Editor’s note: This is reprinted with permission from Partnership2Gether. Megan Maurer, U.S. chair, and Moti Yeger, Israel chair, originally shared this in an email. The Youngstown Area Jewish Federation is part of the Western Galilee Partnership. This partnership connects Youngstown with 16 U.S. communities, Israel’s Western Galilee (Akko and Matte Asher) and Budapest, Hungary. The fifteen other U.S. communities in our Partnership are Des Moines, Iowa; Louisville, Ky.; Omaha, Neb.; Akron, Canton, Dayton, and Toledo, Ohio; Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth, Texas; Peoria and Springfield, Ill.; Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and South Bend, Ind.; and Northwest Indiana.
Shalom Dear P2G Family, As 2025 ends, we hope this message finds you well and reflecting on a meaningful year. For Moti and me, it has been a privilege to serve as your Partnership Co-Chairs. This has been a particularly busy and consequential year for our organization, with several milestones worth highlighting:
• Hiring our new Director, Ory Rosin
• Celebrating the one-year anniversary of our Consortium Director, Tamara Lawson Schuster
• Hiring key professionals in Budapest and establishing both a budget and ongoing support framework for the rebuilding of their momentum and capacity
• Ensuring financial integrity:
¤ Onboarding a new banking community
¤ In partnership with JAFI, completing a comprehensive review of our financial systems, resulting in an overhaul of our budgeting process and the implementation of a new, transparent reporting structure.
¤ Establishing a more thoughtful budget process, enabling all Federation Executives to review and opine on the budget in advance of the COC
¤ Creating a system of internal and external financial controls
• Ensuring sufficient insurance coverage through a systemic review of policies and a market analysis
• Achieving 100% representation of our communities in the LLC as signatories
• Welcoming a new community: JewishAkron
• Bringing 99 participants to the Western Galilee over the course of two missions
None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary dedication of our professionals. Our colleagues in Israel had worked under terribly difficult circumstances, and on the U.S. side Tamara has carried the lion’s share of the work to ensure consistency and momentum. Mark Freedman, our consultant, continues to do heavy lifting wherever it’s needed, particularly in finance. We have also relied heavily on our volunteers, whose commitment and generosity of time continue to inspire us. We are grateful to the new Committee Chairs currently being onboarded and look forward to the energy and ideas they will bring. Finally, we owe a deep thank you to our Federation Executives and Professionals for their ongoing support, professionalism, and guidance. Our progress this year is a direct result of all of you.
Now that our long-needed stabilization efforts are taking hold, it is time to move forward thoughtfully in reevaluating our programming. Programming is not the objective—it is how we achieve the P2G mission of connecting Jewish people. This revitalization effort will depend on meaningful input from all of you-our constituents, and its success will be directly tied to the strength of our committee work. Please watch for opportunities to participate in surveys and/or serve on a task force. As we look ahead to 2026, we are excited to present refreshed and updated programming, which we hope to unveil at our COC this summer in Indianapolis.
If you are reading this letter, you are likely already involved and familiar with the “magic” of P2G. We need your help to expand the P2G circle—draft into the P2G world a couple of folks in your orbit that will enrich P2G. Encourage them to get informed and involved by signing up for the P2G Weekly newsletter, ask them to join your local P2G/Israel Committee and/or help plan an event, encourage them to attend a local or international P2G program, and/or reach out to Consortium Director Tamara Lawson Schuster to learn more ways to be involved.
In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact us with thoughts or suggestions. It is a privilege to partner with you in this sacred work. Since P2G was founded, its mission has never been more urgent or more relevant. Stay strong, stay unified, take care of one another, and take pride in who we are and what we do.
With gratitude,
MegaMot Megan Maurer, U.S. Chair Moti Yeger, Israel Chair