What Would Be Enough to Say Dayenu?

Although the Passover holiday (with its maddeningly ubiquitous matzo crumbs) is over for the year, the words of the Seder song Dayenu (it would have been enough for us) can still give us pause throughout the year – in a manner of speaking.

While the Israelites might have proclaimed that any one of God’s gifts and divine interventions would have been enough for them, could we say the same thing in relation to the services provided by our Jewish communal agencies – would we be grateful for just the services provided by one agency? Let’s see?

 

The Jewish Community Center, part of the Jewish Community of Louisville, is a center of cultural, educational, recreational and social activities that provides programs and services for children from six week old to senior years and everywhere in-between. But who would provide the counseling services and programming Jewish Family & Career Services so ably does. The services of one agency would not be enough for us.

The Jewish Community of Louisville, with offices in Shalom Tower, has charge of planning and financial resource and leadership development for the Jewish community using funds solicited from the JCL Annual Campaign. The JCL can do a lot, but no, the JCL would not be enough for us since it looks to its Foundation for Planned Giving, the only permanent source of endowed funds serving the entire Jewish community, to sustain the community’s future viability. Although the Foundation helps provide long-term financial stability, its administrators seek the expertise of other agencies in dealing with other matters, so the services of one agency would not be enough for us.

The Louisville and Temple Hebrew Schools, the High School of Jewish Studies and the Louisville Jewish Day School raise our children’s educational level, but can’t be expected to raise funds for the community at the same time, and they would not have been enough for us. So that leaves Hillel, The Center for Jewish Campus Life at the University of Louisville, which offers social events, community service programs and cultural and educational activities, and the Jewish Community Relations Council, the vehicle through which the Jewish community is represented in discussions, activities, programs and coalitions with others that protect human rights. The JCRC has its hands full and with all it has to do; the services of one agency would not be enough for us.

So where are we? Although no single agency could provide for the needs of the 8,500+ Jewish souls in our community, your one pledge to the JCL Annual Campaign helps to sustain all of them. Dayenu’s 15 verses proclaim that any one of God’s gift to the Israelites would have been sufficient, but seeing them in their totality expressed greater appreciation for them as a whole. Respecting the distinct role each of our community’s Jewish agencies play in the totality of our local Jewish experience should evoke a grateful, collective Dayenu – they are enough for us.

Now is the time to consider the blessings we have in this community and now is the time to stand up and be counted. The Annual Campaign wraps up May 31 so the need is immediate. Our Jewish agencies were sustained by those who came before us and it is up to each of us to be sure they remain intact for those who follow.  If you have already made your pledge to the 2011 JCL Annual Campaign, thank you. If you have not, please make your pledge by calling the JCL office at 451-8840 or online at www.jewishlouisville.org. Thank you!

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