Your campaign dollars at work

Nat Ritter, Federation Board Chair

As I write this in May, 2023, the closing of our 2022-2023 Jewish Federation of Greater Naples(JFGN) Annual Campaign approaches. The Allocations Committee, chaired by Jay Weiss, will consider the allocations to be made with our dollars raised. I cannot help being proud of what our community has been able to support … locally, nationally and internationally.

This particular year has been difficult for distributing allocations. We have needed to take into consideration that our community has had emergency campaigns for the Ukrainian Jews, the Turkey-Syrian Jewish earthquake survivors and a massive hurricane named Ian. Given these campaigns, distributing well over $200,000 (with the help of Jewish Federations of North America) over the past campaign year, I would say we should be uplifted by what we have done and continue to do.

When our Allocations Committee sits down to allocate the dollars our campaign raised, they need to consider that Jewish Federations of North America (which supports Israeli social service agencies, worldwide Jewry and Jewry in the United States … remember the relief JFGN received as Hurricane Ian support!) requires a significant donation. The remaining campaign dollars are then distributed among local, national and international agencies.

Locally, JFGN supports religious institutions; scholarships to summer camps for children; Baker Senior Center Naples, which assists Jews in need in our community as well as local Holocaust survivors; Jewish War Veterans; the Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida; and the Jewish Education Loan Fund (JELF), among others. And let’s not forget the beautiful Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center that our community has the opportunity to use and enjoy. Other local non-Jewish agencies and programs are also supported such as JCRC, Catholic-Jewish Dialogue and Shop with the Sheriff, among others.

Nationally and internationally, our dollars are shared with agencies that:

1.) assist seniors with work programs

2.) provide children (deemed by a judge who determines the child cannot be returned home or stay with family members) a home in which to stay under supervised living arrangements, get an education and be mainstreamed

3.) Support abused women and their families with a facility to live in until they can reassemble their lives

4.) Help resettle people all over the world who are displaced or homeless

5.) Support other agencies, worldwide, that provide social services needed to fulfill life’s necessities and a few joys.

Amazing … our dollars do this and more!

When you consider your pledge to our 2023-2024 Annual Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Campaign, remember we are helping ourselves and people worldwide. We do make a difference. Thank you for all that you do!

May 5784 be a new year in which we continue to grow and prosper … from strength to strength.

L’Shanah Tovah