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In Atlanta Jewish Community, Caring, Federation News, Philanthropy

Three Big Reasons to Give

The stunning success of the 2021 Community Campaign demonstrates to me that you, the Jewish community of Atlanta, are believers and builders. Your generosity is what propels us forward toward an even brighter collective future. It’s obvious to me that the Community Campaign is the very best vehicle for keeping that momentum going.

Last year’s Community Campaign closed with totals that exceeded our goals in every category, allowing us to amplify our impact. As our economy rebounds, I know we can do even better in 2022.

Federation is built to do big things. Here are my top three reasons to ask for your generous support for the 2022 Community Campaign:

1) Your support during COVID was magnificent. Jewish Atlanta deserves a pat on the back for how we met urgent needs during the pandemic, how we continue to come through COVID, and how we have learned from it. This kind of help is what Federation was built for and what a great community does.

2) You have helped us build one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in North America. We are the home of world-class partner agencies. We have a growing Jewish population, attracting young people after college and older adults who are moving to join their adult children. Our demographics have attracted innovative national initiatives to locate in our city:  Repair the World, OneTable, Honeymoon Israel, 18Doors, and B’chol Lashon are all thriving here.

3) Our tradition teaches over and over again that being a part of a community means supporting that community. This is the price we pay for the privilege of living in a community that has our back. It’s that basic. Please make your gift today and see all the ways you can channel your support to the things you care about most.

jewishatl
In Atlanta Jewish Community, Caring, Philanthropy

Built to Serve: Campaign 2022

It’s a privilege to volunteer on the 2022 Community Campaign, to serve with Debbie Kuniansky, Chair, and a team of hundreds of volunteers and professionals. My reasons for volunteering bring to mind a story from my years as a camper at Camp Barney Medintz in the foothills of the Appalachian Trail in North Georgia. I attended a campout with my cabinmates and counselor. After dinner, we pitched our tents and went to sleep. After sleeping for some time, I suddenly woke my counselor up and asked, “What do you see?”

Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he said, “I see the majesty of God’s creation in the stars and moon, the wonder of nature and miracles of life in the mountains and streams around us.” I responded, “Our tent is gone.” This story reminds me that we need to keep one eye focused on the possibilities, the big ideas and a second eye on the essentials – security, safety, shelter, and caring for one another. With all the challenges in the world, we cannot be so consumed that we focus only on ourselves and on today. Because without planning for the future, our children and children’s children will ask, “What did we do when it was our time to act?” Even worse, they might say, “Why did you not act when you could or should have?”

As a parent of children who graduated from one of our community’s amazing Jewish day schools, I marvel at the depth of their Judaism – the way they honor Shabbat, how they engage in deeds of loving kindness, and their pride in Jewishness. Unlike their Marano ancestors who practiced their Judaism in secret, they live rich Jewish lives. Together with Israel, Jews in North America comprise 90% of world Jewry. We are living in the Golden Age of Jewish life. How do we express that Judaism? By taking care of those less fortunate than us, building on the foundation that our parents and the many generations before them built for us. Together we can do this. We are built for this! Please join us in the 2022 Community Campaign, because we cannot do it without you. Not only for tomorrow but now, today.

jewishatl
In Atlanta Jewish Community, Philanthropy

The Good We Do Behind the Scenes

by Matt Bronfman, Board Chair

I am constantly amazed by the good Federation does. Last year between the Campaign, the Atlanta Jewish Foundation, and other giving programs, we helped infuse roughly $53 million into the community. Many of our efforts are high-visibility programs that people can see and participate in. But much of our work is indirect, from providing community-wide security to supporting innovation and community planning with our partner agencies. That is why to me, Federation reminds me of the BASF commercials from the ‘80s and ‘90s:  We don’t make a lot of the products you buy or use, we make them better.

I continue to be inspired by so many things that happen because of Federation, whether through funding, direct programming, or just the connections we foster. Here are just a few that impressed me recently:

  • Federation’s AgeWell Atlanta platform offers customized resources for older adults, plus an amazing calendar packed with 18-20 programs a week to engage them. Get on the AgeWell mailing list for upcoming events.
  • Through Federation’s funding of Moishe House and our Making Jewish Places initiative, programming has expanded beyond the four residential houses to impact young adults in Kennesaw, Smyrna, and Cumming “without walls.” Read about it here.
  • Federation’s education initiative, the Jewish Education Collaborative (JEC), continues to transform the face of supplementary Jewish education in our city. Read about Atlanta Hebrew Connection, a new online Hebrew language pilot program starting this fall.
  • Federation and JF&CS have become partners in KAVOD SHEF, a funding initiative to help meet the home care needs of Holocaust survivors in Georgia and the Southeast. It will supplement Claims Conference funding and the impactful work of the Holocaust Survivor Support Fund (HSSF) improving the lives of survivors who need assistance.
  • I love how we connected these two: Rabbi Micah Lapidus of The Davis Academy met Eliad Eliyahu Ben Shushan, the liaison for our partnership region in Yokneam and Megiddo, Israel. Their work to build bridges between Atlanta and Israeli students led to a deep interpersonal connection over their shared love of Jewish music. It led to the production of this beautiful song.

