Doing good by being “Here for Good”

Kirk Wisemayer, Annual Community Campaign Director

As your new Annual Community Campaign director, here since May 2021, I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to help bring Jewish Federation’s philanthropic goals and your vision as donors to the Annual Community Campaign to life. I am proud and privileged to be the go-to professional for all the good you want to create in our Jewish community and beyond.

I am also proud and privileged to be a member of the incredible Jewish community you have established and sustained these many years. As idyllic as the setting is, and Greater Naples is very beautiful, it is the people here who define its true beauty. While I have not met all of you, those of you whom I have been fortunate to meet — leadership, staff and donors — have embraced me in every way with warmth, kindness and generosity. I look forward to getting to know each of you. I am “Here for Good,” I am here for you, and my door is always open.

Here for Good is the theme of our 2022 Annual Community Campaign, but it is so much more. For three millennia, Jews have fulfi lled, in their individual capacity, the mitzvot of Tzedakah and Tikun Olam. Unlike the concept of charity as benevolence, as Jews, we recognize Tzedakah as an obligation to do good in the world. It is required of us — a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who are themselves in need. It is our individual obligation to make good on our collective promise as a community, as a people, to partner in and to complete the creation cycle by doing good.

In Hebrew, the word that means “to give” is “natan” and is read the same forward and backward, indicating that when we think about philanthropy, it is as much about receiving as it is about giving. Tzedakah is a form of social justice whereby we, as donors, benefit from giving as much or more than those whom our philanthropy benefits. It is so much more than a financial transaction. It is both an expression and the establishment of a relationship of trust and partnership between the donor, the charity and the recipient, and is one that recognizes contributions of time, effort and insight.

It is still early in the New Year, and as our High Holy Day liturgy relates, teshuvah (repentance), tefilah (prayer) and tzedakah (philanthropy) inscribe us for a good year. It is by making good on our promise to do good in the world that we are inscribed for a sweet year, which is why our tradition tells us tzedakah is the highest of all 613 mitzvot or commandments, equal to all the others combined. It is an annual rededication to our past, a guarantee of our present day, and a commitment to our future as a community and as a people Here for Good, to do good.

During the High Holy Days, you received an invitation to support the 2022 Annual Community Campaign, one that included a booklet of why your support matters and a pledge card. Be Here for Good, do good in the world, by completing and returning your pledge card. Your pledge of support is the first step, your promise to be Here for Good, one you can pay at any time between now and December 31, 2022.

Your past support made great things possible yesterday. Your current support will make great things possible throughout the new year. It is your declaration that you are Here for Good, that you care for the wonderful Jewish community here in Greater Naples, one that is what it is because of you, one you are proud and privileged to share. Your generosity, your commitment to Jewish community and to do good in the world, makes me proud and privileged to be Here for Good with you.