2024 Annual Community Campaign is in full swing!

By Rosalee Bogo, 2024, Annual Community Campaign Chair

As chair, I am happy to report that our Naples Jewish community continues to show its generosity with expressions of Tikum O’lam . The community answered the need for the Israel Emergency campaign and now we are being asked to donate to the core needs of our community. Our annual campaign supports these needs, the needs in Israel, and Jews in need in countries around the world. It is the work of the Joint Distribution Committee, one of our partners, to provide this overseas assistance.

On Jan. 10, 120 of our major and Lion of Judah donors gathered at our beautiful Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center for an evening to express appreciation for their generosity to this community. As we were fortunate last year to have the President/ CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, Eric Fingerhut, this year we were honored to have Julie Platt, who now holds the position of JFNA board chair.

There are 300,000 donors who support what JFNA does around the world. We can be proud that our small city Federation here in Greater Naples is a vital part of this network. Our Lion of Judah Women of Philanthropy has grown to 100 with over a dozen women joining in the last months. We are proud of these ladies and the Pomegranates, whose membership has also increased. These are all very committed women who believe in philanthropy in their own names. The new Lions and other major donors were introduced at the event.

Platt gave us an update on the situation in Israel and shared with us what JFNA is doing around the world. This was an inspiration for us to continue building a strong Jewish community here in Greater Naples while educating our community on where the dollars we raise go. Our campaign and allocations ensure we fulfill the needs expected of us. Please read Platt’s bio by her picture to appreciate all she has done for the Federation system, and more.

A video of the Naples community was presented, which showed our support of the elderly and of the Holocaust survivors at the Baker Senior Center Naples. Children were shown at preschool and Hebrew school for which we provide scholarships. Teens are sent on trips to Israel and summer camp and college kids to Birthright Israel. The film stressed the need for security and that is an expense we had not anticipated. It is imperative that our community feel safe in our Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center. Our Federation provides police presence for all our operation hours. We are fighting antisemitism in our community through our Antisemitism Task force. Jane Schiff, in her eloquent style, expressed the needs of our Jewish world.

Our community is teeming with programs provided by the Federation — WCA, MCA, the Jewish Book Festival, cultural offerings at synagogues, Jewish Film Festivals, Jewish holiday gatherings and memorials, Holocaust Museum programs and events, and so much more. Our calendars are full! Many of us have visited the programs we support in Israel, who need even more since the war.

If you participate in any of the programs listed above, or just want to live in a vibrant, culturally rich Jewish community, please donate to our 2024 Annual Campaign. If you have already given, we thank you.

Remember, now more than ever, no gift touches more lives.

JULIE PLATT, JEWISH FEDERATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA CHAIR

Julie Platt is the current board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), a position she has held since June 2022. JFNA is the umbrella organization for 146 Jewish Federations and over 300 Network communities across North America, representing more than 300,000 donors and supporting a wide range of programs and services for Jewish communities in North America and around the world.

Prior to her role as board chair, Platt served as JFNA's national campaign chair and chair of LiveSecure. She has been actively involved in Jewish philanthropy and communal leadership for many years, including serving as chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and chair of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, where she was instrumental in saving Jewish camps during the pandemic. She now serves on the advisory board of the Jewish Future Pledge (of which she is a signatory), as well as the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and Penn Hillel's National Board of Governors.

She and her husband, Marc, have five children. They live in Los Angeles.