This Wednesday - Jewish Summer Social - At the Hotel Palomar!

Federation Assembles Task Force to Help Our Community's Elderly

Many of us have an elderly Jewish family member, friend or neighbor who could benefit from greater care. The number of San Diegans ages 60 and older is projected to more than double in the next 17 years, by then 25% of Jewish Americans will be 65 and older, and 90% of elders prefer to age in their own homes and neighborhoods.

Recognizing these facts, that challenges faced by thousands of San Diego’s estimated 25,000 elderly Jews are increasing as public funding for needed services declines, while the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s increases, the Jewish Senior Services Council (JSSC) identified “aging in place” as the top priority to deepen our community’s caring for seniors. With the leadership of Steven D. Solomon, Ph.D., who served as JSSC Chair, and Lisa Haney, Director, Community Planning & Innovation Center, an Aging Task Force worked for nearly 20 months, examining local and national research, listening to community members and speaking with informed professionals to develop a local blueprint for action.

An innovative SeniorLink Gateways to Care emerged as the #1 recommendation for helping elders live in their own homes safely, independently and comfortably, regardless of income, age or ability level, through a collaboration of agencies providing outstanding services to Jewish seniors. Hubs located in diverse geographic regions of San Diego County would facilitate far easier access to the full range of greatest identified needs including medical and dental care, religious practices, home repairs and maintenance, wills and financial assistance, hospice and burial care, friendly visitors, civic engagement, volunteer opportunities and others services to alleviate isolation.

For more information about the plan of action and the respective community representatives who participated in an Aging Symposium and the development of the “Aging in Place, Deepening OurCommunity’s Caring for Elders” blueprint for progress, please see click here. As Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children…but the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.”

CJP Thanks San Diego for Standing with Boston

Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston sent the below letter to the Jewish Federation of San Diego County to thank our community for the support provided in the wake of the Boston Marathon Bombing.  

Thank YOU for standing with us, and the people of Boston. Together, we do extraordinary things.

Healthy Jewish Collaboration, Courage, Creativity and Reciprocity

by Jennie Starr

Reblogged from eJewishPhilanthropy

We need courageous, risk taking Jewish leadership, especially in communities with ridiculously low Jewish engagement and significant Jewish populations.

Jewish collaboration requires a courtship to understand synergies and opportunities, overcome pitfalls, and create mutually beneficial collaboration. It’s about creating something new and great neither organization could do themselves. We reach new people, build different and better programming, or simply help nurture and support each other’s existence. This kind of authentic collaboration is the Holy Grail of greater engagement of the Jewish people. It’s what makes the difference in good to great, in rote vs inspiring and it’s what feeds our Jewish soul and invigorates us.

I love our Jewish partners who work hard, take risks, sharing their resources but also planning reciprocal programs and marketing the benefits for both of our organizations. They are committed, courageous, and have an enthusiastic desire to see an improved landscape of Jewish experiences. They make doing this volunteer work worthwhile. They’re the best of the best.

It’s true, that Foundations and Grants often encourage collaboration, but there is no roadmap that suggests best practices on how to do it. Without the training or best practices to guide us, many Jewish organizations simply don’t know how to pave the path. Last year, the Tarbuton collaborated with over 22 Program Partners, had 11 Marketing collaborations and worked with nine National and/or International Jewish organizations for networking in our field. We’ve had successes but we have had failures too. Knowing the pitfalls and also looking carefully at examples that work can help pave a path towards successful collaborations.

Collaborative Pitfalls – Don’t Let Them Get You Down!

Each of the following represents pitfalls that are surmountable. Like love and marriage, it takes work to make collaborations successful. It also takes two willing and interested parties.

FUD: Fear uncertainty and dread. We might lose members, we can’t afford that. Maybe they’ll like the other program better or like their Rabbi more. Answer: We need courageous, risk taking Jewish leadership, especially in communities with ridiculously low Jewish engagement and significant Jewish populations.

Scarcity of Resources: We’re too busy to work on that, to give them attention. They have to pay big money to be a Partner. We have costs to cover. Answer: Use your staff better; let them impact more people. Use your building better; Jewish buildings were meant to be full of Jews. Develop a reasonable rental plan or better yet, in kind use with a plan for collaborative or joint programs.

