It takes a team to grow this Jewish community

Giving thanks for everyone's hard work to make our Greater Naples Jewish community vital and vibrant

Jeffrey Feld Federation President/ CEO

We have just completed the celebration of Sukkot and are headed toward celebrating Thanksgiving. In my interpretation, each of these holidays celebrates harvests and opportunities to express thankfulness.

Here in Naples, in our Jewish community, we have much to be thankful for. Although none of us may be directly involved in harvesting our own foods, we certainly partake in enjoying the fruits, vegetables, grains, etc., — the work of others.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. ”The whole of our community is greater than the individual parts.

In another respect, we have endeavored to build and grow our community. And for this, we should be very thankful. Over many years, numerous seeds have been planted for our community to grow — and look at how it has blossomed. Recognize the work that has been done to create our different congregations, agencies and organizations. Everything has been developed to meet our growing and changing needs. Just like a harvest, we have created our Jewish community to help sustain us.

Whether it is because of a Jewish holiday or an American holiday, we need to take time to reflect on the good fortune we have in making our Jewish community of Greater Naples a vital and vibrant one.

Harvesting is hard work; however, the reward is readily visible. Growing a community is not always as easy to see. Building a community, growing a community, is very hard work. It takes everyone to participate in its success.

There is an adage, “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” The whole of our community is greater than the individual parts.

I applaud all of you for everything that you have done and will do to truly grow our community.