Danielle V. Minson — Raising the Bar
Gary Greenberg on Community Priorities and Growing Up in Jewish Cincinnati
New Federation President Gary Greenberg spoke so eloquently at the Annual Meeting about growing up and raising a family in Jewish Cincinnati and meeting the challenges of the community. Below are his comments from the event. Congratulations to Gary and thank you to outgoing President Tedd Friedman for his vision and leadership. —Shep
I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to serve as President of OUR Jewish Federation.
I emphasize “our” because this Federation belongs to all of us: volunteers, donors, agencies, synagogues, day schools—the entire Jewish community of Greater Cincinnati.
I had the good fortune to grow up in the vibrant Cincinnati Jewish community of the 1960s.
My boyhood here was quintessentially Jewish-American: public schooling at Losantiville Elementary and Walnut Hills High, Class of 71, Wise Temple Sunday School, a year of Torah and Talmud with HUC student Lawrence Kushner to prepare my Bar Mitzvah, and a rock & roll party to celebrate my “manhood,” basketball and swimming at the old Roselawn Jewish Community Center, Saturday night at the movies with James Bond, sled riding at Gibson Greeting Cards in Amberley. And I was fully educated on why some of our Amberley neighbors had numbers tattooed on their arms.
I went away to College and Law School, in Pennsylvania and Michigan, but always hoped to return here to raise my family.
And I was lucky enough to meet and marry my life partner Linda, who wanted the same thing. Here we are, a “few” years later, with the good fortune of having our two sons, daughter-in-law and grandson living nearby.
As we say on Pesach, “It would have been enough.” But now I have been given this opportunity to serve and give back to the Jewish community that has given so much to me.
Tonight we heard from you. About what is important to you and your family.
- We must ensure that our elderly population, especially those with limited means, age with dignity and remain connected to their Jewish community, values, and traditions. To that end, we have convened the Aging 2.0 Task Force with representatives of all the stakeholders to understand the needs, the gaps in meeting those needs and best practices for closing those gaps. I am confident that our community will provide the care and respect for all of our elderly that we would want for ourselves.
- Israel will remain an integral part of our agenda. Israel and American Jewry may at times have differences but we are family, Am Yisrael, and we need each other to reach our full potential. One goal I hope to achieve during my term is to finalize arrangements for Cincinnati and Netanya to be Sister Cities; this has been pending for far too long.
- We must be welcoming and inclusive. Individuals with physical and developmental disabilities should have the opportunity to participate fully and with ease in our community. This requires allocation of resources and effective accommodations. It also requires a culture of acceptance. In addition, we want to create a community that’s inclusive to the growing number of interfaith couples and families who are part of Jewish Cincinnati.
We will succeed in meeting these and the many other challenges facing us in the years ahead if we continue to listen to each other with sincere hearts and open minds, as we did tonight.
Our differences will remain, but we will stand on common ground. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” Psalm 133.
Finally, but not least, I want to thank Linda, the love of my life, as I would not be fit to serve you if not for the work she has done over the years to civilize me.
Thank you, Linda. And thanks to all of you for being here tonight and all you do for our community.
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Why are there really no synagogues for people who don’t choose to live way up in Blue Ash and Mason? My husband and I live in northern KY. I have many Jewish friends who live around central Cincinnati, including the west side, Northside and Clifton, Oakley and closer to the city core. My husband and I are too old (retirement age) to want to hang out with UC Chabad and, except the rare occasions when the Plum Street Wise Temple is open, we have to drive 30-45 minutes each way to attend a service.
Why isn’t the Plum Street synagogue open all the time? It is in a perfect location for so many people and it sits empty most of the time. My husband and I are members of a wonderful havurah that meets in Northside once a month. We regularly have 20-30 people there for a Shabbat gathering, a service and a Shabbat meal. There are people there who are single, people with babies, rabbinical students from HUC and older folks like us. This is the only reasonable access to a Jewish community for us. Jews in the central part of the city feel abandoned by the organized synagogues and the Federation. Not all of us want to live in the northeast suburbs. You are missing a connection to young, professional Jews who have nowhere to go, as well as people who just don’t want to drive that far to find a community. Young professionals often rent and they live closer to the city where they work. There should be a way to connect that is closer to where people live.
And by the way, we went to a Conservation synagogue for the first day of Rosh Hashanah. As I looked around, I didn’t see many people who would fall into the age 20-40 age group. Most were 40 and older, many close to retirement age and without kids at home. We match the demographic but hate the commute. We wouldn’t join a shul that is so far from us. We tried it once and found that we never felt like making the drive, especially on a Friday during rush hour.
Please forward this to someone who can raise this issue with Federation members (although I’m sure it has been discussed before) and please take these comments seriously and to heart. We all want to belong to a caring community but it shouldn’t be so hard to connect.
Hi Marilyn, Thank you for sharing your thoughts. My observation is similar. There do seem to be a growing number of members of our community living in and around the city center. Our last demographic study is from 2008. But the Federation and the Foundation will be coordinating a new community demographic study this winter. That should give us updated estimates of the population in and around down town, which could encourage new synagogue outreach, activities and engagement in that area. We will make all of that information available on our web page as soon as its ready. The Federation is independent of the congregations, but we do invest in activies downtown, especially for young adults. We just had 250 young adults at a launch event for a new web portal for young adults, called the Cincinnati Vine. We did not hold it in the suburbs — we held it at the Summit Hotel in Madisonville. As for Plum Street Temple, it is owned and operated by the Wise Temple congregation. Their web page says that you can contact Alex Burte, Membership/Program Director, 513-793-2556 or aburte@wisetemple.org for information about the days and times that it is open. If you need other contact information, just let me know. By the way, I hear the Northside Havurah is wonderful. I need to get over there and experience it for myself. Wishing you and yours a healthy and sweet New Year, Shep Englander
Hi again Marilyn, Did you know that Hebrew Union College holds weekly Shabbat services on their Clifton campus? They are open to the public. Here’s a blurb from the HUC web page– “Services in the HUC Scheuer Chapel offer students the opportunity to deepen their spiritual growth, while developing their skills to be inspiring worship leaders. All are welcome.” Wishing you and yours a healthy and sweet New Year, Shep Englander