Programmatic Differences: We’re different; because of the languages we speak together, levels of observance, culture or age. Answer: Encourage mingling; it’s healthy and good to meet and learn from each other. It’s interesting and healthy to build bridges; to be with people speaking Spanish, Hebrew, Russian; hearing and experiencing their Jewish cultural traditions. Some of your members want to make new friends, help them.

Marketing: Just send out our event flyer/fundraiser; but oh by the way, we can’t reciprocate and share yours. Our Board won’t let us, my boss won’t let me, and/or we don’t think our people will be interested in yours. (Translation: We just want to use you, not collaborate with you.) Answer: Healthy Jewish collaboration requires reciprocity.

Courtship and Collaboration – This is the Fun Part!

With the enormous number of unengaged, and the expense of running programs, buildings, and staffing it goes without saying we should be leveraging our resources better. Let’s face it. Some programs have a great Rabbi. Some have a great building. Some recruit and produce great programs. Just like in dating, this is the fun part. This is where you get to see what’s great about each other. Plan how to share resources and expenses respecting each other limitations, appreciating the strength in each others’ staffing or experiences and getting creative about offering better programs together. Then establish a respectful and reciprocal marketing plan for the joint program, creating exciting pieces that share the joint event, proudly sharing the relationship, your enthusiasm for the other and cherishing the benefit you bring together to the community. You don’t have to agree to spam your respective databases with every event the other does. Work hard on a few joint events and promote those like crazy.

From Good to Great! Collaboration Stories

The Israeli-American Council (IAC) asked us to help them launch their amazing Sifriyat Pijama b’America program, the Hebrew version of PJ Library. We sent registration forms to every Israeli and Israeli-American family and market the program. We use the books in our supplementary school program and offer Free Hebrew story times using the books in Public libraries and on our campus. The IAC promotes our collaboration on their Sifriyat Pijama website and subsequently also funded infrastructure projects for our Supplementary School program.

The Ken Jewish Community which manages the Maccabi youth group locally and services the Latin Jewish Community makes enormous contributions to the Jewish community, and has a rich history of an incredible Purimon. This year they invited us to collaborate and sweeten the event adding the Tarbuton’s rendition of the Megillat Esther. The Tarbuton brought new participants to the event satisfying the Ken’s goal to open the event to the Community giving back to the community beyond their Latin membership.

Habonim generously sweetened Tarbuton youth programming bringing a Madrich from Los Angeles to offer their incredible Rabin seminar and lending their local Madrichim to our Pesach Community event to help run activities. Leveraging the resources of both organizations for a community wide event, the Tarbuton was thrilled to collaborate too with Jewish Family Services who brought their Single Jewish Parent program to celebrate with us. Everyone learned about each other’s programs; Habonim Gilboa Summer Camp and their local youth group program too. Joint events were marketed prominently by all the organizations in their newsletters, Facebooks and websites, showing deep and authentic appreciation for each other’s identities, efforts and the relationship.

Several Synagogues generously offered us low or no cost meeting space when we began and we created beautiful Jewish experiences together, memorable Sukkot dinners, and Shabbat evenings. We introduced a lot of Jewish friends and a few families seeking traditional bar/bat mitzvah found their way to Synagogue membership. I still believe the most successful Synagogue collaborations will continue programming collaborations and include the Tarbuton sweetening their educational programs with Israeli style classes and strong Modern Hebrew, but admittedly, we have yet to succeed in building this kind of relationship. As I write, we are “courting” three Synagogues with this in mind. I hope to follow up this post with success and share lessons learned.

Looking Ahead

The Leichtag Foundation invited us to join their Hub to collaborate with others to build Jewish life together in the North County area of San Diego. They provided us with shared office space and a collaborative setting with amazing potential Partners, such as Moishe House Without Walls and JDC Entwine. Together, we’re working to reach young adults, exploring ways to engage more Jews in service work and outreach to those who are not engaging in Jewish life for various reasons. With this post, I encourage each Jewish organization that might read this near, or far, to make the time to work with potential Jewish partners, to be courageous, generous, creative, and patient and to engage more Jews nearby every day. It’s exciting to be a part of a creative, collaborative process. Together, collaboratively, we’ll enrich our Jewish communities and ensure our Jewish future and connection to Israel.