 

jewishatl
In Atlanta Jewish Community

Meet Our New Deputy Community Security Director

Federation is excited to announce that Jimi Horne is our new Deputy Community Security Director. Jimi will work alongside Community Security Director Neil Rabinovitz, rounding out an exceptionally strong team working every day to protect our community of more than 125,000 people.  He joins us from the Charleston Jewish Federation where he served as the community’s Security and Emergency Management Consultant. Jimi is a Charleston native, with 25 years of paramedic experience, 28 years reserve military experience, and eight years combined law enforcement and security experience.  

As a paramedic, Jimi worked in various areas of the EMS industry including working in a high-volume county 911 system, supporting law enforcement special operations, as a critical care paramedic on ground and air ambulances, and as a safety coordinator/paramedic in the steel industry. Jimi left clinical practice to go into education, working in medical simulation, and health IT education. He was the program coordinator and clinical coordinator for a paramedic associate program.  

Jimi is also a Senior Master Sargent in the Air Force, currently serving as a Military Clinical Specialist assigned to Headquarters, Air Force Reserve Command.  His previous assignment was as Superintendent of Aerospace Medicine overseeing the physical exam process for over 1,800 airmen.  

Jimi’s law enforcement and security background includes serving as a reserve deputy for the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office where he engaged in general patrol and drug interdiction operations, and with the U.S. Air Force working in base security and law enforcement. 

He has also found the time to be an active volunteer in the Charleston Jewish community serving as security chair for both a local day school and his synagogue, and he was one of the founding members of the Charleston Jewish community’s security taskforce. Jimi holds a MEd in adult education from Strayer University and is currently writing his dissertation to complete a PhD in criminal justice from Walden University. 

You can contact Jimi at jhorne@jewishatlanta.org and Neil at nrabinovitz@jewishatlanta.org with any security questions or concerns. 

jewishatl
In Atlanta Jewish Community, Global News

Yokneam’s “Shark Tank” Projects are Up and Running

Inspired and influenced by years of financial support from the Atlanta and St. Louis Federations, Yokneam and Megiddo are taking bold steps to create their own fundraising infrastructure. The communities plan to launch the first–ever Yokneam Community Fund, providing a charitable giving platform for companies and individuals to financially support innovative local initiatives. The goal is to empower individuals and local businesses to take an active role as philanthropists, and to empower local groups to create their own programming. 

Here’s a rundown of community-driven projects that were recently green-lighted following a “Shark Tank” style competition. All are adding to the quality of life in our Partnership region.

  • Gaia Club for Upcycling — Gaia Club for Upcycling is a community club operated by volunteers that will create a “store” for second-hand clothes and accessories for children and babies, as well as subsidized social rental of large equipment, such as construction equipment, gardening, and camping. It will be run by volunteers and will also operate a social club to empower retired women.  
  • Shed Sherut — The Shed Serut will be a unique logistic basis for equipment such as paints and painting tools, gardening tools, work tools (for small repairs) and more. The Shed Sherut will be used and operated by Rikma’s Shnat Sherut (gap year) volunteers.  
  • Social Kitchen — Social Kitchen provides home-cooked meals and groceries for needy families. Families within the community cook and provide food to needy families whose condition has worsened with the pandemic and who are not currently receiving welfare support. 
  • Kibbutz Megiddo — During their Bar Mitzvah year, 12- and 13 year-olds are volunteering for a community social project in Kibbutz Megiddo. Taking an unused corner of the settlement, they will create a green corner to be used for both young and elderly members of the community. These age groups suffered from COVID-19 more than most of the others. For the elders, the isolation and loneliness took a toll on their mental and physical health, and this year four of the community members passed away. This corner will be a meeting place for the elderly members of the community, and at the same time this will be a place of interaction with youngsters who will volunteer there. In addition, a community vegetable garden will be added, where both age groups will work together, and the vegetables will be given to those in need in the community.  

