My modest purchase for a bond with Israel

Smoke-filled hotel and country-club dining rooms with middle-aged men puffing on cigars.

That is my main memory of the countless events I covered during my early career as editor of the weekly Jewish newspaper in my Buffalo hometown. The annual dinners were the social and economic highlights of the city’s Jewish Federation and of the Israel Bonds office.

Every year I sat in the stuffy rooms, taking notes and photographs, while the well-heeled men who sustained the Jewish community’s philanthropic endeavors puffed away, standing at their tables to announce that year’s multi-figure donation. As...