Alliance to manage finances of the Jewish Federation of Cape Cod, Mass.

PROVIDENCE – The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island announced that it has entered into an ongoing collaboration with, and will now manage the financial assets of, the Jewish Federation of Cape Cod (Mass.), effective Aug. 30.

Specifically, said Jeffrey Savit, president and chief executive officer of the Alliance, “We at the Alliance will manage the $900,000 of endowment assets held by the Cape Cod Federation and will run its annual campaign. In addition, the Alliance will provide social service consultations and referrals; each agency’s constituencies will be invited to attend the other’s major programs and events.”

Calling the opportunity – which arose after David Hirsch, a former Jewish Federation of Rhode Island president, introduced the Alliance to the Cape Cod Federation’s lay leaders – a “wonderful shiddukh (marriage or partnership),” Savit said that he found collaborating with Ernie Smily, past president, and Terry Smily, president, and other board members, an “utter pleasure.”

In a statement predating the Jewish Federation of Cape Cod’s Aug. 29 meeting to announce the news, Terry Smily wrote, “Over the past few years many Cape Cod non-profits have lost their volunteers and donors and we are no different. From a peak of $140,000 in 2003 to $55,000 last year we have seen our donor base shrink and even more disturbing our volunteers and board are few and hard to come by.”

The Alliance has, the statement continued, “agreed to continue running our campaign so that we can still support the programs that are near and dear to our hearts. We will still contribute to students traveling to Israel through the Gift of Israel Program, we will still contribute funds so that Cape Cod Jewish youth can go to Jewish summer camps and we will still be able to pay Cantor Bruce Malin a salary so that he can visit the aged and infirmed in our retirement homes and hospitals … By joining with [the Alliance] we have a terrific opportunity to sustain our current model of supporting Cape Cod but now we are able to do even more for world and Israeli Jewry.”

Savit explained that no additional Alliance staff resources will be needed; current staff members will fold these new obligations into their portfolio of work.

“This is a marvelous, win-win opportunity where two independent federations unite and strengthen the collective interests of our southern New England Jewish community.”

“Like many other nonprofits around the country, we have … an aging community that has done a lot,” said Terry Smily, 43, in a long-distance phone interview with The Jewish Voice after the Aug. 29 meeting. “My generation is very busy and has had other commitments; being involved with a federation is not as much a priority as it was for my parents’ [generation] and older generations … the seniors … have paid their dues.”

Smily noted that the year-round Cape Cod Jewish community has no more than 500 families in all. With two Reform synagogues – one each in Hyannis and in Falmouth – as well as a Chabad house – the community, he said, is not especially collaborative, attributing that to the geographic distance between Falmouth and Hyannis and the senior ages of many in the community.

Of the three programs referenced in his letter (Gift of Israel, PJ Library and summer camp), Smily said that camp scholarships/fees are probably the federation’s largest expense. The federation, he said, distributed nearly $40,000 this summer to more than 40 kids to attend Jewish camp; most of the campers went to Camp Ramah or Camp Eisner, both in the Berkshires. Smily explained that all Jewish campers from Cape Cod, Mass., receive a camp subsidy from the federation.

For more information, contact Jeffrey Savit, 421-4111 or jsavit@jewishallianceri.org, or Manny DaRosa, 421-4111 or mdarosa@jewishallianceri.org.