Federation News

Today is my birthday, and I’ve received an incredible gift. In about two weeks I leave for a very special invitation-only trip to Rwanda curated for Jewish leaders, educators and influencers, spearheaded by OLAM — a collaborative platform of 53 Jewish and Israeli organizations committed to engaging the Jewish world in global service and international development.

Why Rwanda? Because surprisingly, Rwanda is a place where Jewish organizations are deeply engaged in driving social change and social justice in agriculture and international development. And because Rwanda is linked to the Jewish people through a joint history of genocide and growth. Israel has just established an embassy in Kigali, the capital, plus, the city boasts a Genocide Memorial, and also a new Chabad center that will include the nation’s first synagogue served by the country’s first permanent rabbi.

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African mainland, yet it has a rapidly growing Jewish community of men and women assisting with poverty relief, health care and economic development. Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, for example, a Rwandan-based organization founded by an American Jew who was inspired by the Israeli youth village model. It works with vulnerable and orphaned children, drawing inspiration from how Israel helped Jewish orphans after the Holocaust.

The trip excites me because it’s all about shared values and the potential of the Jewish people to address urgent global challenges.  I’ll spend five days in “The Land of 1000 Hills,” seeing the work of Jewish organizations and individuals who are supporting vulnerable communities. Along with Israelis and other American and British Jews, I hope to learn about some of the pressing issues facing the developing world and think deeply about our Jewish responsibilities to the wider world.

Rwanda is a beautiful and challenging nation and I’m beyond excited to travel there.  I’m hoping to see first-hand, some prime case studies that model Jewish engagement in global service, international development, and philanthropy. Watch my Facebook page for updates and insights from the trip!

Here’s what makes my fire burn — it’s when many flames in our community come together and, like the shamash candle, become an amplifying torch.

A great example is how Jewish Family & Career Services joined with Jewish Homelife, the MJCCA, and Federation to create AgeWell Atlanta.  This is a brilliant partnership that leverages the expertise of each organization to help our community’s older adults live their best lives. AgeWell Atlanta streamlines access to the incredible services and resources that already exist for older adults, then adds the human touch of a Concierge who can guide users to referrals and support services.

In a time when antisemitic incidents are on the rise, another big light is how the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Atlanta Rabbinical Association have come together to strategize about combatting antisemitism and the growing Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) movement. We’ve never needed their collective wisdom more.

Another light: Did you know that our Atlanta Jewish ecosystem consists of more than 90 schools, synagogues, agencies and organizations? The ecosystem now meets quarterly to talk in depth about mutual concerns, from how to make our community more welcoming, and ways to improve customer service, to opportunities for collaboration.

It thrills me to see the community coming together to elevate the work we are all doing. It shows that in spite of our diversity and geographic sprawl, we are one community working together to make this the best Jewish community in the world.

Gratitude. It’s an attitude and a practice that underpins so much of what we do and believe as Jews. It’s why I love the rabbinic teaching about saying 100 blessings a day! The rabbis looked at Deuteronomy 10:12, which says, “Now, Israel, what does your God, ask of you? To walk in God’s ways, and to serve God.” The Talmud explains that the word mah (what) can be read as me’ah, meaning 100, suggesting that God wants us to recite (at least) 100 brachot (blessings) every day.

It’s the ultimate in mindfulness!

That’s the thought I had earlier this month when I was in Israel on our Men’s Journey. We had an evening program that wrapped up late. Many groups of guys on tour would either go to bed or go drinking afterward. But not our Federation men. Though I went back to the hotel, these guys said, “Let’s go to the Kotel!” And so they did, walking over in the darkness and expressing their gratitude for the friendships this trip had created, for the joy of being in Israel together, and for the privilege of having this homeland. So many blessings!

I love the ways Jewish tradition requires us to stop and think about all that we have, acknowledge all the ways we’re blessed and how we’re commanded share what we have. These mitzvot are not at all abstract, they’re rooted in real life and demonstrate that Jewish giving goes beyond charity (from the Latin caritas, or love), it is tzedek, justice.

There’s the mitzvah of Pe’ah, leaving the crops in corners of our fields for to the poor. We’re commanded, “You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit…you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.” And in the spirit of radical justice, the rabbis actually say that not leaving the corners of the fields for the poor is theft!

