What’s Happening?

As Omicron begins its chapter in the coronavirus storyline and we await its outcome as to whether or not life will continue opening up or head back into shutdown, we thought we’d share with you a few of the projects we’ve learned about that give us reason to believe that, yes, Hope Smiles.

First up: The American Indian College Fund, assisting our nation’s indigenous peoples in acquiring access to higher education. The Jonah Maccabee Foundation believes every American has a profound responsibility to acknowledge that, while we can never pay them back for injustices perpetrated through the centuries, we can do something. With only 14% of American Indians earning college degrees (less than half the national average), AICF empowers 4000 American Indian students annually to start and stay in school, complete degrees and launch careers. With admiration for their great heritage, as well as our heartfelt apology for all that they’ve lost, the foundation awards grants to the American Indian College Fund from The JMF Social Justice Fund. Their sacred labors honor us all, and Hope Smiles with every Native American we and they assist together. Visit collegefund.org to learn more.

And then: 6 Points Creative Arts Academy, a summer camp program sponsored by the Union for Reform Judaism, which means its spiritual practice is contemporary, pluralistic, and open to the vast tapestry of positive human choice and expression. Housed just outside of Philadelphia, 6 Points Creative Arts Academy uses theatre, writing, dance, music, and the visual arts to provide a summer’s worth of personal and spiritual exploration. Jonah adored the arts. He loved Jewish life. And summer camp was the only place to look for him in July and August. 6 Points Creative Arts Academy is one of those very special places where children know that Hope Smiles, which is why the foundation awards it grants from the JMF Jewish Life Fund. Learn more by visiting 6pointscreativearts.org to learn more.

Yes, we may be idealistic but we believe that’s a good thing. With organizations like the American Indian College Fund and 6 Points Creative Arts Academy out there working each day to make life better for one young person, and then one more, and still one more, hope really does smile.

Please give generously to Hope Smiles. We promise to continue helping out on your behalf.

Thank you.

We write with guarded optimism (fully vaxed and mask-enthusiastic). It’s been a sobering, wild ride since March 2020. More than 260 million have contracted Covid, and five million have died. Yet all this is punctuated by the countless acts of love and heroism which, inside and outside the medical community, have defined these two years, giving us the hope we yearned for.

Now we turn to a brighter future. Hopefully the new variants will be tamed alongside all the others, and we can resume living full, active, and interactive lives.

We’ve named our December campaign “Hope Smiles.” We’ve based it on a bit of writing from the great poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson: “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’”

Perhaps not more than a whisper, but real enough. From the depths of these past two years, we may be entering 2022 seeing the light of a new day in the distance. Anticipating our gradual reemergence from our homes, from our illnesses, from our challenges and from our despairs, let us now join hands and renew our commitment to helping others, to turning love into action.

We hope that you’ll once again give generously, this time to Hope Smiles — in thanks for your own survival, and in hope for a better year ahead. We here at The Jonah Maccabee Foundation promise to continue helping out on your behalf.

You might like to know what grants we’ve awarded this year. Here we go:

• Angela Gold Music Scholarship Fund … to help raise the next generation of song leaders
• MindLeaps … working in developing countries using DANCE to improve school performance and create positive livelihoods for at-risk youth
• The Reform Movement’s Racial Justice Campaign … combating voter suppression, addressing systemic racism by demanding policy change on both a state and federal level
• 18 emergency food organizations across North America helping families get through the pandemic
• Harmony Project … an inspiring organization that provides high-quality music instruction and social support to children at no cost year ’round. Harmony Project motivates young people to cultivate their human potential
• American Indian College Fund … this was a Thanksgiving gift, supporting Native student access to higher education, assisting our nation’s indigenous peoples in building whole, healthy lives for themselves and their children
• Jewish Star … a North American talent search competition encouraging the next generation of singer-songwriters in the Jewish community
• National Diaper Network … provides basic necessities required to build the strong foundations all children, families, and individuals need to thrive and reach their full potential
• HIAS … helping settle new immigrants in the USA
• Play Group Theatre … “preparing kids for every stage in life,” PGT understands that the show isn’t what’s most important when kids do theatre. Learning collaboration, sharpening listening skills, embracing creativity, and treating one another with honor … these are what PGT is all about. We love that!
• 6 Points Creative Arts Academy … a summer camp that strives to create holistic, meaningful experiences for young artists in a living laboratory for learning and performing
• Youth Futures in Lod (Israel) … The Ramat Eshkol neighborhood of Lod, Israel, has seen far too much hate and violence. Youth Futures has established a trusting connection with the Jewish and Arab communities, providing all with emergency mental health care.

