Time

Jeffrey Feld, Federation President/ CEO

We are constantly measuring time. As a youngster, it always seemed to me that it took so long to go from my house to visit relatives; however, coming home took much less time. And I’m sure you remember the Heinz ketchup commercial using music from the song “Anticipation.” How long would it take to get the ketchup out of the bottle?

Both experiences have everything to do with looking forward to something. For me, the first one was about getting to see my Bubbe and granddaddy or cousins. It was something I was looking forward to and it just seemed to take forever to get there. The other, leads to someone wanting to eat but needing to wait for the condiment. In either case, expectation created an awareness of time.

Over the past number of weeks, we have experienced the “Yoms.” You know YomHaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Yom Yerushlayim, and so on. Each one marks times to remember and/or celebrate; however, it is still about time and anticipation.

Time is meaningful to me. Would it surprise you to know that I have served as the CEO of this Federation for approximately 2,800 days? Is that a long time; is that ashort time; what are we anticipating? To me, the amount of time that I’ve been here is both long and short. Some of the things that this Federation has accomplished in that timeframe, I thought should have been done quicker. Other things, I did not anticipate happening as quickly as they did.

Now, the reality of the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center is here.

The notion of a new home, a permanent home for Federation started on my first day in Naples. It was only a notion. For some people in the conversation, it was a philosophical notion. For others, it was more “how do we get there?”

Now, the reality of the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center is here. There are too many people for me to identify who need to be thanked. Please recognize that each and every one of you has played a significant role in helping to bring this notion to realization.

Our anticipation now is about the question of when will we actually be in our new building? Based on all our best guesses, we expect to be in the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center in this calendar year. It seems like it is taking so long to get here, and we can’t wait for this part to be completed.

As it relates to this project, time is both going very slow and very fast, simultaneously. But before you know it, we will be celebrating all the “Yoms” that I mentioned above in our new home.

For everyone who has worked on this project, “Yishaer Koach,” great job! And for our entire community, we will soon be able to celebrate Federation’s new home and be able to exclaim, “Mazel Tov!”