JFED CONNECTS AN UPDATE OF WHAT’S HAPPENING AT JEWISH FEDERATION OF ST. LOUIS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015
INSIDE Millstone Coaching Seminar......................... 2 Jewish Community Study Save the Date ............... 2 YPD Roots..................... 2 Disability Awareness ..... 3 Art & Writing Contest ... 3 YPD Campaign Kickoff Save the Date ............... 3 The Day the Rabbis Marched ....................... 3 Anything Grants............ 4 10th Annual JPro Luncheon ...................... 4 YPD Date Night ............ 4
JFedSTL.org
From our Chair, Patricia Croughan As the new year begins, I would first like to thank you for your generous support of the 2014 Annual Campaign. Your gifts impact so many diverse areas of Jewish life here, in Israel, and in the former Soviet Union, and help to maintain and to grow healthy, engaging Jewish life. On behalf of the community, my thanks. Looking ahead, 2015 already promises to be a very busy year. To name just a few highlights, the results of the Community Study will be available next month and are sure to generate robust discussions about future planning. The integration of Central Agency for Jewish Education into Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ department of Community Development and Engagement will be
completed by June, and will allow for a more targeted approach to issues of Jewish engagement across generational lines. We will see the second Interfaith Couples Mission to Israel and a refreshed Interfaith Initiative. We will initiate a new program of giving circles for teens to help them learn about community needs and become partners in philanthropy, and we will continue our Innovation Grants program. And, the list goes on and on... These are exciting times for our Jewish community, times of change, times of challenge, times of possibilities. We welcome your feedback, your suggestions and, of course, your participation! With best wishes for a happy and healthy 2015, Patty Croughan Board Chair
From our CEO, Andrew Rehfeld In 1994, St. Louis had 60,000 individuals living in Jewish homes, 54,000 of whom, or about 90%, identified as Jewish. In 2015, what will the numbers be? With national trends of intermarriage continuing, we expect that proportion to change. But, what about the overall numbers? Are we still a community of 60,000 individuals living in Jewish homes, have we declined, have we grown … and by how much? And are we still heading west towards St. Charles, or are we wandering back in an easterly direction? On February 18, 2015, we will all find out; the results of our first Jewish Community Study in 20 years will be released at a public presentation. The study will tell us a lot about our community. It will tell us how many people are part of it, where we live and what our needs are. It will help us to understand what matters to us Jewishly,
where we are engaged and where we are not. It will provide some ideas of where our efforts might be most effective going forward and where they may be less so. In short, it will provide feedback for our synagogues, organizations and agencies to work more effectively to achieve their missions. And, that includes Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ mission of “preserving and enhancing” our Jewish community. The study was built to truly meet the needs of our community. To ensure that as many voices as possible were heard, in the Fall of 2013 we put together an advisory committee involved with many different parts of Jewish life, including some who were not as involved. In the winter of 2014, we conducted a wide range of focus groups from congregations, schools, agencies, and actively sought to hear from people who were less involved. The committee spent hours working with our research group (Jewish Policy & Action Research, or
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