HAKOL

By Billy Thompson Digital Marketing Associate You could call it a pool party. That was the original plan, anyway. By the time the officially dubbed NextGen Pool Party began, however, you might more accurately have called it a puddle party. A storm in the hours before the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley’s NextGen affinity group event had forced a venue change from the JCC’s outdoor pool.

By Carl Zebrowski Editor Not long ago, Barel Desta hardly cared about homework and tests and classes. “I wasn’t doing bad in school,” said the 17-year-old Ethiopian Jewish Israeli, “but I wasn’t doing great.” In an August meeting with Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley staff, Desta, in the United States to visit with organizations that fund the Ethiopian National Program, credited the ENP for changing his life. “They showed me a path,” he said.

Dr. Janet Bond Brill expects two kinds of people to be at the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley’s Women’s Philanthropy Lion of Judah and Pomegranate special event on October 29: those who hugged her mother-in-law, Edna Brill z”l, at the synagogue and danced with her at a hundred community affairs, and those who never got to meet her.

By Carl Zebrowski Editor The unmistakable clamor of kids waiting impatiently for something exciting to happen spilled out of the JCC’s Kline Auditorium on the morning of August 12. The stage inside was decorated and lit up, and Camp JCC kids filled the seats and the floor in front of the stage, as the Israel Scouts Friendship Caravan was about to begin its annual musical show.

By Carl Zebrowski Editor The Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley will officially launch its 2027 Annual Campaign for Jewish Needs with an invitation-only Major Gifts Reception with a  community-wide presentation to follow featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Bret Stephens on Thursday, September 17, at Muhlenberg College.

By Carl Zebrowski Editor Maybe it was just a coincidence that the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley hosted an evening celebrating community volunteers, leaders, and donors on June 10. Or maybe not. But the previous Shabbat’s parsha, the weekly portion of the Torah read aloud in synagogues, has Moses telling God that he can’t handle all the responsibilities of leading his people by himself.

By Lee Kestecher Solomon Director of Community Engagement I had the privilege of traveling to Israel on June 14 as part of a delegation from the Lehigh Valley through our Partnership2Gether (P2G) program. We spent a meaningful week with our partners in the Yoav Regional Council, strengthening relationships, participating in collaborative meetings, and visiting projects supported by the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley.

By Carl Zebrowski Editor Dr. Houman and Lori Ahdieh had a rough time right after they moved to the Lehigh Valley in 1995 for him to work. The area was very different from what they knew, and they had no personal ties here. “It’s hard for a younger couple to move to an area that you have no real connection with initially,” said Houman, who began his tenure as president of the Jewish Federation’s Maimonides Society of healthcare professionals on July 1.

Like most members of the Lehigh Valley Jewish community, the three trustees of the Charles and Figa Kline Foundation didn’t personally know the institution’s husband-and-wife founders. “None of us ever met Charles and Figa Kline,” said trustee Barnet Fraenkel. “My father was on this board, and he knew them, but our generation? None of us knew them.

By Carl Zebrowski Editor The Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley has announced the winners of its annual awards for volunteers, leaders, and others who made extraordinary contributions to the Jewish community in 2025-26. The five winners will be honored at the Federation’s Community Celebration and Annual Meeting in the JCC’s Kline Auditorium on Wednesday, June 10.