We believe in giving back to the community. It is an important part of our Jewish tradition. We believe that you reap what you sow and that what you put into the lives of others comes back into your own. How ironic that the Hebrew word natan, which means to give, is a palindrome – spelled the same way forward and backward. What you give ultimately comes back to you.

It was a trip, that we took that really influenced us the most, taking us to new levels of involvement in our Jewish community. It was our first trip to Israel, back in 1984, as participants on a UJA Federation Young Leadership Mission. We can still remember getting off the plane in Israel and feeling this tremendous sense of calm and peace of mind that somehow, although we’d never been there before, this was home. After that trip we were hooked on doing whatever we could to strengthen our own Jewish community and that of Israel.

We realize that we are blessed to be in a position where we’re able to help and for that we consider ourselves quite fortunate. We also realize that giving of oneself is the greatest gift for it gives us the opportunity to be useful.

As much fulfillment as we get out of giving back, we get even more when we see our three children, Jodi, Kyle and Fara, take an interest in tzedakah. We hope that they realize the importance of giving their time, treasure and talent to help others. We hope that they’ve learned that you cannot walk away from something knowing that you can make a difference. We hope that they know that they have the power to make a positive impact on the lives of others.