Today, July 1, 2024, marks two milestones, one communal and one personal.
On the community level, we begin a new fiscal year, relaunching our annual campaign and resetting all fundraising back to zero. Personally, July 1, 2014, was my first day in this role at UJA, which makes this my 10-year anniversary — a moment to pause and reflect.
I will never forget my very first day on the job, representing UJA at a memorial for three Israeli teens whose kidnapping and murder precipitated a 50-day war — a harrowing if smaller-scale glimpse at October 7 and its aftermath. Plans to learn the ropes over a quiet summer were tossed aside. With rockets raining down on Israel from Gaza, I had a real-time lesson in UJA’s crisis response.
UJA knew what to do and how to do it because the roadmap was already in place: Mobilize the community and raise emergency funds. Activate well-established relationships with partners on the ground. Strategically allocate funds to meet immediate and longer-term needs. Express our solidarity in Israel and simultaneously advocate for it here in America.
That same roadmap has guided us these 10 years, stretching and evolving to meet challenges once unimaginable: A historic pandemic. War in Ukraine. Sharply rising antisemitism in our own backyard. And now, Israel in its ninth month of war.
Over the years, I’ve heard some say that UJA is “your grandparents’ philanthropy,” a legacy organization, too bureaucratic and plodding to act nimbly and innovate. These past years have powerfully demonstrated the opposite. (And by the way, we love grandparents!)
Here are just some examples:
Poverty
To mark our centennial in 2017, with a focus on our second century, we committed more than $100 million for transformative capital projects, including a new approach to fighting poverty. We built one-stop hubs (the first opened in 2020) providing a range of services under one roof, coupled with online food pantries that prioritize client dignity and choice. Just last week, our initiative was heralded in the Harvard Business Review for its groundbreaking innovation.
Antisemitism
In 2014, antisemitism was seen as a mostly European problem, and we didn’t have a single dollar in our annual budget directed toward Jewish communal security here in New York. In 2019, in the aftermath of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh and growing attacks on visibly Jewish people in Brooklyn, we (along with JCRC-NY) conceived and created the Community Security Initiative (CSI). Today, CSI has an 18-person team and is widely regarded as playing an indispensable role in helping to protect the New York Jewish community.
Pandemic
During the pandemic, when JCCs, senior centers, and other human service providers were reeling, UJA provided dramatic financial support and helped them to survive. We also helped rethink the delivery of vital services — from caring for isolated elderly to providing Jewish education online to mounting a massive vaccine delivery and education campaign. In all, we allocated $70 million in emergency funds and interest-free loans. And, notably, not one of our core partners went under during that traumatic period.
Ukraine
When Russia invaded Ukraine, we allocated more than $26 million in emergency funding for critical humanitarian aid and evacuation assistance. We made aliyah possible for tens of thousands. And we continue today to provide vital emotional and financial support for the people of Ukraine — those still in the country, as well as refugees now living in New York, Europe, and Israel.
October 7 and Aftermath
Which brings us to today and the ongoing war in Israel: We were there on October 7, with an immediate $10 million emergency grant from our endowment, the first significant overseas philanthropic dollars to reach Israel. Since then, thanks to the extraordinary outpouring of support from our community, we've provided over $100 million in emergency funding.
Locally, we’ve been at the forefront in addressing the staggering rise of antisemitism in New York while at the same time focusing on our abiding priorities: caring for the most vulnerable and strengthening Jewish life and connection. Capitalizing on the current groundswell in Jewish pride and engagement, we’ve taken an additional $25 million from our endowment to be used over the next three years for enhanced, high-quality Jewish programming.
Philanthropically, our UJA community has risen to meet the moment in ways not seen in decades. During the fiscal year just ended, we raised $440 million (including more than $200 million in emergency funding for Israel) from more than 77,000 donor gifts. The prior year, we raised approximately $234 million from about 31,000 donor gifts.
The generosity is astounding, yes, but it’s what those dollars make possible where we truly leave our mark.
***
Ten years ago, with more than a little trepidation, I left a long, well-loved legal career to work for the Jewish community, with no idea of what was to come.
It continues to be the greatest privilege of my life.
From New York to Israel to Ukraine, I’ve met the people whose lives have been saved because of what we do. I’ve heard firsthand the stories of bereaved parents, Holocaust survivors, and refugees and told them about a Jewish community that cares deeply for them. I’ve witnessed UJA bringing the community together to march across the Brooklyn Bridge against antisemitism and fill Fifth Avenue for Israel.
And I’ve seen 10 annual campaigns, each an expression of sacred community and collective responsibility: the ultimate embodiment of UJA.
This reflection represents our story, written by us and for us. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s been part of it — whether it’s been 10 days, 10 years, or far longer.
But enough reflecting for now.
We have the 2025 Annual Campaign to begin. A community to strengthen and protect against the backdrop of war and unease.
The next chapter of vibrant Jewish life to write together.
Shavua tov and an early happy July 4th