| Jewish fund-raising campaign fuels big plans 04/07/2001 By Mary A. Jacobs / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News New buildings are busting out all over in the Dallas-area Jewish community. There's a new Jewish Community Center campus in Plano, a new facility for Jewish Family Service, and four Jewish schools in various stages of building, expanding or renovating.
But, uniquely, most of the money is coming from a single, united fund-raising effort by 10 Jewish agencies.
"Just as the Dallas area is growing, the Jewish community is growing as fast, if not faster," says Jordan Harburger, executive director of the Capital Campaign. "We need facilities to meet the needs created by that growth."
The Greater Dallas Jewish Community Capital Campaign for the 21st Century is trying to raise $50 million for 10 Jewish schools and agencies in the Dallas area. While the Capital Campaign began two years ago, it steps up its efforts this Passover season.
"We've raised more than $25 million, so this is the countdown to achieve the balance of our goal," says Donald Schaffer, chair of the Capital Campaign. "We're broadening our base of our solicitations to reach the entire community."
Jewish Family Service was one of the first recipients of the campaign. The social service agency has been serving Dallas residents for more than 50 years, but it just got its first permanent home in November – a new, $2.2 million facility on Arapaho Road.
Other plans backed by the campaign include: new schools and a campus for Akiba Academy and Yavneh Academy; $10 million towards a new facility for the Dallas Home for the Jewish Aged – Golden Acres; a new archive for the Dallas Jewish Historical Society; major renovations and a new sports complex, conference center and library for the Jewish Community Center of Dallas on Northaven Road; renovation of the Jewish Federation of Dallas building; a new middle school and renovation of the existing school at Solomon Schecter Academy; and a new school and campus for the Wise Academy.
A $1.5 million pledge from Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus will finance an addition that will help the Dallas Holocaust Memorial Center better accommodate the 70,000 people who visit each year.
Campaign organizers say the project is unique because it brought together a diverse group of organizations.
"Four or five years ago, several different agencies came to us and said, 'We're outgrowing our facilities, we need to expand,' " says Debbie Estrin, marketing and communications director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas. "So, instead of each going out on their own, we decided to work together."
A separate nonprofit organization was created for the effort.
"Bringing 10 agencies together like this, it's never been done before," says Howard Schultz, the Capital Campaign's fund-raising chairman. "I view this as a once-in-a-generation project."
Mr. Schultz says the Capital Campaign addresses two challenges: The Dallas area Jewish community is getting bigger, and it's more spread out geographically. Estimates of the Jewish population have grown from 37,000 people in 1989 to more than 50,000 today. While there were only four synagogues in greater Dallas in 1989, today there are 18.
"I think more Jewish families are setting down more permanent roots here," says Michael Fleisher, Jewish Family Service's executive director. "Before, we were confined to a few ZIP codes, but now the community is spreading out, especially in Plano and the northern suburbs."
Jewish Family Service chose its new site near the Tollway partly to be more accessible to Plano.
Last week a new synagogue, Congregation Anshai Torah, broke ground for a new facility in Plano, and already the congregation has 400 families. While the synagogue isn't part of the Capital Campaign, many of its members will likely frequent the new Jewish Community Center campus in Plano, which opened in December. The Capital Campaign provided $3.5 million to buy the facility, a former YMCA on Glencliffe Road.
Until now, the Capital Campaign has focused on soliciting major gifts. Now volunteer solicitors are calling on potential donors to make five-year pledges. Organizers hope to wrap up the campaign by May of next year.
Passover, which begins at sundown Saturday, is a good time to refocus on the Capital Campaign, leaders say. Mr. Schultz thinks of his seven grandchildren in Dallas, who can benefit from its projects. And Mr. Schaffer thinks of the original Passover, when the Hebrews escaped slavery in Egypt.
"Passover is about freedom," he says. "We have the freedom to raise money and build buildings, to provide for future generations. It's an extension of what we're about to celebrate."
Mary A. Jacobs is a Dallas free-lance writer.
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