Shomrei Hanachal (Guards of the Stream) — The COVID-19 crisis struck many people around the world, and especially young retirees who stopped almost all their activities and became socially disconnected. This project will help young retirees to see the possibilities in the crisis, to think outside the box, and to engage in groups that can enhance feeling of belonging, being meaningfully active and influential through inter-generation activity.

jewishatl
In Atlanta Jewish Community, Jewish Camp Initiative

One Happy Family: The Einhorns Go to Camp

With assistance from One Happy Camper incentive grants and Federation’s Jewish Camp Initiative scholarships, four out of five members of the Einhorn family, including Dad Ronnie, went to Ramah Darom this summer and had a blast. Cela was the family’s returning camper. The other Einhorn kids, Sam and Goldie, didn’t really know what to expect, but all had a sense that it would be a unique, shared family experience. It was!  

Ronnie Einhorn, who is a teacher at The Epstein School, had the pleasure of seeing each of his kids blossom at camp every day and also experienced personal and professional growth coming to Ramah Darom as a seasoned teacher and learning to be a camp educator from his colleagues. “Each week seeing the community coming together for Kabbalat Shabbat and ending Shabbat in an explosion at Havdalah, was a thrill,” he said.  

Meanwhile, back in Atlanta, working mom Heidi Einhorn held down the fort at home and delighted in the happy reports she got from Ronnie and the kids. “Their favorite parts of camp were all over the place,” Heidi said. “The lake! The pool! Rikkudiah (an all-camp dance performance)! For me, having all of them come home so independent and grateful to be together again, was a joy.” 

For Cela, the Einhorn’s oldest child and a returning camper, being back at camp felt both like meeting new people and also like they hadn’t been apart at all. Meanwhile, her younger brother Sam was planning to only go to camp for two weeks, but stayed for four because, in addition to the activities he loved, he knew he would, “be so happy with all [his] friends and grow up with them.” Camp helped them connect not only to their friends but also to Judaism. Cela shared that she will be using many of the camp tunes from tefillot (prayers) in her Bat Mitzvah this coming year. 

Neither Heidi nor Ronnie Einhorn attended overnight camp as kids, but they made a commitment early in their relationship to build their family on a foundation of Judaism and Jewish community. “We’re so grateful to have rich relationships with Congregation Shearith Israel, Jewish Kids Groups, Intown Hebrew School, Federation, and so many other organizations in Atlanta. The fact that each of them recognizes the impact of camp on Jewish identity tells it all. Seeing the lifelong relationships coming out of camp would be enough, but our kids come home choosing our Camp Ramah playlist on Spotify, choosing after-dinner rikkud (dance shows) over screens, ‘accidentally’ referring to things by their Hebrew names, confirming that we are seeing the theory in practice!” 

jewishatl
In Atlanta Jewish Community, Caring, Young Leadership Division

ATL’s Moishe House Without Walls

We’ve shared stories in Fed5 about Atlanta’s four Moishe Houses (MH) where young adults live together and create meaningful, welcoming Jewish communities for themselves and their peers. Atlanta currently has Moishe Houses in Toco Hills, Virginia Highland, Buckhead, and a house for Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) young adults in Brookhaven.  

But Moishe House also impacts Atlanta through a growing network of Moishe House Without Walls (MHWOW) hosts. Here, individual hosts create Jewish experiences with support from the Moishe House organization. MHWOW hosts decide who they want to invite, where they want to host, what they want to explore in Judaism, and when they want to gather. Activities can range from Friday night Shabbat dinners, holidays, learning events, and cultural celebrations. 

In addition to MHWOW hosts in Intown Atlanta and inside the perimeter, we also now have three new MHWOW hosts in Kennesaw, Smyrna, and Cumming, thanks to the support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s Making Jewish Places (MJP) microgrants initiative.  

Each host serves a different demographic and has a unique vision for their monthly MHWOW programming. programming. Additionally, an existing MHWOW host relocated from Los Angeles to Cumming in March 2021 and has been leading programming and building community.   

One host wrote about the vibrant and inclusive community she aims to create with ongoing MH support: “I want to engage with Jewish young professionals who are looking for a relaxed community of their peers. I am targeting those who may not feel comfortable joining a larger organization but want to socialize with a smaller group of friendly faces. My programming ideas are centered around the Jewish holidays, especially the lesser-known ones like Tu B’Shevat (terrarium making!), Shavuot (ice cream sundae bar!), or Tu B’Av (Galentine’s games!). For the more well-known holidays, we’ll try Sushi in the Sukkah, an interactive Seder on Passover, hamantaschen baking on Purim, a latke exchange on Hannukah, and themed Shabbat dinners.   

“My goal is to create a small but deeply connected group of open–minded friends, who enjoy fun activities and celebrate Jewish holidays in a way that is meaningful to us, and to give back to our larger community through volunteering time/money.”   