There are laws about how we treat animals, how we slaughter animals, and how we eat them. All express reverence for G-d’s creations, along with temperance about how we consume them.

There’s the shmitah year — the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle, mandated for the Land of Israel. We let the earth lie fallow, giving it a rest, with no plowing, pruning or harvesting allowed. Another agricultural mitzvah with much to teach mankind about stewarding a warming earth.

And finally, there’s Shabbat itself.  There’s no day I long for more. My family knows that my weeknights are ridiculous, and that most evenings I am out in our community. Without Shabbat to refocus me, bind me to what matters, and connect me to all my blessings, I could not do this work I that I love.

Thanksgiving is just days away. You may know that this uniquely American holiday, so reminiscent of Shabbat, has roots in Jewish text.  In 1620, William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, compared the pilgrims’ flight from persecution in England to the Jews’ fleeing Pharoah. The Pilgrims recited psalm 107 from the Hebrew bible, a song of thanksgiving to G-d. In their gratitude they identified with us.

Have a wonderful holiday!

After four trips to Pittsburgh since the massacre at Tree of Life, I am emerging from a year of shock and grief with a firm conviction that we must double down on Jewish identity and Jewish pride. This is our greatest weapon against antisemitism and against those who seek to threaten and intimidate us.

Pittsburgh is my hometown. I knew some of the community members who were murdered, and I have been holding on tightly to my memories of them in life. Each pilgrimage I made to Pittsburgh this past year began with emotions centered around personal and collective loss, but each time I emerged with a deeper appreciation of Jewish resilience.

I first went to Pittsburgh immediately after the attack, together with Mark Silberman, our Federation board chair. Together with other community representatives, and with the crime scene tape still surrounding the synagogue, we could visualize the horror and terror that unfolded that Shabbat morning. At that time, we bore witness to the agony and somber solidarity of a community in mourning. The shock was still raw.

As time passed and I traveled back to Pittsburgh, this time in December with my brother Marvin to visit our family, my healing journey began. We celebrated life, even as death and tragedy hovered.

Then, in May, I returned to Pittsburgh with civic and religious leaders on the 23rd annual Atlanta LINK trip to learn about change from other cities. Pittsburgh leaders told us the relationships they had built before the massacre is what allowed them to respond so quickly, and with such an outpouring of love and support.

I took that as a mandate to do the same in Atlanta and I believe we really are making progress building strong relationships both within and beyond our Jewish ecosystem.

As we approached this somber anniversary, Marvin and I went home again, this time with Sasha, my teenage daughter. It was the most intense and gratifying of the visits.

Over some of Pittsburgh’s famous Mineos Pizza, we spent time with Jeff Finkelstein, the CEO of the Pittsburgh Jewish Federation. Jeff was among the local leaders who shepherded that community through an unspeakable tragedy. They are moving forward, with heavy and wounded hearts, but the momentum is unmistakable.

On the Sunday morning before Yom Kippur, Marvin, Sasha and I set out for the cemetery where my parents, grandparents, sister, and other immediate family members are buried. We then decided to visit the tiny Jewish cemetery belonging to Poale Zedeck, one of Pittsburgh’s oldest Jewish cemeteries, located in an old mill town nearby. Another set of grandparents, great-grandparents and other relatives are buried there. No Jews have lived in this area for years. The aged cemetery, so stark behind barbed wire, shows many signs of neglect.

We walked and walked, and searched every inch, but could not find their gravestones. And then we found one — overturned, neglected, bearing the name Mildred Erbstein, my great aunt. The headstones of my grandparents, Ruth and Louis Robbins, were also overturned.

From the cemetery, we hurried over to Heinz Field for a Steelers game. The so-called “Terrible Towel,” a symbol of the Steelers and the city of Pittsburgh, was pink for breast cancer awareness. The Terrible Towel was the invention of Myron Cope, Pittsburgh’s legendary Jewish radio sportscaster. It filled me with pride and nostalgia to be part of “Steeler Nation” and lose myself in the sense of belonging that permeated the arena.

