The Fund Raising Presentation

Had an email from Amy this morning, she suggested that I post what I said at the meeting. Here it is. If you have any thoughts or comments, let me know. The other thing I want to mention is that what I said was actually about 90% of this. Without reading from a paper I was able to throw in some spontaneous comments!

Before I start I want to give credit to Dr. Misha Galperin,
Ex VP and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater
Washington. What I have to tell you is based on
Galperin’s Yom Kippur message entitled Jonah,
A Pair of Jeans and a Story of Jewish Peoplehood:
A Message for Yom Kippur 2007/5768.

Galperin talks about Jewish Peoplehood; “The story of
Peoplehood does not and should not come down to a
well-spread bagel. Peoplehood is the combination of
culture, religion, history and values under a Jewish
umbrella that gives us a profound feeling of being
connected to other Jews. In America we talk about
individual rights being a central and abiding feature
of being an American citizen. However, the American
story is not the Jewish story. The Jewish story is not
about rights it’s about responsibility” and that is what
I want to tell you about!

With this as our background; I want to talk to you about
dreams, however, I want you to consider 2 kinds of
dreams; first your own dreams and second those we
dream on behalf of the Jewish Community. For tonight’s purposes, let’s concentrate on the later!


It’s a warm sunny afternoon, our bus pulls up in front of a low, one story school building…could be any school in Stamford, however, we’re on a Women’s Division Mission in Afula our sister city in Israel.

We’ve come to hear about an afternoon program for children at risk called the SPACE program (Schooling Priorities and Community Empowerment; part of the Ethiopian National Project – in partnership with The Joint and Jewish Agency). This is a comprehensive and integrated package of programs aimed to advance the scholastic achievement of youth and empower the Ethiopian immigrant community in Israel.

What to expect? Who are these kids? Why are they at risk? We are met by someone from the Joint as well as a lovely young woman, I would guess to be in her 30’s , dressed in a Jeans jacket and pants, black turtle neck and a wide hair band holding back her curly hair. What’s different about her? She’s Black, with a red mark on her forehead and a small earring in her nose. She is the first Ethiopian woman we have met since arriving in Israel. Her name is Mahail.

Mahail is the coordinator of the SPACE program. She came to Israel when she was 9 and has been living here for 21 years; she is dedicated to this program because she wants to see her community succeed. She wants her kids (both her own and in the program) to have the same opportunities as other children in Israel. As you may or may not know to get ahead in Israel you have to be able to do well on tests (this includes both the Army and to go on to University). These are dreams we have for our kids; these families have the same dreams. There is, however, a major difference in the Ethiopian Community; the parents of these kids can’t help them. The majority of the parents cannot speak, read or write Hebrew. These immigrants are different from others that have come to Israel. With the Russians, for instance, they had to learn a new language; with the Ethiopians they know no other language. They cannot write at all, most of them have never even seen a pencil! The SPACE program was established to help these kids do better in school and it is working!

The most amazing part of the afternoon is meeting the kids! We split our group in half to make the experience even more intimate. We are introduced to 4 teens: Avitah with the beautiful smile; he loves to play soccer; he learned English in the 3rd grade, he has 2 sisters and 4 brothers, Chaim is also into computers and soccer, he tells us he doesn’t need help doing his homework he can do it himself, Hadassh whose parents came with Project Moses likes books and computers, and Gila who was born in Israel, her parents came with Project Moses. They tell us about the program, how they are doing much better at school and the wonderful personal attention they receive. Then we ask them about their dreams, and you know what, they are just like our kids:
Avitah wants to be a football player and own a Ferrari, not just any Ferrari, a blue one!
Chaim wants to be a bank manager
Hadassah wants to be Prime Minister (and why not!)
Gila is not sure what tomorrow will bring; she wants peace in Israel. She would like to be a journalist or a lawyer
We come away thinking that we can be dream makers; we can keep their dreams alive; just like we would for our kids; we have that responsibility, after all didn’t we bring them to Israel for that purpose???



So what am I telling you? We in this room, along with all the other givers to the Campaign, have a unique opportunity and responsibility. We can change the lives of these kids and thousands of other people in 60 countries throughout the world. We can give them the tools to make their dreams into realities! Join David and me, be dream makers, you will never feel better.



So, what do I want you to do…
if you have not yet pledged to the 2008 Campaign,
take out your pledge card now and join us, make a
commitment, be responsible. Keep in mind, there’s
a time to listen, a time to think and a time for action…
this is the time for action!

Fund Raising Debut

As some of you know, I am the 2008 Campaign Chair for UJF! Considering I've been on the committee for the past 2 years I didn't think this would add too much more stress to me life...WRONG! Two weeks ago I received an email from the staff person that handles the Campaing...it seems that the President of the organization is going to be out of town for the Major Gifts event so I will have to make The Pitch! Oh my, well not too big a problem, I can do that! David and I were fortunate to have attended a fund raising/talk giving workshop with a woman who taught Dale Carnegie classes, I can do this, no problem! Well, actually, one catch...per our teacher you are not to read to the people you are to talk to them! Oh my, this is a little different from what I've done in the past. You mean, just talk to them! Well, I worked on my topic, emailed it to the staff person and waited for the congradulations I would recieve because of the topic, how I presented it, etc. When I hadn't heard right back I knew I was in trouble. Sure enough I received a phone call (now you know that's serious) saying what I wrote sounded good, however, he didn't like the topic. The good news is he gave me an idea for the topic, the bad news...I was having a difficult time getting passionate about the new topic. Well, re-writing went on until this morning (the day of the event!). At 3:00 I finally got it together and now had to feel comfortable with it! Well according to the people that came up to me after my presentation, it was good! Now, I haven't counted how many told me it was good and how many left without saying anything! I think I'll just take it on good faith that it went well. Hopefully my next attempt will be a little easier!

