2022 UJFT Community Campaign update Executive Order establishes commission to combat

ISRAEL

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla awarded Genesis Prize for work developing coronavirus vaccine

Shira Hanau

(JTA)—Albert Bourla, the chief executive officer of Pfizer, was named the winner of the 2022 Genesis Prize, the award sometimes called the “Jewish Nobel,” and pledged his winnings to “projects aimed at preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.”

The award, which “honors extraordinary individuals for their outstanding professional achievement, contribution to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values,” was announced Wednesday, January 19. It will be presented by Israeli President Isaac Herzog at a ceremony in Jerusalem June 29.

The announcement noted Bourla’s work at Pfizer, which developed one of the first vaccines to protect against COVID19. Bourla’s win was determined by an online vote in which 200,000 people participated, according to the announcement.

“I accept it humbly and on behalf of all my Pfizer colleagues who answered the urgent call of history these past two years and together bent the arc of our common destiny,” Bourla said in a statement. “I was brought up in a Jewish family who believed that each of us is only as strong as the bonds of our community; and that we are all called upon by God to repair the world. I look forward to being in Jerusalem to accept this honor in person, which symbolizes the triumph of science and a great hope for our future.”

The Genesis Prize comes with $1 million, and past recipients, including Steven Spielberg, Michael Douglas, Michael Bloomberg, Natalie Portman and Natan Sharansky, have donated the winnings to philanthropic causes.

Bourla is set to donate his prize money to Holocaust memorial initiatives “with a particular emphasis on the tragedy suffered by the Greek Jewish community.” Bourla’s parents, both from Greece, were both Holocaust survivors.

Launched in 2013 by a group of Russian-Jewish philanthropists that includes current foundation chairman Stan Polovets, the prize is financed through a permanent endowment of $100 million established by The Genesis Prize Foundation

The new Florida? Record number of US retirees relocate to Israel in 2021

Larry Luxner

TEL AVIV—A few weeks ago, Joel Tenenbaum, 81, and Marilyn Berkowitz, 84, arrived in Tel Aviv on an El Al flight from New York ready to start their new lives in Israel.

They had met through JDate five years earlier. Each was widowed; Tenebaum had been married for 47 years, Berkowitz, known as Lyn, for 49.

A retired New York trial lawyer raised in Brooklyn, Tenenbaum always had felt an affinity for Israel — fueled since childhood by Hebrew school and the movie Exodus. Berkowitz, a former university dean’s assistant, had been a frequent visitor to Israel ever since her son moved here in 1991.

Both are longtime volunteers for the Israeli nonprofit organization Sar-El. They now share a rental apartment in Tel Aviv’s trendy Florentin neighborhood, close to the ulpan where they will soon enroll in an intensive Hebrew language program.

“A lot of our contemporaries have gone to Florida,” Berkowitz says. “But I think they should become sandbirds, not snowbirds.”

In fact, more and more older American Jews are opting to spend their golden years in the Jewish state.

Of the 4,478 new immigrants who arrived in Israel from North America last year, 762—just over 17% of the total— were 55 or older. That’s up nearly 23% from the 580 who came in 2020, according to Nefesh B’Nefesh, the nonprofit agency that coordinates the aliyah process for U.S. and Canadian citizens.

“Israel is becoming a more attractive place, specifically for people at the age of retirement,” says Marc Rosenberg, vice president of Diaspora partnerships at Nefesh B’Nefesh. “With increasing technology, cellphones and internet use, Israel is much more international now, especially with apps that allow people to get around, navigate and do their banking online.”

The pandemic, Rosenberg says, has prompted people of all ages to recalibrate what’s important to them.

“The pandemic really shifted how many people connect and stay close to family without being in close physical proximity,” says Rosenberg, whose organization works in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and the Jewish National FundUSA. “And they know the healthcare system in Israel is excellent, and that Israel handled the pandemic pretty well.”

The pandemic was a big factor in the aliyah decision of New York natives Howard and Mina Millendorf, who moved to Israel last July. The couple in their 70s settled in Jerusalem’s Katamon district, moving into the same building where their daughter, Sharon, lives with her husband, Shlomo, and their three sons.

“I think the pandemic kind of pushed us into making a decision,” says Mina, a retired elementary schoolteacher who had lived in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale since she and Howard were married 41 years ago. “Normally, we’d come to Israel several times a year and rent an apartment here. But with COVID, we were missing all the birthdays and anniversaries. It was not easy for us.”

Six months after their arrival, Howard lists his main goals as “finding ways to do good, playing daily with our grandsons, cultivating new friends, restaurants and wines, and enjoying Mina’s special cooking and baking with family.”

But he also aims to give back to Israel through his work with the telecom company IDT and the Howard Jonas Foundation. Projects include the construction of a new cancer center at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center as well as initiatives for severely disabled youngsters, autistic and hearing-impaired children, and people with terminal illnesses. In addition, Howard is involved in a long-term networking program, choosing his 27,000 LinkedIn connections to open doors and help secure job opportunities in Israel and elsewhere.

COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN

2022 UJFT Community Campaign on track for a successful year

Amy Zelenka

On January 14, 2022, the UJFT Community campaign stood at $4,595,000 from 1,000 individual gifts.

This total is about $88,000 ahead of where the campaign stood on the same day last year. And even better: there are a good number of potential gifts still “out there” in the community, waiting to find their way into the growing campaign total in the coming days and weeks.

An increased campaign means greater ability to support the programs and services that make this the strong and vibrant Jewish community we love. It means increased security to ensure the safety of community members. And it means that the Tidewater Jewish community can continue to take care of one another (Klal Yisroel) today and into the future.

Thanks to all who have made a commitment and to those who will make one in the coming days.

If you are interested in making a gift of support to the 2022 UJFT Community Campaign, or If you’d like to become a volunteer solicitor for the Federation’s campaigns, contact Amy Zelenka at 965-6139 or azelenka@ujft.org.