Sheryl Grutman, left, and Sheri Tarrab stand in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem during the national UJC campaign chairs’ and directors’ mission.
Photo courtesy Andrea Alexander
August 26, 2008
Three Monmouth County women got an up-close, firsthand look at the way in which federation funds enhance the lives of members of the worldwide Jewish community.
They were among 131 lay and professional leaders representing 41 Jewish federations across North America who participated in the United Jewish Communities 2008 campaign chairs’ and directors’ mission to Poland and Israel.
Sheri Tarrab of Holmdel, campaign chair of the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County; Sheryl Grutman of Manalapan, cocampaign chair of the federation’s Women’s Philanthropy; and Andrea Alexander, director of the federation’s Manalapan office, took part in the July 13-21 mission, which raised more than $1,707,338 in pledges to help launch the 2009 UJC annual campaign.
The trip was designed to enable federation lay and professional campaign leaders to get a close look at the way UJC/federation funds improve people’s lives in Jewish communities around the globe.
“After making their own gift pledges, these leaders go home with the confidence, passion, meaning, and purpose to inspire others to pursue righteousness through tzedaka to the annual campaign,” said Eric Levine, senior vice president at UJC, where he oversees the Center for Jewish Philanthropy, and Jewish Peoplehood and Identity departments.
In Poland, the mission group visited Cracow and Warsaw, where they toured synagogues, learned about the vibrancy of Jewish life before the Holocaust, and saw evidence of the revival of Polish Jewry.
Tarrab, Grutman, and Alexander also were among the mission members who visited the Nazi camps Birkenau, Auschwitz, and Majdanek, an experience that had a deep emotional impact.
“Visiting those places weighed heavily on my heart,” said Tarrab. “I’m still deeply moved, but when I returned, I found that it was helpful to share the experience with my friends and family. But I’m a lucky Jewish woman, because I knew that although I entered the camps, I would also safely leave them. That made me lucky from the start.”
A visit to a children’s memorial cemetery near Warsaw also left its mark.
“So many lives ended too soon and with such brutality,” Tarrab said. “There were so many graves, so many familiar last names.”
For Grutman, the specter of lost generations also loomed large.
“All I could think about was that the lives of future generations ended at the camps before they even had a chance to live out their lives,” she said. “These multiple generations could not survive, and you could feel the evil that killed them — you could feel it in every pore.”
Being in the company of like-minded individuals helped Alexander cope with the intensity of the visits.
“Everyone had their own reaction on a personal level, but it helped to share impressions with our peers who were traveling with us,” she said. “It was an emotionally and physically draining process that was hard to absorb until we all returned home and had a chance to reflect upon what we saw.”
Giving kids a chance
After the group moved on to Israel, they discussed and explored projects of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the Ethiopian National Project, all of which are funded by the annual UJC campaign.
Shortly before they had left Poland for Israel on July 16, the travelers had learned about the return of the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the two Israeli soldiers who had been kidnapped by Hizbulla in July 2006.
“Our hearts were heavy when we landed in Israel,” said Alexander. “These young men died because of their religion and their allegiance to the Israeli state.”
Observing some of the programs that are sponsored by the JDC and JAFI, however, did serve to boost their spirits, she said.
In Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Grutman was impressed by a JDC program that offers alienated teens the opportunity to participate in business-oriented enterprises, acquire professional skills in the workplace, and reconnect with the community.
“This program gives these kids something to strive for,” she said. “They have a chance to acquire job skills that can help them become productive members of society. But if it weren’t for the JDC and JAFI, none of them would be here — the program wouldn’t exist.”
After absorbing all the information about the projects they saw, said Alexander, they felt it was their duty to spread the word. “We’ll continue to speak to groups and individuals throughout the 2009 campaign,” she said. “It’s our responsibility to bear witness.”
“We need to have a desire in our hearts to make life better for Jews all over the world,” added Grutman. “We can be part of the key elements of their survival.”
--TOP--
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
