Dear JNF Campaign Leaders:

CAMPAIGN UPDATE

If we can maintain the pace for the remainder of this campaign year as our successful first quarter just concluded, we will definitely reach our goal. I’m pleased to tell you we are just under $40 million for the 2020 annual campaign. That’s a $4 million increase over last year’s campaign and $5 million increase over the same date in 2018. Further, we have reached $660 million toward our $1 billion goal. We have had very good growth so far in our major gifts and general campaigns but we must not become complacent and continue to focus on expanding the number of donors giving $1,000 or more. I remind you our goal over the next few years is to increase the number of donors giving $1,000 or more from about 6,000 donors to 10,000.

2020 CAMPAIGN SUMMIT

SAVE THE DATE!

The annual Campaign Planning Summit will take place Sunday, August 23 and Monday, August 24 at the Ronald S. Lauder JNF House in New York City.

We will start Sunday afternoon and conclude with lunch on Monday. There is a National Board of Directors meeting from 1:00 – 3:00pm on Monday, and all Summit participants are invited and encouraged to attend. The Campaign Planning Summit provides an opportunity for lay leaders to have a voice in the direction of our campaign initiatives for the coming year. More information, including preferred hotel will be available soon.

We will start Sunday afternoon and conclude with lunch on Monday. There is a national Board of Directors meeting from 1:00 – 3:00pm on Monday, and all Summit participants are invited and encouraged to attend. The Campaign Planning Summit provides an opportunity for lay leaders to have a voice in the direction of our campaign initiatives for the coming year. More information, including preferred hotel, will be available soon.

JNF TEXT MESSAGING

As you know, we are always trying to keep up with the latest and most effective ways to communicate with our donors. As such, we are moving to communicating more and more with our donors via text. It is a timely, effective, concise and faster-read means of delivering information in today’s busy world and we are careful to use it judiciously. As a member of our leadership team, it is important that you are opted in to receive these texts. Please text JNF to 563-872 which will opt you in.

ISRAEL EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS

The single largest project in the history of JNF-USA is the Israel Education and Technology Campus in Be’er Sheva. This $300 million dollar campus will have several functions: a second home for the Alexander Muss High School, an adult Zionist education and conference center and a campus for young adults in Israel for technology internships. The campus will be situated on 16 acres of land within the Be’er Sheva River Park. As you can imagine with a capital project of this magnitude, there are significant naming opportunities. A feasibility study was just completed by KPMG and fundraising is just now getting underway. To learn more about this exciting and transformational project, watch this video: https://youtu.be/pdxJzoDpQHU

2020 NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ISRAEL

It is really incredible that over 500 people have already registered for the 2020 National Conference taking place in Israel this October 25 – 29. We are well on our way to reach our goal to bring 1,000 people to Israel for the Conference. A friendly competition is underway among local communities for who can bring the most to Israel. Register now! To learn more about NC 2020 in Israel, click here:  jnf.org/nc

Shabbat Shalom 

Our December group headed out for a tiyul! They ventured to Sde Boker to visit Ben Gurion’s grave and discuss his dream for the development of the Negev. JFS (our new British group) are settling down in campus and are going to climb down the Gilbo tomorrow and have their first overnight tiyul sleeping in Jerusalem and exploring the history of the city and our Jewish heritage in the area as well as visiting the Kotel.

Take an upbeat tour of Israel’s hottest sights and enjoy all there is to see and do on the Singles Tour for 40s and 50s this July. Learn more here. 

Traveling to another city and want to see what JNF events are taking place there? Just visit jnf.org/inyourarea for a quick look at how to stay engaged while on the road.

Traveling to another city and want to see what JNF events are taking place there? Just visit jnf.org/inyourarea for a quick look at how to stay engaged while on the road.

Update from Northern Israel

Please watch Michal's video above! Torrential rain in the Western Galilee last week caused significant damage to several communities in Northern Israel. Jewish National Fund is on the ground helping in the aftermath of the damage – collecting toys and books for decimated preschools, supporting Western Galilee Now in their efforts to bring people to the area to keep the economy going, and more. To help with these efforts, please donate here.

Special in the IDF

Roi Shifman, a young man with Cerebral Palsy, proudly serves with full dedication in Jewish National Fund’s affiliate program Special in Uniform. This week his commanders in Palmachim Air Force base surprised him by promoting him in front of the soldiers in the base and his parents. Mazal Tov!

This week we are starting to read the second book of the Torah, which describes the birth of the Jewish people. This story takes us from their enslavement in Egypt and miraculous exodus, to the climactic event at Mount Sinai, and the building of the Sanctuary in which the new nation served G-d in the wilderness.

In Hebrew the book is known as Sefer Shemot (“Book of Names”), because it opens with the verse “These are the names of the children of Israel...” On a deeper level, this reflects the fact that it is the book in which our identity (name) as a nation is forged.

On the most basic level, a Jewish name is a keystone of Jewish identity. A generation ago, the Nazis dehumanized our people by discarding our names and treating us as numbers. By robbing us of our names, they tried to rob us of our humanity.

The Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 1:28) learns from this that the Jews in Egypt did not change their Jewish names. Even though they assimilated into Egyptian culture, the Jews held strong to their identities, their names, their language, and their clothing. This would become their weapon in their spiritual battle to preserve their unique identity as the Jewish people.

To experience our own personal exodus, we need to view every person as an individual with his or her own exclusive set of struggles and challenges. To preserve our humanity and to see another’s humanity, we must see them as a name—as an individual with a unique story and a unique destiny.

Jewish National Fund began as a dream to reestablish a Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael and through that preserve the future of the Jewish people. That is JNF’s unique story and unique destiny. Jewish National Fund’s name is its mission and its driving force; a fund to secure a homeland for Jews across the globe for generations to come.

Shabbat Shalom,

Yossi