JNF-USA: Jewish communities count

(JNS) — On the first day of the Jewish National Fund-USA’s annual Global Conference, held in the heart of South Florida’s extensive Jewish community from Oct. 23-26, CEO Russell Robinson met with representatives from cities not particularly known as bastions of American Judaism.

It’s part of a basic business strategy, Robinson told those in attendance.

“If you’re not forecasting where your customer acquisition is going to be, if you’re not looking at your customer base and examining those pieces, you won’t be in business long,” he said.

The Jewish population in the United States has often followed jobs, and right now, Robinson said, with a highly educated Jewish workforce and hi-tech companies moving operations to places like Mobile, Ala., and Augusta, Ga., it follows that young Jews are moving to those locales.

“It makes sense for us to forecast, to get in front of the movement,” Robinson said.

He said JNF-USA’s vision is to make inroads in Jewish communities of up to 5,000 people by sending national representatives into synagogues and Jewish community centers in those areas to build partnerships and trust, and to harness the collective power of those communities.

Robinson’s idea to focus on small community outreach began about 10 years ago, following a brief conversation with an organization member who was planning her own move.

Judi Edelman, now a member of JNF-USA’s national small communities committee, told JNS that after informing Robinson she was moving out of South Florida to a town in the mountains of North Carolina, he asked, “Are there Jews there?”

She told him there were, but nothing like South Florida.

A growing number of such communities are currently included in JNF-USA’s small community network, including Asheville, Greensboro and Wilmington, N.C., Greenville, S.C., Augusta, Ga., Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn., Huntsville, Ala., Harrisburg, Pa., Bakersfield, Calif., Lake Tahoe and Reno, Nev., Albuquerque and Sante Fe, N.M., Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Okla., Galveston, Corpus Christi, Tyler, Brownsville-McAllen and Laredo, Texas and Baton Rouge, La.

“In small communities, if you want to be Jewish, you really have to want to be Jewish,” Dov Gordon, JNF-USA associate director of small communities, told JNS. “It’s not like there is a shul on every corner. You have to make the effort to join the community.”

Ultimately, Gordon said, the goal of the small communities initiative is to bind together Jews who love Israel and to bring them out of any geographical isolation.

“We want to make sure that every Zionist in America and the diaspora has a voice in Israel,” Gordon said. “And it’s so important for us to engage in these small communities and make sure that every Jewish person in this country has that voice.”

He said JNF-USA has been a huge resource, especially since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Because we’re a non-political organization, we’re able to bring people together from all religious observance levels, from all backgrounds of politics, to unite on some common ground that they can all get behind in Israel, on building the north and building the south,” Gordon said. “And it’s really been special because it’s really brought people together in these communities all over the country in a way that they can support Israel, where they’re not in a room arguing with each other.”

The small communities were able to team up post-Oct. 7 to donate, then travel to Israel to “see that impact that they were having on these communities,” Gordon told JNS. “And it is something that’s so meaningful, especially for Jews in small communities that are isolated, that aren’t getting people from New York City coming in from big organizations and are in sort of a bubble.”

“I’ve been on two of their volunteer missions since Oct. 7,” Edelman told JNS. “They are the most meaningful things I think I’ve done in my entire life, and it’s all because JNF-USA encouraged me to do it.”

The small communities project has also led to a national committee of small community donors, and a national small communities mission to Israel planned for next year.

“A lot of these communities aren’t able to do Israel trips, because maybe they get one or two people to sign up, and it’s just not enough to go. So we’re able to provide that for them, “Gordon said.

“It’s something that’s really beautiful and meaningful,” he told JNS. “And the change that we’re seeing in these communities, the stronger connection to Israel, is something that is very special.”