Mady Jablon of Calabasas has seen how The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles can make a difference.
Two of Jablon’s granddaughters took advantage of stipends the Federation offered them to attend Jewish summer camp. Her daughter-in-law’s brother participated in a Federation-sponsored Birthright Israel program that sends young adults to Israel, many for the first time. And some of her grandchildren have received free Jewish books and CDs at their home each month through the Federation’s PJ Library program.
Jablon was one of hundreds of volunteers who joined together at the Skirball Cultural Center for the Federation’s Super Sunday event to make phone calls and ask for donations to benefit the 102-year-old organization, which leaders say is the oldest and largest Jewish nonprofit west of the Mississippi.
“It’s not an easy thing to do but it’s an important thing to do and you just have to feel that this is a mitzvah,” or a good deed, said Jablon, who owns a promotional products company with her husband. “Besides … giving, a mitzvah is also asking for someone to help.”
With a slight morning drizzle and cooler temperatures Sunday, the weather couldn’t have been more cooperative for their big 2014 annual fundraising kickoff, President and CEO Jay Sanderson said.
“When the weather’s not good, people are home and when they’re home, they answer the phone and we are the central community organization and we need the whole community to do our work, to answer the phone and contribute to what we do to sustain and support the community and build the community for the future,” Sanderson said.
Last year, the Federation’s Super Sunday — which launches the organization’s annual fundraising campaign — raised more than $1.9 million during the all-day affair. Nearly $48 million was raised during the 2013 yearlong campaign and this year, they hope to raise $50 million to support various programs aligned with the organization’s mission, Sanderson said.
The nonprofit, which is made up of some 17,000 donors, engages with the community and helps people in need, including seniors, Holocaust survivors and those with special needs in the L.A. area, in Israel and dozens of other countries, Sanderson said.
This year was the first time that Super Sunday combined separate events in the Valley and at the Federation’s headquarters downtown into one location, he said.
“I feel so fortunate to be a part of this amazing Jewish community that helps everyone, not just Jews,” said Ellen Silverman of Encino, who has been coming to Super Sunday for about two decades.
Andrew Cutrow, 22, of Westwood had been coming to Super Sunday for years with his father but this was the first time he made phone calls asking for money. The UCLA graduate, who has a bachelor’s degree in communications, acknowledged that he felt “a bit awkward” soliciting donations on the phone but felt “a little bit of weight off the shoulders” after he secured his first pledge.
Scott J. Svonkin, who is vice president of the Los Angeles Community College District, was among the elected officials who participated in the event, something he has done since he was about 13 years old, he said. Svonkin, who lives in Burbank, said he has had to ask for money in previous jobs and does so as an elected official so it comes “pretty naturally to me.”
L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer, who formerly ran Bet Tzedek legal services — an affiliated agency of the Jewish Federation — said it also comes easily to him because he knows how the Federation helps the city’s most vulnerable residents.
“I know how much it matters when a senior citizen who doesn’t have enough food to eat, has food to eat. When a child who won’t have the kind of education he wants has a chance at education. When someone in great need of legal services so they can save their house or their health care,” can get those services, he said. “Today is the day the community can come together and say ‘I want to participate in changing the world.’ ”
