As we enter another Rosh Hashana season, the beginning of another year, we look back at where we have been over the past year and look ahead to where we are going.

At this time last year, we were coming to the end of one of the most serious challenges Israel and the Jewish people have faced in recent years: the war with Hizbullah in Lebanon. After a summer of rocket bombardment in northern Israel and Israel Defense Forces soldiers fighting terrorists in southern Lebanon, a summer of Israeli citizens sitting in bomb shelters for days and weeks at a time, Rosh Hashana last year saw us entering a year of greater peace and greater hope.

As the new year began, so did the rebuilding in Israel. Over the summer, in Jewish communities throughout North America, federations raised record sums of money through the Israel Emergency Campaign. The MetroWest Jewish community alone raised $5.8 million.

Some of those funds were used during the war to move children to safety and to provide food and medical supplies to areas under rocket attack. But much of the funding remained and was available for the work of restoring the country.

It was an example of the best we can attempt to do: Jews helping Jews in a time of trouble, reaching across the expanse of the globe to be sure that none of us is ever in need and alone.

Throughout the year, events and new initiatives locally in MetroWest demonstrated that same spirit of hope in the future.

Last year, we had a successful fund-raising year that went beyond even our own expectations. The 2007 United Jewish Appeal campaign raised close to $30 million. And the assets of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest grew by $35.4 million.

JCF and UJC initiated the MetroWest Day School Campaign, with the goal of enhancing academic excellence and affordability in MetroWest's three Jewish day schools: the Hebrew Academy of Morris County, the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, and the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School. The campaign has raised $14 million, with a goal of $50 million. Some of the benefits include a new state-of-the-art science laboratory, the use of the Internet in the classroom through new laptop computers, enhancements, Israel trips for all three schools, supplemental tuition support for middle-income families, and a new Center for Academic Success for after-school studying.

JCF also began the Jewish Residential Camping Initiative, in cooperation with the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life and the National Foundation for Jewish Camping. This program offers "camperships" — non-need-based stipends of $1,000 per camper — to encourage Jewish families to choose Jewish camp rather than secular, for-profit camps for their children. The initiative was created in recognition of the power of residential camping to serve as a primary building block of Jewish continuity. This summer we sent 30 first-time campers to Jewish camp; the expectation for summer 2008 is for more than 50 campers. An endowment campaign for Jewish Residential Camping is on the way.

UJC has been a charter member of the birthright Israel initiative since its inception. This year we had our very own birthright MetroWest trips and sent two groups of young people to Israel. Birthright israel provides first-time, peer-group, educational trips to Israel for Jewish young adults, ages 18 to 26, at no cost to the participant, to help ensure Jewish continuity. In addition, UJC MetroWest was selected as one of only nine federations to receive support from the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies for its birthright israel program, support that includes hiring a brand manager to maximize community outreach and philanthropic support for birthright israel.

MetroWest CARES, in conjunction with Jewish Family Service, launched Elderlink, an information and referral service for eldercare information for the MetroWest community.

We faced a new challenge with the JCC MetroWest as it entered into a period of financial distress that required a reorganization of its operations. After many years of operating deficits at the Whippany campus that remained open only with the help of UJC, the JCC could no longer ignore the problem. The decision had to be made to move from the Whippany health and fitness facility. Its efforts are focused on ensuring a vital JCC facility in West Orange and extending services for the Western Morris Jewish community in coordination with UJC. In addition, UJC has been working very hard to find a solution and is in serious negotiations with an alternative health and fitness provider to continue operating the Whippany site. Our expectation is that the health and fitness facilities on the Whippany campus will remain open alongside the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life, Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Historical Society, New Jersey Jewish News, Waldor Library, Gebroe & Hammer Families Conference Center, Brody Early Childhood Center, Harry C. Wilf Holocaust Memorial, and UJC MetroWest.

This past year has been a year of new beginnings and new possibilities. It has been a year spent building for the future. And so, as we at UJC MetroWest begin not only a new year but also a new campaign year, we look to the future by recommitting ourselves to the values we have always shared and the goals we have always pursued.

UJC MetroWest is rededicating itself as your center for Jewish philanthropy. It is a rededication of our commitment to use all our resources and know-how to make every philanthropist's personal goals attainable, to bring to fruition every philanthropist's passion to help the causes that are closest to their hearts. And it is a recognition that we are all philanthropists, however much we are able to give, whatever we are able to do, because we are making the future possible for so many who need our help.

This is a particularly appropriate time to rededicate ourselves to the future of our people, for this year we commemorate Israel@60, the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state. There can be no better proof that hope is our legacy, that there is always the chance that each year can be better than the last.

Shana tova.