The Cincinnati 2030 Steering Committee of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati needs the community’s help in planning the future of Jewish Cincinnati. The Steering Committee, which is composed of 25 volunteers and professionals representing a cross-section of Jewish Cincinnati, has laid the groundwork for the 2030 Community Strategic Plan. “By working together, using the results of the 2019 Cincinnati Jewish Community Study, we were able to develop a Cincinnati 2030 community vision that emphasizes ‘creating our home together,’” said committee cochair Ari Cohen. In support of the vision, the 2030 Steering Committee has identified three areas of focus:

• Building deeper and broader connections and engagement with Jewish life
• Building on our caring community
• Strengthening relationships with our wider world

“Now we’re ready to roll up our sleeves to figure out how we get there,” said Cohen. “We want to include the whole community in that process, so we’re launching a new survey to get input on our work so far.”   

The new survey is designed to seek input about each of these areas from members of the community so that the planning team understands what, within these areas, people find important. “We underwent a similar long-term community planning process in 2010,” said Andy Berger, Cochair of the Cincinnati 2030 Steering Committee  who also chaired the 2020 strategic planning process. “That process resulted in many transformational successes for our community over the past decade, including the construction of the Jewish Family Service Barbash Family Vital Support Center, and the Heldman Family Food Pantry, the establishment of SAFE Cincinnati and Create Your Jewish Legacy initiatives, a 500-person community mission to Israel, and the opening of The Nancy & David Wolf  Holocaust and Humanity Center.”

Later this summer, work groups of diverse members of the Jewish community, both professionals and volunteers, will start working on the three areas. They will use data from the recent community study, input from this survey, along with ideas generated at live community forums, to recommend initiatives that will be integrated into a community strategic plan.  Jan Evans, the Director of Strategic Impact at the Jewish Federation, said the Federation aims to launch the strategic plan along with a funding strategy in early 2022.

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati is working collaboratively with other funders such as The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and the Jewish Home of Cincinnati to ensure their collective efforts are coordinated. Each organization will utilize its areas of strength to ensure the community’s most vital needs are met, while at the same time supporting innovation and growth.

“We’ve made a lot of progress over the last few years,” Berger said. “But with progress comes change. Our Jewish community is growing in size and diversity. What the community thinks is very important to us. There are new and different needs and additional opportunities. We are also responding to an increasingly complex environment around us. We are digging further into the data to better understand those needs so we can marshal our community’s resources to chart a bright future.”