Jennie Starr is the Founder & Director of the Tarbuton, Israeli Cultural Center. The Tarbuton was recognized as a Slingshot Top 50 innovative organization in 2013. The Tarbuton is also a member of the Covenant Foundation’s after school network, Nitzan. The Tarbuton is supported by the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, Innovation & Planning Center, the Leichtag Foundation and the Israeli-American Council.

Federation Sends San Diego Local Officials Delegation to Israel

At the Peres Center for Peace where we heard from the
former chief technology advisor to Israeli President Shimon Peres

A bipartisan delegation of prominent San Diego-area officials is traveling in Israel for intensive dialogue and briefings. The educational seminar, led by the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council) and the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, follows a similar seminar for San Diego leaders first conducted in 2009.

The intensive seminar, featuring San Diego-area City Council members, Board of Education leaders, and an Assembly Member, will focus on providing these policymakers with a first-hand understanding of Israel, its rich and dynamic society, and often-times complex realities. The visit, funded by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, and not tax payers, includes meetings with influential figures across Israel’s political and social spectrum, including senior Israeli, Palestinian and Israeli Arab figures.

Our San Diego elected officials with the Mayor of Tel Aviv.

In particular, the delegation will focus on sharing best practices on economic development and technology start-ups, environmental management and renewable energy, desalination technology (critical for San Diego), absorption and integration of immigrant communities, education, and city administration. All of these areas are issues of importance for the communities the San Diego-area officials represent.

Several sessions dealing with Israel’s strategic environment, diversity and inter-group issues and inter-religious cooperation will also be featured during the week-long educational seminar, including initiatives that foster effective coexistence between Arabs and Jews. 

The delegation will also observe how Israel balances the preservation of its heritage with modern municipal management, including energy and water management and the provision of social services, demonstrating the unique challenges and successes of Israeli cities and towns, and models for possible integration by the San Diego-area leaders.  Meetings and demonstrations of cutting-edge technology will take place with clean-tech and high-tech companies to foster opportunities for collaboration and economic partnership, to the benefit of both communities.

Alan Viterbi and Rich Leib at the broader of Syria.

Sam Witkin, Executive Director of Project Interchange, noted, “Project Interchange is tremendously pleased to host this delegation of San Diego-area city council members, education, and community leaders to Israel. These officials represent a diverse set of constituencies, but they share a common interest in job creation, high tech innovation, and the successful absorption and integration of immigrants. As these are key priorities for Israel as well, we hope participants will return home with a better sense of the similarities between their communities and those in Israel.”

Michael Sonduck, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego, in commenting on the trip said, “Federation is very excited to partner with Project Interchange through our JCRC in order to bring San Diego County elected officials and community leaders to Israel together.  Over our 75+ years of serving the San Diego Jewish Community it has been our privilege to work closely with elected officials at all levels of government.  Trips like this only serve to strengthen our relationships by providing elected officials first-hand experiences of Israel.  We want to thank the elected officials who joined us on this trip.”

Linda Feldman, Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council commented that “I am excited to be travelling to Israel with such a dynamic group of elected officials and community leaders.  The opportunity to learn first-hand about Israel and the San Diego community’s connections to this vibrant, democratic ally of the United States in the Middle East is an invaluable experience.”

Delegation participants include:

Council Member John Aguilera

Council Member John Aguilera was elected to the Vista City Council in November, 2010 and served as the Mayor Pro Tem in 2011.

Board of Education Trustee Richard Barrera

Board of Education Trustee Richard Barrera was first elected to the San Diego Unified Board of Education in 2008, and again in 2012. Mr. Barrera was recently appointed to a new position on the San Diego Imperial Counties Labor Council Board.

Board of Education Trustee Kevin Beiser

Mr. Kevin Beiser is currently the Vice President of San Diego Unified Board of Education and was elected to the School Board in 2010.  Mr. Beiser is also a math teacher in the Sweetwater Union High School District at Granger Junior High School and was named, "San Diego Math Teacher of the Year" in 2009.

City Council Member George Gastil

Council Member George Gastil has served on the Lemon Grove City Council since 2008.  He also serves as Senior Field Representative for California State Assembly member, Shirley Weber. 

City Council Member Tony Kranz

Council Member Kranz was elected to the Encinitas City Council in 2012 and is working to promote policies to protect our natural resources, improve the quality of life and address social justice issues. 

Council Member Alejandra Sotelo-Solis

In 2008, Alejandra Sotelo-Solis was elected to serve on the National City City Council and was re-elected in 2012. 

