A moment of personal privilege. This is my last article for FedFlash as Chair of the Community Relations Committee. I have had the extraordinary privilege of representing the Federation and the Jewish community in a number of venues over the past four years. I thank you for the honor and your support.

I must give tremendous thanks to Margo Dix Gold, our Community Relations Director. Her hard work, her dedication, her effectiveness, and her care for the community are a testament to a marvelous person. She has been a terrific partner in the good works that we have done.

We have received enormous contributions from many members of the CRC. The chairs and co-chairs of our projects and task forces have included (with the trepidation of forgetting some names) Lois Frank, Larry Gold, Sarah Ghitis, Sandy Leff, Ilene Engel, Gloria Frisch, Jon Kleinberg, Alan Lowenthal, Robert Schapiro, Cedric Suzman, Lynne Borsuk, Walter Jospin, Amy Arogeti, Elisa Prager, Alan Wexler, Marsha Shulman, Scott Fisher, Steve Labovitz, Chip Koplin, and Ralph Levy. I thank you and all of the other esteemed members of CRC from the bottom of my heart.  I thank Eliot Arnovitz and Jack Halpern for allowing me to chair the CRC and to engage in this sacred work. I thank Steve Rakitt, Noah Levine, Eileen Price, Kim Watkins-Moore, Linda Crowe, Sue Van Hook, Rose Klein, and all of the other Federation staff that have been so helpful and encouraging.  And I want to thank my wife, Janis, for her support, encouragement, and love. I could not have done this without her.

Our agenda at the CRC is broad and deep and includes areas such as social justice, governmental relations, Israel advocacy, and interfaith efforts. The CRC serves as the common table for the community in the public affairs arena.

During my tenure, we have had four successful HungerWalks – the Jewish community has answered the call to support this  project in a spectacular fashion. Many members of the community have contributed time, effort, and money. But there is much work to do in solving the problems of hunger and homelessness.

We have had four successful years for our Literacy Project. The Jewish community has had an opportunity to tutor children in need of assistance.

We began the Holocaust Community Council to increase communication and collaboration among the fifteen organizations that share the commemoration and education commitment in this area.

We have had four successful Peach Politics Days, and led by Sarah Ghitis and Sandy Leff and our new professional advocate, Elizabeth Appley, and we are recognized at the Capitol for our concern for Georgians in need. But all of us need to work as hard as we can to advocate for a compassionate society and a government concerned more about providing its citizens with the tools to succeed in life.

We had put much work in to advocating on behalf of Israel. When I first took on this position, we felt that Israel was on its way to peace. But we have had to focus a lot of attention on ensuring that Israel maintained the commitment from civil society and from governments at all levels. We have had to ensure that Israel's story was told to the entire community.

We had the chance to connect many people in all sorts of other ways as well. I also thank all of our community partners – the AJC, ADL, Hadassah, NCJW, JF&CS, the America-Israel Chamber, AIPAC, the Jewish War Veterans, Israel Bonds, the JCC, the Emory and Georgia State faculty and staff, the Israeli consulate, and so many more – for your cooperation and collaboration.

Now, on June 2, I will be turning the chairmanship over to Steve Labovitz, a dedicated and caring member of our community. I salute him with a hearty Mazel Tov and Yasher Koach and ask that the community get behind him to increase the good works, the tikkun olam that the Jewish community is positioned to do in this world.