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Planning for Our Jewish Future

Building a Jewish Community for the 21st Century
The Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford created a Long Range Planning Committee charging them with the task of developing new priorities for our Jewish Community for the 21st Century. 

Led by chair, Ted Kaplan and with Wellspring Consulting hired to facilitate, the committee gathered data from many sources including interviews with lay and staff leadership and stakeholders, beneficiary agency and synagogue leadership, financial background and programmatic information analysis for the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, Inc. 

After more than six months of comprehensive research and interviewing, a report was issued and accepted in August 2010 by both the Federation and the Foundation Boards.

It was determined these three key initiatives will be used to realize the vision of the Jewish Community of Greater Hartford for the 21st Century:

  1. Re-orient funding priorities for the Federation, and for the Foundation unrestricted grants;
  2. Define how the Federation and Foundation will play complementary roles to meet the community’s priorities; and
  3. Re-envision the Federation to allow it to best support the community.

The Federation and Foundation Funding decisions will be guided by three priorities:

  1. Education:  Services to ensure the continuation of our unique Jewish story, ethic, and culture, and the community which embodies all these with an emphasis on young people and families, and the development of Jewish community leaders;
  2. Connecting to our Heritage:  Outreach to Jewish people (including interfaith families) who have limited or no affiliation with the Jewish community, and outreach to residents outside of the traditional core area of West Hartford and Bloomfield; and
  3. Social Commitment:  Services promoting the Jewish values of acts of loving kindness and tzedakah for the elderly and/or vulnerable of our Jewish community who cannot be well served by non-Jewish services, as well as for these populations in Israel and across the world.

High-level decision criteria will determine the level of funding provided. Funding is for activities that meet one or more of the following funding priorities:

  1. Provides a service to the Jewish community that would not be financially supported by the larger community.
  2. Provides a service that does not duplicate existing services already available within the Jewish community.
  3. Has a plan for overall financial self-sufficiency and seeks to generate revenue from earned income where possible.

Three committees consisting of members of the Long Range Planning Committee and other community leadership have been set up to determine the best way to implement the three key initiatives listed above.

The Long Range Planning Committee is currently under the leadership of Brad Mondschein and its major task is to work on "revisioning our Jewish community."

Changing demographics coupled with an uncertain economic outlook has presented the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford with an opportunity to reshape our Jewish communal structure.

We believe the outcome of this process will be a stronger, more engaged and more inclusive Jewish community.