Growing up, I was a bit of a Jewish nerd. But I wasn’t studying Jewish texts or diving deep into meaning of holidays. Every week, by age 12 or 13, I was poring over the New Jersey Jewish News, looking for articles and photos of my parents.
There they were, co-chairing a UJA event, or there was my mom, heading up a golf outing for Daughters of Israel; or my dad, leading another Israel Bonds mission. These grainy black and white photos of this glamourous couple (as they remain today) are seared in my memory.
As a teenager, I joined my dad on Israel Bond missions and watched as he pitched bankers and businessmen, Jewish and gentile, and convinced them to invest millions of dollars in the state of Israel. I was in awe of that power. It was getting people to join you in something bigger than themselves.
Looking back, I can see that those moments were my first lessons in community leadership.
In my work at the Jewish Community Foundation (JCF) over the past 20 years, I have been so privileged to be connected to so many people: hundreds of JCF fundholders, UJA donors, community leaders, who, see outside of themselves and believe in building and strengthening the Jewish community.
During the six years of the Centennial Campaign, I had hundreds of conversations with longtime donors to our Federation. These are people who have been giving to UJA every year for decades.
And I always opened these conversations with my favorite question.
“When did you start giving to UJA?”
Among donors in our “Greatest Generation,” those now in their 80s and 90s, I heard same answer again and again: 1967.
They said it was a moment when the state of Israel was under attack and they feared it might not survive, when there was fear and trepidation for being Jewish in the US, but also a burst of pride and renewed engagement among Jews across the spectrum.
In other words, a moment not unlike today.
And what did that generation do with that moment in our history?
Did they cower in fear, and fade away? No, just the opposite.
They doubled down, with commitment, generosity, and perseverance. They literally built out the modern UJA campaign we have today, the engine of our Jewish Federation. They founded Jewish schools. They built and strengthened Jewish institutions across the community, for the elderly, the needy, for the developmentally disabled, and more.
My parents’ first gift to UJA was in 1967, when I was 5 years old. Little did I know at that time that that small step they took into Jewish communal life would shape not only their lives, but eventually mine.
That was their 1967 moment. Today, post-Oct 7, is ours.
This is the moment to take the mantle and build on what was built for us. It is a time to stand tall and proud as that generation did, and to look across the community and think of ways to build an even stronger one.
As Dan Senor said in his recent “State of World Jewry” address: “We need to invest so that we can look back on this moment decades from now and say: ‘American Jewish life was not the same after that dark period. It was better.’”
We have been given this moment with great challenges, yes, but also with visionary and passionate leaders, tremendously generous and committed donors, and an increasingly engaged community.
So, let’s grasp this moment, together, with pride and confidence and joy and generosity, and build on the past and dream and build together an even greater Greater MetroWest.
Kim Hirsh is the winner of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest 2025 President’s Bamberger Award. This piece is adapted from her speech upon receiving the award at Federation’s Annual Meeting on June 10.
She is pictured above (center) at the Annual Meeting with her parents, Barbara and Charlie Hirsh, and her husband, Jonathan Fingerhut.