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Celebrating a record-breaking success: 2007 Annual Fundraising generated more than $31 million dollars!
Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of campaign volunteers, lay leaders, JCF staff and the unprecedented generosity of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties Jewish community, we will be able to help even more people lead better lives here, in Israel and around the world. A total of 10,500 donors contributed $25.5M to the 2007 Campaign and $5.3M to the special Israel Emergency Campaign covering urgent needs created by last summer's war. In addition, $400K was raised for special restricted gifts. A record-breaking $31.2M has been raised overall.
We thank our Campaign Chair Jim Koshland for two yeas of tireless dedication and leadership and extend a warm welcome to JCF’s 2008 Annual Campaign Chairs Dr. Carol and Norman Traeger.
Thanks to this outpouring of support, the worldwide Jewish community will be strengthened immeasurably. Our community priorities include:
Caring for the vulnerable
Your campaign contributions will go to families in crisis, the elderly and the poor through a variety of community agencies such as Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Jewish Vocational Services and the women’s shelter, Shalom Bayit. Our community’s care for those in need takes many forms:
- ensuring the elderly have access to safe housing and healthy meals as well as helping them with their medical and transportation needs;
- counseling families and individuals in crisis;
- supporting victims of domestic violence;
- bringing valuable resources to immigrants acclimating to their new homes;
- offering resumé building, job training and placement for the un- and under-employed.
Welcoming interfaith, LGBT and all Jewish families
Jewish families come in all configurations. Interfaith couples make up an increasing proportion of the Jewish community. Our community is also home to a vibrant Jewish LGBT population. Our Federation has been at the forefront of programs that welcome and engage all kinds of families in Jewish life, resulting in higher levels of Jewish participation. Some of the important programs you’re helping to fund include:
Supporting multiple expressions of Jewish identity
Support of Jewish Community Centers, the Bureau of Jewish Education, and Jewish Day Schools strengthens Jewish identity for all and helps engage our diverse population in meaningful ways:
- early childhood education and Jewish education for parents;
- Jewish educational strategies for the classroom;
- leadership development programs for teens;
- professional development for teachers;
- events, festivals and cultural programming.
Serving Jews and Jewish communities in times of need
Our community extends beyond the borders of the Bay Area. Thanks to your contributions, we help Jews around the world. Through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), we in the Bay Area extend life-saving services as far away as Argentina, Asia, Africa and the former Soviet Union by providing fundamental aid:
- food, medicine, housing and heat;
- reconstruction of Jewish schools and libraries;
- emergency financial assistance;
- job training.
Strengthening Israel
For over two decades we have been on the ground in Israel, supporting Jewish values, heritage and people. Our office in Israel and the volunteer Amuta (community board) allow us to immediately respond to changing needs, and our partnership with the Upper Galil has built bridges between the Bay Area and Israel, fostering lasting connections. We contribute to the vitality of our homeland in innovative ways:
- providing job training and assistance for immigrants to Israel;
- building stronger communities through educational and leadership-development programs;
- providing resources and information to support Israel travel;
- promoting cultural exchange;
- funding scholarship programs for study in Israel.
It’s not too late. Learn more about how you can get involved.
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“I remember my dad always telling me that whatever we had, there were a lot of people out there that had less.”
The work of the Jewish Federation represents our community's most enduring tradition: to provide for the needy, to strengthen and uplift the Jewish people wherever they are and to push ourselves, our families and our friends to constantly reach a higher standard of generosity. Through the Annual Campaign you put core Jewish values into action.
Throughout our history, the Jewish people have turned to their community, finding strength and inspiration in each other. We work together to provide care and comfort to all those who need it. We come together – in every generation, in every circumstance – to give our children an education steeped in the Jewish values of justice and responsibility. In difficult times, we come together, share our pain and our hope...and generously share our resources.
Why do we do this? The answers are as unique as the many voices of our community:
“I wonder what it’s like not to have this money. I wonder what it’s like to not know where my next meal is coming from or how I’m going to take care of my children or how I’m going to go to college...”