We’d be honored to have you join us in Hope Smiles, our December campaign to remember Jonah by helping make the world a little better for all.

Thank you.

These past 15 months, no matter how “hard” or “easy” any of us had it, we’ve learned a lot. Good stuff even. Our learning, you could say, has been one of the pandemic’s silver linings. To acknowledge some of those Silver Learnings, we’ve invited friends from different walks of life to share what they’ve learned from the pandemic. Our guess is you’ll hear some voices that sound like your own, and some that offer a window into a world you’ve not known but from which we can all now learn.

Laurel Dreskin is a kindergarten teacher working in Bangkok, Thailand. She moved across the world to follow her dreams to teach in Thailand. Laurel has a passion for teaching young children through hands-on learning and collaborative play. She’s Ellen and Billy’s niece.

*          *          *

I found it so difficult to write this because I thought that I’m not special nor important so why would someone want to read what I have to say, but I realized that maybe if I wrote about my experience that others could find a connection in their own life.

I began my journey to Thailand in July 2019 after just finishing my undergrad in Tallahassee, Florida. I would have never expected to be living on the complete opposite side of the world far away from my family and friends, the people who mean the world to me, but this is just where my journey begins.

I’ve been living in Thailand for two years going strong but that doesn’t mean I haven’t faced challenges along the way. To the eye, I might seem like a strong and independent young woman, but on the inside I have many weaknesses too. First off, moving to a place where you know absolutely nobody and, second, the language. I did not learn Thai before moving here. Call me crazy but now. looking back. I am glad I didn’t learn how to speak the language prior to moving here.

We’re rounding third and heading for home! Please help us fund the next six months of grants by donating during these last three days of our June campaign, Silver Learnings. Your gift is what empowers us to act in Jonah’s name and do the good in the world that he might himself have done. Thank you for partnering with us to turn love into action.

Silver Learnings has brought words to us all from folks who’ve lived alongside us throughout the pandemic. They may be students, professionals, entertainers, living here or abroad, but they all have written down what they believe to be some of the lessons they’ve learned from all of this. Life has become more precious having seen so much sadness and loss. Now it’s time to lift each other up and get the world back on its feet again. Silver Learnings is our contribution to that effort.

These past 15 months, no matter how “hard” or “easy” any of us had it, we’ve learned a lot. Good stuff even. Our learning, you could say, has been one of the pandemic’s silver linings. To acknowledge some of those Silver Learnings, we’ve invited friends from different walks of life to share what they’ve learned from the pandemic. Our guess is you’ll hear some voices that sound like your own, and some that offer a window into a world you’ve not known but from which we can all now learn.

Rabbi Jeffrey Sirkman has been the spiritual leader of Larchmont Temple in Larchmont, NY, for more than thirty years. Rabbi Sirkman fosters a face-to-face faith, cherishes the gift of Torah, affirms the importance of developing a relationship with the Jewish State. He has served as Chair of the Program Advisory Committee for URJ Eisner Camp, the Admissions Committee of HUC-JIR, and teaches 5th year rabbinic and cantorial students at HUC-JIR. Ordained by HUC-JIR in 1987, he received his B.A. in Religion and his M.A. in Theology with a Certificate in Modern Jewish Thought from Boston University. Rabbi Sirkman lost his wife Susan (z”l) to cancer, is the proud father of their four wonderful children, Aaron, Alexander, Gabriel (Chelsea) and Sophie, and adores his grandson, Sawyer. He’s also Billy Dreskin’s best friend!

