It’s going to be a busy few days.

Not too late to come on Super Sunday to either Whippany or Scotch Plains. If you’re looking for an inspiring day of Jewish community, action and philanthropy….this would be a great place to start. Lots of mitzvah opportunities, family-friendly activities and help raise funds and support for the incredible work of our community in caring, building and saving Jewish life. It’ll continue on Terrific Tuesday with more follow-up phone calls to raise funds for the United Jewish Appeal. Terrific Tuesday will also have a special dinner and discussion with IDF soldiers who participated in Operation Protective Edge this past summer.

On Monday we’re co-sponsoring an event with Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford to hear Lahav Harkov, Knesset reporter for the Jerusalem Post (and former New Jerseyite). With all the news coming out of the political scene in Israel right now, it’s a great opportunity to hear from a thoughtful and insightful commentator.

Not nearly enough politics for you? Same evening there’s a community education program run by Federation’s Israel Arab Committee with Avivit Hai, Israel Program Director for our partner, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli-Arab Issues. Avivit is the ‘eyes and ears’ of our Task Force in Israel, liaising with government offices, NGOs and local communities to manage and implement a wide array of Israeli-Palestinian civil society projects in social welfare, education and cooperation. That program will be in the Cooperman JCC at 7:30 p.m. For more information and to register, please contact jreuben@jfedgmw.org.

One final event … because, really, who doesn’t want a bit more Israeli macroeconomic politics? This one, however, is from Dan Ben-David, perhaps one of the best, smartest and most enlightening Israeli economic commentators around. Dan is coming to the Scotch Plains JCC on Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. and will talk about “The Start-Up Nation’s Threat from Within.” Dan is the Executive Director of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel and his presentations are stunning and memorable. You should go.  

How fortunate we are to have such talent and brainpower coming to our community. I hope to see you all on Sunday…and through the week.