Federation News

As difficult as the past year and a half has been, Federation has not lost momentum or abandoned the ambitious ideas that define us as a Philanthropic and Community Champion. I am excited to tell you that we are going full speed ahead, and that many of the things we dreamed about which were on the shelf are being dusted off. Exciting initiatives are moving forward.

Israel Travel | Federation’s November 2021 Men’s Journey to Israel is already sold out. Hillel’s popular Onward program of Israel internships is in full swing. Federation NextGen’s 40-Under-40 Journey to Israel is planning a trip, and we’ve just announced the 2023 Community Journey to Israel — our first community trip since 2014. It will be open to anyone over age 18 and is timed to coincide with Israel’s 75^th birthday.

Jewish Education Collaborative (JEC) | Our work to transform the quality of Jewish education in our synagogue schools continues through the Jewish Education Collaborative. JEC is doing bold work at Congregation Or Hadash to reimagine bar/bat mitzvah. New models for family education are launching at Temple Sinai, Temple Kol Emeth, and Temple Beth Tikvah. Busy families at five local synagogues won’t be battling traffic for midweek Hebrew next year They’ll be part of a proven new Hebrew curriculum, the Atlanta Hebrew Connection, where learning is done from home.

Gap Year Programs in Israel | With generous funding from The Zalik Foundation, JumpSpark helped Atlanta teens explore gap year options. Twenty-five students from fifteen different Atlanta high schools have accepted scholarships of $10,000 – $15,000 for the gap year program that suits them best. The experience is intended to amplify Israel education and develop a cadre of students who will enter college campuses with a strong connection to and knowledge of Israel.

1440 Spring Street: A Center for Jewish Life | We’re still talking about establishing 1440 Spring Street as Atlanta’s Intown Center for Jewish Life. It will be a gathering place for Jewish entrepreneurs and innovative nonprofits, with space for recreation, cultural experiences, learning and more. Imagine a multi-use theater, rooftop event facility, and conference center for lifecycle events, speakers and meetings, plus a reimagined Breman Cultural Center.

Toco Hills Housing Initiative | Exploration on the feasibility of building apartments for older adults in Toco Hills continues. This was the inspiration of Betty Minsk, z”l, who noted that many older adults in Toco Hills were not downsizing because there were no affordable, right-sized housing options in the neighborhood. Along with this, young families are also being priced out of starter homes. We will keep you updated.

Family Camp | We recently submitted a proposal seeking support for the creation of weekend and week-long family camp retreat programs. Family camp is a transformational education model at a time when people crave informal ways to connect with Jewish tradition. The immersive qualities of overnight camp give Jewish families fun new ways to do, feel, and be Jewish together. These programs could begin as soon as next summer!

Tuition Assistance for Jewish Professionals | Starting next school year, full-time Jewish professionals, clergy, and educators are eligible to receive up to a 50 percent tuition reduction if their children are currently enrolled or have been accepted to an accredited Jewish high school in Atlanta. Funding comes from a consortium of community foundations who support day school education and want to elevate our Jewish community as a destination for top professional talent.

One Happy Camper Scholarships | The pent-up demand for Jewish overnight camp has been off the charts. This summer we opened doors for more than 1,000 kids to have a Jewish camp experience!  Ongoing fundraising for camp, along with the Start a Campfire campaign, topped $750,000. Families who received grants and scholarships in 2020 were able to use them

July has provided a happy breather for me. Coming off our incredibly successful 2020-21 fundraising year, I am exhaling a bit, but also feeling challenged to do even better in 2022. Knowing that the new fiscal year has just begun and that the 2022 Community Campaign launches in a few weeks makes these waning July days even sweeter. So, I have been treasuring time in the north Georgia mountains for hiking and hanging with friends and doing some traveling. I am looking forward to our Federation professional retreat at Ramah Darom next month and am also excited that Limmud Atlanta will be back at Ramah Darom in August (August 27-29).

