April 2, 2009

There’s an old Passover joke: Moses is still in Egypt, when he hears the booming voice of the Holy One.

“Moses! Heed me! I have good news — and bad news.”

Moses was staggered. The voice continued: “You, Moses, will lead the People of Israel from bondage. If Pharaoh refuses to release your bonds, I will smite Egypt with a rain of frogs and a plague of locusts. I will part the waters of the Red Sea to open your path to the Promised Land.”

“That’s fantastic,” Moses says. “But what’s the bad news?”

“You, Moses, must write the Environmental Impact Statement.”

It’s a good joke about the clash of miracles and reality. The good news is that the promise of Passover lives on whenever a community comes together in a spirit of generosity and loving-kindness. The bad news is that there is often the shmutz of reality to drag you down.

The world is mired in a stagnant economy, and the impact on Jewish philanthropy has been profound. Nonprofits are raising less money from fewer donors, even as their own investments and endowments have shrunk.

And the irony is this: As the economy gets tougher, the needs are only growing greater. When a parent loses a job, it’s harder to pay for day school tuition or any of the costs associated with a full Jewish life. Vocational services feel a greater demand, family services must meet the needs of more families under stress, food pantries are emptying, and, in a global economy, Jews overseas must do more with less.

Our New Jersey Jewish communities are hardly immune from these pressures. And that is why local federations are reaching out and asking members of the community to do more in tough times. Their leaders are making careful yet painful efforts to contain costs on their end, but the annual campaign has never been about federation for federation’s sake. It’s about tzedaka for the sake of community, for the sake of Jewish education, for the sake of the elderly, for the sake of its partners in Israel.

There’s bad news and there’s good news. The bad news is that in a grim economy, nearly everyone is learning to do more with less. The good news is that Jews have risen to challenges like these in the past, and have met them. By living generously, you have the chance to make an impact, and share the promise of Passover.

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