Marvin, Sasha and I all felt it, all the more so since the Tree of Life was never too far from our thoughts. Win or lose — and we lost — it just didn’t matter. And who can forget that iconic newspaper headline, in Hebrew, with the opening verse of the Kaddish. All year I have wrestled with how to reconcile my personal history and Pittsburgh’s renowned hometown spirit with the anguish and stain of violent antisemitism — a stain that now marks my hometown and our global Jewish family.

I know that Jewish Pittsburgh will never be the same. There is a new sense of vigilance, but even at Tree of Life, there are beautiful signs of healing. The plywood covering the windows of the shul have come down. There is now an installation that curates art works sent in solidarity.

When I was growing up in the 1970s—when I was Sasha’s age—the banners outside Tree of Life read: SAVE SOVIET JEWRY. Yes, we saved Soviet Jews. Do we now pivot to asking how can we secure ourselves?

I tried to understand this journey through Sasha’s eyes. In just one day, she traveled to a crumbling old cemetery filled with Jews who share her DNA and also stood before a synagogue where hate inspired a murderer to steal eleven lives, a building now adorned with images sent by students her age demanding gun control. She sat in a stadium filled with tens of thousands of strangers, all waving pink towels, yet felt like she was part of a larger community.

Out of this year of introspection and chesbon nefesh, the only clear answer that has emerged from a senseless tragedy is that we need to pay much more attention to Jewish identity and pride. How else can we counter hate? The work we do to build and strengthen our community is holy, it is relevant, and it is more important than I ever before. We must bind ourselves more tightly to each other, from Pittsburgh to Paris, whether we are secular or religious, and we must continue to build bridges with our brothers and sisters who have experienced similar tragedy at churches, mosques and other community institutions.

As the famous Israeli poem begins, every person has a name. When the anniversary arrives, I will be in Jerusalem and I will say Kaddish for Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthanl, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger.

I hope for all of us use the one-year marker to heal, connect and strengthen our bonds to our shared and global Jewish family.

We must continue to fine-tune our community security strategies, improve our vigilance, and continue to tighten our collaboration with local, state and federal authorities, but we cannot – we must not – succumb to fear and retreat into a bunker mentality.

Pride has long been at the center of the Jewish renaissance that marks this era of Jewish history; and pride must remain at the very core of who we are as a community.

Eric Robbins is President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Atlanta. He grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. These views are his own.d

To be a leader means seeking the truth and speaking the truth. It means letting go of old pieties and embracing new realities. To be a leader means dialing down the voices that say “no, we can’t” and building a consensus to move ahead fearlessly.

In the process of leading Atlanta to become a thriving and connected 21^st century Jewish community, I am guilty of all of these behaviors. I know that in my enthusiasm to build a Jewish future that will undoubtedly look and feel very different from what we know, I have upset some people. And for that I seek forgiveness.

S’lach-li, forgive me, but Jewish America is in the midst of a massive generational shift in identity and practice. Pride in Jewish identity and Jewish spirituality is growing, but young Jews are increasingly likely to say that they have “no religion,” and that they feel little connection to the organized community.

I want everyone, across the entire lifespan, to be thrilled by Jewish life and to say that their identity gives meaning to life and shapes their actions.  So, I feel driven to create new pathways to engagement that launch Jewish journeys and spark Jewish possibilities. It feels urgent to me to broaden the ways we engage with Jews and their loved ones.

As this community tries out new ideas and innovations, I am aware that some people will experience a deep sense of loss. But we cannot let our collective anxiety paralyze or demoralize us.

Great things are happening in Jewish Atlanta!

Already we are becoming a community where agencies and individuals are collaborating and partnering to actualize bold ideas that benefit everyone. We are gathering in new ways and in new places. We are building a culture of innovation that invests in the creativity of changemakers and makes room to learn from failure. We are developing a relationship with Israel that is centered on its people, not its politics.

If I haven’t listened enough, if I haven’t been empathetic enough, forgive me. If I haven’t been fearless enough, I’ll admit, sometimes it’s easier to avoid delicate issues because of their divisiveness. Yes, I have big dreams. Yes, I am impatient. But in my soul, I am a servant of this wonderful Jewish community that opened its arms to me more than 45 years ago. And everything I do comes from a place of love.

Shanah tovah!