*          *          *

As a Reform rabbi who’s spent over three decades in congregational life, I’ve often talked of renaming Reform — an insufficient descriptor for our denomination — to Punim-to-Punim [from the Yiddish, “face-to-face”] Judaism. Rabbi Larry Kushner once said, “We are a hopelessly communal people.” More precisely, I believe, we are a ridiculously relational people. Being together makes being Jewish happen. But what happens when we can’t be together?

These past 15 months, no matter how “hard” or “easy” any of us had it, we’ve learned a lot. Good stuff even. Our learning, you could say, has been one of the pandemic’s silver linings. To acknowledge some of those Silver Learnings, we’ve invited friends from different walks of life to share what they’ve learned from the pandemic. Our guess is you’ll hear some voices that sound like your own, and some that offer a window into a world you’ve not known but from which we can all now learn.

Juliet Wishner grew up in Billy’s congregation and is dedicating her life to creating social change in America and Israel/Palestine. After graduating from Ardsley High School (Ardsley, NY) she studied international studies and sociology at the University of Michigan, completing her studies in 2020. She firmly believes that through creating connections and relationships, we can form a long-lasting shared society.

*          *          *

When I told people I was moving to Israel for nine-months in the midst of a global pandemic, they looked at me as if I was crazy — what on earth would convince me to do this? I am here as a part of a program called Yahel Social Change Fellowship. We work in two cities, Rishon Letzion and Lod, with marginalized communities that lack resources in many sectors.

These past 15 months, no matter how “hard” or “easy” any of us had it, we’ve learned a lot. Good stuff even. Our learning, you could say, has been one of the pandemic’s silver linings. To acknowledge some of those Silver Learnings, we’ve invited friends from different walks of life to share what they’ve learned from the pandemic. Our guess is you’ll hear some voices that sound like your own, and some that offer a window into a world you’ve not known but from which we can all now learn.

Paul Feiner has been the Town Supervisor in Greenburgh, New York, for 30 years. He’s married to attorney Sherrie Brown with whom he shares a wonderful daughter, Julia.

*          *          *

During the pandemic, as Town Supervisor my major concern has been to keep services in the town operational, and to make sure that employees knew that we were concerned about them. Any employee who had major medical issues was able to work from home. To keep employees safe during the initial months of Covid, we rotated days when employees would come in. We were worried that if one person got sick everyone in the department would have to be isolated, so we kept half at home at different times.

These past 15 months, no matter how “hard” or “easy” any of us had it, we’ve learned a lot. Good stuff even. Our learning, you could say, has been one of the pandemic’s silver linings. To acknowledge some of those Silver Learnings, we’ve invited friends from different walks of life to share what they’ve learned from the pandemic. Our guess is you’ll hear some voices that sound like your own, and some that offer a window into a world you’ve not known but from which we can all now learn.

Charles Fishman, M.D. is a pulmonologist with the New York Presbyterian Medical Group Westchester, and an attending pulmonary medicine physician at NYP Lawrence Hospital. He is a member and past president of Woodlands Community Temple in White Plains, NY, a longtime friend of the Dreskin family, and a staunch supporter of Jewish camping. 

Nancy Mills Fishman, MD, FACP, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and a Medical Oncologist and the Director of Cancer Survivorship at New York Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital. She specializes in the treatment of gynecologic malignancies and breast cancer. Nancy lives in Hartsdale, NY, with her husband, Dr. Charles Fishman. They have two daughters, Alexa and Kimberly. Nancy has served as both Vice President of Education and Vice President of Ritual and Programming at Woodlands Community Temple, and has served as a Board Member of URJ Eisner/Crane Lake Camps.

*          *          *