Israelite Economic
Rabbi Benyamin Levy, President of the New York Local Board of Rabbi, explains the economic and spiritual goals of this summit as follows: This is a brief communication to let you know we appreciate you and we are encouraged that you take to the time from your busy schedules to sit at the table at the 1st Israelite Economic Summit and show UNITY to the community that we are serious about our economic future as a community and have a plan of action to strengthen our nation.
This years panelists consist of our spiritual leaders in the community, professionals, business owners and we are pleased to have the NYC - consumer affairs OFE co-sponsor this event once again.
We are all in this together, so lets come together and solve the problems in our community together.
It is the responsibility of each member to make the most of his or her life, and it is the responsibility of the larger community to provide the conditions that encourage success - a healthy, stable environment and opportunities for educational and economic achievement. As a prelude to the summit, I want to share with you some community observations and offer some solutions to change our situation for the better:
Our Greatest Strengths
- We are morally grounded and spiritually rooted. Instincitively we have faith and hope in a brighter day.
- We are creative, and very talented in just about every area you can think of.
- We persevere, having common sense, street smarts, mother wit, and a strong sense of survival.
- We are loyal to those who sincerely reach out out to us and We are forgiving of those who have hurt us the most.
Our Weaknesses
- We tend to distrust each other, due to the long history of tactics used to divide and conquer us.
- As a whole, we tend to have low self-esteem and pride, due to hundreds of years of negative reinforcement.
- We shy away from risk, choosing instead to safely conserve and protect the material resources we worked hard to acquire.
Ten Inportant changes / Solutions
- We must see hard work in all things not as a necessary evil but as a way to escape poverty and as a wish of the Almighty.
- We must have an attitude toward all work that insists on precision and attention to detail. In other words, high personal achievement is the goal.
- We must see high educational achievement as something that is greatly valued; therefore we must push ourselves and our children.
- We must be committed to lifelong learning and see learning from others as a way to build cooperation and partnerships.
- We must now focus on wealth and job creation by leveraging our Yah-given strengths to overcome our weaknesses.
- We must see saving and investing as a commitment to future generational prosperity.
- We must support our own businesses first.
- We must have a bottom-up (community-based) approach to problem -solving, instead of a top-down approach.
- toward solving our problems to facilitate change.
- We must hold to the moral path and refuse to
participate in the generalized decay in values in business, family, and
community.
Lastly,
the Torah commands us to Love each other and to care for each
other. Let us stay focused as to what our purpose as a nation is and why we are here in this land. So, with the Help of the Holy-One, we will rise
to the challenge and govern ourselves with Integrity, Wisdom, Excellence, Holiness, Love and Righteousness. Baruch Shem Kevod Makuto LeOlam vaed!.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Beth Elohim
12:00-3:00
Torah Blessings,your servant R'Benyamin Levy, NYIBR, President
718-712-4646 or 718-216-1429
Each must take personal responsibility and have a positive attitude