com- community, organized a solidarity gathering munity-wide mitzvah day on Super Sunday. and took seriously our role as a trusted part- ner in fundraising, raising more than a quarter None of this would be possible without you, of a million dollars. our committed donors, who have supported the Federation for so many years. To honor As the conflict wound down, needs at home those commitments, we launched the Silver became apparent as our college students Circle Society this year, which recognizes heading off for the semester were about donors who have given to Federation for 25 to face increased anti-Israel sentiment on years or more. May we all aspire to join this many of their campuses. To address this, we elite group. brought in a representative from the Israel Action Network to talk about BDS and pub- In times of “emergency” or not, the Federa- lished a four-page pullout section in HAKOL tion will continue to be there to address the on the topic. A follow-up session was held needs of the community, whatever they may with the students over winter break. be, but it’s because of you that we are there. Then, January brought news of the shootings Thank you for your ongoing support. in France, including at a kosher supermarket. A month later we learned of an attack at a Denmark synagogue. Again we provided the community with an on-the-ground perspec- tive from our overseas partners, who used Mark L. Goldstein Federation funds to increase security at Mark H. Scoblionko Executive Director Jewish institutions and help the communities President recover. All the while, the crisis in Ukraine that began the year before wore on, and, through our partners, we provided the necessary means for the 350,000 Jews there to survive the winter. Mark L. Goldstein Executive Director This is all not to mention our needs at home: The Federation distributed more than $3 million this year to help Jews at home, in Israel and around the world. 3 It is difficult to explain what it feels like when you tell your 8-year-old that he can go invite his friend from across the street to come over and play and as he finishes crossing the street, a siren goes off. You watch him turn back to you, his face panicked, and start running and you run to him and you pray that a car won’t kill us both because he is running without looking around and I have to get to him and I grab him and we run inside to the shelter. - Yonit Peleg, Yoav resident & Partnership2Gether coordinator When Israel needs us, WE ARE THERE. In the summer of 2014, rockets rained down on Israel for 50 days. Residents of southern cities such as Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Be’er Sheva, and those living in our sister region of Yoav, were left constantly fleeing to bomb shelters. Locations further north, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, also heard the sirens sound. Schools and camps were closed, businesses couldn’t operate and the economy was at a standstill. The Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley partnered with local synagogues and Jewish communities across North America to “Stop the Sirens,” providing emergency aid to alleviate the pain and suffering of Israelis living in harm’s way. The money we raised through the Israel Emergency Campaign helped provide care for homebound elderly and disabled adults during this time of terror, respite for tens of thousands of children fleeing rocket attacks and crisis counseling for Israelis who were overwhelmed by anxiety and in need of relief. It provided emergency grants to families directly impacted by the rocket fire. In Yoav, our Partnership2Gether community, 70 percent of people do not have shelters in their homes. More than 40 per- $250,000 cent of the public shelters they must rely on are unusable. The was raised by our funds we raised are continuing to help refurbish these bomb shelters. In partnership with the municipality, our funds will also community to help Jews enable the creation of an emergency response center. The goal in Israel during Operation is that the next time the sirens sound, our Yoav family will be Protective Edge better equipped to respond. 5 In peace or in crisis, WE ARE THERE. This isn't the first time Aza Grigorenko, 88, has been workers from the local Hesed social welfare center to forced to leave her home because of war. her home. As a teenager during World War II, she and her mother But when the current crisis in Ukraine intensified, Alex- resettled in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk. sandr came back to Slavyansk to relocate his mother. There, Aza met her husband and gave birth to her only Mother and son now share a tiny two-room apartment son, Alexsandr. in St. Petersburg and receive food, medicine and healthcare from their new local Hesed. Even after Alexsandr moved to St. Petersburg, her husband died and she became increasingly frail, Aza As a citizen of a foreign country, Aza is not eligible for stayed. The Federation’s overseas partner, the JDC, has state social support. Alexsandr is not sure what else he cared for her for the last decade, sending healthcare can do. JDC is their only lifeline – their only support. UNREST IN UKRAINE The desperate situation in Ukraine speaks to the most fundamental reasons why Federations are so critical. We have not turned away. We are on the ground, and we are making a difference. Training Aid Workers Supporting the Most Vulnerable on the Front Lines Securing Schools and Ensuring a Fear-free Community Centers Summer for Teens Delivering Emergency Aid to Monitoring and Reporting Homebound and Displaced People on the Crisis Federations collectively have Assisting 20,000 Families During Brutal Winters raised and allocated more than Helping to Explore a New Life $5 million and Settle in Israel through the Ukraine Assistance Fund to supplement the ongoing support through our Annual Campaigns 7 When anti-Semitism is on the rise, WE ARE THERE. Harassment of Jews throughout the world is at its highest level in seven years. In Europe, news reports describe a significantly deteriorating situation. Fatal attacks in France and Denmark this year, as well as vandalism against synagogues and other Jewish facilities throughout Western Europe, were shocking and disturbing. Here is what we are doing: RAISING AND ALLOCATING FUNDS ENHANCING OUR CAPACITY TO ADDRESS SECURITY Federations have raised close to $1 million to supplement The Jewish Federations’ Secure Community Network (SCN) funds provided by the French Jewish community to address has developed an unprecedented level of security expertise important needs in France. This money is being used and close ties with the U.S. Department of Homeland Secu- primarily to help the community address urgent security rity, and today is assisting Jewish communities worldwide. needs, and also to assist with post-trauma counseling. Within hours of the attacks in France and Denmark, SCN staff was on the ground, providing on-site crisis management FUNDING ALIYAH FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO expertise and helping strengthen local security efforts. RELOCATE TO ISRAEL 7,000 people made aliyah from France in 2014, triple the COLLABORATING WITH OUR PARTNERS number in 2012 and equivalent to 1 percent of the entire The Jewish Federations convened a meeting of key organiza- French Jewish community. This is the largest number of tions that provide funding and services to Jews in Europe. French olim in a single year in Israel’s history, and it may Together we examined the rapidly changing situation, shared double again in 2015. information and explored potential areas for collaboration. ‘A Jew Without Fear’ Carole Sebbah grew up in a loving family in beautiful Nice, France. But as a Jew, she always felt a deep connection to Israel.