Federation gearing up for Super Sunday

by Jill Huber
NJJN Bureau Chief/Monmouth

The Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County is gearing up for this year’s Super Sunday, which will take place on Nov. 19 at the Ruth Hyman Jewish Community Center in Deal.

The event is the federation’s biggest one-day, community-wide fund-raising effort and has brought in donor pledges totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars at each event in previous years.

On Nov. 19, more than 200 adult volunteers will staff 50 phones at the JCC from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Teens are also part of the effort; some will work the phones while others will perform administrative functions. The mission is straightforward; the phone volunteers will call members of Monmouth County’s Jewish community and ask for their financial support.

“Make Your Mark All Over the World” is this year’s Super Sunday theme, which is particularly apt in light of the emergency conditions that exist in Israel’s northern region, according to Howard Gases, the federation’s executive director.

“We need people to open their hearts in a positive way,” Gases said. “We need their pledges to help preserve Jewish life in Israel and around the world. We need them to join in the most important event of our annual campaign. Our challenge is to get the message out regarding how important this is.”

Money raised on Super Sunday is used for a wide variety of causes; in addition to bringing relief efforts to Israel, it supports programming at the Center for Holocaust Studies at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, funds scholarships for Jewish day school students, subsidizes teen participation in Israeli travel and Jewish summer camp programs, provides assistance to terror victims in Israel, helps those who have made aliya, funds programs at Jewish community centers and such agencies as the Jewish Family and Children’s Service, and provides food and medical assistance to Jews in the former Soviet Union.

In 2005, donations also assisted victims of the southeast Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

The federation has sent letters to area synagogues asking them to participate in a “Super Sunday Shabbat” on Nov. 17-18. Religious leaders have been asked to speak to their congregants about the fund-raising event, and federation representatives are available to come to the synagogues to talk about Super Sunday, Gases said.

The federation has already received commitments from several area synagogues and more are expected, he added.

“It’s going to be a big undertaking,” Gases said. “But the Jewish community always comes through.”

Additional information on Super Sunday 2006 is available on the federation’s Web site.