Speech of Jason Glazier
Welcome everyone!
Nathalie and I would like to thank all our relatives for making the effort to come from as far away as Florida and Paris France. This is truly a proud day for our Family.
This would not have been possible by ourselves. People contributed in many ways to making the Glazier Jewish Center a reality, and we would like to sincerely acknowledge all the people that have given money to this project, people that gave ads for us, and especially all those that supported the LBC for the last 13 years, so we can all arrive at this momentous time in the LBC’s growth. If it had not been for so many others building this community 8 years prior to us arriving, we would have never been positioned to make our contribution.
I would like to give an additional special thank you to the other three community leaders of the development committee, Jack Miller, Harold Weinstein, and Jon Singer.
Why did we give the money?
During our initial planning meetings, the committee brain stormed different fund raising strategies that usually involved soliciting from NY city or Philly someone who had shown significant prior generosity. Traditionally these known people come in at the end of a campaign with the naming-dedication. This saddened me, since our community would be the beneficiary of this new building, it was not someone else’s responsibility to build our community, but our responsibility to build this community. I though to myself why shouldn’t *I* be the “someone” who makes the difference in this campaign.
We believe strongly in the need for spiritual outreach and the presence of torah Judaism in bucks county. The 45k Jews in Bucks County makes it the 3rd largest Jewish community in Pennsylvania. Through Nathalie and My lifetimes, we have been fortunate to be involved with traditional Judaism and have subsequently developed strong Jewish identities. Not understanding the richness of Judaism's deeper spiritual dimensions, has driven countless Jews away from our meaningful tradition. Clearly something must be done to reconnect the Jewish community to this aspect of our culture so that we can reverse the tide of assimilation, and keep Jews engaged in the fulfilling teachings of our heritage.
The Glazier Jewish Center is our community's answer.
I wasn’t born with the skill set to be a Rabbi or to contribute in many of the ways so many others in our community have. The skills G‑d has blessed me with are primarily business and technology, a positive attitude and tenacity, and most importantly, both of us have strong Jewish identities. Fortunately for us, these skills were exactly what were need to make our new center a reality.
As a business person, I view our contribution as an investment. Not a traditional investment, but rather, an investment in the growth of traditional Judaism in Bucks Country in an atmosphere where all Jews are accepted and encouraged in their spiritual growth.
We can think of no better organization to invest our energies and our resources than the Lubavitch World wide organization. They are winners with a philosophy we agree with, and a proven track record. We are very proud to have the Glazier Jewish Center be one of the more than 3000 Chabbad Lubavatch facilities located across 65 countries on 6 continents. Each of these centers is responsible for saving Jewish lives and promoting meaningful Jewish continuity.
Luckily for Bucks County, for 13 years, we have had the right management team in place to execute the Lubavith vision in our community…
The success of our vibrant and growing community is due to the tireless dedication and boundless enthusiasm of our dear shluchim Rabbi and Miriam Shemtov, and Rabbi and Rosie Weinsten.
We would like to thank each of you very very much…….. [applause break]
Lasting values can only be instilled by example. We want to instill in our children the importance of Jewish pride, tzedaka and being a leader in your community. We teach them that they have responsibilities and that people are not born great, it is the choices they make in life that will make them who they will be!
Everyone who contributed to this project made a choice to give tzedaka and all of us could have done something else with the money.
In closing, I would like to share two stories I hope you will find inspirational. Our tradition teaches us that when one gives tzedaka, one gets even more value back in return. Most people never see the direct relationship clearly, so they assume this is just a marketing spin the Rabbi’s made up to improve their fundraising. I would like to share with you two remarkable events that aligned themselves with key milestone around this project.
First, about 3 years ago, Nathalie was told she was sterile by her doctor. One month later, we committed to giving the money, and the following month Nathalie was pregnant with our third child, David.
The second event happened this August when we closed on the building. Due to some unforeseen events, the bank required some last minute co-signers on the loan. Normally one is not happy to be required to co-sign a loan, in this case however, all four of the development committee members agreed to sign without hesitation! Personally, signing gave me a reason to come to the closing. I was living in our beach house in Margate NJ at the time and had no other reason to come back from my job in center city to Bucks County, since our mail was forwarded. Because I was in the area, after the closing, I went by our house here to make sure everything was Ok. When I arrived, there was a FedEx package at the door that had been sitting there for about 2 weeks. FexEx packages did not get forwarded. The package contained an affidavit from the college savings company Upromise that I needed to sign and return. It was not a scam, I had won a sweepstakes for a respectable start to a college savings. If I had not agreed to co-sign for the loan, the sweepstakes offer would have expired worthless the very next day.
There is no question these two events have strengthened Nathalie and my belief in the positive consequences of giving Tzedaka.
Thank you again to everyone.
Enjoy your evening, and don’t forget to come back for the dessert after the concert!