There is a rabbinic concept--you're probably familiar with it--that says, "Those who eat on Shabbat are those who have prepared for Shabbat."

United Jewish Communities and the Federations of North America have been  making preparations, as a system, to meet the challenges facing the Jewish people since-well, it's our raison d'etre. We have established the lay, professional and financial resources to be able to respond to the most extraordinary-as well as the most fundamental-needs placed before us. And  we have answered the call, every time.

We at UJC thought we were prepared for this past year as we had envisioned it. Moving into the third year of our newly merged organization, we were experiencing growing pains and corporate cultural changes--and we were off to a pretty good start as far as those changes were concerned. We were also in the process of contracting our budget, while increasing the services we provide to federations. In fact, we had anticipated that the fiscal year covered in this report would be one of transition and change. The turnover of top professional or lay leadership usually provides enough "turmoil" for an entire year in any organization-and we did both. Our lay leadership engaged a successor to our first president and CEO, Stephen D. Solender, who guided UJC through its formation, and they identified the successors to our founding chairman of the board, Charles Bronfman, and Joel Tauber, the founding chair of the executive committee.

It was also a year that taught us the value of being prepared.

Our Board of Trustees undertook a commitment to galvanize the North American Jewish community in support of Israel, which was facing the end of a year of relentless confrontation with the Palestinian Arabs. The confrontation had been escalating with every passing month, and we had determined that it was necessary to evoke an outpouring of advocacy and financial support for Israel. The high point of our energizing effort was to have been a national rally on the streets of New York on September 23, 2001.

All of this changed with the events of September 11. At UJC headquarters in New York, we experienced the pain of that day personally and organizationally, as well as in our role as the national umbrella of our federation system. Those of us who were, at that moment, in Israel found ourselves playing the same role as those of us in New York: shocked and concerned, we provided support to our member federations that were most dramatically impacted by the terror and losses of that day-namely, the federations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C.

We have a lot to be proud of in the way our continental system responded to the people of the United States with dollars and compassion, and in the way our system supported the federations directly affected. We are especially proud of the way our federations helped the people who live within their service areas. Just as with the finest efforts of our system in the past, our people consistently responded above and beyond the call of duty.

That first-hand experience with the evil of terror made it absolutely clear that a zero-tolerance policy is necessary to face terror wherever it is used as a tool of political expression. There is no place for terror in our relationship with the rest of the world as Americans, and there is no legitimate role for terror in the confrontation between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Our system and its leaders were called upon to support the United States in its response to these terror attacks, as well as to support our family in Israel in its resistance to the terror attacks that were being visited upon it weekly, if not daily.

As the year progressed, in the United States we found ourselves dealing more with fear of terror than the reality itself, even as our family in Israel dealt with increasingly violent and murderous terror attacks. Our federations increased their advocacy efforts, conducting local rallies and community gatherings, culminating in a 100-city virtual rally conducted by UJC with satellite links. Missions were also a focal point of our efforts to stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel-and we are proud to report that, despite the fear factor, over 4,500 people went on UJC missions, bringing the total to over 10,000 since the outbreak of violence.

Fundraising efforts for Israel grew as well. The UJC Israel Emergency Campaign launched in early April of 2002, following the bombing of the Park Hotel, during a seder in Netanya. So far, we have raised more than $319 million. The implementation of IEC-funded programs and services came about through close cooperation among UJC, the Jewish Agency for Israel, JDC and federation representatives, in consultation with the Israel government-in a series of historic meetings designed to address the most pressing human needs and to insure accountability. A key element in our contact with IEC-funded programs is UJC Israel, our restructured unit in Israel.

Finally, the rally we had planned for September of 2001 eventually became a reality as we joined with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and others in mobilizing the North American Jewish community--on just days' notice--to gather in the nation's capitol on April 15, 2002, with more than 150,000 of us calling for an understanding of Israel's fight against terror.

During the same year, our federations were faced with addressing another crisis: the meltdown in Argentinean Jewish society because of the extremely difficult economic conditions in that country. Almost overnight, thousands of people were faced with homeless situations, thousands of school children had no resources to attend school, and tens of thousands didn't have enough to eat. With our partners, the JDC and the Jewish Agency, we attempted to respond to every need identified, to ameliorate the pain, and help our brothers and sisters in Argentina maintain a community. And for those who wanted to start new lives in Israel--more than 4,000 in the last eight months-the IEC provided special funding to the Jewish Agency to help them do so.

The modern Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel has called the Sabbath "a sanctuary of time," that is, a spiritual boundary that we, as a people, have carved out of the chaos of life to recall that we are free individuals and to remember our creation. Within this sanctuary, we maintain contact with our creator and with each other-with our spiritual nature, our moral and social values. The Federation system is also a construct within which we focus on the critical needs of the Jewish people, and through which we insure the spiritual and physical well being of our people, wherever they may live.

So, while crises drew our attention overseas, the federations of North America and the UJC did not neglect our responsibilities on the domestic fronts. We published a major handbook on services to older persons. Our Washington Action Office led a successful effort to access federal funds for pilot programs for Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities. We responded to community requests by adding more off-the-shelf services to our growing system of FedWeb Internet sites. We ran a media training tour in five hub communities across the U.S. to help in the use of critically effective Israel advocacy message points. We ramped up in the area of professional development for the continental Jewish community. We rebuilt our Consulting Services.

Just before this Report went to press, UJC rededicated its office space in New York to Max Fisher, the "ultimate leader" of the North American Jewish Community. The completion of our lobby area to reflect the scope of this organization's reach represented another kind of completion: the clarification of our mission. As the federation system responded with grace, with unity, with alacrity, to one crisis after another and to the ongoing needs of the Jewish community, it became clear that UJC's role is to provide leadership-devising strategies of response, representing the federations in the community of allied Jewish agencies, convening federations to gain system consensus and galvanizing the system into action-and also to provide support through direct service, consultation and both financial and human resources development.

Was it an unusual twelve months? No question. Was it the first unusual twelve months we ever had? No. And it won't be the last.

As you read on, it is our hope that some of the top-line accomplishments we have chosen to highlight give new meaning to our ancient words, "May you go from strength to strength."

Our system has tremendous resilience. Our fellow lay leaders and professional partners are prepared to cope with the worst demands conceived of by man--and to meet them with the gest of spiritsa and determination that human beings manifest.

Our people will always eat because we are always prepared.

James Tisch
Chairman of the Board

Robert Goldberg
Chairman, Executive Committe

Robert Schrayer
2001-2002 National Chairman Campaign/FRD

S. Stephen Selig III
2003 National Chairman

Stephen Hoffman
President and CEO

Annual Report table of contents:

Mobilizing Our Jewish Values | Annual Campaign | 9/11 Fund | Israel Emergency Campaign | Missions | Israel Overseas: Argentina | Planned Giving and Endowments | Renaissance and Renewal Alliance 
Human Services And Social Policy | FedWeb | How UJC Works