American Jews have created, perfected, and scaled the institution of overnight summer camp.
Now it’s time for Jewish Family Camp!
By Rabbi Miriam Burg, Jeremy J. Fingerman and Eric M. Robbins
This article originally ran in eJewish Philanthropy on September 5, 2019.

It was a Jewish trifecta when three passionate advocates for Jewish camp met on the shores of Lake Waloon this August to visit Camp Michigania, the 56-year-old family camp for alumni of University of Michigan. We were excited to see this legendary camp, explicitly designed and staffed for families, and considered the gold standard for family camp programing.

Camp Michigania isn’t fancy, yet it is deeply beloved. The cabins are basic, and all meals are held in a communal dining hall.  A mix of traditional sports, arts, fitness, and discussion forums keep adults and kids of all ages busy all day – or not!  You can opt out of events and just relax. We met families who’ve been attending for 30 years or more. We saw cars in the parking lot bearing Gania4 bumper stickers — which in Michigania-speak means, “We’re a 4^th Week Family” in Camp Michigania’s 11-week summer season. And we never saw a cell phone – only one building on campus has wi-fi.

While the three of us have different personal camp experiences, we’re absolutely on the same page about the immersive benefits of Jewish overnight camp. We know there is tremendous power in stepping away from daily life and returning year after year to the same place at the same time. So, we’ve informally joined forces to be advocates and evangelists for a new model of Jewish community-building and a serious communal investment in creating week-long Jewish overnight camps for families.

Rabbi Miriam Burg, whose family has attended Camp Michigania for 37 consecutive summers, is an educator and a long-time advocate for Jewish family camp. She recently co-created the Capital Camps Institute for Leadership and Learning to skill-up Jewish camp counselors. Her current priority is building and expanding Kibbutz Camp, as a new model for Jewish overnight camps for families.

Jeremy Fingerman is CEO of Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC). He spent formative summers at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and for the last ten years of his professional life has expanded opportunities across North America for more kids to experience Jewish camp – both day and overnight — including new specialty camps.  FJC has identified family camp as an important growth element of its strategic plan.

Eric Robbins is President and CEO of Jewish Federation of Jewish Atlanta and the former director of Camp Twin Lakes, a camp for children with serious illnesses and life challenges. Eric was shaped by his own 18 years as a camper and staff member at Camp Barney Medintz and is a founder of Limmud Atlanta, which adopts a multi-generational family camp model.

We all agree that family life in America is overscheduled and isolating. Digital devices distract and distance us. Epic traffic and long commutes chip away at family time. Moms, dads, kids, teens and grandparents desperately need to carve out more down-time and rediscover each other. A joyful, immersive Jewish family camp can be a restorative island of sacred time where we put our devices away, talk face-to-face, and simply have fun together.

Fingerman notes that while a growing number of Jewish camps run family retreats before and after the summer season, opportunities to attract a broader range of families would result from offering “vacations” throughout the summer.

Burg adds that the idea of a dedicated Jewish overnight camp for families is “wholly different and impossible to create by simply adapting kids’ camps to serve the needs of families. “Singing the same songs with our children that we sang when we were first at camp, having grandparents and grandchildren making s’mores together, are powerful memory-making experiences, unique to family camp.”

When Robbins, a former camp director, thinks about family camp he stresses that weekends don’t cut it the way a week does. “For every day away, the benefits are exponential,” he says. “Immersive, week-long opportunities for families are what we envision.”

Think about it — all that really ties Camp Michigania families together is the University of Michigan. Now imagine the power of week-long retreats where connections are rooted in Jewish wisdom and rituals. Where food and language, holidays and songs, and traditions are the foundation for friendships. Where Shabbat is the highlight of the week. Imagine a place where your sense of belonging comes from being on “Team Judaism” and the wisdom of nearly 6,000 years of tradition. What a nourishing way for families to engage with one another and build community!

Who better to create new family camp than us? From Catskill bungalow colonies to early Settlement House camps, American Jews – more than any other group – have created, perfected and scaled the institution of overnight summer camp. No surprise to us that Camp Michigania’s longtime director is Jewish, or that lots and lots of Jewish families attend year after year.

As advocates, our next step is to create a prototype of the Jewish family camp we want to see. We know we’ll have to train staff to meet the special requirements of family programming. We know we’ll need to find a beautiful and accessible site somewhere that will work for all ages. But we also know American Jewish families have never needed it more!

