Message From Federation’s CEO
 

I am of two minds as I write these words.

Nothing in my life (and I suspect that goes for most of us) prepared me for 10/7 and its aftermath.

Everything I have learned, done, believed, articulated and acted upon in my life prepared me for 10/7 and its aftermath.

Both of the statements above are true. We can hold two truths that seem at odds. We are all more capable than we might seem. I’ve been steeped in activism for Israel and the Jewish people for more than 40 years, since I met Avital Sharansky as a high-school freshman. And as a student of Jewish history, I’ve been more than conversant in the details of our persecution, from the Roman conquest to the tragedies of decades of terrorism. But the horror of the Shoah wasn’t live streamed; the butchery of the crusades could only be described with words. The screams would only resonate for the survivors.

On 10/7 the horrors engulfed all of us in almost real-time. There was nowhere to turn away. In the weeks and months that followed, we saw and heard the tide of antisemitism, rolling inexorably forward like the pyroclastic flow from an angry volcano.

In that moment, once we began to process the tragedy of the day, we ALL began to act. We gathered in our hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands. We gave in our dollars, thousands of dollars, and hundreds of millions of dollars. We demanded security, solidarity, and succor for Israel from our local, state and federal elected officials. We spoke up against antisemitism wherever and whenever it raised its head. And we did it all - together.

I am proud of Jewish Rocklanders. I am proud of our community, our Federation, our agencies, and our people. In this report we’ll detail what Federation and our community have done leading up to this moment. What we do next, how we continue to stand together, why we are proud and what we become? Well, that’s up to all of us.

Ari Rosenblum
Chief Executive Officer