Steven Windmueller’s recent article, “The remake: Bringing the federation model into the 21st century” (Sept. 2), asks the important question of what should Jewish federations become in a changing Jewish community.

 

We agree that Jewish communities are changing: their needs are changing and the challenges facing them are changing, both at home and around the world. But what Windmueller doesn’t recognize is that this constant evolution and adaptation to the needs of the Jewish community and the commitment to evolving as the world changes is exactly what the federation model was designed to do. Many of his suggestions and frameworks are useful, and indeed are already core to how most federations approach their work. Adaptation is what federations have always done, from the generations that helped resettle the immigrants to America to the building of the State of Israel to the growth of formal and informal Jewish education to today’s post-Oct. 7 environment. 

 

Read the full op-ed in eJewishPhilanthropy.