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Partly Cloudy In search of Jewish heroes: Jewish Community Heroes
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By Michael Orbach
Its might be the first Jewish American Idol contest or perhaps it’s just the cleverest membership recruiting campaign the Jewish community has seen in years.
On August 4th, the United Jewish Communities launched Jewish Community Heroes, an online contest for voters to decide which heroic nominee will receive a $25,000 prize. While the contest is a way to acknowledge leaders inside the Jewish community, the contest also has another agenda: to ensure a supply of future volunteers for the United Jewish Communities.
“The Jewish Federation has been along a good, long time,” explained Adam Neusner, web content manager for the United Jewish Communities, who is overseeing the project. “We have a very devoted following but we wanted to make sure that’s the core for the next hundred years and all range of people are aware of the good the Federation is doing. We want to make sure we’re relevant and so it’s very important we’re speaking to all generations. We set out to do that and we flashed on the JC heroes.”
Even those who don’t win gain something, according to Neusner.
“Volunteering is thankless,” he explained. “What we’re trying to do is something that can say thank you, and have people all over the world say thank you.”
Voters can pick the top-ten, but as a Simon Cowell-like reality check, a panel composed of business experts and social entrepreneurs will decide who eventually gets the $25,000 check when the contest ends in October. Blue State Digital, the marketing firm whose online campaign helped President Barack Obama win the 2008 election, is running the contest which, since its inception, has seen over 220 nominees and over 150,000 votes. While many are repeat voters — voters can cast one ballot a day — the contest has given the UJC a new pool of potential recruits.
Neusner was open to criticism that the competition is merely a popularity contest, with the truly biggest heroes not necessarily making the top ten.
“The ones that make the final ten are the ones who aggregate a big group of people, so the most organized one will be the best on the leader board,” he said. “But those that don’t [make the leader board], will feel good about being nominated. It’s an acknowledgement that someone wanted to share the amazing things they’re doing. I’m not too worried if popularity decides what pool of ten people they pick from, because they will still pick up something great.”
His personal favorites so far, he said, were Ari Teman, founder of Jcorps, which has thousands of Jewish teenagers volunteering across the United States, and Robert Lappin of Massachusetts, a philanthropist who sends teenagers to Israel, even during the last year after his fortune was decimated by Bernard Madoff.
The top twenty contain a mix of activists with Yonah Bookstein, the founder of Jewlicious Festival, which attracts over 1000 Jewish students from across the United States, Canada, and Israel, leading by a hefty margin. The nominees come from across the US and Canada, from Flower Mound, Texas, to Salt Lake City, Utah, and even Honolulu. Some of the nominees are genuine community heroes while others seem to have been nominated simply for existing. One hero was nominated for taking care of his chronically ill wife.
Joe Klein, the 14 year-old Five Towns resident who directed “Surviving Surviving,” a documentary that revealed poverty among Holocaust survivors, said he had no “clue” as to how he got nominated.
“I’m happy that somebody nominated me,” he told the Jewish Star. “I’m happy that it’s all over the world and I’m happy that people see the story behind this and realize the value and maybe people will donate money to help these people live longer.”
Shmuly Yanklowitz, the head of Uri L’Tzedek, an organization that promotes social justice inside the Orthodox community, and who is currently in sixth place with eight thousand votes, was modest about the contest.
“The real heroes are the Jewish educators, parents, mentors, partners, and donors that have made possible the successes of these selected Jewish community builders. There are hundreds of thousands of unrecognized heroic individuals who equally deserve this award,” said Yanklowitz via email.
Following close behind Yanklowitz, another nominee was selected for being head counselor of Camp Stone.
Friendless people need not apply
By Michael Orbach Perhaps to demonstrate that from adversity arises opportunity, a young leadership group has formed and will hold five simultaneous parlor meetings on Sunday in Cedarhurst, Woodmere and North Woodmere.
The purpose is “to reach out to the people who will be the pillars of the community in the next 20 years,” explained Moshe Ratner, a member of the committee and a Hatzalah volunteer. Most members of the committee are not Hatzalah members.
“There is a whole committee of young men who are stepping up to the plate and saying, ‘What can we do to help?’ Its really very gratifying,” said Rabbi Kanner, who bears much of the fundraising burden himself.
Mendy Haas, Shalom Jacobs, Alon Goldberger, Aron Solomon, Avi Goldstein, Moishe Reich, Sholom Jacobs, Uri Dreifus, Avi Dreyfuss, Ushi Klein, Elliot Gluck, Jeremy Frenkel, Dovi Faivish, Yisroel Wasser, David Sokol, Moishe Reich and Avi Kahn are also on the committee. Two others, Meir Krengel and Avi Davis, are also Hatzalah volunteers.
Most of the group lives in Cedarhurst and Woodmere, where fundraising efforts are being concentrated, “because a lot of the support for the [annual Hatzalah] barbeque doesn’t come from here,” explained Ushi Klein, 33. “The age group at the barbeque is usually much more mature.”
Rabbi Kanner agreed.
“Traditionally, much of our support came from Far Rockaway, Lawrence and from [the] middle-aged and older,” he said. “Young people are facing the challenges of tuition, families, parnasah [livelihood] problems and, what should I tell you? They’re obviously finding it hard.”
Only twenty percent of families in the Hatzalah database have written a check to the organization this year; overall fundraising is down about thirty percent in 2009, Rabbi Kanner said.
In addition to the overall drop in contributions, the deficit is also attributable to the recent purchase by Hatzalah of a site in Woodmere where a new ambulance garage and training center is planned. $200,000 was raised for the purchase; another $400,000 was taken from the operating budget and only some was replaced.
