HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY 40th ANNIVERSARY
The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community
SEPTEMBER 2016 | AV/ELUL 5776
HAKOL
upon 40th anniversary By Michelle Cohen HAKOL editor
$2,278,119 RAISED IN 2016! Because of you, we are there. See pages 12-15.
Pinemere camper deepens Jewish connection in Israel. See page 9.
Don’t miss our special High Holidays section.
No. 390 com.UNITY with Mark Goldstein 2 Women’s Division
4
LVJF Tributes
8
Jewish Family Service
18
Jewish Day School
19
Jewish Community Center
20-21
Community Calendar
30-31
“It’s new; it’s news … and invites your views” greeted readers of the first issue of HAKOL in September/October 1976. Initially published by the Jewish Federation of Allentown before the merger of the three Lehigh Valley Federations, HAKOL served as a newsletter for Allentown that quickly expanded to include news from both Easton and Bethlehem. Driving this project were two incredibly bright women whose contributions to the paper live on today: Marlene Finkelstein and Maxine Tannenbaum Klein. Marlene invited me to her home for an interview with both founders, and together we began to delve into HAKOL’s rich history. In fact, HAKOL didn’t even begin as a newspaper – in 1976, Finkelstein and Klein started the project as part of a “Speakers’ Bureau,” and in this program, the two women formed a group of volunteers who would attend board meetings of Jewish organizations in town and deliver three-to-five minute speeches about Jewish topics of interest. But this wasn’t enough for the ambitious duo. “We also wanted something for the community,” explained Klein. “At that time, it was very provincial. Allentown did what Allentown did, Bethlehem did what Bethlehem did, and Easton as well. They all had their own Jewish communities, and we felt it was such a shame” that news from one Jewish community had no standardized way to reach the other communities. It was Leslie Gottlieb, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Allentown, who offered the opportunity to Klein and Finkelstein. “You’re putting in all this time, you’ve got people who can write and so on,” Finkelstein recalled him saying.
Above top, Marlene Finkelstein and Maxine Tannenbaum Klein in the December 1977 issue of HAKOL. Above, Klein and Finkelstein at Finkelstein’s home in Allentown.
its own page, and culminated in September 1992 when the three cities’ Federations combined to form the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley. HAKOL Founders Continues on page 4
Looking for more information about HAKOL’s past? Check out the center spread, which highlights major milestones. Then, stay tuned for more of HAKOL’s background in the October issue as we delve into the various changes implemented by editors over time.
Harold Grinspoon Foundation selects Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley as a LIFE & LEGACY program partner The Lehigh Valley has been selected to participate in the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s LIFE & LEGACY program as one of only 37 Jewish communities from across North America. “The Harold Grinspoon Foundation is very excited to be partnering with the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley to establish a Non-Profit Organization
702 North 22nd Street Allentown, PA 18104
“How would you like to start a newspaper that would be Federation-sponsored?” They soon accepted his offer, and along with Max “Maggie” Levine, who brought valuable marketing experience from his role as the advertising director at Hess’s, a large department store in Allentown, and handled some of the more practical aspects of production such as getting the paper printed, the three began to form the paper. Each issue required a “very labor-intensive process” beginning with Finkelstein and Klein each reading around 30 periodicals a month to get an idea of good news to include in HAKOL. At their editorial meeting once a month, Finkelstein and Klein would present these ideas and brainstorm, along with several volunteers, who would write the stories. After they received the stories, the two would edit them and then send them to the printer. Unlike with modern digital printing, the printer would create the mockups of the articles and Finkelstein and Klein would do a “literal cut and paste” and lay out each article to create the pages. Pictures would be added at this stage, and then the completed pages would be returned to the printer. After reviewing a proof, the paper was then ready to get printed and sent to homes across the Lehigh Valley. Once the paper was off and running, it was time to develop a vision for the paper’s future. Klein, who grew up in Allentown, and New York-born Finkelstein, both shared an idea of a community transcending one’s immediate geographical area. Finkelstein and Klein dreamed of a newspaper that would encompass not only happenings in the world, but would serve as “a vehicle for people to know what’s going on in the community, thereby uniting the community.” Their greater vision involved bringing in Bethlehem and Easton, which began with giving each city
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culture of legacy giving in the Lehigh Valley said Arlene D. Schiff, national director of the LIFE & LEGACY program. “The time is right. This legacy program will make the most of the generational transfer of wealth, change the language and landscape of giving and provide generous and forward-thinking members of the Lehigh Valley Jewish community with the opportunity to express their passion, purpose and commitment to their most valued Jewish organizations.” LIFE & LEGACY is a fouryear program that assists communities, through partnerships with Jewish Federations and Foundations to promote after-lifetime giving to benefit local Jewish day schools, synagogues, social service organizations and other Jewish entities. LIFE & LEGACY’s goals are to: • Educate, train, motivate and empower Jewish organi-
zations to engage their loyal stakeholders in conversations to establish legacy gifts; • Increase community awareness of the power of bequests, other legacy vehicles and endowments; • Integrate legacy giving into the philanthropic culture of the Lehigh Valley Jewish community. The program will grant the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley with matching funds of approximately $80,000 per year to provide participating local organizations the opportunity to receive unrestricted incentive grants based on meeting legacy commitment benchmarks. “We are thrilled to be selected for this program and to be able to bring these benefits to our local Jewish institutions,” said Jim Mueth, director of planned giving and endowments for the Federation, who was instrumen-
tal in bringing the program to the Lehigh Valley. Information sessions for Jewish organization representatives will begin on Nov. 29. The Federation will be providing incentives, training and marketing to strengthen the planned giving efforts at each institution. LIFE & LEGACY is the newest initiative of the Grinspoon Foundation, which is investing $30 million dollars over a 10-year period to engage communities in legacy building efforts that will secure the future of vibrant Jewish communities. The Grinspoon Foundation also funds the PJ Library program, which the Lehigh Valley has participated in since 2011. For more information about the LIFE & LEGACY program, contact Jim Mueth, Federation director of planned giving and endowments, at 610-821-5500 or jim@jflv.org.