In May, MHWOW host Zach Givarz took eight participants on a Shabbat weekend in the mountains. The group celebrated the beauty and love of Shabbat through food and celebrations.  

A group of women gathered, led by MHWOW host Leah Berryhill, to celebrate Shavuot and the spring harvest with roses and rosé wine. The participants made flower arrangements and took time to enjoy and connect safely outside at a local community park.  

MHWOW host Shira Colsky hosted an ice cream party with nine friends in honor of Shavuot. They discussed the history of this less-known Jewish holiday and enjoyed various homemade ice cream flavors! 

Learn more about MHWOW in our area, email: withoutwalls@moishehouse.org 

jewishatl
In Atlanta Jewish Community, Caring, Philanthropy

Mazel Tov to Cherie Aviv: AFP’s Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year

When the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Atlanta Chapter hosts its 39th annual National Philanthropy Day event on November 4, 2021, Jewish Atlanta can take justifiable pride that Cherie Aviv will be honored as Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year. 

Cherie Aviv is a fiercely dedicated and effective fundraiser with a longtime interest in the arts, and a deep passion for social services in the Jewish community, older adults, clients with disabilities, and meeting the needs of our region’s Holocaust survivors. Her fundraising efforts and remarkable collaborative initiatives have raised more than $10 million to date to benefit people across the greater Atlanta community and beyond.

In 2016, after assessing the needs of Atlanta’s Holocaust survivors, Cherie spearheaded the partnership between Jewish Family & Career Services (JF&CS), Jewish HomeLife, Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA), The Breman Museum, Eternal Life-Hemshech, and Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta that created the Holocaust Survivors Support Fund (HSSF). Through Cherie’s efforts, the fund has raised just under $3 million, engaged more than 600 donors, and had a transformational impact on the lives of more than 135 Holocaust survivors annually.  

On behalf of Federation, Karen Botnick Paz nominated Aviv for the AFP award. In her nomination, Karen paints a rich picture of Cherie’s busy life. “It’s 5:30 a.m. and Cherie Aviv is quietly reading before she takes a morning run. Juggling up to four books at a time keeps her mind engaged, while running allows time for thinking. These hobbies provide a healthy balance to her full-time volunteer schedule which runs the gamut from fundraising, creating special moments, outreach, and hands-on activities.  

Cherie applies this same discipline and determination to everything she undertakes. Terri Bonoff, CEO JF&CS said, “Cherie’s approach is to respond to community needs with urgency and innovation. This was evident with the 2014 JF&CS Capital Campaign to Complete the Campus where the campaign raised $6.6 million, exceeding the goal by $1.5 million. Cherie co-chaired with John Perlman and made the matching lead gift.  

Miriam Friedman, an MJCCA professional shared, “Cherie co-led a team of 15+ volunteer and staff solicitors and helped to construct the campaign framework from marketing materials to campaign structure and reporting, to board solicitations and grant writing. Cherie’s project management savvy kept the team on track and motivated, exceeding the campaign goal by over $1.5 million.”   

Mark Silberman, past Board Chair of Federation said, “Cherie has no peer when it comes to fundraising. Absolutely the best I have seen.” 

While serving as Vice President of Development at Jewish HomeLife, Cherie increased their annual campaign by 25%. From 2014-2016, as Co-Chair of Jewish Family & Career Services Capital Campaign, she helped secure $6.6 million. In 2018, she and her husband Gary chaired a record-setting Community of Caring luncheon, which raised $500,000. 

Cherie is not only generous with her time and expertise, she is personally generous, though her giving is often anonymous. Supporting letters for the AFP award provide story after story of her dedication and generosity and her engaging collaborative style.  

Tammi Parker, a friend, and volunteer observes, “Cherie is the ultimate player/coach. She creates the experience for the volunteer, makes it look easy and doable, and fills in any gaps that the volunteer is not able to cover.”  Terri Bonoff added, “On one occasion, I joined 20 volunteers to make rugelach to give to survivors, caregivers, or clients with disabilities. These volunteer baking events are quite inspiring and there are waiting lists to join.” 

One thing is for certain, what Cherie has done for the Atlanta community and beyond is priceless. Her impact is everywhere. JF&CS can provide comprehensive support services for any senior in the Atlanta community through Aviv Older Adult Services. Jewish HomeLife is well known throughout Atlanta for its high quality of care at Aviv Rehabilitation Center. Thousands of older adults are cheered by birthday cards through Aviv Celebrations. Cancer patients feel the warmth through fleece blankets while going through chemotherapy delivered through her efforts. She has shared that she has more new projects in the works.   

Thank you, Cherie, for the abundance of wisdom, persistence, and chesed you bring to philanthropy. You have lifted countless lives! 

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