If you’re interested in paddling along with us, please get in touch.

I’ve heard lots of wise folks say that your checkbook register — or to be more modern, your monthly e-statement — is the document that says everything about your values and priorities.

I agree.

And that’s why, at a time when “boutique” philanthropy and direct, person-to-person giving are ascendant, I want to make the case for the ancient Jewish model of collective philanthropy that benefits the whole. In our time, it’s the Jewish Partners Fund of Federation’s Community Campaign.

Community philanthropy is sacred in the Jewish tradition, and the custom of asking individuals for a set amount “per head” dates back to the second temple period. The sum of a half shekel was an offering that everyone, rich or poor, was asked to give so that all were equal in observing this mitzvah.

The call to find meaning and purpose in community and to serve others has driven the Jewish people to be exemplars of generosity, opportunity and justice. You’ll see generosity, justice and more when you take a look at Federation’s “checkbook register.” The report, viewable online, documents our values and priorities and details all the things your Campaign dollars do for our people in Atlanta and around the world.

The Jewish Partners Fund of the Community Campaign is about the collective impact that happens when many “shekels” work together.  Through Campaign, Federation and its partners launch Jewish journeys and educate all generations. Through Campaign we welcome all Jews and their loved ones to engage meaningfully with our community. Through Campaign we rise up to help ensure that no one falls through the cracks.

And . . . this year, thanks to an anonymous donor, for new or increased gifts to the Jewish Partners Fund, those dollars will be matched 1:1 up to $100,000.

If you have particular community interests, Campaign 2020 makes it possible to target additional projects. Through Targeted Philanthropy you can support PJ Library, Jewish Overnight Camping, and AgeWell Atlanta, a collaborative partnership that helps older adults and caregivers navigate the aging process. The Jewish Innovation Fund is yet another giving option to help advance new ideas and startups that support Jewish life in Atlanta.

I believe it is a fundamental privilege, unique to the Jewish people, and virtually encoded into our DNA, to prioritize the needs of the community. Last year communal generosity hit a milestone as Federation reached $19 million in philanthropic giving. Having surpassed the previous year by $1.5 million, we have set an ambitious goal of $20 million for Campaign 2020. I know we can do it, but only together.  I am so proud of all the ways we bring Jewish possibilities to life, and I urge you to make our dynamic, welcoming and caring Atlanta Jewish community your priority by giving generously to the Jewish Partners Fund of the Community Campaign.

Most of my “superpowers” come from having been a camper and staff member at sleepaway camp.  I’m totally serious.

Over eighteen summers at Camp Barney Medintz I learned countless “soft” and human skills that have benefited me my whole life.  And because it all happened so seamlessly and joyously at camp, I didn’t even realize how much I was learning.

At Camp Barney Medintz I learned how to really be a friend. When you live in a bunk with 12 other guys, you learn how to get along with, and eventually, how to love people who aren’t exactly like you.

I learned how to be leader. At the age of ten I put myself in charge of coordinating our cabin at clean up, cookouts, and even sneak outs!

I learned how to make my bed. Admiral William H. McCraw, a Navy SEAL, wrote a book called Make Your Bed: Little Things that Can Change your Life…and Maybe the World. He calls bed-making the way to start your day with a task completed. I agree!

I learned how to be a better communicator. As a camp counselor, I had to be sensitive to all the voices and opinions in my bunk.  I had to evaluate each kid’s maturity level and respond appropriately. I couldn’t lose my cool. Sometimes I had to be a disciplinarian, sometimes I had to be as diplomatic as King Solomon. Learning this as a teenager set me up for a lifetime of good listening.

I learned about hard work. Being on the kitchen crew, helping turn out three meals a day, and cleaning up after hundreds of kids, taught me everything about showing up and pulling my weight, even when the work is tedious. To this day I consider mastering the kitchen’s Hobart dishwasher one of my greatest accomplishments.

I learned to be brave, to try new things. Ana and I recently had a little dispute over whether or not there was a rope tied to the boat when we went tubing at Camp Barney, or if we just held on to the skiing handle. (I think there were two ropes.) Either way, having a boat pull you on the lake was a thrill that took courage for a little kid. There were plenty of other scary things that I found the freedom to try, and even to fail, at camp.