“I give because I want to be able to share what I have with people who are less fortunate than I am, and I am in a position that I can.”
“I think that the JCF is the biggest pot to distribute funds to as many places locally as well as internationally that I know of.”
“I feel connected to the local community, I feel connected to Israel, I feel connected to Jews worldwide, in all the places that Federation has offices.”
“I really like the mission to strengthen Jewish identity because I think it’s really important through the connection to Israel.”
“I’m really helping to impact this community in all its nooks and crannies, in ways I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.”
“With the fact that I am personally donating, it’s actually showing that not only am I making an impact, it’s a very empowering feeling. To know that somebody you don’t even know, that odds are you will never meet in your entire life, is using your dollars to put food on the table, put their kids in camp, to do something of that nature that will really affect and really change somebody’s life.”
“Giving to your community, wherever that is, or whatever that looks like, is a way of taking responsibility for the life that you live.”
“I think it’s a privilege and an obligation to give. It’s our privilege that we can give, and it’s an obligation to make sure other people can get and be in better shape.”
“It doesn’t matter really how much, just that you have it and that you give it is a really important responsibility. It’s a human responsibility.”
“How amazing would life be if we were considerate of each other and we understood each other. Life would be so much more rich and you’d be able to have a much more satisfying existence.” |
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Israel @ 60 Community Mission: “Looking Back, Leading Forward”
April 30 – May 8, 2008
Experience Israel like never before! Join the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation for a unique, multi-themed mission celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary. The mission, our community’s first since Israel’s 50th birthday, will begin at the end of Yom HaShoah, the holiday commemorating the Holocaust, continue through Yom HaZikeron, the memorial day for fallen Israeli soldiers, and end as we celebrate Israel Independence Day in the streets of Tel Aviv. These somber and exciting days in Israel are like no others, representing the vibrancy of Israeli everyday life and Israel’s history, collective memory and shared future. We will travel, learn and engage with a variety of Israeli communities as we celebrate Israel’s milestones of the past 60 years. This will be an opportunity for each and every community member to understand, create personal connections, and take part in Israel’s birthday commemoration.
A unique feature of this trip is its sponsorship by the Federation’s Business Leadership Council and the opportunity it provides participants to focus on their business and intellectual interests in three main tracks:
- Arts & culture
- Business tracks: high-tech, real estate & investments or life science
- Archeology & history
The mission is being planned in cooperation with Lehrhaus Judaica and in consultation with experts specializing in the Israeli business community and Israeli arts and culture. It is chaired by Robert Blum and Bobby Lent.
Don’t miss out! Join your neighbors, friends and family who have already secured their spots on the mission by contacting Caron Tabb 415.512.6208 or Benjamin Pither 415.512.6437. |
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Twenty-one days in Israel — lifelong connections for teen leaders
As a part of the year-long Diller Teen Fellows program, founded in San Francisco and generously funded by the Helen Diller Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, the four U.S.-based Diller Teen Fellow (DTF) groups (Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and San Francisco) are attending a three-week summer seminar in Israel that will engage them in Jewish life and learning and inspire powerful friendships with their American and Israeli peers. Join them on this journey as they report, first-hand and in their own words, how this experience profoundly affects their lives. More...
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Law allows tax-free distribution of IRA assets
From now until December 31, 2007, you may distribute from your IRA up to $100,000 per year tax-free to a qualified public charity. You must be 70 ½ years or older at the time of the gift… More
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Other Events
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - Wednesday, August 29, 2007, 7:00 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
This advanced class offers students an opportunity to develop and sharpen their Hebrew skills while deepening their appreciation of the rich and diverse Israeli culture.
July 19 - Aug 6
The leading Jewish Film Festival of North America, returning for its 27th year to the Bay Area.
Israel: the Cartoonists’ Diagnosis: A Traveling Exhibit
Aug 13 - 30
Israeli cartoonists take a critical look at the Israel of today. Free parking available at the Pierce Street entrance.
Sunday, August 19, 2007, 1:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Annual young adults' picnic on the Peninsula. Enjoy a day of fun in the sun complete with food, drinks, music, and sports. |
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