President's Message
February 2005

by Brett Borah
President, Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley

Imagine. IMAGINE!

Imagine with me that we are living in the Valley of Hearts Delight in the year 1930. Imagine that there is only one synagogue, no Jewish Community Center, no Jewish day schools. Imagine no Jewish social structures other than Temple Emanuel. Imagine that there is no State of Israel. There has been no Holocaust. There is no Jewish Federation!

Now, see yourself living in the Silicon Valley 75 years later here in the year 2005. We have 6 synagogues, a renewed Jewish Community Center, 3 Jewish day schools and numerous other Jewish social structures and a magnificent new Jewish campus well under construction. Imagine a Jewish Federation with over 1,200 donors and a community annual campaign of over $2.3 million plus other specialized campaigns totaling over $15 million. Imagine a Jewish Federation that represents the broad spectrum of Jews in our valley from Reform to Orthodox, affiliated and non-affiliated, observant and not so observant, who all come together to perform the mitzvot of tikun olum and k’lal Yisrael.

And now, imagine yourself living here on the occasion of our Jewish Federation’s 100th anniversary in the year 2030. Imagine a strong and secure Israel, at peace with her democratic neighbors in the Middle East…an Israel that does not have to divert extraordinary amounts of its gross domestic product to defense and is able to self-fund its social services programs. Imagine a local community with not 6 but 12 synagogues, not 3 but 6 Jewish day schools, and a Jewish Community Center needing not one but two campuses to accommodate the demand for programs.

Imagine a fully funded Jewish Family Services and Hillel of Silicon Valley. Imagine what we’ll do with an annual community campaign of over $20 million. Imagine that to reach $20 million, we need only increase our annual campaign by 10 percent a year for those next 25 years. Just imagine what we could do with $20 million a year!

Imagine a community where no Jewish kid who wants to go to summer camp is denied on the basis of economics. Imagine a community where every Jewish teen is given a subsidized trip to Israel as part of their Hebrew High School curriculum. Imagine the smile on an elderly homebound senior who is greeted monthly by a visitor from Jewish Family Services just to say hello and check on her needs. Imagine a campus bustling with noise while hosting a Northern California teen leadership Shabbaton. Where we can subsidize those members of our community who want to make aliya or even go to Israel to study. Friends, we’ve come so far as a community in the last 75 years, think of where we can be in another 25 years at our Federation’s 100th anniversary.

Our community could not have achieved what we have without the imagination, courage and dedication of many people. One of those people in particular is the 2005 receipient of the Harold Witkin Humanitarian Award, Eli Reinhard.

Eli has been instrumental in the construction of nearly every Jewish building in Santa Clara county. He has had a hand in the founding and establishment of South Peninsula Jewish Day School, the new Congregation Sinai campus, Chai House, Yavneh Day School, the purchase of our Hillel house and our new community campus.

I want to take a moment as the president to thank Eli for the leadership and guidance he’s provided both to our community and to me personally. Eli, we simply couldn’t have done it without you.

Imagine with me who will be the great imaginators of the next 25years.

In honor of the Jewish Federation's 75th anniversary, we have the occasion to look not only forward but also backward in time as we recognize not only Eli but also the rest of our community who have moved us from good to very good and on to greatness.

We recognize not only our 38 past Federation presidents, our 9 Witkin Humanitarian Award winners and 13 Berman Young Leadership Award winners, 20 past presidents of our Women’s Philanthropy and our 21 past Federation Women of Distinction, but also the thousands of members of our community who have served at our agencies, on our committees and who have contributed their dollars annually to our annual community campaign, our Israel Emergency, Argentina Now, Operation Exodus, Operations Solomon, Magic Carpet and Moses, Levy Campus Cornerstone and other specialized campaigns.

We recognize those in the community who have made annual contributions for over 25 years. We thank you for what you’ve done; We thank you for what you do; We thank you for what you give; We thank you for who you are. Todah Rabah!

We, today, continue to stand on the shoulders of those who came and imagined before us as we reach for higher standards and accomplishments just as we continue to stand tall and imagine for those who will follow us as we, as a Federation, reach toward our 100th anniversary.