This week's double portion, Nitzavim-Vayelech, opens with one of the most inclusive moments in the Torah: "You are standing here today, all of you." Moses gathers the entire nation, leaders and tribal heads alongside the woodchopper and the water drawer (Deuteronomy 29:9-10), to enter into covenant together. No voice is too small to matter; no role too humble to be counted. The covenant belongs to the whole community, not merely to those already at the table.
The portion then turns to its central teaching on free will. Moses tells the people that this Torah "is not in the heavens" nor "beyond the sea," it is not distant or inaccessible. Rather, "it is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to live it" (30:12-14). And then comes the charge that gives Nitzavim its enduring power: "u'vacharta bachayim" ("choose life"), Deuteronomy 30:19. The future is not fixed. It is chosen, deliberately and repeatedly, by the community itself.
This is precisely the spirit in which our Jewish Federation will be approaching our next 3–5-year strategic plan. We do not believe the answers to our community's future live in a boardroom alone, we believe they live in our community’s mouths and hearts, close at hand, waiting to be asked for. In the coming months, we will be reaching out through individual interviews with a genuine cross-section of our community: elected officials, law enforcement leadership, synagogue professionals and lay leaders, and representatives spanning the full demographic range of Jewish Greater Naples. These interviews will take place alongside multiple focus group gatherings, concluding with a comprehensive community-wide survey designed to reach as broadly as possible.
This is not a new path for our community; it is a responsibility our Jewish Federation has taken seriously as stewards of this community's future for almost 50 years. In fact, JFGN’s last strategic plan has lived as a guiding document to the board in achieving extraordinary community-wide results. It became the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center. It grew our communal endowments to over $17 million, with testamentary and planned gifts positioning us to exceed $25 million. It helped provide the resources to strengthen WCA and MCA including building the Jewish Book Festival and the Naples Jewish Film Festival into community touchstones.
None of this happened because our Jewish Federation chose to walk alone. It happened because the community chose to engage, and we chose to listen. As we stand together again, kulchem, all of [us], we ask you to choose to be part of this next chapter once again. Your voice, your needs, your aspirations: this is how our future will get written together. Please be on the lookout for the opportunity to specifically share your voice because we are Stronger Together.
Shabbat Shalom.
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