Shabbat Shalom
I returned from Israel on Thursday having participated in the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) Board of Governors (BOG) meetings. JAFI is our overseas partner and essentially the arm of Federation in Israel. These meetings made the international media because on Sunday, the Government of Israel made two very important and divisive decisions: The Government […]
Read More ➜
Dear Friends, We are writing today from Israel, where we have been attending the Board of Governors Meetings of The Jewish Agency for Israel, one of the Federation system’s longtime overseas partners. As you may have read, the Government of Israel made two unexpected decisions on Sunday, which — unless reversed or significantly modified — […]
Read More ➜
Last night, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh held its final Board meeting for this term. We took the opportunity to look back at our accomplishments over the last two years. We are really proud to have launched our Jewish Community Security Director position and have been impressed with all that he has accomplished in […]
Read More ➜
Sunday morning, the Federation will honor Unsung Jewish Heroes. These Unsung Heroes are some of the best Jewish educators from throughout our region who inspire and instill a strong Jewish identity in our community’s youth. This program, which was instituted by the Agency for Jewish Learning, now sits within the Federation’s Jewish Education and Engagement […]
Read More ➜
I wrote about this a few weeks ago, but with the holiday of Shavuot beginning on Tuesday night, I would be remiss to not again promote our community wide Tikkun Leil Shavuot. Shavuot celebrates the Jewish people’s receiving of the Torah. Because of that, the tradition is to stay up all night long studying Torah. […]
Read More ➜
I want to share a beautiful story about a recent bequest made to our Federation’s Jewish Community Foundation. I asked Brian Eglash, our Federation Chief Development Officer, who worked with the executors of the estate to share this act of tzedakah and appreciation. Recently, we received a bequest from a man who arrived here from […]
Read More ➜
I attended the Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration that was coordinated by our Federation initiative, South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh, at the South Hills JCC. It was fantastic seeing so many young families having fun and celebrating Israel. Every South Hills congregational Rabbi was in attendance. This sense of collaboration in the South Hills is helping the community reach […]
Read More ➜
“If you will it, it is not a dream.” The above famous words by Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, regarding the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people were written in 1902. Fast forward to next week, and we will be celebrating 69 years since the declaration of the State of Israel. […]
Read More ➜
For this week’s message, I’m going to let two articles tell the story about what our community is able to accomplish when institutions are able to truly put clients’ needs first and collaborate not just to say they collaborate but to really achieve amazing outcomes. According to Kate Dewey, the President of the Forbes Funds, […]
Read More ➜
Sunday brings the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Volunteer Center’s Good Deeds Day. Good Deeds Day was started by the Arison family of Israel to encourage individuals to engage in volunteerism on a single day. To give you a sense of its scope and reach, I share with you a quote from the Good Deeds Day […]
Read More ➜
What is collaboration? The dictionary defines it as: “the action of working with someone to produce or create something”. That seems pretty simple to define, yet difficult to pull off successfully. Collaboration like any relationship takes real work. It means sometimes thinking about the other(s) with whom you are collaborating and what their needs may […]
Read More ➜
Our Talmud proclaims that “When the month of Adar begins, we increase our joy”. Well, we are now into the month of Adar and one of our great, joyful Jewish holidays, Purim, begins on Saturday night. I encourage everyone to find a place to hear the Purim story by listening to the reading of the […]
Read More ➜
We just completed a phenomenal week of Snowbirds Events in Florida. With over 200 in combined attendance at three events (Boca Raton, Naples, and Sarasota/Longboat Key). It was great to reconnect with our donors who winter down south. Rabbi Danny Schiff, our Jewish Foundation Scholar, spoke masterfully at all three about the perceived threats facing […]
Read More ➜
One of the meetings I attended this week was for the preparation of our upcoming Community Study. A remarkable group of volunteers from academia, technology, business and longtime community leaders invested serious time deliberating and deciding on not only which questions to ask but how to ask them. In fact, there was so much detail […]
Read More ➜
What a challenging week when it comes to one of our basic necessities – water. If you live in or work in the city of Pittsburgh, you may have experienced the so called “flush and boil” order. At our Federation offices, we had to purchase bottled water for our meetings and cover up all our […]
Read More ➜
In just a month, the Federation’s Young Adult Division will hold its annual Campaign event entitled “Stand Up for Giving: Make Pittsburgh Laugh Again”. Professional comedian, Noah Gardenswartz (who has appeared on Last Comic Standing, Conan and Comedy Central) will be performing. At the same time, we will be highlighting the miraculous work accomplished by […]
Read More ➜
I haven’t written in several weeks and during that period our Federation has had a ton of activity. Our Annual Campaign crossed $7 Million, making this one of the quickest paced campaigns in my 18 years here. December resulted in millions of dollars in contributions to our Foundation. The cash donations we have been working […]
Read More ➜
This was an exciting week as we kicked off the process to conduct our Jewish community’s first community study since 2002. Yes, it will give us demographics, but more importantly, it will tell us trends and help us—and by us I mean every Jewish institution and synagogue—to plan accordingly. This project is being fully funded […]
Read More ➜
This week, the Jewish Federations of North America held its annual General Assembly in Washington, DC. This GA, as it is commonly called, was really special for those of us from Pittsburgh. It was chaired by Cindy and David Shapira and we brought a great delegation of 42 participants, the largest in my time in […]
Read More ➜
It’s been a week filled with Israel for me. The beginning of the week I was in Jerusalem for the Jewish Agency for Israel Board of Governors meeting. The Jewish Agency (JAFI) is our largest recipient of dollars from our Annual Campaign. Their work around the world is nothing less than stunning. While much of […]
Read More ➜