Shabbat Shalom -

 
History - some say we are doomed to repeat it and others say it the best predictor of future performance.

Earlier this week, I finally found some time to clean off the shelves in my office and make room for some of the material I have collected over the past few months.  As an aside, it has felt great to make my office space feel like my own. In my cleaning frenzy, I came across a stack of Federation annual reports, the oldest of which was from 1947-48.

Here is some interesting history:

In 1948, the Federation, at the time named the United Jewish Welfare Fund of Springfield, was chaired by Abe Leo Cohen.  The campaign raised  $693,769.15!  There is a very nifty website that calculates inflation and when you plug in that number you will discover that the equivalent dollar amount in 2009 is.......... $6,156,294.00.  Yes, you are reading that correctly, a little over 6 million dollars. Furthermore, there were 3500 donors to this annual campaign effort.  Looking through the list of names, with dollar amounts, there are names and businesses that are donors to our campaign today. I find this history fascinating.

I have several thoughts about this information.  Of course I understand that this was 1948 and this was an incredibly monumental time in our Jewish world - on many fronts.  We were post WWII, still learning about the ravages of the Holocaust.  And, obviously the State of Israel was founded.  There was indeed a very compelling case for giving.  The economic base of the region in Western Massachusetts was blossoming with manufacturing businesses and the Jewish community, as indicated by the donor list, was rich in family business.  It was  a very different time in our world politically and demographically.  The solidarity of the Jewish people immediately post WWII was very strong.

There are many reasons why we could look at this as an idyllic time period in our area.  But, what I would simply like to remind us, is that this is our history.  As we now talk about the Create a Jewish Legacy Program, while we are certainly talking about leaving a legacy based on our climate today, we are also talking about preserving the legacy of those who laid a foundation for us, like Mr. Cohen - who, by the way gave $500 in 1948 ($4448 - by today's standards). 

I would love for us to be "doomed" to repeat this history.  I would love to look at this past achievement as a predictor of our future performance.  Do we have the capacity to raise $6 million dollars - well I am not sure.  But, can we in the future at least bring the campaign over the $2 million dollar mark - I believe so.  How do we get there?  We need to be creative and engage our donors in new ways. 

I had a terrific meeting this morning with one of our devoted major donors.  He shared with me his ideas of taking what we do with our Federation dollars and making them more tangible for people to see and touch the impact.  His ideas were fabulous.  In 1948 - our goals were very very tangible.  It is our job now, to show our community how the dollars today have just as much impact, if not even more, than they did 60 years ago.  We are a stronger Jewish people now than we were in 1948.  We are a wealthier people than we were 60 years ago.  We have more resources, more connections, more acceptance than ever. 

As we celebrated our independence last weekend, I was reminded that we are fortunate to live in a country where we can live as Jews freely.  We are so lucky in so many ways. 

Let's remember our past.  We have a rich and wonderful history of philanthropy in our region that we need to preserve and honor.  I am proud to work with our Federation leadership today to make our Federation as strong and as vibrant as it has ever been.  My hope is that 60 years from now someone else in my office will be looking back on our accomplishments with admiration too. 

 

Sincerely,