points of view
Resolution from page 96
We will continue to:
• Aspire to meet and exceed your infor-
mation needs within the context of being
part of a larger community.
• Advocate for greater communal cre-
ativity and investment in making Detroit
and Southeast Michigan a magnet for
younger Jews interested in launching
businesses, furthering their educations,
starting families, being urban pioneers ...
whether or not they have roots here. We
will remind the community it is short-
changing its overall attractiveness if it
focuses too heavily on living, working and
playing in a 3-square-mile area of Detroit.
• Identify ways to engage with Detroit,
Southeast Michigan and the diverse com-
munities around us. The future viability
and vitality of our Jewish community is
dependent on the success of Detroit and
the region ... we are less than 1.5 percent
of the metropolitan area's total population.
Our engagement initiatives, including
those with the Chaldean and African-
American communities, plus our active
involvement with New Michigan Media,
a consortium of more than 140 minority
and ethnic media across the state, attest to
this commitment.
• Strive for editorial and design quality
and integrity. Continuing to earn sub-
stantial recognition from the Society of
Professional Journalists-Greater Detroit
Chapter is just one of our benchmarks.
• Partner with an array of communal
organizations seeking to promote their
worthy causes. These organizations, in
turn, must accept their role and respon-
sibility to support an independent and
vibrant Jewish News with a portion of their
marketing and advertising budgets.
• Support the efforts of the Detroit
Jewish News Foundation, an independent
501-c-3 established in 2011 to support the
educational mission of the Jewish News.
It is currently engaged in a massive proj-
ect to preserve, digitize and make easily
searchable content from the more than
260,000 pages that have appeared in the
Jewish News since its founding (an event to
benefit the foundation featuring National
Yiddish Book Center founder Aaron
Lansky is scheduled for Oct. 18 at the
Berman Center for the Performing Arts in
West Bloomfield).
• Resolutely support Israel and its demo-
cratic principles in the face of militarily and
verbally hostile neighbors. We will share the
reality of the range of views on Israel within
the Jewish community, whether they come
from supporters of the Zionist Organization
of America, American Israel Public Affairs
Committee or J Street.
The demographics of the Jewish com-
munity I encountered when I came to
the Jewish News in 1986 have changed
significantly. There are fewer of us. We are
older. We are less affiliated with traditional
communal institutions and structures. And,
we (thankfully) have fewer chicken-dinner
fundraisers. Yet, few, if any, Jewish com-
munities in America still possess the array
Community Center to cover Kids All
Together day-camp scholarships.
and together have rallied the state to
continue badly needed humanitarian sup-
port. As a result, our Jewish communal
agencies can maintain support levels for
mental health and social welfare services.
The 2012 State Mental Health Services
for Special Populations line grant to
Federation was renewed with an increase
to $1.99 million. The amount will help
replace discontinued funding from
United Way, private foundation gifts and
other sources.
Doing the tough, behind-the-scenes
work was Federation's Government
Relations Oversight Committee, co-chaired
by Mark Davidoff and Marc Weinbaum
with counsel from previous co-chairs
Dennis Bernard and Evan Weiner, all local
residents. Federation's Lansing lobbyists
assisted.
The multicultural aspect of the grant
seekers is surely a positive when the
Legislature, pressured by so many fund-
ing needs, scrutinizes the line each year.
of assets, the passion for Jewish continuity
at home and abroad, the almost genetic love
for Israel, and the depth of Jewish leader-
ship as Detroit. Here, it seems that everyone
still knows each other, or feels he or she
should!
As we approach the New Year, thank you
for allowing the Jewish News to be a part
of your lives and for welcoming us into
your homes every week (more frequently
if you're digital). You continue to tell us,
through your letters, calls, messages and
subscription renewals, that we matter to
you and continue to connect you to signifi-
cant portions of our Jewish community,
Detroit, Southeast Michigan and the world.
May we continue to go from strength
to strength. Best wishes to you and your
families for a healthy, peaceful and fulfill-
ing 5773.