Two ambulances, including one that is brand new, are currently parked outside the Edward Avenue Shul, just off Peninsula Boulevard. Hatzalah would like to get them indoors, both in order to protect the vehicles, which are valued at about half a million dollars, and to protect “medications on board the ambulances [that] are sensitive to extremes of heat and cold,” said Rabbi Kanner. In addition, snowfall slows ambulance response, he said, when ambulances are parked outside. “When you have the ambulance inside, you come and you drive off,” rather than first having to brush the snow off, he explained.
Hatzalah will have a hearing before the Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals in November. If it goes well then a groundbreaking and a fundraising campaign will follow, Rabbi Kanner said. “If neither the community at large, nor an individual [steps up] to the plate then we will not be able to build this building.”
The garage portion of the facility is to be named after Mark Davidman, a”h, a Hatzalah member who was killed in a motorcycle accident and “is sorely missed,” Rabbi Kanner said. He expects to name the training facility after a different individual designated by a donor.
“Although we look forward to building a new building, we’ll always remember with gratitude the hospitality that has been provided to our ambulances by the Edward Avenue shul,” Rabbi Kanner added.
The young leadership committee of Chevrah Hatzalah doesn’t plan to stop with the parlor meetings, Ushi Klein explained.
“My hope is to form a young initiative committee for Hatzalah to host a separate event every year specifically targeted to these communities and to people who don’t normally go to the barbeque at The Sands.”
Klein is grateful to Hatzalah for treating his daughter after an accident in the home one Friday night last year and hopes others will attend the parlor meetings on Sunday evening and bring their checkbooks. “Whatever they can give will be appreciated,” he said.
“It’s not so much dollars and cents as community-wide support — that’s what we’re looking for,” Ratner said.
“Everyone will agree that there is a very large younger crowd moving in, and they seem to take it for granted that, wherever you move from, Hatzalah is just a resource in the community. As people move in, the call volume goes up, and it translates into money. Every oxygen mask, every diesel fill-up ... it’s never been like this ... even the hospitals are surprised. They think we’ve changed our destinations. We haven’t changed anything. We’re just going there more often.”
Issue of September 11, 2009 / 22 Elul 5769
It might be the first Jewish American Idol contest or perhaps it’s just the cleverest membership recruiting campaign the Jewish community
has seen in years.
On August 4th, the United Jewish Communities launched Jewish Community Heroes, an online contest for voters to decide which heroic nominee will receive a $25,000 prize. While the contest is a way to acknowledge leaders inside the Jewish community, the contest also has another agenda: to ensure a supply of future volunteers for the United Jewish Communities.
“The Jewish Federation has been along a good, long time,” explained Andy Neusner, web content manager for the United Jewish Communities, who is overseeing the project. “We have a very devoted following but we wanted to make sure that’s the core for the next hundred years and all range of people are aware of the good the Federation is doing. We want to make sure we’re relevant and so it’s very important we’re speaking to all generations. We set out to do that and we flashed on the JC heroes.”
Even those who don’t win gain something, according to Neusner.
“Volunteering is thankless,” he explained. “What we’re trying to do is something that can say thank you, and have people all over the world say thank you.”
Voters can pick the top-ten, but as a Simon Cowell-like reality check, a panel composed of business experts and social entrepreneurs will decide who eventually gets the $25,000 check when the contest ends in October. Blue State Digital, the marketing firm whose online campaign helped President Barack Obama win the 2008 election, is running the contest which, since its inception, has seen over 220 nominees and over 150,000 votes. While many are repeat voters — voters can cast one ballot a day — the contest has given the UJC a new pool of potential recruits.
Neusner was open to criticism that the competition is merely a popularity contest, with the truly biggest heroes not necessarily making the top ten.
“The ones that make the final ten are the ones who aggregate a big group of people, so the most organized one will be the best on the leader board,” he said. “But those that don’t [make the leader board], will feel good about being nominated. It’s an acknowledgement that someone wanted to share the amazing things they’re doing. I’m not too worried if popularity decides what pool of ten people they pick from, because they will still pick up something great.”
His personal favorites so far, he said, were Ari Teman, founder of Jcorps, which has thousands of Jewish teenagers volunteering across the United States, and Robert Lappin of Massachusetts, a philanthropist who sends teenagers to Israel, even during the last year after his fortune was decimated by Bernard Madoff.
The top twenty contain a mix of activists with Yonah Bookstein, the founder of Jewlicious Festival, which attracts over 1000 Jewish students from across the United States, Canada, and Israel, leading by a hefty margin. The nominees come from across the US and Canada, from Flower Mound, Texas, to Salt Lake City, Utah, and even Honolulu. Some of the nominees are genuine community heroes while others seem to have been nominated simply for existing. One hero was nominated for taking care of his chronically ill wife.
Joe Klein, the 14 year-old Five Towns resident who directed “Surviving Surviving,” a documentary that revealed poverty among Holocaust survivors, said he had no “clue” as to how he got nominated.
“I’m happy that somebody nominated me,” he told the Jewish Star. “I’m happy that it’s all over the world and I’m happy that people see the story behind this and realize the value and maybe people will donate money to help these people live longer.”
Shmuly Yanklowitz, the head of Uri L’Tzedek, an organization that promotes social justice inside the Orthodox community, and who is currently in sixth place with eight thousand votes, was modest about the contest.
“The real heroes are the Jewish educators, parents, mentors, partners, and donors that have made possible the successes of these selected Jewish community builders. There are hundreds of thousands of unrecognized heroic individuals who equally deserve this award,” said Yanklowitz via email.
Following close behind Yanklowitz, another nominee was selected for being head counselor of Camp Stone.
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