You have an important role to play in building the future of the Louisville Jewish community. Super Sunday is February 21, and the community is depending on you to volunteer to help make Super Sunday a success; or if you can’t make calls, to answer generously when a volunteer calls.
Why is this so important?
With “Faith in Our Future,” the Jewish Community of Louisville was born on May 1, and since then, a dedicated cadre of volunteers has been working diligently to shape this new agency into the responsive, vibrant organization that delivers the programs and services you want and need.
A lot of dreaming and planning has been done in the first six months. Now it’s time to begin implementing these changes. Whether it’s exciting, engaging programming for middle schoolers (see related story, page 1), expanded opportunities for teens through BBYO, additional programs for preschoolers through The PJ Library or ensuring the continuation of delivering hot kosher meals to homebound seniors through the Meals on Wheels program or in a congregate setting in the Senior Adult Lounge, the JCL depends on your support.
Jewish Family and Career Services continues to see Jewish clients who have lost or fear that they soon may lose their jobs. People who never thought they would need help are turning to the JFCS Food Pantry. A special hotline connects Jewish people dealing with substance abuse to others like themselves who are fighting addiction through 12-step programs. JFCS does this and much more. Those most in need of JFCS’ services are often those least likely to be able to afford them. The agency depends on the JCL Annual Campaign to enable it to offer services to those in need who cannot afford the fees.
Jewish learning is a lifelong endeavor, but early childhood programs at the Jewish Community Center, the Louisville Hebrew School, The Temple Hebrew School, Kehila, the High School of Jewish Studies, the Louisville Jewish Day School and the Melton Adult Mini-School all depend on the JCL Annual Campaign to support their programs.
The Jewish community is also a worldwide community. When elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union need food packages and assistance with medicines and heating oil, we must help. When Jews in Cuba need matzah for Passover and a rabbi to help lead the Seder, we must lend a hand. Wherever there are Jewish communities at risk – from India to Morocco to Argentina, the Jewish community takes care of its own, and some of the money raised by the JCL Annual Campaign goes to fulfill our obligation to the world Jewish community.
Over more than a decade, our Louisville Jewish community has built strong ties with the Western Galilee through the Jewish Agency for Israel’s (JAFI) Partnership with Israel program. We’re helping fund the construction of a much-needed secure expansion of the Western Galilee Hospital, which was the closest hospital to the front lines during the 2006 Lebanon War and sustained a direct rocket hit. We’re participating in exchanges in medicine, the arts, education, business and more, making personal connections and enhancing life both in Israel and Louisville. The JCL Annual Campaign is key to continuing this program.
This year the JCL Annual Campaign is our expression of “Faith in Our Future,” and by volunteering for and/or giving generously to the Campaign on Super Sunday, we can show that “Faith Comes from the Heart.”
This year’s Super Sunday Co-Chairs Kim and Scott Norton are leading the effort, along with an active and supportive committee, which includes Deborah Goldberg, Orit Goldstein, Howard and Lisa Kaplin, Laurence Nibur, Shannon Rothschild and Riva Schanker.
“Our goal is to have the best Super Sunday ever,” Scott Norton said. And to do that, the Nortons are calling on members of the community to volunteer to make calls and to handle a variety of other jobs that contribute to making the day a success.
While the message is serious, Super Sunday is also a fun-filled day. There will be contests and prizes and fun. There will be plenty of food all day long. Third shift workers will be able to enjoy pizza and beer. It’s a great way to be part of the community.
Choose the shift that works best for you: 9:30 a.m.-noon; 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. or 6:30-9 p.m. Not sure what to say or how to help? Not a problem. Each shift includes half an hour of training; and committee members and JCL staff will be on hand to answer any questions that arise.
Sign up today online by clicking here; or call 451-8840 and let us know that you have “Faith in Our Future” and that “Faith Comes from the Heart” so you’re ready to be a Super Sunday volunteer.
If you can’t be a Super Sunday volunteer, please support the 2010 JCL Annual Campaign by giving from the heart. When a volunteer calls you on Super Sunday, please answer the call and make your generous gift to this year’s Faith in Our Future campaign.
[by Shiela Steinman Wallace]