Hadas Gann-Perkal was perplexed.
“Would someone stop giving to important causes in America just because she doesn’t like George Bush?” the 10-year-old asked her mother, Lisa, the director of the Jewish Community Federation’s Israel Center.
Hadas didn’t understand why some American Jews might withhold contributions on Super Sunday because they’re upset that Ariel Sharon might be elected Israel’s prime minister two days afterward.
Mother and daughter had this conversation while talking last week about the S.F.-based JCF’s phonathon fund-raiser, Super Sunday, which will take place this Sunday, Feb. 4.
JCF leaders say it’s not really a concern, but they have discussed the fact that events in Israel might hamper the annual fund-raising campaign. They plan to remind potential donors that two-thirds of the money raised at Super Sunday stays in the Bay Area to support local Jewish institutions and needs. And the money that goes to Israel is used for humanitarian causes and for Arab-Jewish coexistence programs.
In case the expected 1,000 volunteers making phone calls at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco and the Albert Schultz JCC in Palo Alto are not able to assuage those concerns, Gann-Perkal and Gila Noam, director of the JCF’s Israel office, will be on hand in San Francisco, taking to the phones if the need arises.
“The JCF supports a wide range of initiatives and innovative approaches to stemming the social gaps in Israel,” Gann-Perkal said. That support is “societal and people-oriented, not oriented to who the prime minister is.”
In addition, because of ongoing security concerns, Israel often overlooks its social needs. The JCF, said Gann-Perkal, “plays a really important role” in pinpointing some of those needs and providing aid.
Furthermore, she added, the fact that “Israel is really in turmoil right now” should be generating concern.
“Now is the time to be with us in a stronger way, not to step away,” she said. “When you have a family member in trouble, you draw closer to them; you don’t walk away and say, ‘Let me know when you’ve figured it out, I’ll come back.’ We’re family and now is the time we need family.”
Ed Cushman, the JCF’s campaign director, said that the Sharon factor was not a huge concern. For the most part, JCF supporters know that “the money we raise and allocate goes to people in all sorts of humanitarian and educational ways,” he said.
“Our allocations demonstrate our connection to the people of Israel,” Cushman added, noting that when it comes to the Jewish state, coexistence and tolerance programs are among the federation’s highest funding priorities. “We take particular pride in dealing with cutting-edge, critical issues and we have a real stake in trying to improve them.”
While a specific fund-raising goal had not yet been established, Cushman said Super Sunday usually brings in anywhere upward of $1.5 million.
“Roughly 40 percent of our donors give on Super Sunday,” he said. The 1,000 volunteers place more than 10,000 phone calls.
Prospects are called as well as those who already give. “A big part of what we do on Super Sunday is encouraging prospective donors to give,” said Cushman.
This year’s theme of Super Sunday is “Building Community,” and there are two main goals, said David Steirman of San Mateo, who is the lay leader campaign chair of Super Sunday.
“One of our objectives is to have people who can afford to increase their gifts to do so. There has been success with this so far, in that donors have doubled or tripled from last year,” he said. And the second objective is increasing the number of donors.
“Super Sunday is our one day where we really go and put into action our talk of all year,” he said. “We’re going and doing community building.”
Steirman added that many first-time volunteers were signed up to make phone calls.
A few new things are in store for those who will volunteer their time making phone calls.
In a program borrowed from Los Angeles, volunteers will be able to “Ask the Rabbi” any question on their minds. Staff members from the Jewish Museum San Francisco, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and the Israel Center will make presentations.
And volunteers and their friends can watch themselves online, with a continuously running Web cam.
For the third year running, Fred Raker, a writer and performer, and Elliot Brandt, director of the Pacific Northwest Region of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, have made a humorous video instructing the volunteers in how to make their calls. Charles Rudnick of FVS Media produced the video at cost for the JCF.
And in fact, the day is not just about making phone calls and raising money, it can be fun, too.
Adam Pollock, Super Sunday chair of the JCF’s Business and Professional Division sent out an e-mail to some of the JCF regulars, to remind them that “a lot of the day is about feeling good and doing good.”
To whet their appetites to come down to the JCC, Pollock added this additional enticement: “Naked Time.”
“Everyone making calls will have the opportunity to do so in the nude,” Pollock wrote.
Well, maybe next year.
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1,000 volunteers to hit phones for JCF’s Super Sunday