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Intergenerational Gift ;

Millennium Campaign for Detroit's Jewish Future secures $50 million to sustain Jewish continuity.

HARRY KIRSBAUM

Stag-Writer

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lending the tradi-
tional way of
matching donors
to a building or a
program with a new, concep-
tual approach to fund-raising,
the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit
launched a $50-million cam-
paign to bolster Jewish conti-
nuity and identity.
It took less than two years
for Federation CEO Robert
Aronson to announce com-
pletion of the progressive
fund-raising effort, not part
of the Federation's Annual
Campaign and not strictly a
bricks-and-mortar campaign.
To reach its goal, Federation
teamed up with its real
estate/banking arm, the
United Jewish Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit, and the
Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit.
The Millennium Campaign for
Detroit's Jewish Future yielded $30
million to redevelop the two-campus
JCC into a town square for informal
Jewish education and identity pro-
grams. It yielded $20 million to start
a Jewish Life Fund that focuses on a
variety of interests and needs
through named endowments.
"We wanted to create a gift from
one generation to another," said
Aronson, explaining the difference
between the Millennium Campaign
and previous fund-raising endeavors.
"There are a number of federations
— Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto and San
Francisco — that have what I call
`shopping-list' campaigns, large capi-
tal-type campaigns for primarily major
gifts. This is a completely different
concept. The founding families will
each be able to create a fund to
advance the thingsthey find impor-
tant about Jewish life."
Aronson, the Detroit Federation's top
professional for the last 10 years, said he
believes the Millennium Campaign
could be used as a national model.
Donors of $1 million or more —

6/9
2000

12

Clockwise:
Robert Aronson
Penny Blumenstein
Robert Slatkin

mal Jewish education for people of
all ages, provide the means to
recruit personnel and develop pro-
grams for synagogues. It aims to
strengthen adult and continuing
education as well as formal b'nai
mitzvah preparation, while repre-
senting all streams of Judaism.
"It's a bold, important initiative
that's long overdue," said David
Hermelin, a real estate developer and
former U.S. ambassador to Norway,
_ who teamed with fellow Detroit-based
philanthropist William Davidson.
"I'm guessing that we're the first feder-
ation to reach out to the synagogue
community in
this way."
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Campaign reflect-
Innovative Federation fund-raising ing a philosophy
that many people
campaign could become a
feel they know
what is important
national communal model.
in Jewish life —
from preschool,
28 in all — had the option to desig-
elementary, high school, college and
nate their gift to improve the facili-
adult education to Israel experiences
ties or build the endowments of the
and interactive experiences with
Jewish Community Center, or to
Detroit's Partnership 2000 region in
grow the Jewish Life Fund. The
the central Galilee. Donating to the
Jewish Life Fund represents broad-
Millennium Campaign has given them
based endowments touching all
a way to express their ideas.
facets of Jewish family life, including
"The notion of this fund is you
teen and young adult Israel experi-
have to move on all fronts at once, to
ences, day and congregational school
create not a priority but a mosaic of
tuition assistance, college program-
what's important," he said, "to
ming, family education and further-
strengthen every aspect of Jewish life
ance of congregation excellence.
wherever it may take you. That's what
makes this unique."
The Mosaic
According to Aronson, enlisting
donors
usually take a year. Selling an
Although the Jewish Community
idea
is
"a
compelling thought, but it's a
Center will reap the lion's share of the
hard thing and takes time," he said. "No
campaign: $20 million for bricks and
matter how much money you have,
mortar on both campuses and $10 mil-
what you give is still a lot of money
lion for endowed programming, what
"In very few communities can you
distinguishes the Millennium Campaign
turn to a group of families like this
from others is the $20 million raised for
and say, 'Buy a concept.' What they're
the Jewish Life Fund component.
buying for a seven-figure gift is a con-
One of the funds with the great-
cept,"
he said. "It's really an idea, and
est potential for serving as a proto-
that's what's different."
type for federations nationwide, in
Once a gift is made, the family,
terms of partnering with synagogues,
together with Federation, determines
is the Hermelin-Davidson Center
how to spend it. "It keeps the family in
for Congregational Excellence. That
touch with where the dollars are going,
center will support formal and infor-

and after the first funding cycle, how
we did," Aronson said. "The Jewish
Life Fund was started with the inten-
tion of keeping the leading families
involved in the millennium gifts in the
future. It's not simply giving a gift,
putting up a sign and walking away."
Jewish Life Fund donor David
Schostak of Birmingham said, "Our
family is very committed that the key
to Jewish continuity is through Jewish
education, and obviously Jewish edu-
cation is more than bricks and mortar.
"You also have to have programming
and affordable tuition for the entire
community," said Schostak, spokesper-
son for the five couples who donated to

Major campaign donors: page 14

3.

$, 2*

the Schostak Family Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit Millennium Fund.
"We viewed this new high school as a
key piece to the Jewish education in this
community for teenagers, and the
opportunity to assist in helping to make
tuition affordable for more people is a
great way to further our priority of
Jewish education and Jewish continuity."
Aronson said the Millennium
Campaign was created because "the
annual campaign alone isn't enough to
make a qualitative difference in Jewish
life. If you find yourself fighting over
increasingly scarce dollars — that's how
a community comes apart. The whole
point is let's be pro-active, let's decide
what we need in the community and
go out and make it happen, rather than
waiting here for the other shoe to drop
because we don't have enough funds."
He added, "The annual campaign
should not become a battleground
where people fight over scarce
resources. I've learned in this business
that the only way to move this com-
munity along is by making more
resources available, not less. It changes
the whole tenor of the community."

Reaction

Detroit's Joel Tauber, executive com-
mittee chairman of the federated
umbrella organization, the United
Jewish Communities, said the reason

GIFT' on page 18

