When the room is filled with leadership givers, it takes a distinctive voice to break through.
Cintra and Andrea Pollack were honored by more than 100 attendees at the Leadership Gifts and Fundholders Dinner on November 7, 2024. In accepting the honor, Cintra delivered remarks that were notable by both their strength and clarity.
“Being generous is like getting exercise,” Cintra said. “You need to work on it, strengthen it, build it like a muscle. It’s most like the heart muscle, actually. The more you work it, the more regularly you push it a little further than your comfort level, the stronger it gets.”
Through the Singer Family Foundation, Andrea and Cintra have offered ongoing significant support locally and to Israel for the past three decades.
“A keystone gift the Singer Family Foundation makes every year is to the pluralistic Jewish community funded, convened, connected, and enriched by our Federation, because no other organization inspires, educates, develops, connects, and protects our community quite the same,” Cintra said. “Community is everything.”
The event renewed a JEWISHcolorado tradition, bringing together leading and enduring donors and fundholders for an exceptional evening—this year at the Four Seasons Hotel—to recognize how their generosity supports the work of JEWISHcolorado and the Jewish Federations of North America.
JEWISHcolorado President & CEO Renée Rockford greeted the group with the words of the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: “What distinguishes a leader from a non-leader is not position or office or role but rather a basic attitude toward life. Others wait for something to happen; leaders help make something happen. While others curse the darkness, a leader lights a light.”
Rockford expressed gratitude for the outstanding support that the Colorado community has demonstrated in the difficult months since October 7.
“Many of you here have been the strongest supporters of our Israel Emergency Fund, helping us to triple the “fair share” ask from Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), nearing now the $10-million-dollar mark,” Rockford said. “You have led the way, supporting Israel and the Israeli people with increased support since October 7 and the resulting war, supporting our efforts to combat a dramatic and frightening rise in antisemitism in this country, helping us in navigating a difficult and divisive U.S. election, and working to build unity in our own community and across the country.”
On behalf of JEWISHcolorado, Rockford thanked Robin Chotin and the entire Chotin family for their generosity as sponsors of the dinner. Attendees included current and former JEWISHcolorado Board Chairs Ben Lusher, Rob Kaufmann, Ruth Malman, Diana Zeff Anderson, Judy Robins, and Mark Sidell.
President and CEO of JFNA Eric Fingerhut delivered the keynote address.
Prayers for the country and government, for Israel, for the hostages, and HaMotzi were delivered by leaders from JEWISHcolorado’s Board, Young Adult Division (YAD), Atid, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), and National Young Leadership Cabinet: Brad and Carly Schlafer, Joey Friedmann and Nicole Isenberg, Jules Kramer, Adam Laarsen, Adriane Greenberg, and Kendra Goldstein.
The Chotin Family
Rockford noted that by underwriting the Leadership Gifts Dinner, members of the Chotin family, including Robin, Mauri, Scott, Whitney, Chad, Ross, and Karyn, had made the mission of JEWISHcolorado—convening, connecting, protecting and investing in the Jewish community—a priority. One by one, the three Chotin children explained why they had chosen to offer their support in this way.
“Everything I have learned about community, responsibility, philanthropy and the critical needs of the Federation and Federation system, I learned right here in Colorado, from my mother Robin, my father Steven of blessed memory, and their friends and contemporaries who have been involved in this work for decades,” said Mauri Zemachson, the eldest of the three Chotin children, who had traveled from New York to attend the dinner. “I learned from them the importance of this work and have been, through their generosity and commitment to tzedakah, fortunate to continue on my own path through my involvement in Cabinet, Fischer FLIGHT with my husband, and now my work as Campaign Chair of Westchester County and my leadership roles on the Board of UJA-New York. None of this would have been possible without the schooling I got right here in Denver, Colorado.”
Whitney Chotin talked about her commitment to the Jewish community, including 14 years as a Lion of Judah and her current responsibility serving on the Board of JAFINA, the Jewish Agency’s North American Council.
“These experiences and our support of JEWISHcolorado—especially this past year—have shown me that our responsibility is not just to our local community, but to Jewish communities across the world, and your support of Jco makes that possible,” said Whitney.
“This work is sacred to me and it is why, as the third philanthropic generation of my family, I have brought both my daughter Harper and son Crew here this evening, as the fourth generation, to see and understand exactly what their family does, has done, and will do and in the years and decades to come, to carry on the tradition of responsibility and tzedakah that their grandparents and great-grandparents started over forty years ago.”
Ross Chotin evoked his father’s memory as a way to look into JEWISHcolorado’s future.
“I can’t imagine what my father would have said over the events of the past year, and the brutal attacks of October 7,” Chotin said. “But I know this, he would have done everything he could have to help, both in Israel and locally.”
“So why did we say yes to this event?” Chotin continued. “We believed that our family’s supplemental generosity—bringing you all here tonight—could leverage critical resources to make sure Jco has what they need, today, so that they can make sure they are here for all of us and our community tomorrow and well into the future.”
Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America
Neil Oberfeld, JEWISHcolorado Campaign Chair introduced Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America. Fingerhut flew in from Atlanta for the dinner and brought with him the spirit of optimism.
“I’m an optimist because notwithstanding the rise of antisemitism and all the pressures and all the reasons that Jews in America and Colorado could have for not participating in Jewish life, in fact the opposite is what’s happening,” he said. “There is a surge of involvement in Jewish life. People are coming out in droves. They want to be involved, and they want to be counted.”
Fingerhut thanked everyone in the room for their ongoing support of Israel in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack. He related an anecdote from a recent trip to Israel where he met a young farmer on a kibbutz. The man had lost both his parents on October 7 and his sister is still a hostage. But his focus was on the mission of the kibbutz, and he was asking for help acquiring tractors so that they could plant a crop.
“He said to me, ‘If we don’t plant, then this isn’t really our land,’” Fingerhut said. “Zionism and Israel isn’t just about living in the state of Israel. It’s about working the land, and it’s about having our hands in the soil, so what you did together with 145 other federations in this amazing campaign is you bought the tractors.
“You should know that your hands are in the soil of that kibbutz,” Fingerhut continued. “Every single one of you has your hands in the soil of the state of Israel. Planting, renewing, rebuilding. And that is what we are doing together.”