I hope you all had a joyous and meaningful Purim!

Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month
We did a great job leveraging Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM) and engaged many donors to support JNF’s work to improve the quality of life for all Israel’s residents, including those who have disabilities.  Next week I’ll share the fundraising statistics for JDAIM.  I want to share this blog written by Nina Paul and posted in JNF’s Impact Blog.  Nina shares her and her husband Eddie’s personal story and why they are so passionate about supporting JNF’s work to make Israel an inclusive place. 

Women’s Month
March is Women’s Month and many activities will take place around the country to support our Women for Israel (WFI) campaign and focus on a demographic that represents a significant percentage of our annual fundraising and our leadership.  This month we will focus on the power of women, help increase women’s giving and inspire women to take an active role in leadership positions, not just in the women’s campaign but throughout Jewish National Fund.
 
The campaign will be supported by events and parlor meetings – there are over 25 events around the country; most every community is having events and meetings to support Women’s Month.   In addition, there will be focus on women solicitations, email blasts throughout the month, a significant social media campaign, including Humans of JNF, Facebook, blogs, an article in the Jerusalem Post featuring our lay leaders and a video.
 
PLEASE NOTE… We have secured a generous donor match of up to a total of $ 1million from two women in Phoenix beginning on March 8th, which is International Women’s Day.  Therefore, all donations to the women's campaign from March 8th through March 31st will be matched.  
 
Women’s Month is also a great way to recruit for the Queen of Sheba Mission, November 8th - 14th, 2018. It’s going to be an incredible trip where women can see Israel through a female lens and travel the South of Israel with like-minded women. Please actively recruit women in your regions to go on the mission. To learn more about the Queen of Sheba Mission or to register, click here.

PLEASE SAVE THE DATES
TWO IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN MEETINGS
 
2018 Campaign Planning Summit
August 12 & 13
New York, NY
Ronald S. Lauder JNF House
Your opportunity to help plan our 2019 fundraising campaign and bring home new ideas to strengthen your local fundraising.  The annual campaign planning meeting will begin Sunday afternoon and conclude Monday afternoon.   All participants are then invited to stay for the National Board of Directors meeting on Monday from 1:00 – 3:00 pm.
 
National Conference Community Leadership Meeting
Thursday, October 25
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Phoenix, AZ
Biltmore Hotel
In conjunction with the National Conference, join together with other community leaders for a training session focused on enhancing our leadership skills. Time will also be given for sharing best practices to help you enhance your local JNF fundraising campaign.

Finally, if you are going to the AIPAC Policy Conference beginning this Sunday, March 4, I look forward to meeting you there.  Please e-mail Lynne Yura at lyura@jnf.org to let us know you will be there and I will reach out to you in advance to find a time and place to meet.

Shabbat Shalom,

Bruce K. Gould
President Elect and Vice President, Campaign

This week, Parshat Ki Tisa largely deals with Moses meeting with G-d upon Mount Sinai, the tablets of the law, and the apostasy of Israel. G-d gave Moses tablets of the law, which Moses broke in anger upon seeing his people worshipping the golden calf. This was such a disappointment on a national scale, and even Aaron as the high priest had failed his duty by allowing the sin to occur and not controlling the people. Moses was then told to carve a replacement tablet, following G-d’s instruction.

The two sets of tablets, the broken ones and their replacements, are stored together in perpetuity in the Ark of the Covenant.

But why keep the broken pieces? In what way do they differ from the gift-wrapped public-relation disaster in the above story? Aren't they just a symbol of our crime and punishment? Why stockpile a souvenir of the depravity to which the Jews sank?

This conveyed the message articulated at the very genesis of Judaism: The broken pieces of your life are as sacred as its wholesome parts. G-d is present not only in the complete tablets, but also in the shattered ones.

“Thank you for breaking the tablets,” G-d tells Moses. The broken tablets, representing the shattered pieces of human existence, have their own story to tell; they contain a light all their own. Truth is found not only in wholesomeness, but also – perhaps primarily — in the broken fragments of the human spirit. There are moments when G-d desires that we connect to Him as wholesome people, with clarity and a sense of fullness; there are yet deeper moments when He desires that we find Him in the shattered experiences of our lives.

We hope and pray to always enjoy the “whole tablets,” but when we encounter the broken ones, we ought not to run from them or become dejected by them; with tenderness we ought to embrace them and bring them into our “holy of holies,” recalling the observation of the Kotzker Rebbe, “There is nothing more whole than a broken heart," one of his most famous classic statements.

It is on this note that the Torah chooses to culminate its tribute to Moses’ life. His greatest achievement was his ability to show how G-d was present in the fragments of the human heart, in the broken pieces and paradoxes of our daily lives.

Shabbat Shalom,

Yossi