Partial Transcript of Judy Gilbert-Gould’s Remarks at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
Good afternoon, friends. It is [my son Bobby’s and my] honor and privilege to serve as Chairs of the 75th Annual Meeting of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. Welcome and thank you for being here …
The Annual Meeting is Federation’s most important business gathering of the year. It is also a time to honor our leadership and thank the volunteers who give their time, wisdom and resources to ensure that Federation can effectively serve our Miami Jewish community and lead our collective efforts on behalf of all Jewish people. And this year, we have the additional pleasure of celebrating an important milestone in the history of our Federation... the 75th anniversary of the founding of this vital community institution …
As [President and CEO Jacob Solomon] said earlier, my father was Stanley C. Myers, our Federation’s founding President. I literally grew up with Federation, having been a very young child when the leaders of Miami’s fledgling Jewish community brought this organization to life.
Our Federation was founded during the time of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which shattered lives and communities across Eastern Europe, and foreshadowed the Holocaust. In 1938, when news of Kristallnacht reached our area, my father gathered a group of community leaders and created what would later be called the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. In so doing, they set a new standard for an organized and united Jewish community... an institution that continues to shine and shed its bright light, helping Jews in Miami, in Israel and around the world.
One of my earliest memories is sitting on my father’s shoulders at the Coast Guard Station on MacArthur Causeway, looking out at the lights of the ship the St. Louis as it was being turned away from our shores. Little did I know that what happened to the St. Louis would be a defining moment for the Jewish people in our community, as well as to the ship’s passengers, many of whom fell victim to the Nazis. As young as I was, I knew that this event greatly troubled my father – and I saw how determined he was to galvanize the support of others in this community to do what was right for our people.
Our Federation was founded 10 years before the State of Israel, and Miami’s Jewish community pledged our financial and moral support for the young nation early on. Weeks following the November 29, 1947 United Nations Partition Plan vote, Golda Meir – then Meyerson --, realizing that war with the Arab nations was near, came unannounced to the U.S. to appeal to American Jews to raise much-need funds. Golda joined my father – who was then President of the national Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds – along with Henry Morgenthau, Jr., former US Secretary of the Treasury and General Chair of the UJA... and New York Governor Herbert Lehman in an appeal to the delegates at the Council of Federations General Assembly in Chicago, announcing that Israel needed $50 million within two months’ time to defend itself against its enemies. Take a moment to listen to some excerpts from that live broadcast, with my father and Golda from 1948...
Click here to listen to the excerpt. Click here to listen to the full 30-minute broadcast. (Loading time may vary.)
Ladies and gentlemen, the rest is history.
In the years that followed, our Federation was deeply involved in strengthening the State of Israel and rescuing and resettling Holocaust survivors. We were also committed to building up Jewish institutions here at home, including Jewish family service agencies, Mount Sinai Hospital, Jewish community centers, schools and synagogues.
Later, as Israel fought a number of devastating wars, Miami’s Jewish community stood in solidarity with her people, raising emergency funds time and time again... lobbying for the freedom of Soviet Jews... welcoming Cuban immigrants to our community... dealing with an aging Jewish population on South Beach... and greatly expanding our social-service safety net. New priorities emerged and Federation found itself immersed in interfaith and intergroup relations, social action and advocacy, leadership development on all levels, and an increased desire on the part of our community to connect new generations to their roots through missions to Israel, the creation of the Young Leadership department, and the twinning with sister communities in Israel.
From our Federation’s humble beginnings, this community has achieved so much over these many decades... and those accomplishments have transcended the boundaries of Miami-Dade County, touching the lives of Jews across our nation, in Israel and in more than 70 other countries around the world.
From the very first night my dad made his commitment to serve as Federation’s founding President, he remained an active and vibrant part of this community for the next 54 years. Today, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our Federation, I can tell you, my dad is smiling down on all of us. He would be so proud of our accomplishments.
