Dear Friends:

Summer is seemingly everyone’s catch-up time – a time to spend with family and friends, a time to travel or complete those errands that have been put off for months. It’s do-not-disturb time with, hopefully, one exception. Over the summer, your local TOP Jewish Foundation development director and/or local trustees would like to meet with you.

We want to know what’s on your mind. We would also like to review how the foundation’s “steady is the course” investment philosophy has helped propel a modest gain in charitable fund assets. We would like to take the opportunity to help you reflect on your own personal charitable giving and share some philanthropic concepts that might be worth considering now. More importantly, we would like to share with you how your local Jewish community is doing.

Many of you support your favorite local Jewish charities through funds held at TOP Jewish Foundation. Let us explain how your gifts to the Jewish Federation’s annual campaign are being allocated and how local Jewish organizations are combating funding cuts while struggling to meet increased requests for essential programs and services.

Many Jewish people in need are spending this summer requesting food packages, seeking financial assistance to keep their air conditioning on, applying for scholarships to ensure their child can attend day or nursery school in the fall or securing financial aid so their children can attend after-school programs at the Jewish Community Center. Still others are receiving counseling to overcome depression due to unemployment or seeking help to manage the stress of a new job.

While most of us continue to live the lives our parents dreamed for us, many in our Jewish family locally, in Israel and around the world are struggling. At a time when we’re expected to do more for less, let us embrace our good fortune, and expand our hearts to include those who need help today.

When you meet with us to review your charitable giving, remember adding or creating a new philanthropic fund at TOP Jewish Foundation can not only make your summer more enjoyable but also enable a local Jewish agency to provide hope to a child, family or senior adult that will make their summertime a better one.

B’Shalom.