When unthinking tzedakah is strategic

Ukraine probably wasn’t what you were thinking about when you made your gift to the 2021 JUF annual campaign–but as you (hopefully) begin thinking about your 2022 JUF gift, it should be.

The crisis in Ukraine belongs alongside the other issues you care about most, from antisemitism, communal security, and Israel, to mental health, hunger, and elder care–as well as the next unanticipated crisis that will invariably emerge.

You can’t be sure of what, where, or when that crisis will be. But you can be sure that JUF and our partners across the globe are already preparing for that next unanticipated challenge.

Our global network is able to do so because you and so many others support the JUF annual campaign so generously.

Year after year, JUF funds agencies which often, out of necessity, operate out of the limelight. That includes the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and the Jewish Agency for Israel, our primary partners on the ground in Israel and in 70+ countries worldwide.

Our JDC and JAFI partners have been toiling in Ukraine for decades, allowing them to be so impactful now. They are providing life-saving services today in Ukraine because your annual campaign donations created the infrastructure to do so. Our reliable commitment to their efforts-fueled by donor trust of JUF-enables them to engage in long-term planning, confident that their life-saving work will not be forsaken because their funders’ commitment may wane or careen from one short-lived “cutting edge” innovation to the next.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. And an infrastructure to assist-and, when necessary, rescue-a distant, distressed Jewish community also isn’t built in a day. It takes decades. And a committed funding partner like JUF-relying on committed donors like you-to sustain. Jews the world over have come to rely upon that unbroken chain of trust: linking donors in Chicago to life-saving work, whenever and wherever it is needed.

The Talmud teaches us that to save a single life is akin to saving an entire world. Each of us, via our annual JUF gifts, are doing just that. Now. In Ukraine. Because of your gift to the JUF annual campaign.

That’s something to think about, as well as the next unforeseen Jewish crisis, as we make our 2022 gifts.

Jay Tcath is the Executive Vice President of the Jewish United Fund of Chicago.