Letter: Support JFS at Reel Hope

My dear friends have lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan for several generations. Not only lived there, but like us in the Jewish Community of Boulder, have made an impact in every part of the city to make it the great and livable place that it is.

This last weekend, before Yom Kippur, when the members went to the synagogue to observe the seminal day on the Jewish calendar, they found the synagogue marked with anti-Semitic signs. My friend, Mitch Kahn, is heartbroken. Mitch wrote an impassioned letter specifying how the Jewish Community has enhanced life on every level. The last few weeks synagogues throughout the United States that have experienced the same ugly graffiti on their structures. Mitch listed in his response, the specific contributions the Jewish Community has made over the years to invigorate, enlighten, and help those in need.

So, what must we do here in Boulder, to strengthen our resolve? We don’t sit idly by shaking our heads…..we are a people of Action! We continue to do what we do best….serve the entire community, we serve all those in need who are looking around for help, and we always do it! We are always present!

It is what Jewish Family Service does with our support! JFS is the ‘face’ of the Jewish Community in Boulder and in every other city in America it serves. The platform for JFS is based on Jewish values which are exercised everywhere in the community it serves. This is how the ‘face’ of the Jewish community is spread out to every corner of the Boulder area. JFS is your face, is your soul, and is your mitzvah maker in Boulder. JFS, recruits volunteers, members of our community to plug in wherever a need is identified. JFS provides the guidance and programs in place to be ready to provide assistance, and cover vacuums of human need. This is the JFS mission. It provides services for the disabled, the elderly, the lonely, the needy, the person who has no idea where to turn…. JFS is there!

JFS is the icon of Jewish values in Boulder. It is our NCAR, it stands out over the landscape as its results are experienced in every corner. JFS embodies in its mission, to enhance the well-being of those in need throughout Boulder, by delivering services to EVERYONE. JFS helps older adults maintain a high quality of life, provides care management, homemaker services, counseling, companionship, emergency assistance, money and holiday celebrations. JFS does OUR work, its mission expresses OUR values, and so, WE must support its efforts.

We, YOU AND I, provide the financial resources and we DRIVE THE MISSION, and, WE proudly benefit making it possible for JFS to perform our Mitzvot. JFS, through its tentacles of good work, markets the Jewish Community; they are our local exhibit of who we are as Jews in Boulder. Boulder, through the efforts of JFS, knows what an amazing resource we are to the well-being of our citizens in need.

How do we respond as a community to anti-social acts targeting Jews? By exhibiting who we really are, and how vital we are to Boulder by action, by involvement, by doing what we do best, making the lives of others more tenable, meaningful, and better.

Join in this effort, by becoming a sponsor for the annual JFS fundraiser event, Reel Hope. If not a sponsor, at least attend the fundraiser, be part of the event which demonstrates who we really are….what our values are….how we embrace everyone. Can’t come to the gala event? You count as an individual, your voice is heard by your support to the organization which expresses the essence of who we are as Jews.

We invite you to be part of those holding the umbrella under which we protect those in need. The JFS umbrella is large….we all stand under it, as donors, as supporters, as volunteers holding the hands of those in need to pull them into our shelter. We use the word OUR, because it is all of us who make the JFS response successful by fulfilling its destiny. OUR response to evil is to do good. OUR response to darkness, is to provide light. We fill the well of despair caused by anti-social, anti-American acts, by exhibiting what we do best, by being what we have always been, an example of decency by being present wherever there is need.

Come, in celebration…..help keep the flames which ignite our spirit…JOIN US AT THE REEL HOPE EVENT. On November 2, at the JCC, we welcome Duncan Tucker, screenwriter, as our featured guest, the creator of the thought provoking film, “Transamerica.” Let’s not just pay lip service OR act ‘stunned’ when we hear about attacks on us, THERE IS SOMETHING POSITIVE WE CAN DO. OUR RESPONSE IS ACTION! ACTION FOR GOOD, ACTION TO BUILD. THAT’S WHO WE ARE!