Passing the Torch: ‘I’ll have to reinvent myself’

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

Ellen Goldner isn’t sure what she’ll do with herself when her term as president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey comes to an end July 1.

“I’ll spend time with my grandchildren. But that won’t be enough for me. I’ll have to reinvent myself, decide what I’m going to be when I grow up,” said the Maplewood resident.

Goldner, trained as a nursery school teacher but schooled by experience in the roll-up-your-sleeves school of philanthropy, has been part of UJC for at least 20 years. She rose up through the ranks of voluntary leadership positions — Women’s Division Campaign Chair, Women’s Division President, UJA Campaign Chair — to become the organization’s first woman president. She credits the organization with her success. “I feel I owe this community. They took me in. They developed me. They challenged me. They made me do things I didn’t think I could do.”

In her three-year tenure, she presided over two record-breaking UJA campaigns, with 2004 coming in at $23.8 million and 2005 expected to break $24 million, according to Max Kleinman, executive vice president of UJC MetroWest.

When she began in 2002, Goldner set several goals for the organization. Among these were increasing outreach to the larger community, working on Israel’s hasbara, or public relations and education campaign, and increasing services to the elderly. All three rank as important accomplishments of UJC over the last three years, according to Kleinman.

And her term ended on a few high notes: A record number of people attended several recent community-wide events. The MetroWest Committee to Address Resources for Eldercare (CARES), an effort to coordinate services for the elderly, was initiated. And UJC MetroWest secured $200,000 in federal grants to service a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) in Parsippany.

In addition, when the Jewish Agency for Israel launched its North American Coalition for Israel Education, a pilot project designed to foster systemic change in Israel education, UJC MetroWest was among the 11 communities selected to participate.

And she garnered praise from Kleinman for her work with Gary Aidekman, now finishing his fourth term as chair of the UJC Unified Allocations Council, developing a blueprint to retire the debt on the charitable organization’s Whippany campus.

It has been a challenging three years as well. Just last month the UJC announced a plan to protect its rainy-day “stabilization” fund, meaning cuts in allocations to local social service agencies.

The draw from the $9 million stabilization fund will drop from $2.25 million each year to $500,000. “We had to establish a plan for financial stability,” said Kleinman. Jeffrey Korbman, campaign director, added, “We are getting to the point where we are allocating only what we raise and not more.”

Goldner was characteristically blunt in describing those cuts in an earlier interview with the NJ Jewish News. “The process was very painful this year. Everyone had a hugely hard time with this,” she said. “What made it harder this year was that we decided not just to keep nibbling away at a lot of agencies. We had the guts to make cuts in programs that were not working. If we eliminate certain things that are not absolutely necessary to our mission, we won’t just be nibbling away and making everything ineffective.”

Goldner got involved in Federation, she said, because she’s “an old hippie.”

“We wanted to make the world better. It’s that simple.” And she added, she is in a position to do so. “I’m a very lucky person. I have everything. I have a family, financially I’m okay. I feel it’s my obligation and my pleasure to help other people in the community who need help. That’s why all of us are involved, really.”

Raised in Harrisburg, she said, there’s not a time she can remember that her family wasn’t involved in UJA. She spent time living on a kibbutz in 1969 after her freshman year at American University. And finally, when a friend invited her to attend a young women’s luncheon sponsored by UJA, she knew she had to join after hearing Holocaust survivor Gerda Klein speak.

Goldner met her husband, Alan, while they were both still in college. Today, he owns United Supply Corporation, which sells school supplies. They have two children, Josh and Rachel. Josh and his wife Mor, Israeli citizens, are living temporarily in London with their two children, Itai and Shelly. Rachel will be married next weekend.

As the first woman to serve as president of UJC MetroWest, Goldner is considered by many as nothing short of a pioneer. “She has, by her tenure, given women interested in leadership positions a role model to follow. It’s an opening that wasn’t there before she got there,” said Korbman.

And yet when asked how gender affected her tenure, Goldner said only, “I felt people respected the position I held.” But she acknowledged that at times the hardest part was her own internal comfort level. “I’m just now used to being in a room with all men. A lot of the time I was the only woman there. I tried not to dwell on that, but to stay focused on the job I had to do. I’m not easily intimidated.”

Goldner was quick to credit the people she worked with for making the experience valuable for her. “It’s been exciting, working with amazing staff and volunteers, traveling around the world meeting incredible people, both those who do work on the ground and those we help.”

Kleinman characterized her terms as “very successful. We had some difficult times because the economy took a downturn, but with her very engaging personality, she had a very successful tenure.”

Johanna Ginsberg can be reached at jginsberg@njjewishnews.com.