And I’m reading. This summer my focus is on books about Israel, organizational accountability, and racial justice.

Our leadership is engaged in training on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) — a set of concepts and practical tools that provide an accountability and management system we will roll out to the entire organization. The executive team has been engaged since May. We are working with a consultant and learning the tools we’ll use to improve our operations. For this work I’m reading “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business,” by Gino Wickman. It asks CEOs to define their values and build a culture around their core values. It’s a call to always let these values guide you when you hire, fire, review, and reward people, as well as a push to a more data-driven organizational culture.

I’m having fun reading “Coming of Age: The Atlanta Jewish Federation 1962-1982,” by Max C. Gettinger.”  Max (Mike) Gettinger grew up in New York City. Like me, he practiced social work and went on to become a Federation professional. Mike moved to Atlanta in 1962 taking on the role of Assistant Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and shortly after became the Executive Director when Ed Kahn retired. He served in this position until 1979 when he retired. Mike continued two years past his own retirement to launch Federation’s first endowment program. It’s been illuminating to learn more about the philanthropic foundation of our community and see how our Jewish leadership structure developed in those critical years of growth.

Mike Leven, who stewards the Jewish Future Pledge, urged me to read “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth,” by Noa Tishby. Tishby is an Israeli actor and activist. She blends memoir and advocacy in this tribute to her beloved Israel, bemoaning how little the rest of the world actually knows about Israel. If you’re looking to counter social media “misinformation” about Israel, this is a helpful and inspiring read.

Also on my nightstand is Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson. This was last year’s big book on the roots of racism in America. Wilkerson approaches race differently than other writers, using the framework of a skin-color-based caste system, to explain how slavery compounded inequality and lack of social movement. She analogizes America to an old house that needs repair.  “We can never declare the work over. Wind, flood, drought, and human upheavals batter a structure that is already fighting whatever flaws were left unattended in the original foundation.” The idea is, we ignore the urgent renovations at our own peril. An important book.

Enjoy these last lovely days of summer. Let’s hope that we’ll be healthy and ready for in-person events in August and during the September Jewish holidays.

P.S. If you are reading something powerful and memorable, please send me an email and tell me about it.

Three years ago our Atlanta Jewish professionals and lay community leaders traveled together to Israel. We represented legacy and emerging organizations plus many synagogues – from Reconstructionist and Reform to Orthodox and Chabad. It was a glorious experience in Jewish pluralism.

After the trip I shared our story of courage and strength in the face of passionate, diverse reactions to the many flash points on our itinerary. These included discussions with Women of the Wall founder Anat Hoffman, encounters with advocates for Arab/Israeli equity in Lod, touring a well-endowed orthodox yeshiva in Gush Etzion and visiting an adjacent Palestinian school that was struggling for survival.

We concluded our trip by committing to never speaking unkindly of each other or assuming malintent. We keep that promise to this day. We still pick up the phone before we make assumptions or accusations. We still use our WhatsApp group to wish each other Shabbat Shalom and mazal tov each week. Those simple acts have diffused conflict and built trust.

Actually, what jumped out at me in the 2021 Pew Research Center’s wasn’t about dwindling Jewish engagement, it was the importance of our promise. The Pew report noted the increasingly sharp religious and political differences between the Orthodox and other Jews. That divide suggests that the community is splitting into two groups increasingly focused on what separates us rather than what unites us.

It’s a very worrisome prospect.

I believe it’s time to double down on intra-faith efforts that create common ground. As I learned in Israel, our polarized politics made us uncomfortable, but being travelers together left us with no choice but to engage in dialogue — and we made time for it. We were literally on the bus together and had to deal with one another, our views, and our feelings. As we worked through it we didn’t come to a shared point of view, but we shared a new level of understanding. We were able to have grace for one another because we listened and leaned into each other’s perspectives.