A Little Bit of sugar...

Well, we all know the song that Mary Poppins made popular "A little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down"! A little bit, yeah, right! I can't believe how addictive sugar can be. Last night we had people over for desert after the Jewish Film Festival opening night. The deserts were great and I managed to get through the evening without eating or craving any. That was last night; tonight was a whole different story. Friends invited us over for dinner; very delicious! When we got home it was like the leftovers from last night were calling me from the refrigerator! I finally had a small piece of pie, that turned into a brownie followed by a piece of carrot cake. It was like I was another person watching what was going on! Then, of course, the guilt set in. Now I'm feeling nauceous...I have this yucky taste in my mouth! What is so frustrating to me is that I've not had sugar in over 3 weeks! Ok, can't beat myself up...got to get on with it! Just to get the devilish things away from my sight I've asked David to put them out in the garage. Hopefully he'll finish them up tomorrow!

Facebook

So, I was sitting in the chiropractor's office waiting for my mom to be "adjusted" when I saw an article in Newsweek about Facebook! Little did I know that when I went home there would be an invitation from a friend to join her circle of friends! Well, join I did and now I am slowly, very slowly, finding out what is going on! I know I can "poke" people, classify them as friends, join social events, send people cupcakes! there is no end to the fun! Now if I can add another few hours to my day to continue to play with this I'll be in very good shape!

True Confessions

Well, it's time to "fess" up and tell you first, the sukkah is down, the holiday is over and I didn't post the final picture! Sorry...well, there's always next year! Second, I have a thing for Mark Bittman of the NY Times food section. Just when I am sure that there is no variety to the food we eat; he comes up with something interesting! This past week David declared our home "Chicken Free"! He said he could finally understand why my Dad started to hate to eat the yellow things! Well, Mark had a recipe for a Zucchini-Pear Soup in this past week's paper that was great; it passed the test, no chicken in it! For those of you who might be interested:

3 TBS butter or extra virgin olive oil, or a combination
1 med carrot, peeled and diced
1 med onion, peeled and diced
1 med potato, preferably high-starch (russet or baking) peeled and diced
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or a pinch of dried thyme
Sale and pepper
4 med zucchini, trimmed and diced
2 med ripe (but still firm) pears, peeled, cored and diced
4 cups chicken or veg stock, or use water (I used veg stock for obvious reasons!)
mint leaves for garnish

1. Put butter and/or oil in a large skillet over med heat; within butter melts or oil is hot, cook carrot, onion, potato and thyme with a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper. Stir occasionally, adjusting heat so vegetables do not brown. When onion is softened, about 5 minutes, add zucchini and continue to cook until everything is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Add pear and cook until has softened, about 5 minutes more. Add liquid and bring to a boil; taste and adjust seasoning. Cook mixture, then puree. Serve cold or reheat and serve hot, garnished with mint, if desired. Serves 4

Well, this is definitely the season for this soup. It's the end of the zucchini season and the pears are wonderful!

Reflections on Life by Sylvia

Several years ago (2004 to be exact) I came up with the idea of interviewing my mom and hearing what her life was like when she was growing up. I had planned on doing a family history years before this with my mother's sisters and never did. Now many of those stories have disappeared because two of my aunts have died. I also wanted an understanding of my dad's side of the family, however, he cannot give me that information. So, Mom and I started on a warm afternoon in July, 2004. The stories were great. There were some that I knew, like how she and Grandma, Aunt Lil, Aunt Helen and Mom used to make flowers out of material that had to be formed by petal, then fastened together into flowers and finally attached to the back of vanity, hand held mirrors. They got paid by the piece for this work. Money was extremely tight and food was scarce.

Well, the project went on hold for 3 years, until yesterday! Earlier in the week I received an email from my cousin Shelly; she is Billy and Marilyn Wallach's younger daughter. She is in the process of putting together a book about mothers and daughters. Here is what she had to say: "...it occurred to me I really knew very little about her. I thought about what her favorite color was and I didn’t know. I didn’t know much about her childhood, her relationship with her mother, her siblings, who were her friends, did she have a boyfriend in high school, how she felt about her life, and so on.

I live in a community of women close to my age..mostly in the baby boomer generation whose mothers, if they’re still alive, are elderly. Most of them said they too knew very little about their mothers. I decided to write a book..a sort of resource guide to spark women to talk to their moms before they run out of time. I sent out a survey (I’m going to forward one to you) and got so many responses. I couldn't’t believe how many people sent back things they wanted to know about their mothers. The idea took on a life of its own"

Doesn't this sound fascinating and I appreciated that it got me back into the conversation with Mom. It is so amazing, we live this life as if the people we know and love will be here forever and that's not how it works. So, last night we continued the conversation we started in 2004. The stories were as wonderful as ever. When David came home he participated as well. We all had such a wonderful time. I taped Mom as she spoke so now I have to transcribe what we talked about.

So, I told you about the piece work, I'll give you some more stories as I get them written up. Now it would be fun to have Aunt Shirley and Mom together and see if they remember things differently! Also, I have to corner Uncle Paul the next time he comes to visit so we can get some of that Plotkin/Barkon history on paper as well!