FROM JONAH’S DAD
Dear friends,
At this moment in history, no issue is of greater importance to me than immigrant rights. You certainly know as much as I about our current government’s draconian policies. Not only have the doors to our nation been slammed shut to most but the most privileged, but mistreatment — especially of children — has become a stain on America’s record of compassionate human rights.
FROM ELLEN DRESKIN
Dear friends,
As I reflect on The Jonah Maccabee Foundation’s re-articulated mission, “Turning love into action,” I am reminded how 19-year-old Jonah was evolving into someone who saw himself capable of making a big difference in other people’s lives. True to his “Maccabee”-ness, he was often champion to those whose voices were not being heard, and was known for bringing lights of friendship and inclusion to all of the communities of which he was a part.
If you didn’t get a chance to see last week’s note about our work in 2019, I’ve copied it below. I hope you are moved by reading about the ways in which your donations to the Foundation have made a difference in the last twelve months, and that you will donate to our December campaign, “Jonah-Inspired.”
Were Jonah alive today, I can easily imagine him soliciting funds for these organizations, and possibly even running one himself. I believe he is proud of us all.
Thank you again for enabling us to continue to bring Jonah’s light into the world these past 10 years and into the future as well.
Ellen
FROM THE DRESKINS
We’ve kicked off our December campaign, sharing our brand new tagline, “Turning love into action,” to convey our family’s passion for how we want to continue paying tribute to the beautiful gift of Jonah’s life.
We want you to donate, but because we deeply respect the trust you place in us, here’s a list of our most recent projects. Immigration rights screamed for attention this year. Morally impossible to ignore the cries of children separated from their families, we made a whole bunch of grants to organizations we felt were doing important, significant work. We also made grants to folks who are doing great stuff in the arts and in Jewish life. Read on!
FROM THE DRESKINS
As we enter our 2nd decade here at The Jonah Maccabee Foundation and kick off our December campaign, we’re excited to share with you one small but profound change.
Throughout our first ten years, the words “Helping young people build whole, healthy lives” have comprised the brand tagline on all of our materials. It helped to convey our family’s passion for how we wanted to pay tribute to the beautiful gift of Jonah’s life.
Today we enter a new era as those words become “Turning love into action.”
Chuck and Nancy Fishman
Jeanne and Murray Bodin
Ora Elber … in memory of my father
Sally Winter
David Cohen
Sharol Brickman
Beth Sher
Greetings! We’re so very delighted to invite you to stop by our home in Ardsley, New York, on Sunday, December 22 at 7:00 pm for a wonderful evening of good company, great music, tasty desserts and a Hanukkah candle lighting.
When we learned that our old friend, Larry Milder, was coming to town, we knew we had to give y’all an opportunity to meet him and enjoy him as much as we always have.
Wendy Jennis and Douglas Mishkin
Sue Bensadon … in memory of my parents
Beged Kefet (Leon Sher, Beth Sher, Cantors Riki Lippitz, Benjie-Ellen Schiller and Ellen Dreskin, and Rabbis Les Bronstein and Billy Dreskin)
Deb Hall … in memory of Jonah
Corey Friedlander
Karen Steele … “you can keep the dime”
Harriet Levine … in memory of Len Levine
Jewish Star is a North American talent search competition designed to find and encourage the next generation of singer-songwriters in the Jewish community. Celebrity music artists judge and select winners based on vocal, instrumental and performance skills, as well as their passion for impacting the Jewish world.
Jewish Star is a project of Jewish Rock Radio, a high-caliber, 24-7, Jewish rock internet radio station that broadcasts contemporary Jewish rock music and pieces of related interest.
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation is delighted to support Jewish Star with a grant from our Jewish Life Fund. Learn more by visiting Jewish Star and Jewish Rock Radio online.
Thank you for making our support possible.
With 680 undocumented workers arrested in a record-setting immigration sweep on the first day of school in Mississippi, The Jonah Maccabee Foundation felt the need to do something.
United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led community in the country. They create welcoming spaces for young people – regardless of immigration status – to support, engage, and empower them to make their voices heard and win!
Dear Jonah,
I often find myself wondering where your life might have taken you. What career would you have chosen? Would you have found a partner with whom to share the empire? With a life that ended at age nineteen, you were nowhere near resolving these or many other questions. And while that was fine then, it leaves me pretty much at a loss filling in the details of the life that might have lay ahead.
Every now and then, I see something I’m sure would have caught your eye. But sometimes I see something and I’m definitely not sure what you would have thought about it. I think of you anyway.
While some knew him as Jonah and others as Mac, we all loved and respected him. And we miss him dearly.
