an excerpt from an opinion piece by Sandy Cardin And Ted Sokolsky appearing in The Jewish Week:

The Jewish Future Is Not A Zero-Sum Game

This is a time of massive transformation for the Jewish people. We are more connected than ever, with the necessary tools and resources to reach across oceans and generations. The grandest visions of Jewish peoplehood are now within our grasp. It is our shared responsibility to find ways to work together to realize what for some are our dreams, for others, our destiny. For those willing to look to the future rather than to keep fighting yesterday’s battles, there is plenty of promise.

Locally, nationally and internationally, federations and foundations have teamed up to address our most pressing communal concerns. Many foundations answered the call of their local federations for emergency assistance during the current economic crisis. At the same time, and despite understandable pressure to do otherwise, many federations maintained, and some even expanded, their partnerships with foundations in Jewish education, Jewish camping, service learning, Israel advocacy, Birthright Israel and other vital areas.

Federations and foundations are also working together to help new, grassroots organizations reach wider and wider audiences. PresenTense, a start-up organization based in Jerusalem that runs programs for several federations in North America, receives funding from a variety of sources, including federations and foundations. JDub is another new enterprise garnering financial and other forms of assistance from various places, including funding from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for its recent adoption of the online media outlet, Jewcy.

These are just a few examples of a new spirit of cooperation emerging in the Jewish philanthropic world, recognition that we are not engaged in a zero-sum game. As Aharon Horwitz, co-founder of PresenTense, points out, “It is nice to see that all of us who care about the Jewish future are beginning to realize that we’re in this together, and that to succeed we need to envision one people, in cooperation, leveraging all of our myriad assets.”