We are, as a people, on the bus together. We need to act accordingly – leaning toward one another, listening, engaging, struggling to understand even if we don’t agree, rather than retreating to recriminations. If we are going to continue to be a people, we need dialogue, we require grace, and we must resolve to prioritize unity.

For decades, we have collectively done important interfaith work that has yielded results. We are better for it. Now there is an imperative to look inward and deal with intra-faith dialogue. We need more opportunities like Atlanta’s community trip to Israel, and the Wisdom Pairings work we are currently doing, where people gather not just to talk, but to listen and to understand one another. Our Jewish community should always embrace a diversity of voices, but our future depends on where we align.

As part of Federation’s commitment to prioritize Excellence, Fearlessness, and Empathy as the core values that drive our work, all of our professionals know they are part of a learning organization. Federation’s learning culture means we not only encourage but require everyone to demonstrate personal and professional growth every year. Our people do this by taking classes and webinars, attending conferences, and sometimes choosing their own self-directed studies.  

Every professional sets annual performance goals in their main area of expertise. And everyone has a development plan. Seventy percent of the development plan includes on-the-job “stretch opportunities.” Our professionals frequently mentor each other to master these new skills. These commitments help us cultivate a learner’s mindset, which in turn, empowers us to become more fearless.   

I see the benefits daily. People who are risk takers get comfortable with challenging a fixed mindset and learn to embrace change. They are flexible, curious, collaborative. They are open to the idea that there’s no one way to do things. These skills were absolutely essential as we adapted to the massive upheaval of the challenges of the pandemic.   

Our professionals are taking classes about how to manage their teams, how to make Instagram and Facebook videos, and how to chart a donor’s journey from the very first gift to renewals. They’re learning about best practices in direct mail and how to tailor fundraising appeals to specific demographic groups. They’re studying how to move donors to monthly giving, and how to sharpen their listening skills so they take a project and turn it into reality. On their own time, several are pursuing MBA degrees, social work certification, and more!  

You may also have heard that Federation is integrating the capabilities of Salesforce into our daily operations. We are one of the first Federations in North America to adopt Salesforce, and I am continually getting phone calls from others who ask how it’s going. I’m proud to say, it’s going really, really, well. Salesforce allows us to better integrate our data, connect with community partners, volunteers, and donors.  

In this way too, having a workforce that values a learner’s mind has served us well. All of our teams are touched by Salesforce and after many, many, hours of training, our professionals are fearlessly adopting new procedures. I am convinced that our commitment to ongoing learning is much deeper than what’s usually called “professional development.” It is an attitude that opens us up, fearlessly, to ideas that can move this community forward.

I began this Passover message thinking I’d write about the positive things this challenging year of COVID-19 has taught us and the specific innovations, adaptations, and behavior changes we might want to keep. Indeed, many, many good things have emerged from our plague year. Crisis is always a catalyst for innovation and transformation, and Atlanta rode that thrilling wave. We created dozens of socially distanced ways to serve. We unleashed unprecedented levels of generosity and kindness.

That’s all good, great even. But I am in the relationship business and I desperately miss the energy of being around people. Half a dozen people have joined the Federation team since we began working remotely. I’ve never met many of them, or any of our new donors, in person, and it tears me apart.  I’m literally champing at the bit to catch up with all of you.

So, I’ll leave the catalogue of COVID “keepers” to other writers. For Passover I want to lift up the paradox of covenant vs. freedom, and the tension that exists between the two. As vaccines allow us to take our first tender steps of emergence from the narrow place of hand sanitizers, six feet apart, and social pods, we will embrace family members we haven’t touched in a year! We are like a reborn people. Giddy with our newfound freedom, we rush back to what is familiar. Remember how the Jewish people, just weeks after the parting of the Red Sea, built the golden calf.

Our post-COVID liberation comes with covenantal responsibility to each other and the world. Freedom may look like a big fat hug, but for a while it will likely be a hug with a face mask. Let us rejoice in our redemptive freedom but never forget that we were charged to be a light unto the nations with a unique mission to repair the world.