❑
L'shanah tovah,
Focused from page 97
In fact, it may take 10 $100,000 givers or
20 $50,000 givers to replace one $1 mil-
lion giver. But Federation hopes younger
donors over time become financially
successful and supportive of the Jewish
people — and the Annual Campaign.
The 2012-2013 Ch a . llenge Fund, whose
lead sponsor is the Max M. and Marjorie
Fisher Foundation, is anticipated to gen-
erate $2.4 million from major donors.
Proceeds from this second-tier Federation
campaign help Federation agencies further
boost the lots of families and children at
risk both here and in Israel.
Specifically to help meet local urgent
needs, about 10 major donors responded
to a Federation plea and, without fan-
fare, pledged $5.3 million over five years
to assist families caught in Michigan's
economic vice. The Urgent Needs Fund,
begun last year, is tapped for, among
other things, medical care, scholarship
support and basic household bills.
"The Urgent Needs
Fund provides all the
basic needs to supple-
ment what the
Campaign and the
Challenge Fund were
not able to do in the
last couple of years,"
Scott
Federation CEO Scott
Kaufman
Kaufman said.
Also for urgent
needs, the Jewish Fund in May approved
a grant of $465,446 for Jewish Family
Service to assist Project Chessed,
retain staff and provide emergency
financial assistance, and for the Jewish
98 September 13 • 2012
Telling Its Story
Federation understands that just asking
young adults for a Campaign gift without
context will be futile.
"If our first interaction with them is to
ask for money, we know it'll turn them
off," Kaufman said. "They didn't grow up
with the galvanizing events of past gener-
ations — the War for Independence, the
Six-Day War, Operation Exodus [Soviet
Jewry resettlement]."
Notably, new Campaign donors also
include older adults who only now have
discovered, or rediscovered, a connection
to the organized Jewish world.
"In terms of marketing for the
Campaign, we're looking to segment the
community — whether young adults,
women, older adults, young families,
doctors — and find what resonates most
for each segment:' Neistein said. "We
want targeted messaging!'
Further, Federation has moved more
pronouncedly into programming, a
switch from 40 years ago when it princi-
pally was a distributor of its annual col-
lections. As examples, Federation today
provides training for synagogue teachers
and serves children with disabilities.
Crucial State Aid
Despite the political turmoil between
Metro Detroit's Jewish and Arab leader-
ship over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
the two ethnic communities have stood
up on behalf of their vulnerable groups
Challenging Times
Ultimately, Federation knows the best
way to handle the public's money and
trust is with utter transparency. You
don't project raising $29.4 million, given
our community's pecuniary hurdles,
troubling demographics and a Perpetual
Annual Campaign Endowment percent-
age that needs to be higher (now 14 per-
cent, or $4.13 million), without commu-
nity faith in what Federation is doing.
Federation hopes to increase the PACE
contribution to up to 25 percent within
10 years; the actual yearly percentage
hinges on the size of each Campaign. The
annual Campaign allotment is always 5.5
percent of the PACE corpus, which grows
as the number of gifts grows.
"We just can't lose the wonderful sup-
port of our older population who have
given so generously for so many years:'
Neistein said. "Through PACE, we can
increase the stability of the Campaign."
Clearly, Federation has no time to relax
although reflection is important. It must
scrupulously vet each dollar it allocates.
But ruminating too long isn't good; needs
are more ever-pressing. So there's a fine
line that Federation must toe in dividing
its precious communal bounty.
For their part, Campaign donors, what-
ever their gift, must demand accountabil-
ity and Federation must welcome that.
Such tension keeps everyone involved on
a prudent course in managing the Detroit
Jewish community's support pot.
Rightly, Federation considers its ser-
vice range the Jewish people, touching
Jews also in Israel and other lands. But
it knows the people it most serves want
local agencies' support to be uppermost.
Against this hurdle-filled backdrop,
Federation has no choice but to ask Jews
of all ages and income brackets to give if
they can and to give whatever they can.
That's the essence of being a community.
As Federation's Douglas Bloom put it,
"We're all responsible for each other."
We sure are.
L'shanah tovah tikateivu. May you and
yours be inscribed in the Book of Life
this new year of 5773. '