Dear ORT Friends and Leaders,
This week, the Toledo Jewish News featured Jon Levine in its Rosh Hashanah issue, marking six months since he took over as Board Chair. I read it twice.
What struck me wasn’t just the article itself, which is great, by the way, and you can read it here, but also the timing of its publication.
We’re coming up on Rosh Hashanah, and the natural progression of time. That’s guaranteed. Seasons will change. The earth will turn. School years start anew. But what’s not guaranteed is how we show up. Jon’s mother, Marla Levine, spent years as a national ORT leader before going on to help lead the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo.
Could she have imagined that, with the passing of time, her own son would lead World ORT? Not just carrying her own commitment to Jewish education forward, but reshaping the vision for an organization that has outlasted pretty much everyone else, standing strong for over 145 years? Today our estimated annual reach is 80,000+ students, 200,000+ beneficiaries, 500,000+ alumni, and in the past two decades, we’ve touched an estimated 4 million+ lives.
That’s pretty huge, And it’s a bigger mandate than the organization can carry alone. It takes schools, communities, donors, and leaders, all pulling in the same direction.
That’s the work we’re doing now, renewing our vision for the years ahead and asking how we make the most impact for every student, wherever they live. It feels fitting that this piece ran as we head into a new year. Rosh Hashanah asks us to take stock before we move forward.
Six months in, that’s what leadership looks like to me. To connect the Jewish world. To advance Jewish education. And to empower the next generations.
Shabbat shalom,
Dov
Dov Ben-Shimon,
Chief Executive Officer, World ORT