From the CEO

First-World Problems

Born in Israel of American parents, my wife, Ilana, has dual citizenship. Likewise, all our children have both American and Israeli passports.
 
When Israel finally opened her border to foreign travelers in November, we scheduled a trip. The Israeli government and Omicron subsequently rec…

Dinner Dialogue

Pre-pandemic, I used to eat chicken for a living. (I’m, of course, referring to the dozens of community dinners and fundraisers I’d attend while representing Federation.) Two years ago, I had a major career change, and I started Zooming for a living.
 
Last night, I was back on the ch…

What’s your interest?

My daughter Jenny moved to Israel a few years ago and for the first couple of years, I visited her a few times. But then the world closed, and I couldn’t visit her anymore.

Last year she got married, and I was allowed into Israel for her wedding after submitting a 25-page application prov…

Chanukah on Jay

One of our community leaders called me last year: “Hey Rob, I’m out in Detroit and they have this neat program called ‘Menorah in the D’. Can we pull this off at home?”

Menorah in the D is a huge community-wide Chanukah program co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation and Chabad. I c…

Budgets

As I briefly mentioned last week, I’ve been knee-deep in budgeting. Thank you to Sue, our finance officer, for your hard work, and our finance committee and board of directors for your oversight. We now have an approved budget for 2022!

Sue and I have degrees in accounting and can budget …