Celebrating the New Year with Gratitude & Generosity

The most meaningful way we celebrate the New Year is to open a bottle of bubbly, look back at our good fortune, and make our charitable donations – tzedakah – for the year.

---

When I was single, New Year's Eve was a night to find a big party, get dressed up and look for love. When we became parents, we looked for kid-friendly First Night celebrations. For the last fifteen years, or so, we usually invite a few friends for an elaborate multi-course meal or an evening of snicky snacks that take us up to midnight for a toast.

This year, which has been grueling, unrelenting and tragic for so many, we count our blessings. We are back in Cincinnati, sharing the quarantine with our son and my sister. Our older children are healthy, safe and flourishing. We count ourselves blessed for Husband's job. Most of our family and friends locally and around the world also have remained healthy - we even welcomed a new baby to the Israeli contingent just last month. Our complaints are few and insignificant.

In the Jewish tradition we don’t give charity, which has an implication of choice – one can choose to be charitable or not. The Hebrew word, tzedakah, translates more closely to righteousness – or doing what is right. Tzedakah is an obligation, not a choice. But we can choose where to donate.
​
Over the years, as our own interests and awareness has changed and grown, so has the mix of organizations that we support. We have always supported a mix of Jewish and secular organizations, as well as groups that operate locally, nationally, internationally and in Israel.

---

---

Here is the list of organizations that we supported this year. Each logo is a link to the organization's home page.
Many groups could fall into more than one category, but I tried to group them by their primary mission or population served.

Hunger & Food Insecurity
There are always people among us who don't have enough to eat. The Covid pandemic has thrown previously secure people into crisis, domestically and abroad.

---

Refugee & Immigrant Assistance
Unless you are Native American, we all come from immigrant families - some of us are just a little closer to that experience than others. After he survived the Holocaust, my father was reunited with long lost family in Ohio by HIAS. Both he and I could never have imagined that we would see horrific refugee camps & detention centers in this country.​

---

People with Disabilities | Mental Health
The most vulnerable among us are those who can't speak or represent for themselves. We are judged by how we treat them. 

---

Online Jewish Learning
These organizations have been a blessing to me during this pandemic. I studied & participated in groups and use their materials at home with my family to enhance our own holiday celebrations.

---

Cancer Research & Treatment | Health Care
​Maybe the only thing everyone, everywhere can agree on - Cancer Sucks. This one is personal - Husband is a cancer survivor thanks to Sloan Kettering. And Planned Parenthood provides accessible, affordable health care for girls & women. Period.

---

Social Action & Cultural Bridges
We chose these organizations because they seem to have more direct, personal impact than some advocacy groups. Again, our dollars are limited, so we had to make choices. The Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom is personal for me; this group has been a calm, kind harbor during this tumultuous year. 

---

Zionism
Just like our American patriotism, our Zionism and support for Israel does not depend on our 100% agreement with all its policies or actions. Young Judaea is personal for Husband and JNF does so much more than plant trees.

---

LGBTQ Rights & Inclusion | Anti-Bullying
Who you love or how you identify shouldn't be anybody's business but your own. In our terribly broken world, we have real, serious, crippling problems to solve. Individual families, love lives, and gender aren't a problem. But LGBTQ youth & adults continue to experience unrelenting bullying, discrimination & violence. That's a problem.

---

Media
Accurate, timely information is the foundation of a fair & just society. Fake news isn't news. Alternate facts aren't facts.  They are lies, plain and simple.

---

Synagogues
We belonged to two of these congregations in New Jersey & have a relationship with Park Avenue Synagogue through family and Zoom. We support the Chabad at University of Delaware, which was the target of an anti-Semetic arson attack last summer.

---

Technology & Education for Underserved Students
Right after the war, my father & a friend attended an ORT school in Germany where they studied auto mechanics. His friend eventually owned a fleet of taxis in Baltimore, that started with one cab which he could repair himself. My dad was a mechanic in the US Army, deployed in Korea during that conflict. He attended college on the GI bill. Thank You, ORT.

---

Arts & Culture
Once upon a time, an acquaintance mentioned the Snowfarm summer arts camp. Our oldest went there; the experience changed the trajectory of their life. Later, we paid it forward - encouraging another family to allow their budding artist to embrace his passion. His trajectory changed too.
Most years, we support more Arts & Culture programs. Even though they are suffering too, during this pandemic, but we had to make difficult choices about our tzedakah dollars this year and we chose more Food Relief. As soon as we can gather safely, we will Arts and Culture ourselves silly and lend as much support as we can.

---

Anti-Semitism - We're Against It
We live in dangerous times. Unfortunately, the rise in blatant anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence is not surprising. We are well aware that it always runs just below the surface, but in today's environment haters feel emboldened to voice their feelings in public. Not gonna lie - we are afraid.

---