I had a chance to catch up with two of my cousins yesterday. During our visit, I was listening to him talk about the volunteer work he is doing and the life-changing impact it is having on the program participants. Of course, this got me thinking about the impact each of us has on the people in our lives. And for me, I started contemplating how our Jewish Federation impacts the lives of people in our community every day.

Whether it’s our campers who for some are spending time with more Jewish youth than they have ever been surrounded by and experiencing the richness and beauty of Judaism, or first-time grandparents who want to help their children feel more a part of the Jewish community by signing their grandchild up to participate in PJ Library, or a family who is struggling and doesn’t know where to turn after their child reports that they were taunted at school for being Jewish…. Our Jewish Federation is there to provide these experiences (and support).

Now, while the impact tends to be immediate, how the impact benefits people may not be readily understood and may take a while to sink in. And in some cases, work must be done behind the scenes to improve a situation, ultimately generating a ripple effect that touches even more lives.

One such instance recently took place at a local school before the end of the year, and I am currently addressing it in hopes of helping the district be better prepared by the start of the school year. While this situation is like many I have dealt with in the past, the openness and willingness of this school district’s administration has been amazing, and I am very optimistic about the work we are doing together.

As I have done previously, as soon as I was notified by a parent about an incident at her child’s school, I sent a letter to that school’s principal, cc’d the district superintendent, and asked that we meet. In these moments, I never walk in with the mentality of “how dare you allow this to happen in your school or your district.“ Instead, my approach is to express our concern about what happened and how we can use this opportunity to work together to address the culture that allowed it.

By taking this tactic, the school and the district are almost always appreciative of our desire to work with them, serving as a local liaison, and helping to connect them to available resources, including offering myself as a resource, including offering to present an anti-hate workshop I developed several years ago following an antisemitic incident in a local school.

This is only one of the ways we are impacting our community. In addition to offering programs such as PJ Library, our annual Jewish Book Festival and Cultural Arts program, Camp Gan Shalom, and others, our advocacy work benefits our entire community.

We do all of this (and more) with the donations we receive. If you have benefited from our Jewish Federation, please consider making a donation today and share with us (either by sending us an email or calling us at (626.445.0810) what our Jewish Federation means to you and/or how we made life a bit better for you during these challenging times.