Join JCC and JCCWRP in our third annual Sukkot Fest – Monday, October 9th, 1-4pm at the BHJCC! Activities include: Inflatables, Petting Zoo, Spin Art, Games, Music, Snacks, Prizes and All NEW Community Resource Fair. Learn about important services available in our community. More info atwww.jccchicago.org/
Building bridges with other groups that call West Rogers Park home has had a twofold payoff for us. It has amplified our voice, thus allowing our Alderman, Debra Silverstein to make a more compelling case for needed public improvements, which together with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials she has brought to fruition. And it has helped us to establish meaningful relationships with those with whom we share our neighborhood. In unity there is strength.
Working beyond the “borders” within WRP has been a key to our success.
We also have benefited from looking outward, working beyond our neighborhood and political borders. Engaging in collective action with the Peterson Park Improvement Association. Meeting with the past and current mayors of Lincolnwood, Jerry Turry and Barry Bass and other Village officials. Connecting with key leadership in Skokie, including Chief of Police Anthony Scarpelli.
Mariyana Spyropoulos, President, and David St Pierre, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District have been invaluable partners in enabling us to overcome roadblocks to neighborhood improvement. Kurt Summers, Treasurer of the City of Chicago, with his priority of visiting every neighborhood, helped us during his time in WRP to extend our reach into the community.
And this is only a sampling of the other city, state and national elected and appointed officials with whom we have engaged.
Borders can either be barriers to collaborative action, or they can provide a new vantage point for broadening perspective and enhancing cooperation.
While the name Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park may convey to some that we work in isolation as a Jewish organization that is constrained by our location within the city of Chicago, we have demonstrated that achieving our full potential requires breaking down the barriers that divide us.
Let us know what’s on your mind by responding to this email or giving me a call. Feedback is always appreciated.
Shabbat Shalom,
Howard
Friends and Neighbors,
Every year, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago runs a summer internship program for local students who are captivated by Jewish community building and are interested in developing their own professional portfolio. The students who are selected to participate after a highly competitive application process are assigned to work with agencies and organizations affiliated with JUF. For the first time, the Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park was partnered with a Lewis summer intern, Chani Morgenstern.
The Annual Meeting of the Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park will take place on:
Monday, July 17, 2017
7:30 PM at the Bernard Horwich JCC
3003 W Touhy Ave
Chicago, IL 60645
We have invited Alderman Debra Silverstein to report to us on her priorities for the coming year. We also will be hearing a report from Edin Seferovic, the Executive Director of the West Ridge Chamber of Commerce on the Chamber’s economic development agenda in our neighborhood.
Finally we will hear a report from our Nominating Committee on recommendations for Board membership and officers for the coming year as well as reports from our Executive Director, Shalom Klein and myself.
An annual report is always an occasion for stock-taking. A look back to the previous year and an articulation of plans for the future.
We should feel satisfaction at last year’s accomplishments. A new park that is under construction at Devon & McCormick that will transform a once squalid site into a new gem for our community.
Implementation plans for a new facility for the Northtown Library scheduled to open in December, 2018.
The Magenta Sister Stores prospering at the corner of Pratt & Kedzie.
We had a positive role in all of those steps forward.
Nevertheless, the key to success is not to dwell unnecessarily on past achievements but, rather to envision what comes next and to establish new goals for the future.
I believe that our agenda going forward must include a redoubled effort to fill additional empty storefronts and to improve existing businesses. With the proven Magenta model, we should attempt to find other home-based businesses whose owners might see the wisdom of following in their footsteps. Working with Alderman Silverstein and the Chamber we can address zoning code violations, thus making the neighborhood more attractive to new businesses.
Finally, while most of us are personally invested in WRP, maintaining our residences, shuls and communal agencies, we need to come together as a community to better utilize the public spaces that are available to us. Lerner Park’s new playground that the Alderman advocated for and has brought to fruition is a magnet for families with children, but the rest of the park is empty most of the time. There are not even enough comfortable benches for people to gather. What about programming and improvements comparable to what exists at other parks? One look at Indian Boundary Park, Peterson Park and others will make it clear what Lerner Park lacks. A fully developed park is a magnet for community building. Lerner Park can and should be that magnet.
I am sure that many of you have additional ideas for us. Let me know what’s on your priority list.
Open the news, and one can see many stories about anti-semitic incidents around the country, including desecration of cemeteries, threats and attacks against Jewish centers. There have been so many statements of support from our neighbors and friends, but statements are one thing and action is another. I’d like to suggest how we can combat the stories of negativity with positive acts.
As we have mentioned, we are proudly partnering with JUF TOV on Good Deeds Day on April 2, 2017. Good Deeds Day is an annual celebration of doing good—where all around the world hundreds of thousands of volunteers help others, putting into practice the simple idea that every single person can do something good, be it large or small, to improve the lives of others and change the world.
Our local volunteer project, that JCCWRP is partnering on with JCC Chicago and CJE Senior Life will take place at the Bernard Horwich JCC on Touhy to make cards, tissue paper flowers, and decorative vases that will go to residents at CJE.
Date: Sunday, April 2, 2017
Time: 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Location: 3003 W. Touhy Ave., Chicago – parking available
As a reminder, you must register in advance at https://www.jccchicago.org/eve
The West Ridge Chamber of Commerce has announced the selection of Edin Seferovic as its new Executive Director. Edin will fill the vacancy that Barb Singal left when she stepped down this past fall to focus on her business consultancy, Ease the Day. The selection was made after a search and selection process that was conducted by the Chamber board of directors, which I am honored to serve on. Barb continues to serve on the board of directors of the Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park and her insight, perspective and contributions have made a substantial impact on our neighborhood.
Edin’s background includes having run his own market entry consultancy, which focuses on establishing investments and trade between the United States and Southeast Europe. He spent five years as Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Montenegro, where he developed that organization into the largest and most influential foreign business association in Montenegro. Prior to moving to Montenegro he was Director of Marketing and Business Development for Prairie Management & Development, a Chicago-based real estate holding company. His resume also includes time as an Aide to Alderman Mary Ann Smith of Chicago’s 48th Ward.
Since his hire, Edin and I have met several times and have continued working on several projects that are of shared interest to the Chamber of Commerce and JCCWRP.
Welcome aboard, Edin! We look forward to working with you.
Shabbat Message from JCCWRP President, Howard M. Rieger
This week President Obama delivered his farewell address in Chicago, and next week Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Though strongly held opinions about both men divide our community and the country as a whole, Pres. Obama said something on which we can all agree when he underscored what has become the guiding principle of the Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park and the rationale for your involvement with us.
He stated that governmental outcomes depend on our participation and on each of us accepting the responsibility of citizenship. He urged that we embrace the joyous task we have been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours because, for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title — the most important office in a democracy — citizen. He noted that our democracy needs each of us, not just when there’s an election, not just when our own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If something needs fixing, he urged us to lace up our shoes, get moving, and do some organizing. Show up, dive in, stay at it.
I am proud to join with many of you in a collective effort to make West Rogers Park a better place to live. We are fortunate to partner with Alderman Silverstein and our other elected officials to make that happen. They can’t do it alone. They need the power of the people behind them. And with us providing that force, look at what we have been able to achieve together. And just consider how much more we will be able to accomplish together in the days ahead.
Show up. Dive in. We need you.
Shabbat Shalom,
Howard
hmrieger@gmail.com
