EXECUTIVE MESSAGE

D

ear Friends,

What a momentous year this has been in the
Jewish world!

Our 1994 Allied Jewish Campaign achieved $26 million,
with an additional $2.6 million for Operation Exodus.
We also raised $2 million for our Windows family
violence prevention program.

Abroad, we have seen dramatic steps toward peace for
Israel (accompanied, sadly, by hateful attacks intended
to undermine the process). The spark of Jewish life is
slowly being rekindled throughout Eastern Europe.
Steady emigration from the former Soviet Union
continues to change the fabric of life in Israel.

In addition to those Campaign achievements, we saw
new levels of generosity from our endowment donors.
Those individuals and families, who made gifts both
large and small, added $13 million to our community
pool of endowment funds, which now stands at over
$105 million.

In our community, important changes have been
initiated at Federation and at our agencies. These
changes reflect our desire to involve and serve more
people in the most meaningful ways possible, to improve
the way in which we conduct the community's business,
to re-evaluate and strengthen how we care for our aged
and to reinvigorate our dynamic partnership with world
Jewry.

Impressive though these results were, we again found
ourselves confronting substantial unmet needs as we
were forced to allocate essentially the same dollars as
last year.

We have also taken steps to strengthen the ties between
Federation and our synagogues, introduced new and
innovative educational and family assistance programs,
and initiated a number of new policies and practices to
enhance our overall fiscal responsibility and account-
ability.

We had to make some difficult choices, most notably the
decision to close Borman Hall. The ability to make
those tough decisions will, we believe, ultimately lead to
a stronger community and a better network of services
and programs.

The simple fact is we cannot afford to have another flat
Campaign!

We have recently established a goal of $27 million for
1995. Our restructured Campaign, which has excep-
tional leadership, will be shorter but more intense. With
an all-out community effort, we hope to equal or exceed
our $27 million goal and begin to address a number of
issues requiring extra dollars.

The photographs and excerpted letters in this report
show us that the most important events this year were
the personal moments of success, of friendship, and of
generosity. Our communal goal must be to create many
more such moments for our people.

The real story of our community can only be told one
day and one person at a time -- through the lives of
people who have been touched in some way by one of
our agencies or programs. A woman who takes the
courageous step of leaving an abusive spouse and
finding help and hope for her children through the
Jewish Family Service's Windows program. A college
student who returns from a year-long experience in
Israel with a reawakened awareness of who he is and
what kind of a Jew he wants to be.

The hallmark of a great community is the ability to savor
its achievements while recognizing that much more
needs to be done. Ours is such a community. Together,
we have built enduring institutions of strength and
substance. Now, we must add programs and services
that will ensure lives of Jewish content and meaning for
ourselves and generations to come.

President

Executive Vice-President