Assembly Member Shirley Nash Weber

Assembly Member Shirley Nash Weber was elected in November of 2012 to represent California's 79th Assembly District, which includes the cities of Bonita, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, National City and San Diego.

This Wednesday: Soldier Stories with Orit Kapel - Treating a Terrorist

IDF Medic Orit Kapel

Israel Defense Forces combat field medic , Orit Kapel will speak at Congregation B’nai Tikvah, 2510 Gateway Road, Carlsbad, 6:30-7:30 Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Orit will hold a Q and A at a local restaurant afterward. This a free lecture as part of the B’nai Tikvah Lecture Series.

She will share her amazing combat stories, and reflect on her life as a combat medic - see this interesting snippet below:

"In October of 2003, when I had only been in the army for a few months. I was walking at night, and a paramedic told me to go to the security prison inside the military base immediately. She didn’t say who the prisoner was, just that I was the only medic available. Usually they wouldn’t send such a young medic to treat someone, but they had no other option, so I went.

When I got to the prison, I saw the prisoner and I knew exactly who he was. He was responsible for a huge terrorist attack: He sent his own sister to commit a suicide bombing in a restaurant in Haifa. Her attack killed 21 people. A lot of innocent babies and children were killed. So when he said that was his name I was really conflicted. The media was constantly covering the story of the victims but there he was in front of me and I was ordered to treat him. So I had to think, what if he was released at the end of his trial, what if he was freed in a hostage deal someday? What if he murdered again?

After a few seconds I just treated him. I examined his condition and gave him IV fluids and medication, everything he needed since I was trained to treat those in need regardless of their moral standards, regardless of nationality. I treated him as I would any other patient.

He actually thanked me and when I finished. I almost felt like I had betrayed his victims. He is a person who deliberately sent his own sister to sacrifice her life for the purpose of killing innocent people. It was really, really hard for me to accept his thanks.

But I did it. I did it as a member of the medical team. I did it because I’m part of a moral army. I did it because the IDF is committed to high moral standards and a really clear ethical code. And it was really clear to me what I have to do and I certainly would have done the same thing today. I’m proud to be part of an army that is clear about moral standards and a code of ethics.”

Orit Kopel is here from Israel taking time off before leaving to London School of Economics to pursue a Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law. Orit is here as part of StandWithUs as the San Diego Israel Education Ambassador.

Orit is a graduate of the prestigious Hebrew University Law School and holds a B.A. in Communication and Journalism. She served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a Field Medic as one of the few females assigned to this role in the West Bank.

In 2009, Orit was selected to be a part of the StandWithUs Fellowship program, in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that aims to empower young Israeli adults to be informed, active, articulate, and globally-minded future leaders. Since then, she has been a part of StandWithUs as a speaker both in the United States and in Israel. Orit is well educated on the Middle East conflict and has many personal stories to share about her time in the Israeli Defense Forces. She is knowledgeable, charismatic, and is a dynamic speaker who is excited to represent Israel and serve the San Diego community.

Video Interview http://www.standwithus.co.il/orit

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Orit.SWU

Print Interview http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/soldier-stories-orit-wrestles-with-treating-a-terrorist/12973

Federation Responds to Federal Court Decision Barring Israel from Jerusalem-Born U.S. Citizens’ Passports

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided to bar Jerusalem-born Americans from listing Israel as their country of birth, drawing heavy criticism from many Jewish organizations. The case was brought to the federal court of appeals by Ari and Naomi Zivotosfsky, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of their son Menachem, demanding the enforcement of a 2002 law designed to allow United States citizens born in Jerusalem to have Israel officially listed on their passport. In response, JFNA Board of Trustees Chair Michael Siegal issued the following statement on behalf of the Jewish Federations:

The court’s decision to nullify a law enacted by Congress allowing American citizens born in Jerusalem to have Israel listed as their birthplace is a real disappointment. We believe, as Congress does, that Americans born in Jerusalem should have the choice to declare their birthplace as the State of Israel. The United States position on the status of Jerusalem has long been at odds with the strong views of the Jewish community but we hope and believe that this law – which leaves 50,000 Americans without an official birth country – will be reinstated by the Supreme Court and enforced by the State Department. 

News Coverage

Haaretz

Jerusalem Post

Reuters

Politico

Fox News