Annual Report
2020

2020 will be remembered as the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a global crisis whose impact continues to reverberate on an unprecedented scale. In our community, the seriousness and anticipated longevity of the pandemic necessitated a number of critical and immediate community-wide actions.  

The Jewish Federation led this response, protecting individuals and families as well as the Jewish organizations that are the heart and soul of Jewish life. Federation actively coordinated the response effort, working shoulder to shoulder with agencies, schools and congregations throughout Jewish Detroit on a daily basis.  

This included:  

• Mobilizing millions of dollars in emergency resources at Federal, State and local levels 
• Providing sanitation services at community facilities 
• Convening regular meetings with agency executives, clergy, and day school executives  
• Coordinating the acquisition and delivery of tens of thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE)  
• Providing more than 500,000 kosher meals over the last four months 
• Establishing virtual mental health support groups 
• Disseminating essential health-related information  

The community response was made possible by the creation of the COVID-19 Emergency Campaign. Launched in March 2020, the Emergency Campaign was established to cover urgent, pandemic-specific emergency needs. $7.5M was raised for crisis-related expenditures. 

Perhaps the most important story of all is the extraordinary way our community has come together in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Social service agencies and congregations, Jewish foundations and funders, and many others are now working together on a daily basis to solve the myriad challenges that have arisen in the wake of the crisis.  

Together, these organizations accomplish the work of providing food to those in need, ensuring the welfare of older adults and other vulnerable individuals, and maintaining the stability of families during this time of uncertainty. Collectively, they are keeping the Jewish community whole.   

We are also extremely proud of the Jewish Federation’s role in this effort. As the central fundraising and planning body in the community, Federation is serving as leader and convener of the collective work of our community organizations. We are honored to partner with agency leaders, congregation Rabbis and their staff and deeply grateful for their remarkable talent, hard work and commitment.  

We also grateful for the heroic efforts of our caregivers and first responders—such as healthcare professionals and emergency workers, as well as all those working to provide food and critical resources. Despite the extraordinary conditions, there has been no shortage of deeply committed individuals willing to risk their own welfare for others.  

Finally, we want to thank and acknowledge the donors, volunteers and leaders in our community who have powered this work. Thanks to the strength of our Annual Campaign, as well as the COVID-19 Emergency Campaign, our agencies have the resources to respond as effectively as they have. It is because of you, our supporters, that Jewish Detroit remains among the most generous and caring communities to be found anywhere.