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November 15, 2002/Kislev 10 5763, Vol. 55, No. 12
Undersung heroes
FLORENCE ECKSTEIN
Publisher
I've watched our community grow and change, from several hundred Jews and a handful of groups in a small Southwestern town, to tens of thousands of Jews and hundreds of organizations and groups in a sophisticated major metropolitan area.
Integrating and serving our rapidly increasing numbers has been an ongoing challenge. We've continually characterized ourselves as new and callow - never quite able to measure up to more seasoned communities, destined always to be a day late in offering services and a dollar short in raising funds.
I had long since accepted that way of thinking as fact. I was wrong.
The accomplishments of the past five years have demonstrated that we are second to none in the nation. We are a 21st-century thriving American Jewish community, creating our own identity and traditions.
Thanks to the devotion of long-timers and newcomers, our infrastructure of religious, educational, social, cultural and recreational resources across the Valley grows stronger and encompasses more people every day.
The Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus we dedicated three weeks ago stands as proof of what we can accomplish when we share a vision, a sense of purpose, the will to succeed and a working partnership of generous contributors, devoted part-time volunteers and 24/7 professionals.
Three professionals are especially deserving of our deepest thanks for carrying the campus from dream to reality.
Art Paikowsky established the climate when he began work five years ago as executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix. He promptly, gently engaged a team of people eager to bring to fruition the long-time dream of a centrally located, non-denominational gathering place.
Art, hand-in-hand with then federation President Lanny Lahr, spearheaded a record-breaking fund-raising campaign to fully fund construction of a $31 million campus housing six agencies. (Art recently left the federation to run a capital fund-raising campaign for The King David School to build its own facility on the campus.)
Campus Project Manager Fred Zeidman, the federation's assistant executive director, virtually lived at the site for many long months, working with architects and contractors on every square foot of its construction.
As Art worked on funding and Fred on building, Mark Shore, president of the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, threw his imagination and energy into creating center programs and services from the ground up - from infants needing day care to grandparents getting together with friends - encompassing sports and recreation, classes, entertainment and holiday celebrations.
Thank you, Art, Fred and Mark, for your professional leadership in building our communal home.
Contact the writer at flo_eckstein@jewishaz.com.
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