By Michael Horowitz, JFGA President/CEO

Happy New Year!  I hope your celebration was exciting and that your favorite team won the football game.  I also hope that the resolutions you made last year were fulfilled and that 2014 brought satisfaction to you, success for your family, many great joys, and the ability to manage and move forward from any setbacks that you may have encountered.

As Jews, we get to celebrate the New Year two times a year.  Once, of course, is the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah and the second is based on the secular calendar year beginning January 1.  On Rosh Hashanah, we use the time to reflect and take an introspective look at our accomplishments as individuals.  On the secular New Year, we tend to reflect more on our material and physical accomplishments and to make resolutions, usually including a list of things that we will do differently in the upcoming year.  In both instances, we are reinvigorated by the opportunity to start anew and to contemplate the possibilities of building a better tomorrow.

 Here are a few suggestions for some “Jewish resolutions” for your consideration:

1.  Strengthen or begin to develop your relationship with Israel.  Israel may be facing its most challenging issues since its creation as the efforts to Boycott, Delegitimize and Sanction it grow and as Israel finds itself more and more isolated amongst the nations of the world.  While its domestic and foreign policies can and should be challenged when appropriate, as Jews, those challenges must come from the perspective of love, of family, and most importantly, with knowledge.  Go to Israel.  Attend lectures and educational forums, and take the time to read, learn and become an informed and caring supporter of the only Jewish country in the world.

2. Strengthen your relationship with, awareness of and connect with the Global Jewish People.  With the significant growth of worldwide anti-Semitism, understanding the need for all Jews to be supportive of and connected with their fellow Jews in Europe, the former Soviet Union, Latin America and other parts of the world is imperative.  We are an amazing people of less than 14 million worldwide, and our strength as a people has always been based on our belief and obligation that "Kol Yisrael arevim zeh la-zeh" (all Jews are responsible for one another).

3. Add a bit more “Jewish Stuff” to you daily routine.  If you don’t currently light the Shabbat candles, consider doing so.  If you have the chance to learn how to bake a challah with your children or grandchildren, you’ll find that to be a precious experience.  Spend a Shabbat or two or a “minor holiday” in a Synagogue even if you don’t have a bar/bat-mitzvah to go to.  Volunteer to do something or support an organization because of its impact on Jewish life and continuity.  To be a strong Jewish community now and to strengthen our Jewish future, we need to “do more Jewish”, not just announce that we are Jewish.

4. And finally, CELEBRATE!  If you feel as I do that we are very fortunate as people and as members of the Global Jewish family, celebrate and honor that good fortune.  In a world that moves so fast and offers so many opportunities to fill your time and consume your attention, learn to appreciate and celebrate just how good it is to be a part of a community that values life so preciously, requires you to care about others, and provides a solid foundation of tradition, history and purpose for all of us, our children and our future.

Happy New Year.  May your 2015 be filled with health, happiness, hope and a world that finally finds the road to peace.