The Jewish Community Association of Greater Phoenix has embraced its responsibility to strengthen and sustain a vibrant Jewish community and to meet critical needs here in Phoenix, in Israel and around the world since 1940. The Association serves as a resource by maximizing the impact of the dollars raised. We enable change, promote innovation, provide emotional and financial support, and connect Jews to their identity. We are dedicated to enriching lives in the communities we serve in times of joy, struggle and hardships.
How many years have you worked in the Jewish communal field? How many in your present position?
Twenty-eight total with two as CEO of the JCA.
Do the recent findings of the PEW study about lower levels of engagement reflect what you see happening in Phoenix?
I do think that we have similar challenges and opportunities as those highlighted in the recent PEW study. What I think we all should focus on is the tremendous opportunities. While there was a lot of “Gloom and Doom” in the PEW study, the figure that gives us all great hope is that 92% said they are proud to be Jewish. We have well over 100,000 Jews in greater Phoenix so that means we have more than 90,000 people who are proud to be Jewish. We need to find ways to meet them where they are. We need to be accepting and inviting to all Jews, including interfaith couples/families, so that we can take that pride and give them opportunities to become engaged with the broader Jewish community. We can be a thriving and sustainable Jewish community if we open our minds and hearts and let go of institutional egos to focus on enriching the lives of our communities.
Which programs do you feel attract people not actively affiliated with the organized Jewish community?
I don’t believe there is a simple or singular answer to that. We need to embrace traditional and nontraditional approaches that focus on a variety of interests and stages of life, all of which happen in the context of a Jewish environment. We are focused on creating programs, events and opportunities that match peoples’ interest and provide engagement opportunities. We should look for what is unique in our community and what is working in other communities.
What do you see as JCA’s greatest success in recent years?
Our greatest success over the past year or two has been rebuilding relationships and trust with individuals and institutions. We are accomplishing this by building an organizational culture rallied around the purpose of enriching the lives of the communities we serve. Through being focused on relationships and our purpose, and not solely on fundraising, we are not only seeing the relationships broaden and strengthen, we have seen our campaign increase. It increased in 2013 and we are up a net of over $360,000 half way through our 2014 campaign. Another great success was bringing Pardes Jewish Day School onto the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus. The Association worked very closely with Pardes to make this happen. Our role as a leading
community organization in securing ownership of the facilities, assisting in raising the funds for the renovations and creating a viable financial model are examples of the impactful role the Association plays outside of the critical campaign for Jewish needs. We are so appreciative of the former Jess Schwartz High School leadership of Marcia Weisberg and Sheila Schwartz and the Pardes Jewish Day School leadership for everyone’s role in creating an even more vibrant Jewish community campus and setting the stage for Pardes and Jewish education to thrive.
Are there new programs/initiatives you look forward to launching in the coming year?
The Association is in the middle of some significant research and planning around how we can provide better services to seniors as they age – to both help people age well in place and also to have the needed services for those who can’t. We expect to finish the planning aspect of this in the coming year. We have also begun our planning process on how to focus on engagement of the “Now Gen,” Jews ages 22 to 40. We have begun by looking at some best practices in other cities, and we will be looking to invest significant resources, dollars and time, to really move the needle in engagement and leadership of and from the “Now Gen.”
Any other developments/trends you are excited about?
What we are most excited about is the strong sense we have that our community is really coming together. We have so many amazing and community-minded professional and lay leaders in our Jewish community now. Combined with the incredible work of some of our organizations, we are energized and see a bright future for the Phoenix Jewish community.
