Planning For The Future Of The Jewish Community

SOUTHBURY — The Jewish Communities of Northwestern Connecticut has grown dramatically during the past 12 years and has launched an effort for members to share its visions for the years ahead.

Accomplishments during the past 12 years include building the Walzer Family Jewish Community Campus in Southbury, which is home to two synagogues, the Federation and a successful preschool program.

Among other major achievements are founding of Kol Ami congregation in Cheshire, playing a key role in the establishment of the Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life, the merger of B’nai Chaim and Temple Israel into B’nai Israel, helping to establish the Waterbury Yeshiva, forming the Jewish Cemetery Association, and adding the Brownstein Jewish Family Service to its community outreach.

During this period the Federation’s endowments grew from $1.7 million to $6.2 million.

“These accomplishments go well beyond the dreams, but not the spirit, of the 1,000 Jewish community members who participated in a Futures Initiative launched by the Federation during 1992-93 to create a community-supported vision and action plans for creating a ‘Thriving in a Changing Jewish Community’ in western Connecticut,” said Rob Zwang, Federation executive director.

Recognizing the tremendous successes of the past 12 years resulting from the Futures Initiative, the Federation’s executive director and its board along with leaders from throughout the Jewish community decided that it was time to conduct a new Futures Initiative to ensure that a new generation of leaders and community members had the opportunity to share their visions for the years ahead.

Eric Albert, Federation past president and chair of the new Futures Initiative said, “Recognizing the tremendous accomplishments already achieved, we decided to designate the new project ‘Thriving in a Vibrant Jewish Community’ instead of using the 1992 title ‘Thriving in a Changing Community.’”

The Thriving in a Vibrant Community Initiative began in January, when 40 representatives of the community participated in a session on community innovation and change. The session included a Futuring trip so participants could experience the vitality and excitement of what was being proposed. Federation President Jodi Wasserstein said, “Participants responded unanimously to proceed with this new initiative. I am delighted that Eric Albert has volunteered to chair the Initiative.”

To date more than 50 individuals have volunteered to support the leadership teams.

The Leadership Team held its organizational meeting on May 22; four teams were established to form the basis of future activities. Rob Zwang will head the Logistical Support and Documentation Team responsible for administrative and operational support.

The Futures Team, headed by Eric Albert, will meet with each Jewish organization in the community to determine it visions for its future.

Bob Tendler will lead the New Ventures Team to gather information about cutting-edge programming and efforts of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations throughout the country that will help in planning and programming efforts.

Larry Smotroff will lead the team that will seek Best Practices for Growing Donor Giving across the country. This team will search out successful fundraising techniques used by Jewish agencies as well as other organizations such as universities, hospitals, museums, and non-Jewish religious organizations.

The next major event of the Futures Initiative will be a communitywide Futuring held on November 6. All members of the northwest Connecticut Jewish community are invited to participate.

“We have created an exciting, invigorating process for ensuring communitywide involvement in planning our future,” Mr Zwang said. “Once again, we expect to listen and respond to the ideas of our members and to engage their active support for creating and thriving in a vibrant community.”