Toward a Greater Vision

A Minute with Moshe Kruger, Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley

As I sat down to write this Minute with Moshe for the October issue, news of the once-mighty kitchenware company, Tupperware, whose name became synonymous with plastic food containers in kitchens across America, filed for bankruptcy. The company said in its Chapter 11 filing that it failed to develop a strategy for the future. That the “strengths of its founding model turned into its weakness.”

In essence, Tupperware’s woes were a failure to act. Clinging to what we know to preserve the status quo is a major obstacle to change. As the Tupperware experience points out, our mind consistently chooses to follow well-worn patterns rather than generate new thoughts, new interpretations, or new ways of doing things.

In this article, as we approach Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, I’d like to provide a commentary on the importance of taking a more proactive approach afforded us by the idea of t’shuva.

T’shuva requires us to return home, to draw closer to ourselves, to each other, and to Hashem as our essential sources of strength. Judaism teaches us to think about our individual and collective journeys. Jewish history tells the story of our communal destiny that is bound up in this two-pronged odyssey. A symbiotic relationship between personhood and peoplehood that has connected Jews from one generation to the next.

What makes us human, according to Jewish teachings, is the strength and quality of our relationships. And with all the insanity in the world since October 7, we need one another now more than ever.

The wisdom of our tradition offers a unique time-limited window during the High Holidays to be mindful about the fundamental transformation of self and community during the coming year. T’shuva is our personal and collective affirmation to focus on a deeper and more concentrated resolve to change.

Change is in our grasp! We all have an opportunity during this holiday season to embrace the annual rite of “return”—to renew, refresh, and reaffirm the vision of our possibilities of what we could be—individually and together in community.

You’ve heard me say that to create the future, you have to be able to imagine it. It’s a disciplined approach to thinking more creatively and more effectively. And I believe t’shuva will amplify the clarion call of the shofar and will be our best antidote for not becoming a Tupperware-like casualty.

I have the great privilege to be working with a terrific Federation team and many like-minded people toward a greater vision—a vision to strengthen our community—that has meaning for our children, ourselves, and the next generation.

We are a people of action; we don’t have the luxury of giving in to the status quo. There are so many ways in which we can team up to create a community trajectory driven by a shared purpose, Jewish imagination, and mutual concern.

On the occasion of the New Year, I’d like to take this time-honored tradition to bless us all with the ability to come closer to ourselves and to each other. With the hope and promise of 5785, may we attune our inner compass to the energizing springs of life that are hidden within all of us.

Shana tova.

Moshe Kruger
Executive Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley
(574) 233-1164 x1802
MKruger@TheJewishFed.org