CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRS-From left, Michael Weiner, Sharon Weil and Rabbi Alan Berg head up this year's Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Annual Campaign.

Paul Haist

TRIO HEADS UP CAMPAIGN

By JENNIFER DIRECTOR KNUDSEN

article created on: 2008-11-01T00:00:00

It’s good to be first. And the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s 2009 Annual Campaign has three.

This is the first time in Campaign history a triumvirate of chairs has been at its helm; the first time a rabbi has been among the chairs; and the first time in a quarter century the Campaign has launched in such wobbly economic times.

The former two firsts may well nullify the latter. And that’s the hope the three chairs – retired Rabbi Alan Berg, Sharon Weil and Michael Weiner – enthusiastically cling to.

First-time co-chair Weiner said each team member brings key and unique strengths to the Campaign table:

He offers a solid business perspective; Rabbi Berg brings spiritual leadership and inspiration through his learned take on Jewish texts; and experience comes with Weil, co-chairing campaign for her third and final year.

“Between us (three), it’s a wonderful triumvirate,” said Weiner, an expert witness and litigation consultant in the securities industry and member of Congregation Beth Israel.

And he and his partners believe their strengths and expertise will goad the Jewish community into flexing its philanthropic muscle – perhaps even more so in this uncertain economic climate.

“It’s really a unique year, and Federation has asked people to dig deep” despite the fact, Weiner said, “even people not hurting now are looking over their shoulders.”

The three chairs trust the Jewish community will help bridge the huge chasm between those peering over a proverbial shoulder and those peering into a literally empty wallet.

Berg said donating in hard times gets to the core of the definition of tzedakah: Giving money when it’s easy to do so is indeed easy; offering financial assistance when it’s tough is at tzedakah’s heart.

And now is the time to reflect and act on tzedakah’s true meaning, say the chairs, who are aware of the increasing belt-tightening this year among greater numbers of local Jews.

“We have seen a substantial increase in the need for our services over the past year,” said Jewish Family and Child Service executive director Marian Fenimore. JFCS, one of eight Federation constituent agencies, aids immigrants, struggling parents, special-needs adults and many other people facing hardships.

Comparing needs from summer of 2007 and summer of 2008, requests for emergency aid are up 58 percent and requests for counseling services are up 44 percent, Fenimore recently reported to Federation. She said that the 108 percent jump in clients needing home care reflects the reality that more elderly are trying to remain in their own homes and they need assistance to do that.

“These services are critical for them to remain independent,” Fenimore said.

Of import, Fenimore noted, is the rising number of calls “particularly from members of the Jewish community.”

Weil, reflecting on JFCS’ numbers, notes while everyone is taking a financial hit, for some, that means little to no food or housing.

“And it’s Jewish people” among the needy, she said. So, she asked rhetorically, “Do I give less than last year because now it’s a hardship? Or can I give more because it’s people – not agencies – in need.”

Donations to Federation’s annual campaigns go through a painstaking allocation process to determine the best use of every donor dollar, such as allocations to beneficiary agencies and specific community programs, both here and abroad.

That said, she and her co-chairs demur when asked if this year’s campaign has a set monetary goal, as was the case for past campaigns. Weil said the team is realistic while working tirelessly to meet, if not even surpass, last year’s record-breaking $4.3 million purse.

Weil, who manages commercial real estate properties and is an active member of Congregation Beth Israel, said if this year’s Campaign tops last year’s even by 5 percent or 10 percent, “that’d be great.” Weil also sits on the board of Cedar Sinai Park, parent of recipient agency Robison Jewish Health Center.

Raising an impressive amount of money is possible due to the support of long term donors and by reaching out to the next generations of those families, Weil explained.

Weil says while a single family gift representing multiple generations is terrific, it’s important each generation give to Federation in its own name. So the chairs are busy targeting younger adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s to give independently, alongside their parents.

Weil believes this effort generally will build a new community of donors who make charitable giving an enduring family tradition.

Weiner added in a separate interview, “Some of these people have never had the opportunity to see what their dollars can do.”

Weil and Weiner both recounted experiences in Jewish communities locally and abroad where they witnessed local Federation dollars at work. Weiner said his recent mission trip to Israel underpins the very reason he agreed to co-chair this year’s Campaign.

“I was at a point in my life where I was eager to give back,” he said, adding his previous committee work and various donations left him philanthropically unfulfilled. It was time to follow in his own father’s footsteps.

Weiner, who moved to Portland 20 years ago, comes from a Chicago family that always donated to Jewish organizations, and his father once chaired a Federation Campaign in the Windy City in the 1980s.

While in Israel last spring, his group visited Neve Michael Children’s Home, a safe haven for abused children that Portland’s Federation dollars help support.

“Some kids are brought there in the middle of the night,” Weiner reflected. “And our money goes there. You can see Portland dollars working overseas, and what a pleasure that is.”

Closer to home, Berg is astonished by the Portland Jewish community’s vibrancy.

He served as associate rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in the mid-70s and early 80s and then was the first rabbi of Havurah Shalom before leaving Portland to lead Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, Calif., from which he retired in 2007. Berg now is back after 35 years in the rabbinate and a 26-year Portland hiatus.

“The community that I’ve come back to has changed in every positive way,” he said, citing the number of synagogues, Jews from elsewhere who’ve made Portland home and the advent of the Oregon Jewish Museum and local Hillel (both constituent agencies).

Laurie Rogoway, Federation’s director of financial resource development, said the organization asked the rabbi to co-chair the 2009 Annual Campaign “because he is a community leader who cares deeply about the total community” and Federation’s role in it.

She adds: “Saying all that, the fact that he is a rabbi is wonderful, and adds a depth of rabbinic knowledge and perspective,” which is a sentiment Berg’s colleagues echo.

“He’s such a combination of a scholar and a gentleman,” Weiner said of his rabbi colleague.

Weil adds: “Every time we sit down to talk, he has always some quote that inspires us.”

And inspiration clearly is what each co-chair brings to this year’s Campaign, whose Opening Night kickoff is Nov. 9 and headlined by musical performer Joshua Nelson.

And inspiration is what the triumvirate hopes to imbue Jewish Portland with. To help its own, here and abroad, and the greater community with as many dollars as it can.

“I’m optimistic,” Weiner said. “I’m very optimistic. I think the Jewish community has always come through.”