A Message from UJA President, Jeffrey A. Schoenfeld
What a privilege and a joy it has been to serve as UJA-Federation’s president during our centennial year — a year of momentous progress along so many dimensions of our work. Our 100th year was an opportunity to critically assess what we do and how we do it — so that we can meet our second century with renewed vigor and focus.
We set ambitious goals for our fundraising and broke all of our own records, thanks to the enduring generosity and commitment of all of you. We achieved a record annual campaign and a record number of new legacy gifts, and we are making good progress on funding the three Centennial Signature Initiatives that exemplify our core mission and values, and represent deep investments in the Jewish future — investments in Israel (building the Kirsh Family Jerusalem Arts Campus), investments in fostering a Jewish journey for thousands of children (transforming the three campuses of the Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds), and investments that will bring holistic, bundled strategies to lift our community out of poverty (building two Community Resource Hubs — one in Brooklyn and one in Queens). Each initiative is different, each one is vital, and each one needs additional support.
To ensure that donor dollars are well spent, we streamlined how we distribute funds to our nonprofit partners and completed a two-year evaluation of our largest overseas partners (the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee). And to focus our innovation and incubation efforts, we created the appropriately named UJA Lab.
Along the way, we reflected on our shared history, found beautiful ways to come together as a community, and remembered to have fun. We debuted a new website and ad campaign meant to expose UJA and its work to an even wider audience. We celebrated at the Bash, journeyed to Israel for our Centennial Mission, marveled at the scope of what UJA has made possible at the American Jewish Historical Society exhibit, and we will be cheering on over 100 runners — Team UJA — who will be racing in the TCS New York City Marathon next month. It has been a remarkable year, indeed.
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me, “What has surprised you most since you became president of UJA?” It surely is not the impact of our work, which I have been privileged to see, to touch, and to help shape over the 20 years of my lay engagement. What has surprised me the most is the breadth and depth of inbound need — the magnitude of serious and worthy requests that come to our doorstep. Some are organizational needs, some are programmatic needs, and some are one-off, worthy requests that are essential for us to support. It has been surprising how much we are relied upon, how often we are called upon, how much intellectual leadership, guidance, and value we provide, in addition to the significant financial leadership. We do a lot, and we know it will never be enough, and that is why we look to the community’s support, so that we can deliver on all we are called upon to do.
As a community, we lead the nation in so many ways. Following the deeply unsettling public display of anti-Semitism in Charlottesville, we provided emotional support by organizing a mission to share Shabbat with the Charlottesville community. In the aftermath of the devastation in Houston, UJA has granted $500,000 to help the Jewish community get back on its feet, and we will likely do more in Houston and Florida as well. I am proud to help lead an organization with so many caring volunteers and professionals, a community that instinctively steps up to support others in acute need, whether in our backyard, around the country, or around the world. We help folks that none of us will ever meet, but we should all feel proud that our continued support is touching lives every single day.
We have now set our campaign goals for the year ahead, and they remain ambitious — not for the sake of raising the largest campaign of its kind in the world, and not to be able to say that we aim to raise more money this year than last. Our goals are ambitious only to enable us to do the essential work that UJA needs to do to carry out our mission. It is that simple, and I understand it like never before.
Over the next 10 days, as we reflect on all that is good in our lives, and as we set personal goals for the year ahead, we do so knowing that there are many others who are not in our same position and who rely on all of us to help them regain stability, reach their potential, and fulfill their dreams. How beautiful it is to see that our collective generosity makes all of this possible.
Shanah tovah