I created my first network. As a kid from Pittsburgh, attending Camp Barney was my introduction to Jewish Atlanta. The kids I met at camp and the staff members who believed in me, became my Atlanta Jewish mishpocha (family). It’s no accident that one day in Pittsburgh, I literally dropped out of my local college, drove to Atlanta and registered at Georgia State and made this city my home.

I am grateful for all these profound moments of growth that shaped me into the husband, father, and community leader I am today. For all the kids who are having a blast at overnight camp this summer, someday you’ll discover, as I did, that camp teaches deep and lasting life lessons.

I’m so proud of Federation’s ambitious plan to send more of our kids to Jewish overnight camp.  This year Federation allocated $866,961 in scholarships and grants to give kids the immersive, incredible experience of camp. That included:

• 593 unique campers went to camp
• 368 One Happy Camper incentive grants of up to $1,000
• 49 camps participating in the scholarship program

Camping is one of three targeted philanthropies for the upcoming 2020 Community Campaign. If your kids or grandkids are having a summer of personal growth, Jewish learning and sheer fun, I hope you’ll think about making a targeted gift to the fund. Your generosity is an investment in lessons that will last a lifetime.

Following a rigorous national search, I am thrilled to announce that Christy Butler Eckoff will be joining Federation as Chief Foundation Officer and Managing Director, Atlanta Jewish Foundation (AJF). Filling this important position with the right person has been a priority of mine and it’s a transformational opportunity. AJF is the centerpiece of Federation’s goal to be Jewish Atlanta’s Philanthropic Champion. By giving our donors world-class philanthropic advising to help them grow their assets, AJF has incredible potential to do great things in Atlanta.

Christy Eckoff comes to us from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta where she was Managing Director, Philanthropic Counsel.  In addition to solid credentials in law and taxation, Christy is a superb relationship builder and will be an excellent fit to work with donors and fundholders. As our Managing Director she enters with a bold mandate to make AJF the go-to place for planned giving, asset management and Jewish generosity. The Federation board has set ambitious goals for AJF.  It currently manages $328.5 million in assets and we hope to grow that number to $1 billion under management over the next decade.  Here are three reasons why I know we’ll get there.

Reason #1:  AJF already has a solid foundation.  In addition to advising and serving individual donors, AJF is the advisor and custodian of Jewish community resources.  Eighteen Jewish partner agencies, day schools and congregations already invest with AJF, and this year three new community partners came on board. Donor-Advised funds grew by 20% this year as well. And, on behalf of the community, the AJF has helped secure more than 200 letters of intent with an estimated value of over $13.5M in after-lifetime commitments through the LIFE & LEGACY program.

Recently, Mark Silberman, Helen Zalik and I completed a two-year Jewish leadership cohort sponsored by PRESIDE. Through that program Federation became eligible for a $250K matching grant that has been earmarked for Atlanta Jewish Foundation.  We’ve already raised 75% towards the match from our donors, enabling us to invest $1M into Atlanta Jewish Foundation right now. The grant will amplify AJF as an asset-based revenue stream that ensures our ability to fund Jewish community priorities and help donors actualize their Jewish dreams.

Reason #2:  Total Philanthropy is up. Federation grew total philanthropy this year to $19 million — a $1.3 million increase over the previous year. At a time when annual campaigns around the country are generally flat, that’s a sign of health.  I’m also optimistic about the future because Atlanta is a vibrant center of innovation and entrepreneurship where Jews already play an outsized role. Our organizational culture of creativity and generosity matches the culture of the community, making AJF ripe for philanthropic investment.  I believe that by building current and new relationships and providing superb customer service, AJF will raise its visibility in the wider community and be a compelling option for investment.

Reason #3:  There’s untapped wealth in Atlanta. You’ve likely heard that the next 20 years will see the biggest generational wealth transfer in U.S. history as the “Silent Generation” and Baby Boomers pass along nearly $48 trillion in assets to their heirs and charities. This impending transfer of wealth is a huge opportunity for AJF.  With our deep understanding of Jewish community needs and the organizations that are addressing them, AJF offers donors a competitive advantage over commercial funds and advisors. We can help our donors manage their investments wisely and at the same time, help them express their highest philanthropic priorities.