The Journey to the Promised Land
A Minute with Moshe Kruger
This journey begins with our current mission. It reads:
The Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley is the central resource to embrace, connect, and support Jews locally and globally through social services, coordinated fundraising, community outreach, and educational and recreational programming.
This is a fine mission statement, but I think you’ll agree, it sounds a bit weary and fatigued and in need of a refresh.
With your permission, using my creative license as the Executive Director, I’m hitting the RERESH button to set the proper tone for this article.
A reinvigorated mission might read:
The Jewish Federation of Greater South Bend cares for those in need, strengthens Jewish life, and creates connections among Jews while acting locally, in Israel, and around the world.
Mission + Vision + Values = Strategic Priorities
Our mission-critical work has been all the more urgent since Oct 7. The war has not only caused turmoil in Israel, the Middle East, on university campuses, and communities across the U.S., it has also ignited an inferno of antisemitism that is deeply concerning.
Our Federation has confronted this issue with vigilance and proactivity, advocating against hatred and discrimination wherever it may arise. We remain steadfast in promoting education, awareness, and community engagement to combat antisemitism and ensure the safety and dignity of every Jew—and all people.
Despite these pressing challenges, our commitment to a thriving Jewish future for our community has never wavered. Baked into our Fed’s DNA is the sacred work of building community, leading change, and creating Jewish journeys to be our best selves.
Today, our community stands at a crossroads. There are many books written about vision and transformative change, but Proverbs 29:18 sums it up. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” This proverb underscores the importance of having a clear and inspired vision.
Change helps us survive.
Judaism has thrived for millennia.
The People of the Book have never been static.
In 2020, as the new executive director, I communicated to a group of past Federation presidents that we were rapidly advancing toward a once-in-a generation opportunity—meaning we needed to re-energize our future with fresh solutions to build a sustainable foundation for Jewish life in South Bend.
Today, it is even more urgent to responsibly formulate an aspirational generational plan to shape our Jewish future. The Federation views the development of a comprehensive community plan as a critical act of self-determination as we move toward a Jewish experience whose value transcends denominational boundaries, ideological differences, and institutional walls.
Community planning at its best is a team effort
A fresh-solutions approach to community building starts with having the right goal. This requires listening to the voices in our Jewish ecosystem. During March, the Fed will be adding a new listening tool called Mondays with Moshe.
In listening to the community, it’s clear to me that the community’s aspirations remain fundamentally unchanged. People have a profound human desire for connection and meaning; and Judaism has much to teach us about ourselves and the world around us.
Eighty years after our Federation was founded in 1945, we’re at the inflection point of asking ourselves how we can ensure that the Jewish community of Greater South Bend continues to thrive. How can we build on our strengths to ensure a flourishing Jewish community for generations to come? How can we engage and develop our next generation of leaders? And how can we grow the resources required to be sustainable?
In answering these questions, three roadblocks loom large with the potential to stop the entire change effort. They are as follows:
Financial health of our communal institutions
Shrinking lay leadership pool
Fragmentation within the Jewish community
Next is a snapshot of each impediment to a brighter future.
Financial Sustainability
Over the last 10 years, the Fed’s annual campaign revenue has shrunk by 50%. This result is from significant donors having passed away, fewer contributors, and a new value-based paradigm of giving among the next generation. Our Federation is not unique. Like many Jewish communal organizations, what’s raised from the annual campaign, supplemental fundraising efforts, and membership dues do not cover operational expenses.
Fresh financial thinking for how we raise funds and generate new revenue streams is needed to leverage communal efficiencies and synergies (see graphic on page 2, Strategic Priorities 1, 3, & 4).
Diminishing Leadership Pool
Concerns were raised due to the same people cycling in and out of Jewish leadership. With our aging demographic, there is an expressed concern about these individuals losing steam or burning out, and the community being left without others to replace them. Transforming organizations and communities fail for several reasons, chief among them is lack of leadership and organizations resisting needed change.
Among the solutions to address the shortage of leaders in the pipeline is to explore new organizational leadership structures for community governance. Perhaps by becoming less siloed in our organizational leadership domains we could expand community voice representation, leverage intellectual resources, and nurture future leadership (see Strategic Priorities 1 & 2).
Fragmentation within the Jewish Community
Throughout our history, we have shown that if the Jewish people are fragmented, our strength is diminished, and our future is in doubt. If we are divided, it compromises the integrity of the community itself. Unity is only possible if we make space for each other. How best can we address this?
The historic role up to the present day is that the Federation’s role is the central convener of the community and the holder of responsibility to ensure the community thrives into the future. However, the underlying strength truly is the adaptive ability of our Jewish ecosystem to escape the past and invent the future.
To do this, each of us has a voice that must be heard in our ever-changing world. It’s not about our denominational differences or if you’re right, left, red, blue, or a fan of the current Israeli government (or not.) We have a common goal in the Greater South Bend Jewish community: to be a strong and prosperous community for all (see Strategic Priorities 1 & 4).
“Wouldn’t it be great if…?”
At the Federation we’re fond of asking the question “Wouldn’t it be great if…?” to escape from the tyranny of following the patterns we’ve grown comfortable with.
We are finding that developing productive thinking skills to generate more options and then evaluating those options, produces more exceptional, innovative, and satisfying outcomes to reimagine our future.
Examples of this type of generative thinking to build community are listed below:
Wouldn’t it be great to create a strong sense of place that:
Fosters Jewish identity, belonging, and deep emotional connection?
Encourages social interaction, philanthropy, and community service to strengthen the social and economic fabric of our community?
Empowers collective action, improvement, and transformation?
Enhances community resilience to better respond to challenges including antisemitism and security threats?
Builds trust, shared values, and mutual respect?
Promotes a feeling that people are contributing to something bigger than themselves and that their actions can directly influence the well-being of their environment and community.
Now you try it, please complete the sentence: Wouldn’t it be great if—and email or call me to discuss your response, or even better, come to a March Monday with Moshe.
This much I know, cultivating this sense of place is not incidental but intentional, rooted in thoughtful design, purposeful planning, and listening carefully to your voices. Establishing a sense of place may be our best opportunity to sway hearts and minds, turn vision into action, empower us to create lasting change, and advance our community mission inspired by the Jewish values of:
K’lal Yisarel—the unity of all Jewish People
Tzedakah—responsibility to help those in need
Kehillah—accomplishing more by working together
Chessed—a caring community
Because our future must not only be imagined…it must be built. Please make your voice heard and attend one of Monday’s brown bag lunches in March. The future of our Jewish community where individuals and families come together to learn, grow, and find joy and meaning in living Jewishly depends on it.
Abraham Lincoln said,
“Public sentiment is everything.
With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”
Moshe Kruger
Executive Director
574-233-1164 x1802
MKruger@TheJewishFed.org