One Year After
Abramowitz, Yosef I.
One Year After On the first yahrzeit of '9/11, more Israel emergency funds should be spent in North America on Israel-centric programs. Yosef I. Abramowitz THE FIRST YAHRZEIT OF SEPT. ? I...
...2 lst-century thinking should figure out how to invest wisely in the infrastructure of Jewry to ensure that a decade from now Israel will have deeper and wider support...
...and publisher of Living Words IV: A Spiritual Source Book in an Age of Terror...
...Federations could also encourage the improvement of congregational schools by providing a per-child allocation to these institutions for students who remain active after their bat or bar mitzvah...
...In a recent essay in the journal Sh'ma, the Jewish philosopher Ahad La'am makes the case that it is in the national security interest of the Jewish State to strengthen the Jewish spirit in Israel and among Diaspora Jews...
...United Jewish Communities is spearheading a $300 million campaign, thankfully backed by ah the religious movements, on behalf of Israel...
...These two actions alone would free up significant funds to be invested in Jewish education...
...I UNCOMfortably coincides with the Jewish high holidays and the start of a new school year...
...And Jewish social service agencies that are caring for Holocaust survivors should require the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which has billions of dollars in assets, to provide a dollar-for-dollar reimbursement for these services, including much-needed home care services...
...By creatively investing in teachers, Israel emergency funds could be used to ensure that every Jewish student in North America receives a continuing and high-quality Israel-focused education...
...One Year After On the first yahrzeit of '9/11, more Israel emergency funds should be spent in North America on Israel-centric programs...
...It is a nobrainer to attract 12- and 13-year-olds to Sunday school...
...This change alone would transform the economics of most schools so that they could pay and train their teachers better, offer financial assistance to make day schools accessible to middle-class and poorer families, and attract the best leaders to our educational institutions...
...Twentieth-century Jewish thinking would mandate that the money be sent with little strategic planning...
...His 2001 MOMENT column "Glimpsing the Divine" won a Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Assoriation...
...Yosef I. Abramowitz is CEO of Jewish Family & Life...
...and be seen as a sound investment in Israel's long-term future...
...That is not good enough for a community supposedly committed to Jewish education...
...We all awoke to a new reality last year that was forced upon us by outside, negative forces...
...Finding new ways to invest in the Israel-intensive and overall Jewish education of our children would be an important step in the right direction...
...aid to Israel continues to enjoy the backing of lawmakers and taxpayers...
...Some of the emergency Israel funds could also be invested in teaching Hebrew to American Jews, creating a living cultural and linguistic bridge between the Jewish State and a strong and knowledgeable Jewish Diaspora...
...concerted Federation action could make the difference between success and mediocrity in that area...
...Any Federation making allocations to Jewishly affiliated hospitals should encourage the sale of these valuable nonprofits to for-profit health care systems to generate yet another endowment within their community from the proceeds of the sale...
...Yosef I. Abramowitz THE FIRST YAHRZEIT OF SEPT...
...If the Jewish community values quality Jewish education for its children, then the per-child allocation to schools should be at least $2,000...
...arms, for example—so should a significant portion of communal aid to Israel be spent in the U.S...
...Just as the majority of U.S...
...According to the Jewish Education Service of North America, the national per-capita average allocation to a day school for each child is a mere $530 per year...
...Imagine if a third of the emergency Israel money, $100 million, was used for a variety of programs in North America that would be Israel-centric...
...foreign aid to Israel is actually spent in the U.S.—through purchases of U.S...
...this year, let's create new, positive realities for the American Jewish community...
...The gains that Jewish day schools have been making are real but fragile...
...In addition to reinvesting some emergency Israel money in national endeavors in North America, Federations need to radically change the way they are involved in funding Jewish education at the local level...
...Marion Blumenthal, chairwoman of the UJA-Federadon of New York Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal, has a wonderful idea—that every Jewish teacher should be sent, birthright israel-style, on a trip to Israel and be given the curriculum, resources, and training upon their return to teach about Israel in congregational and day schools...
...And clearly some of the money should be used for television, print, and Internet hasbara (public relations) efforts to ensure that the $3 billion in U.S...
...what's needed is a variety of initiatives to keep these children and their families involved after the Big Event...
...This kind of undertaking, however, will require tough choices to be made at the local level...
...Two dozen communities have already done this, creating new centers of local Jewish philanthropy that should be encouraged to promote Jewish education as well as Jewish health care...
...The rise in day school attendance has been accompanied by a series of serious infrastructure challenges: insufficient teacher training and pay, high tuition, and a lack of qualified senior personnel and lay leaders...
...The newfound emphasis on protecting the dignity of the Jewish State provides an opportunity not just for emergency fund raising, but for communal transformation...
Vol. 27 • August 2002 • No. 4
